另一半择不允许通过声音信号以及任何肢体动作进行交流。
Each group was then asked to a room containing six foraging patches—boxes filled with 300 cards, some green and some white—arranged at a distance from a central home base.
每个小组会被邀请到一个设置了6个搜集区---也就是盛有300张绿色和白色卡片的盒子的房间，这些盒子被放置在离中心基地区域一定距离的地方。
The green cards were defined as good and the patches varied from 5% to 95% green.
绿色的卡片为最好，每个搜集区所含绿色卡片的比例由5%到95%不等。
The foragers could not see inside the boxes and were allowed to pick only one card at a time, through a hand hole, using their dominant hand.
搜集者看不到盒子的内部情况并且只能惯用手从小孔处一次取出一枚卡片。
There were no restrictions on which patches to visit, but each time a card was plucked it had to be returned to the home base, irrespective of colour.
对于访问哪个搜集区并没有设置限制，但是每次卡片在取出之后无论是什么颜色，都必须送回基地区域。
The goal was to collect as many good cards as possible in an unspecified short period of time (all trials actually lasted ten minutes).
小组的目标就是在给定的时间段内(事实上每次尝试持续10分钟)搜集尽可能多的绿色卡片。
As an incentive, members of the best-performing group would receive an animal-adoption prize worth ￡30 ($47).
作为鼓励，表现最好的小组将获得价值30英镑(47美元)的动物领养奖励。
Before the modern-day foragers were let loose, radio-frequency tags, like those used in swipe cards, were wrapped around everyone’s dominant wrist.
原始社会的搜集者比较分散，所以每个成员惯用手的手腕上都配带了一个与磁卡无线电标签相似的标签。
All the good forage cards were similarly tagged.
所有绿色卡片上同样安置了相同的标签。
These, together with antennae on top of the boxes and in the home base, allowed Dr King totrack the group members’ precise movements.
这些标签和卡片盒上以及基地区域内安置的天线使得科恩博士可以精准地追踪每个小组的行动。
That, in turn, made it possible to determine how long it took each group to reach a consensus,defined as concentrating more than 90% of activity around a single patch.
从而，有可能确定每个小组需要花多长时间来达成共识，即该小组95%的活动都集中在一个搜集区内。
Unsurprisingly, the groups that were allowed to communicate proved the more effectiveforagers.
事实证明，那些可以进行交流的小组的搜集者效率相对较高。
They were much likelier than their non-communicating peers to converge on the greenest patches.
这也并让人感到不惊讶。与其他不可以进行交流的竞争者相比，他们更有可能汇聚在绿色卡片最多的搜集区。
What did come as something of a surprise, however, was the nature of the communication that mattered.
然而让人感到惊讶的却是他们交流的方式。
The researchers monitored noise levels and hand gestures.
研究者对他们使用发出的噪音以及手势进行了监测。
Noise levels served as a proxy for verbal communication; gestures, for the non-verbal sort.