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日本科學家：小鳥也具備辨別不同語言的能力
Birds Can Distinguish Languages
摘要：Pet birds can not only imitate sounds, they can distinguish between languages, potentially offering new clues on how the brain recognizes speech, Japanese researchers say.日本有關研究人員日前表示，家養(yǎng)的寵物鳥不僅能夠模仿聲音，同時它們也能辨別不同的語言，這一發(fā)現(xiàn)可能為人們研究大腦如何認知語言提供新的線索。
Pet birds can not only imitate sounds, they can distinguish between languages, potentially offering new clues on how the brain recognizes speech, Japanese researchers say.
It has already been confirmed that monkeys, mice and other mammals can recognize different languages but this is the first time that birds have been found to possess the ability, the Mainichi Shimbun newspaper reported.
A research team exposed Java Sparrows to English and Chinese translations recorded by exchange students of two well-known Japanese novels, "The Tale of Genji" and Natsume Soseki#39;s "I Am a Cat."
A bird sitting on a perch first listened to the English version and was only allowed to eat afterwards. Then the researchers played English and Chinese recordings at random and only allowed the bird to eat after hopping onto the perch with the English.
The birds correctly identified the English recording 75 percent of the time. The same results were achieved with another two birds that were permitted to eat only when Chinese was played.
"Humans are able to distinguish between languages, even ones they don#39;t know, from the intonation and pronunciation, and it seems that paddy birds have the same ability," said Keio University experimental psychology professor Shigeru Watanabe, who led the research.
"If we study common traits in brain structure, this may shed light on the mechanisms of speech recognition," Watanabe was quoted as saying by the Mainichi Shimbun.
Watanabe said paddy birds like the Java Sparrow and parakeets, which are skilled vocally, learn sounds unique to their species after becoming adults, suggesting that they have a high ability to distinguish between sounds.
The researchers did not use Japanese because it was the language the birds normally listened to, the newspaper said.
日本有關研究人員日前表示，家養(yǎng)的寵物鳥不僅能夠模仿聲音，同時它們也能辨別不同的語言，這一發(fā)現(xiàn)可能為人們研究大腦如何認知語言提供新的線索。
據(jù)法新社2月6日報道，此前，人們曾證實猴子、老鼠和其它一些哺乳動物能夠認知不同的語言；而這次人們首次發(fā)現(xiàn)，鳥類也具備這種能力。日本研究人員給文鳥（爪哇禾雀，Java Sparrow）聽英文版及中文版的兩部日本名著的錄音。這兩本書分別是紫式部的《源氏物語》和夏目漱石的《我是貓》。研究人員之所以沒有用日語進行試驗是因為這種語言鳥平時經(jīng)常聽到。
研究的具體過程如下：讓一只站在桿上的文鳥先聽英語錄音，然后才允許它吃東西；接下來，研究人員隨意播放英語和中文錄音，但是只有當文鳥聽到英語錄音跳到桿子上后，才允許它吃東西。
研究發(fā)現(xiàn)，文鳥成功分辨出英語錄音的概率為75％。研究人員又用另外兩種鳥進行了分辨中文錄音的試驗，并且得到了相同的結果。對此，此項研究的負責人、日本慶應大學（Keio University）實驗心理學教授渡邊茂說：“人類能夠從語調(diào)和發(fā)音來辨別不同的語言，即使是一些自己沒有掌握的語言也如此。現(xiàn)在看起來，這些以谷類為食的小鳥也同樣具備這種能力。”渡邊茂還說，這一發(fā)現(xiàn)或許會為人們研究語言識別機制帶來啟迪。
http://www.zwdianwu.cn/【日本科學家：小鳥也具備辨別不同語言的能力】相關文章：
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