Pigs Can Game, Scientists Discover一、英文原文：

Four pigs were trained to use joysticks to play a simple video game, and some excelled, revealing the impressive intelligence of pigs.

Pigs are famously **art: they can use tools, learn how mirrors work, and display sensitivity to the emotions of their peers.

Now, scientists have confirmed that pigs can acquire another skill that requires impressive cognition and dexterity: gaming.

Four pigs showed a “remarkable” ability to play a joystick-operated video game, an indication of “their behavioral and cognitive flexibility,” according to a study published on Thursday in Frontiers in Psychology.

Though the game was originally developed by NASA to test monkeys, the pigs were able to learn how to accomplish most of its objectives without the benefits of opposable thumbs or keen eyesight.

“There are lots of other examples, scientifically, where pigs have shown they're capable of some pretty interesting learning,” said lead author Candace Croney, a professor at Purdue University and director of the Purdue Center for Animal Welfare Science, in a call. “But this kind of computerized interface was really different.”

Allow me to introduce the players: a pair of Yorkshire pigs named Hamlet and Omelet, and a duo of Panepinto micro pigs named Ebony and Ivory. Each pig was trained to toggle a joystick using their snouts in an indoor facility at Pennsylvania State University.

Once they mastered that skill, the pigs started gaming once a day for a period of 12 weeks. Hamlet and Omelet had to stop at that point because “they had grown too large to stand long enough to complete sessions, and also no longer fit within the constraints of the test pen” according to the study, which was co-authored by Sarah T. Boysen, a chimpanzee expert at Ohio State University.

The first “level” the pigs had to pass displayed a blue border running along all four sides of a screen located right behind the joystick. The goal was to use the joystick to move a cursor on screen so that it intersected with any of the four walls. The next level displayed a border with only three walls; the pigs were again tasked with hitting one of those three lines. If they hit the empty side of the screen, it would be counted as an error.

The game continued to increase in difficulty, showing just two walls and then one, which were arbitrarily generated on different sides of the screen. This upped the odds that the pigs would log an error by moving the cursor to a borderless part of the screen. Even so, all of the pigs still performed well on the challenging one-wall targets, moving the cursor the right way at a rate above random chance.

Things got dicier in the following levels, when the wall borders became **aller and even began to move around. Though some of the pigs were able to perform well with the shrinking walls, the moving targets proved too much for their snout-joystick coordination.

“You have to move the cursor, not just to hit a very **all target, but a moving target,” Croney explained. “That's dexterity. Our pigs never got to that phase.”

Given that all of the pigs were found to be far-sighted, and this is a test designed for dexterous animals such as monkeys or rates, it is noteworthy that these porcine players were able to make it as far as they did.

Just like human gamers, each pig had its own individual aptitude for the tasks; Ivory emerged as the “little star pupil,” Croney said, as he set a record of hitting the one-walled targets 76 percent of the time. In fact, Ebony and Ivory were even able to pick up the game again a year later when they had moved with Croney to another facility, hinting at sophisticated long-term memory.

“It’s like any kind of learning: you're going to get variation from individual to individual in terms of what they can learn, how quickly they can learn, how well they perform tasks, and how consistently they perform,” she noted. “That was really a fun thing to see. It felt like a classroom. You just had to know something about who you were teaching in order to get the best work out of them.”

On that note, the study also offered a window into the social bonds that these animals forge with their trainers and caretakers. Croney served both roles for the pigs in these experiments, and the animals relied on her encouragement to motivate them to complete the games.

For instance, the pigs were normally rewarded by an automatic treat dispenser when they played the game well, but when the dispenser broke, they “continued to make correct responses when rewarded only with verbal and tactile reinforcement” by Croney, the study said. In other words, kind words and nice pets from their trusted caretaker resulted in better outcomes in the game.

While this reveals a very endearing side to pigs, the downside was that the animals often phoned it in if Croney wasn’t personally there to cheer them on.

“I remember coming in on one occasion when I had walking pneumonia because something needed to happen that day, and the pigs just wouldn't do it,” she said. “And as soon as I walked in, it was like: ‘we'll do it now.’”

“I think everybody who has animals that they have a strong bond with can understand that kind of thing,” Croney added. “To that degree, the pigs are no different from other other animals that we have strong social bonds with.”

Ultimately, the new study adds to the abundant evidence of sophisticated intelligence in pigs, which is scientifically interesting and also has ethical implications for their treatment, management, and care.

“At the end of the day, I think the take-home message is this: We had no idea pigs were capable of doing even this level of conceptual learning,” Croney said. “If they can do this, what else could they be learning and responding to that I might not, as somebody interacting with them or working with them, be taking into consideration?”

“That forces me to be a little bit more careful, and a little bit more cognizant, of the impact I'm having on another sentient being,” she concluded. “I don't know that we do that enough for those of us who work with animals on a regular basis.”

