狗可以看懂人類表情辨別高興與生氣大綱

Science is proving what pet owners have long believed: Dogs understand what we're feeling. Specifically, dogs can recognize the difference between a happy and an angry human face, a study published Thursday in Current Biology suggests.

在《當代生物學》雜誌上刊登的一篇研究表明，科學證明了寵物主人一直堅信的觀點：狗能夠讀懂我們的心情。尤其是，狗能夠辨別人面部表情高興與生氣之間的區別。

It's the first research to show definitively that dogs are sensitive to our facial expressions, says coauthor Ludwig Huber, head of comparative cognition at Messerli Research Institute at the University of Veterinary Medicine, Vienna.

維也納獸醫大學梅瑟利研究所負責人、也是合著者之一的路德維希·休伯說，這是第一個完全表明狗對我們的面部表情很敏感的研究。

In the Austrian study, 20 pet dogs of various breeds and sizes were taught to play a computer game through a series of exercises. In the first, the dogs were shown two touch screens, one with a circle and one with a square. Through trial and error, they learned that a treat would appear if they chose the right geometrical figure.

在奧地利的研究中，通過訓練，讓20只不同品種和大小的寵物狗來玩一種電腦遊戲。期初，給狗展示兩個觸摸屏，一個是圓圈，一個是正方形。通過反覆試驗，它們知道，如果他們選擇正確的幾何圖形，就會有獎勵。

Eleven of the 20 dogs were able to catch on to rules of the game and make it to the next phase, where they were shown photos of faces. Half the dogs were rewarded for picking a happy expression and half for choosing an angry expression. The interesting catch: the dogs were shown only the upper half or the lower half of a face.

20只寵物狗中有11只能夠理解遊戲規則，並且進入下一個階段。在這個階段，他們會看到臉部照片。一半的狗將因爲選擇高興表情得到獎勵，另一半則是需要選擇生氣的表情。有趣的是，只讓狗看到上半部分臉或下半部分臉。

It was easier to teach the dogs to choose a happy expression than an angry one, suggesting the dogs do indeed understand the meaning behind the expression, Huber says.

休伯說：“教會狗選擇高興的表情比生氣的表情更容易，這表明狗確實讀懂了表情背後的含義。”

As a test, the dogs were then presented with:

在試驗中，向狗展示以下內容：

the same half of the faces they saw during the training, but from different people

在訓練時看的不同人的半張臉

the other half of the faces used in training

在訓練時用的臉的另外一半

the other half of new faces

新面孔的另一半臉

the left half of the faces used in training

在訓練中用臉的左半部分

In the vast majority of cases the dogs chose the right answer 70 to 100 percent of the time.

在絕大多數情況下，70%-100%的狗選擇了正確答案。

Dogs who had been trained to recognize an expression of anger or happiness on the upper part of a face could identify the same expression when shown only the lower part, and vice versa, Huber says, adding "the only possible explanation is that they recall from memory of everyday life how a whole human face looks when happy or angry."

休伯說：“通過訓練，那些能夠識別臉的上半部分是生氣或時高興的狗，在只看到臉的下半部分時同樣也能夠識別出同樣的表情，反之亦然。”他補充道：“唯一可能的解釋是，他們會回想每天的生活中人類高興或生氣時臉部表情是怎樣的。”

Dog owners know their pets not only recognize emotions but also feel empathy.

狗的主人知道他們的寵物不僅能夠識別情感，同時也能夠感到同情。