Learning to see

摘要

I was surprised that David Robson should think it necessary to go back in time to test whether knowing a berry's name might help someone find it more quickly (4 September, p 30). Modern bird watchers, botanists and other nature aficionados are all familiar with the way that one's ability to identify species increases rapidly as one learns their names. As someone who regularly leads and participates in nature tours with members of the general public, I am very used to hearing comments such as "I never knew there were all these plants in this area -I never even saw them before."