VOA慢速英語(yǔ): 狗可以識(shí)別人的感受

A dog considers which face is happy and which is angry.

狗能夠識(shí)別人的感受

So you think you know your dog. But how well does your dog know you? She probably recognizes you when she sees you. But can a dog tell by simply looking at you whether you have a happy or an angry expression on your face? Researchers in Austria have taught pet dogs to know the difference.

你認(rèn)為自己了解狗，但是你的狗狗了解你多少呢？狗狗看見(jiàn)你的時(shí)候或許會(huì)知道你的感受。但是狗能不能單單通過(guò)看你臉上的喜悅表情或者生氣表情就判斷你不同的感受呢？奧地利研究員教給寵物狗辨別情緒的不同。

Dogs are very mindful of sound. When dog owners shout or speak in a strong, harsh voice, dogs often act guilty and quietly move away from the area.

狗對(duì)聲音很敏感。當(dāng)狗主人用一種大嗓門對(duì)狗叫喊或者說(shuō)話時(shí)，狗通常會(huì)乖乖地、悄悄地離開(kāi)。

Recently, researchers found that dogs can look at our faces, and tell the difference between a smile and a frown. The animals were able to recognize a look of approval from one of disapproval.

最近，研究者發(fā)現(xiàn)狗可以通過(guò)看我們的臉，辨別出來(lái)微笑與皺眉之間的不同。也能夠區(qū)別人同意與不同意時(shí)的表情神色。

Researchers at the University of Veterinary Medicine, Vienna performed a series of experiments. They taught dogs to recognize facial expressions. They showed the dogs two pictures of either the upper or lower half of a person's face. On one picture, the person looked happy. The other appeared angry.

奧地利維也納動(dòng)物醫(yī)學(xué)院的研究員進(jìn)行了一系列的試驗(yàn)，他們讓狗去識(shí)別面部表情。給狗展示兩張半張臉：一張上半張臉，一張下半張臉；一張臉開(kāi)心，另一張臉生氣。

The dogs were then shown images of the eyes or mouths of people they had never seen before. They were also shown the left half of the faces used in training.

然后給狗看它們從未見(jiàn)過(guò)的人的眼睛或嘴的圖像。在訓(xùn)練的過(guò)程中，給它們展示的是左半邊臉。

Corsin Muller led the study.

卡森·穆勒主導(dǎo)這項(xiàng)研究。

"We were essentially speaking, do they realize that smiling eyes have the same meaning as a smiling mouth, or angry eyes have the same meaning as an angry mouth? And it turned out that they really did perform very well in these probe trials. Once they had learned the initial discrimination, they could spontaneously, immediately choose the correct one also in the probe trials with the normal stimuli."

“從根本上講，狗能夠明白眼睛微笑時(shí)也代表嘴在微笑嗎？或者眼神怒氣沖沖代表嘴也怒氣沖沖嗎？實(shí)驗(yàn)結(jié)果表明它們?cè)谶@些試驗(yàn)調(diào)查中，確實(shí)表現(xiàn)不錯(cuò)。一旦學(xué)會(huì)初步的鑒別后，一點(diǎn)外界的刺激，它們就能夠本能地、立刻找出那個(gè)正確的那個(gè)。”

Once the dogs learned to recognize which image was happy or angry, they could easily identify the same expressions in pictures of any face.

一旦狗狗學(xué)會(huì)辨別哪個(gè)形象是開(kāi)心或生氣，它們能夠很容易地確認(rèn)圖片中任何一張有類似表情的臉。

Corsin Muller says future studies will try to show whether dogs can learn the meaning of facial expressions -- for example, whether a frown shows that someone is angry.

卡森·穆勒說(shuō)未來(lái)的研究會(huì)嘗試證明狗是否能夠?qū)W會(huì)面部表情代表的意義——比如：是否皺眉表明某人生氣。

"What we can say with our study is that they can discriminate them, that they can tell these ones are different. But what we cannot be sure of at this point is what exact meaning they are associating with these different expressions.”

“我們的研究想要說(shuō)明的是：狗能夠鑒別人類的表情，它們可以辨別出來(lái)表情的差異。但是我們不能確認(rèn)的是它們看到這些不同的表情后的聯(lián)想到的意義是什么。”

“Seems of course likely that they would associate some positive meaning with the smiley face and they would associate some rather negative meaning with the angry face. But what exactly they are associating with these expressions we cannot know at this point."

“很有可能它們把一些積極的意思跟微笑的臉相聯(lián)系，把一些消極的意思跟憤怒的表情相聯(lián)系。但是它們到底把這些表情跟什么相聯(lián)系我們目前不得而知。”

In the experiments, researchers found the dogs were slower to link a reward, or prize, with recognition of the angry face. This suggested that dogs had an idea people with angry faces were best avoided.

試驗(yàn)中，研究者發(fā)現(xiàn)狗在把獲獎(jiǎng)與識(shí)別憤怒的表情之間聯(lián)系時(shí)，它們的反應(yīng)慢。這表明狗明白：人在生氣時(shí)，它們最好還是離開(kāi)。

Corsin Muller says canine investigators are also interested in finding out whether wild wolves can be trained to recognize human facial expressions.

卡森·穆勒表示犬類調(diào)查者同樣對(duì)找出野狼是否也能夠被訓(xùn)練來(lái)識(shí)別人類面部表情感興趣。

The researchers’ findings were published in the journal Current Biology. They provide the first solid evidence that humans are not the only species that can read the body language of another species.

研究者的這一發(fā)現(xiàn)發(fā)表在《當(dāng)代生物學(xué)》雜志上。這一發(fā)現(xiàn)提供確鑿證據(jù)：人類并不是唯一能夠辨別其他物種身體語(yǔ)言的物種。

I’m Marsha James.

我是瑪莎·詹姆斯。

VOA’s Jessica Berman prepared this report. Marsha James wrote it forLearning English. George Grow was the editor.

_____________________________________________________________

Words in This Story

probe - n., a careful examination or investigation of something

stimulus – n., something that causes something else to happen, develop, orbecome more active

avoid – v., to stay away from (someone or something)