研究：爲什麼汪星人愛看電視？

Domestic dogs can perceive images on television similarly to the way we do, and they are intelligent enough to recognize onscreen images of animals as they would in real life—even animals they've never seen before—and to recognize TV dog sounds, like barking.

家犬和我們一樣，看得懂電視上的圖像。它們還聰明到能辯得出畫面上的動物——無論他們是否在現實中見過這種動物——它們還能辨認出電視裏傳來的犬吠聲。

A 2013 study published in the journal Animal Cognition showed that dogs could identify images of other dogs among pictures of humans and other animals, using their visual sense alone.

2013年一份發表在期刊《動物認知》中的研究表明，僅憑視覺感官，狗狗們就能夠從人和其他動物的圖片中，分辨出自己的同類。

However, there are some differences between ourselves and man's best friend—for one, dogs' eyes register images more quickly than do ours. So older television sets, which show fewer frames per second than modern televisions, would appear to a dog to be flickering like a "1920s movie," said Nicholas Dodman, a veterinary behaviorist at Tufts University, in Massachusetts.

但是，我們人類和狗還是有些不同點。其中之一就是，狗的識別圖像的速度要比我們快許多。因此，要是一臺老式電視放在狗狗們面前，由於老電視每秒的幀數比現代電視要少，它們只會覺得自己在看上世紀20年代的老默片電影，馬薩諸塞州塔夫斯大學的動物行爲學家尼古拉斯·杜曼（Nicholas Dodman）說道。

Dogs also have dichromatic vision, which means they see a range of two primary colors, yellow and blue. Human vision is trichromatic, so we see the full range of colors, according to Binghamton University's Ask a Scientist web page.

賓漢姆頓大學的科普網站指出，狗的視覺只有藍黃雙色，因此它們的眼中是兩種基色的世界；至於我們的視覺則可以辨別三原色，因而我們看到一個豐富多彩的世界。

DogTV, an HDTV cable channel designed for dogs, interests canines because HDTV has a much higher number of frames per second and is specially colored to accommodate dogs' dichromatic vision, said Dodman, who is the channel's chief scientist.

作爲DogTV（狗狗頻道）的首席科學家，杜曼表示，汪星人愛看專爲它們設計的這個高清有線頻道是因爲這個頻道每秒幀數更多，而且顏色特別適應狗狗的雙色視覺。

DogTV has modes for relaxation, which shows images like dogs chilling out in a grassy field; stimulation, which depicts scenes like dogs surfing in southern California; and exposure which shows things like a dog reacting to a ringing doorbell and obeying commands to acclimate them to such situations at home.

狗狗頻道提供了多種多樣的放鬆休閒：有汪星人在草地上自由自在的休閒節目、有汪星人在南加州衝浪的刺激性節目，還有播放狗狗聽到門鈴做出反應、聽從指揮等幫助汪星人適應家庭生活的探索教育節目。

Doggie Style 汪星人風格

Beyond biology, how dogs react to TV—whether it's running around, barking excitedly, or just ignoring it—may come down to personality or breed.

除了生理上的原因外，汪星人對電視的反應也有可能“因狗而異”。到底是興奮地到處跑、大聲叫喚，還是高冷地不理不睬，這都有可能因爲狗狗的性格和品種不同而產生差異。

"Different dogs, like people, have different personalities," Dodman said. "Some are territorial, some are not; some like people, some hate people; some are predatory, some aren't; some are pushy, some are shy.

“不同的狗狗，和人一樣，性格也有所不同。”杜曼說，“有一些狗狗的領地意識很強，有一些就不會；有一些喜歡與人親近，有一些則不喜歡人類；有些攻擊性強，有些則不然；有些狗狗愛出風頭，有些則比較靦腆。

"It takes all types of dogs to make the world go round," he added.

“但是每一種狗都讓生活豐富多彩，都是不可或缺的。”他說。

Hearing a barking dog on the set often gets TV-Watching dogs excited. Some dogs not only bark at animals on the screen, but also run behind the TV looking for them.

聽到電視上傳來犬吠聲，看電視的汪星人都會情難自控。有些汪星人不僅會在熒幕前試圖與畫面上的動物“對話”，還會繞到電視後面“一探究竟”。

Others "have been desensitized to television. When they see a dog [on TV], they [may] think, 'Those guys just hang out on the television. They never actually walk around,'" Dodman said.

有一些則“已經對電視不再敏感，當看到電視上的“小夥伴”，杜曼說，這些汪星人就會想：“這些傢伙只是電視上閒逛，它們不會真的走來走去的。”

What breed a dog is may influence its reactions to TV. Hounds, which are driven by smell, aren't as interested in visuals, but herding breeds, such as terriers, may be more stimulated by moving objects they see on the small screen.

狗狗的品種會決定汪星人對電視的反應。像獵犬那樣嗅覺靈敏的狗狗，在視覺上的興趣不會很大；但是像梗犬那樣的牧羊犬，就更容易受到電視上運動物體的刺激。

Watch Dog 照看狗狗

Many of us leave a radio or TV on when we leave the house to keep our dog company, hoping that the sound is more comforting to our pets than silence, Dodman said.

杜曼說，許多人在離開家的時候，都會給汪星人打開收音機或者電視，給它們做個伴，希望這些聲響對狗狗們來說更安慰。

Channels that feature animals might be preferable to news programs, but, like many humans, dogs often just half-watch TV anyway.

因此，專爲動物設計的電視頻道也許是比新聞節目更合適，但是汪星人也和地球人一樣，看電視三心二意。

"They orient to things they're interested in, look at it for a couple of minutes and go 'hmm, interesting,' and then look away," said Dodman. Even so, "that's better than spinning your wheels all day while your owners are away."

“它們以自己感興趣的東西爲參照物，看電視看了幾分鐘就會覺得‘嗯，有點意思’，然後目光就轉移到別的地方去了。”杜曼說，儘管如此，“對於狗狗來說，主人不在時，看電視還是比轉一整天輪子有趣。”

First their own channel. Next they'll start tweeting #walkies.

汪星人現在有了自己的頻道，下一步可能就是發散步相關的推文啦。

Vocabulary

domestic dogs: 家犬

frame: 幀

veterinary: 獸醫的

behaviorist: 行爲學家

dichromatic: 二色性的

trichromatic: 三原色的

acclimate: 使適應

predatory: 掠奪性的

pushy: 愛出風頭的

herding: 放牧的

terrier: 綆犬

walkie: 散步