Science is proving what pet owners have long believed: Dogs understand what we're feeling. Specifically¹, dogs can recognize the difference between a happy and an angry human face, a study published Thursday in Current Biology suggests.

在《当代生物学》杂志上刊登的一篇研究表明，科学证明了宠物主人一直坚信的观点：狗能够读懂我们的心情。尤其是，狗能够辨别人面部表情高兴与生气之间的区别。

It's the first research to show definitively² that dogs are sensitive to our facial expressions, says coauthor Ludwig Huber, head of comparative³ cognition at Messerli Research Institute at the University of Veterinary Medicine, Vienna.

维也纳兽医大学梅瑟利研究所负责人、也是合著者之一的路德维希·休伯说，这是第一个完全表明狗对我们的面部表情很敏感的研究。

In the Austrian study, 20 pet dogs of various breeds⁴ 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 learned⁵ that a treat would appear if they chose the right geometrical figure.

在奥地利的研究中，通过训练，让20只不同品种和大小的宠物狗来玩一种电脑游戏。期初，给狗展示两个触摸屏，一个是圆圈，一个是正方形。通过反复试验，它们知道，如果他们选择正确的几何图形，就会有奖励。

Eleven of the 20 dogs were able to catch on to rules of the game and make it to the next phase⁶, 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只宠物狗中有11只能够理解游戏规则，并且进入下一个阶段。在这个阶段，他们会看到脸部照片。一半的狗将因为选择高兴表情得到奖励，另一半则是需要选择生气的表情。有趣的是，只让狗看到上半部分脸或下半部分脸。

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.

休伯说：“教会狗选择高兴的表情比生气的表情更容易，这表明狗确实读懂了表情背后的含义。”

As a test, the dogs were then presented with:

在试验中，向狗展示以下内容：

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

在训练时看的不同人的半张脸

the other half of the faces used in training

在训练时用的脸的另外一半

the other half of new faces

新面孔的另一半脸

the left half of the faces used in training

在训练中用脸的左半部分

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

在绝大多数情况下，70%-100%的狗选择了正确答案。

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 vice⁷ versa, Huber says, adding "the only possible explanation is that they recall⁸ from memory of everyday life how a whole human face looks when happy or angry."

休伯说：“通过训练，那些能够识别脸的上半部分是生气或时高兴的狗，在只看到脸的下半部分时同样也能够识别出同样的表情，反之亦然。”他补充道：“唯一可能的解释是，他们会回想每天的生活中人类高兴或生气时脸部表情是怎样的。”

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

狗的主人知道他们的宠物不仅能够识别情感，同时也能够感到同情。