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This is Scientific American’s 60-Second Science. I’m Karen Hopkin.
這里是科學美國人——60秒科學系列，我是凱倫·霍普金。
Ever get the feeling that your cat is judging you?
總感覺貓貓在評判你?
Well, you’re in for a surprise. Because it’s actually your pooch who might be viewing you with a critical eye.
嗯，你會大吃一驚的。因為實際上用評判目光看你的是狗狗。
That’s according to a study that shows that dogs can assess human aptitude and will look toward people who seem to know what they’re doing.
這是根據一項研究得出的結論，該研究表明狗狗可以評估人類的做事天賦，并會關注那些似乎知道它們在做什么的人類。
The work appears in the journal Behavioral Processes.
這項研究發表在《行為過程》期刊上。
Our aim was to test whether dogs are sensitive to humans’ competence levels. And whether they evaluate humans on this trait.
我們的目的是測試狗是否對人類的做事能力敏感。以及它們是否會用這個特性來評估人類。
Hitomi Chijiiwa is an assistant professor at Osaka University.
千千巖眸是大阪大學的助理教授。
If critiquing people’s proficiency seems an odd job for a pup, it may not be all that far fetched.
對人類做某件事的熟練程度加以評判，似乎是小狗狗的反常行為，但其實這種說法也并非那么靠不住。
Canines have spent more than 10,000 years by our sides.
畢竟犬科動物已經陪伴了我們一萬多年。
So Dogs are highly sensitive to human behavior.
狗對人類行為高度敏感。
And they pay particular attention to things like how cooperative we are.
他們特別關注與我們的合作程度。
For example, our previous study showed that dogs avoid people who refuse to help their owner.
例如，我們之前的研究表明，狗會避開那些拒絕幫助主人的人。
So Chijiiwa and her colleagues got to wondering whether dogs might also rate us in terms of our skillfulness.
千千巖眸和同事們想知道，狗是否也會根據我們的技能給我們打分。
Particularly if those skills might come in handy for our four-footed little friends.
特別是如果這些技能可能對我們的四腳獸朋友們派上用場的時候。
So they set up a simple experiment.
所以她們做了一個簡單的實驗。
We showed 60 dogs two persons manipulating transparent containers. One person is competent.
我們向60只狗展示兩個人擰開透明容器的過程。其中一人能擰開。
That person was able to pop open the top after just a couple of twists.
那個人只擰了幾下就把蓋子打開了。
Whereas the other person is incompetent and they failed at this task.
而另一個人就不行，無法完成這個任務。
That person tried to open the lid, then gave up.
那個人試圖打開蓋子，然后放棄了。
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