你的狗可能真的聽不懂人話

Sometimes I call my dog's name when he's hanging out on the couch or nearby in the yard and he doesn't even turn his head. I'm not sure if he doesn't hear me, isn't listening or is just being ... well, my dog.

有時(shí)候，當(dāng)狗狗在沙發(fā)上或者院子附近閑逛的時(shí)候，你會(huì)叫它的名字，但它不一定會(huì)轉(zhuǎn)頭回應(yīng)你。你不確定它能不能聽到你，是不是在聽，或者只是裝作不知道?哎，這讓人煩惱的狗兒。

It turns out that dogs truly have no problem picking their names out, even in a noisy environment. It's called "the cocktail party effect" and they're good at it.

但事實(shí)證明，即使在嘈雜的環(huán)境中，狗狗們也能毫不費(fèi)力地從各種聲音中分辨出自己的名字。這就是所謂的"雞尾酒會(huì)效應(yīng)"，他們很擅長這個(gè)。

Imagine you're in a noisy room and people are chattering all around you. You pretty much ignore the mindless babble and start drifting away until you hear your name. Your ears (figuratively) perk up.

想象你身處一個(gè)嘈雜的房間，人們?cè)谀阒車┼┎恍?。你幾乎快忽略了那些無意識(shí)的低語，然后準(zhǔn)備默默離開。但你突然聽到自己的名字，耳朵便在這一瞬間豎起來了。

Dogs are the same way. So found a new study published in the journal Animal Cognition.

發(fā)表在《動(dòng)物認(rèn)知志》上的一項(xiàng)新研究表明，狗狗亦如此。

Researchers at the University of Maryland had human and canine volunteers sit in a booth between two speakers. Scientists played a recording of either the dog's name or another name with the same number of syllables and similar stress pattern. (Like "Henry" and "Sasha.") The recordings had three levels of background noise that increasingly got louder.

馬里蘭大學(xué)學(xué)院市分校的研究人員讓實(shí)驗(yàn)者和實(shí)驗(yàn)犬坐在兩個(gè)講話者之間的一個(gè)攤位上。 接著，研究人員播放了一段錄音，錄音內(nèi)容包括狗的名字或者另外一個(gè)有著相同音節(jié)數(shù)和相似重音模式的名字(比如“Henry”和“Sasha”)。 這些錄音有多達(dá)三個(gè)層次的背景噪音，并且層次越高，噪音越大。

The dogs turned toward the speaker when they heard their names. It was only at the third level, when the background noise was louder than their name, that they didn't respond.

狗狗們聽到他們的名字時(shí)，轉(zhuǎn)向了說話的人。并且只有在第三層時(shí)，即背景噪音比他們的名字還大時(shí)，他們才沒反應(yīng)了。

By contrast, adults were able to pick out their names no matter how loud the background. Babies, however, could only recognize their names at the lowest level.

相比之下，不管背景聲音有多大，人都能聽出自己的名字。但嬰兒只能在最底層(即第一層)認(rèn)出自己的名字。

"Dogs are social creatures who pay attention to the adults around them and have evolved to do so," said co-author Rochelle Newman, professor and chair of the University of Maryland Department of Hearing and Speech Sciences, to Maryland Today. "In some sense, they are a really good comparison to infants."

狗是社會(huì)性動(dòng)物，它們會(huì)關(guān)注周圍的成年人，并且已經(jīng)慢慢進(jìn)化到可以這樣做了,”合著者Rochelle Newman說。他是馬里蘭大學(xué)學(xué)院市分校聽力和言語科學(xué)系的教授和主席。“從某種意義上說，它們的確與嬰兒有得一比。”

For the study, researchers used pet dogs, as well as service and working dogs. Interestingly, service and working dogs performed better than garden-variety pets.

在這項(xiàng)研究中，研究人員的研究對(duì)象包括寵物狗、服務(wù)犬和工作犬。有趣的是，服務(wù)犬和工作犬的表現(xiàn)比寵物狗要好。

This is probably because those dogs have more training and also because handlers tend to use their proper names more consistently instead of nicknames, researchers told National Geographic. So they're used to responding only to their names versus the cute monikers we tend to call our pets.

研究人員告訴國家地理雜志，這可能是因?yàn)檫@些狗受過的訓(xùn)練更多，也因?yàn)橛?xùn)練者傾向于更一致地使用它們的專有名字而不是昵稱。所以他們習(xí)慣于只回應(yīng)自己本身的名字，這樣一來，我們對(duì)寵物狗的可愛昵稱，反而成了它們辨別自己名字的“絆腳石”。

Researchers were able to conclude several things from the study.

研究人員從這項(xiàng)研究中得出了如下幾個(gè)結(jié)論：

First, they said, infants likely struggled in the loud environment due to where they are in their development, not because of a lack of language skills. After all, they said, "Dogs don't have language either and are doing better."

首先，嬰兒在嘈雜的環(huán)境中哭鬧，可能是因?yàn)樗麄冋诔砷L，而不是因?yàn)槿狈φZ言技能。畢竟，“狗也不會(huì)啥語言，而且表現(xiàn)得更好。"

They also had advice for people who work with their dogs. It's simple, but it makes sense. If you're in a loud situation, you probably have to raise your voice or move closer to your four-legged companion if surrounding noise makes it hard to be heard. They point out this is especially key if you're dealing with a service or working dog.

他們還給那些與自己的狗一起工作的人提供了建議。看似簡單，卻很有道理：如果周圍的噪音蓋過了你的聲音，你必須得提高嗓門或者靠近你的狗;此外，如果你面對(duì)的是一只服務(wù)犬或工作犬，這一點(diǎn)尤為關(guān)鍵。

And for those of us exasperated when our dogs seem to ignore our calls, co-author and doctoral student Amritha Mallikarjun tells NatGeo:"Dog owners shouldn't be frustrated if their dog doesn't respond to his or her name in a noisy environment like busy city streets or crowded parks," she says. "Your dog isn't being stubborn — he actually might not be able to understand you."

合著者Amritha Mallikarjun告訴NatGeo：“對(duì)于一些人來說，當(dāng)狗狗忽略我們的叫喚時(shí)，我們會(huì)感到非常憤怒。但如果狗主人在嘈雜的環(huán)境中叫喚狗狗，比如繁忙的城市街道或擁擠的公園，狗沒有反應(yīng)，他們也不應(yīng)該感到沮喪。你的狗狗并不是故意不理你，它可能是真的聽不懂你的話。”