【精英翻譯】的部落格

Humans can tell what chimps are saying... sort of

人類可以聽懂黑猩猩的話…一點點

精英翻譯社轉自https://features.ltn.com.tw/english/article/paper/1390608

◎陳成良

New research published Wednesday shows that humans can tell when a chimpanzee is happy, sad, angry or scared － simply by listening to their cries.

週三發表的新研究顯示，人類只要聽叫聲，就能分辨出黑猩猩究竟是開心、難過、生氣或害怕。

"We demonstrate for the first time that humans can accurately map other species vocalisations to specific behavioural contexts," Roza Kamiloglu, a researcher at the University of Amsterdam and lead study author, told AFP.

「我們首度證實，人類可以準確將其他物種發出的聲音，對應到特定行為情境」，該研究報告第一作者、阿姆斯特丹大學研究員卡米洛格魯告訴法新社。

Kamiloglu and the team asked close to 3,500 participants to listen to recordings of 150 chimp sounds, then decide based on what they heard if the animal was in a positive or negative situation, and whether it was excited or relaxed.

卡米洛格魯及其團隊要求將近3500名參與者，聆聽150種黑猩猩聲音的錄音檔，然後根據所聽到的聲音，判定猩猩當下是處於正面或負面情境，以及牠是興奮還是放鬆狀態。

Around 300 participants were then asked to match sounds to a list of 10 behaviours, including chimps mating, being separated from their mothers, or being scared by something.

約300名參與者接著必須將聽到的聲音與10種行為配對，包括黑猩猩交配、與母親分離或受到驚嚇等。

The humans proved surprising adept at understanding the correct context in which the cries were recorded.

結果證實，人類竟出乎意料地能輕易理解黑猩猩發出叫聲當下所處的正確情境。