003 寵物：狗狗看懂你的表情

Dogs can read human emotions

人與狗是不同的物種，卻可以互相看懂對方的表情

養狗的人都說他們「知道」狗狗會理解人的感情。現在科學家來幫忙正式證明了這一點。

科學家們測試了17隻不同血統的狗，看這些狗能不能辨認人或其他狗的表情或聲音中表達的情感。如果能辨認，則證明狗具有極高的天賦，因為這裡牽涉到兩種完全不同的感官。

每隻狗都進行了兩個階段的10次測試。這些狗面對屏幕看圖片。這些圖片都是這隻狗不熟悉的人或其他狗在玩樂，發怒時的面部表情。每次看其中一種，同時配上相應的（如歡樂的表情配歡樂的聲音）或者相矛盾（如發怒的表情配歡樂的聲音）的狗的叫聲或者人的語言。人的語言採用葡萄牙語。因為這些狗從來沒有聽到過葡萄牙語。

研究結果發現，如果聲音與表情相配合，狗就會多看一些時間。如果圖像和聲音不相配，狗看圖像的時間就短了。這種測試經常用來測試哺乳動物的認知能力。這篇論文發表在《生物學通訊》（Biology Letters）。另外，比起人的圖像來說，這些狗更喜歡看其他狗的表情圖像，這與以前的研究結果一致。

這個研究結果第一次正式證明了，除了人之外，還有其他動物能夠通過面部表情和聲音解讀另外一個物種的情感。顯然這種天賦幫助這些狗狗在生態系統中找到了自己的生存位置。（譯者註：靠察言觀色混跡於人群之中。）

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英文原文：Science(DOI: 10.1126/science.aae0219)

《生物學通訊》(biologyletters) ，英國皇家學會刊物，創刊於2005。

-----------英語學習------------

詞彙:

cognitive: 認識的，有認識力的

vocalization: 有聲化

mammal: 哺乳動物

fido: 狗狗

ecological niche: 生態位,指一個種群在生態系統中佔據的時間和空間位置。

Breeds: 血統

英文原文:

Dogs can read human emotions

By Virginia Morell

Dog owners often say they 「know」 that their dog understands what they’re feeling. Now, scientists have the evidence to back this up. Researchers tested 17 adult dogs of various breeds to see whether they could recognize emotional expressions in the faces and voices of humans and other dogs—an ability that’s considered a higher cognitive talent because two different senses are involved. Each dog took part in two test sessions with 10 trials. One by one, they stood facing two screens on which the researchers projected photos of unfamiliar but happy/playful human or dog faces versus the same faces with angry/aggressive expressions (as in the photo above). At the same time, the scientists played a single vocalization—either a dog bark, or an unfamiliar human speaking in Portuguese, a language none of the dogs had previously heard, or a neutral sound. The dogs looked much longer at a face (dog or human) when the expression matched the tone of the voice, a measure that’s also been used to assess various cognitive abilities of other mammals, the scientists report online today in Biology Letters. The dogs were best at this when looking at a fellow dog, which supports another study showing that dogs preferred looking at images of other dogs rather than those of humans. It’s the first time that a species, other than humans, has been shown to be capable of interpreting the vocal and facial expressions of an entirely different species of animal—a talent that surely helps Fido survive in its ecological niche: the jungle of the human home.