二、中文翻译：

科学家发现，猪可以玩游戏

四头猪被训练使用操纵杆玩一个简单的电子游戏，其中一些表现出色，展现了猪令人印象深刻的智力。

猪是出了名的聪明：他们可以使用工具，学习镜子如何工作，并对同龄人的情绪表现出**。

现在，科学家已经证实，猪可以**另一项技能，需要令人印象深刻的认知和灵巧：游戏。

周四发表在《心理学前沿》上的一项研究显示，四头猪在玩操纵杆操作的电子游戏方面表现出“非凡”的能力，这表明“它们的行为和认知灵活性”。

虽然这个游戏最初是由美国宇航局**的，用来测试猴子，但是猪能够学会如何完成它的大部分目标，而不需要大**和敏锐的视力。

“科学上，还有很多其他的例子表明，猪能够进行一些非常有趣的学习，”主要作者、普渡大学教授、普渡动物福利科学中心主任坎迪斯·克罗尼（Candace Croney）在电话中说。“但是这种计算机化的界面确实不同。”

请允许我介绍玩家：一对名叫哈姆雷特和煎蛋卷的约克郡猪，以及一对名叫乌木和象牙的潘皮托微型猪。在宾夕法尼亚州立大学的一个室内设施里，每头猪都被训练成用鼻子拨动操纵杆。

一旦他们**了这项技能，猪开始游戏一天一次，为期12周。这项由俄亥俄州立大学黑猩猩专家莎拉·T·博伊森（Sarah T.Boysen）合著的研究表明，哈姆雷特和煎蛋卷在这一点上不得不停下来，因为“它们长得太大，站不住足够长的时间来完成疗程，也不再适合测试笔的限制”。

猪必须通过的第一个“关卡”显示了一个蓝色的边界，沿着操纵杆正后方屏幕的四个侧面。目标是使用操纵杆**屏幕上的光标，使其与四面墙中的任何一面相交。下一层显示的是只有三道墙的边界；猪的任务是再次击中这三条线中的一条。如果他们击中了屏幕的空白面，这将被视为一个错误。

游戏的难度不断**，只显示了两堵墙，然后是一堵墙，这两堵墙是在屏幕的不同侧面任意生成的。这**了猪通过将光标**到屏幕的无边界部分来记录错误的几率。即使如此，所有的猪仍然表现良好的挑战性的一面墙目标，**光标的正确**在一个以上的随机机会率。

当墙的边界变小，甚至开始**时，接下来的几层情况就**更加棘手了。虽然有些猪能够很好地应对收缩的墙壁，但事实证明，**的目标对它们的鼻子和操纵杆的协调作用太大了。

克罗尼解释说：“你必须**光标，不仅要击中一个非常小的目标，还要击中一个**的目标。”。“这就是灵巧。我们的猪从来没有到过那个阶段。”

考虑到所有的猪都被发现有远视，而且这是一个为灵巧的动物设计的测试，比如猴子或rate，值得注意的是，这些猪选手能够做到他们所能做到的。

就像人类游戏玩家一样，每只猪都有自己的天赋来完成任务；象牙成为了“小明星瞳孔”，克罗尼说，他创造了76%的命中率记录。事实上，一年后，当乌木和象牙与克洛尼一起搬到另一个设施时，他们甚至能够再次拿起游戏，暗示着他们拥有复杂的**记忆。

她指出：“这就像任何一种学习一样：每个人的学习内容、学习速度、完成任务的能力以及表现的一致性都会有所不同。”。“那真是一件有趣的事。感觉就像一间教室。你只需要知道你在教谁，就可以从他们身上**最好的成果。”

在这一点上，这项研究还提供了一个观察这些动物与驯养者和看护者之间社会关系的窗口。在这些实验中，克罗尼为猪扮演了两个角色，动物们依靠她的鼓励来激励他们完成游戏。

例如，当猪玩得好时，它们通常会**自动治疗分配器的奖励，但当分配器坏了时，它们会“继续做出正确的反应，当只**口头和触觉上的强化奖励时”，克罗尼说。换句话说，他们信任的看护人的友好的话语和友好的宠物在游戏中产生了更好的结果。

虽然这揭示了猪非常可爱的一面，但不利的一面是，如果克洛尼没有亲自到那里为它们加油的话，这些动物经常会打电话给猪。

她说：“我记得有一次我得了行走性肺炎，因为那天需要出事，猪就是不愿意。”。“我一走进来，就好像：‘我们现在就做。’”

克洛尼补充说：“我认为，每一个与动物有着紧密联系的人都能理解这种事情。”。“在这个程度上，猪和其他我们有很强社会关系的动物没有什么不同。”

最终，这项新的研究为猪的复杂智力提供了丰富的证据，这在科学上是有趣的，对猪的治疗、管理和护理也有伦理意义。

克洛尼说：“归根结底，我认为这是一个重要的信息：我们不知道猪有能力进行这种程度的概念学习。”。“如果他们能做到这一点，他们还能学到什么，做出什么反应，而作为一个与他们互动或合作的人，我可能不会考虑这些？”

“这迫使我更加小心，更加意识到我对另一个有知觉的生命的影响，”她总结道。“我不知道对于我们这些经常与动物打交道的人来说，我们做的还不够。”

三、生词：

1、joystick英 [ˈdʒɔɪstɪk] 美 [ˈdʒɔɪstɪk]

n.(电脑游戏的)游戏杆，操纵杆，控制杆;(飞机的)操纵杆

2、excel英 [ɪkˈsel] 美 [ɪkˈsel]

v.擅长;善于;突出;胜过平时

3、cognition英 [kɒɡˈnɪʃn] 美 [kɑːɡˈnɪʃn]

n.认知;感知;认识

4、dexterity英 [dekˈsterəti] 美 [dekˈsterəti]

n.(手)灵巧，熟练;(思维)敏捷，灵活

5、opposable

adj.可反对的，可对抗的；可相对的;（灵长类**）与其他手指相对的

6、toggle英 [ˈtɒɡl] 美 [ˈtɑːɡl]

n.(大衣或袋子等上木质或塑料的)栓扣钉，棒形纽扣，套索扣;转换键;切换键

v.(两种状态之间)切换，转换

7、snout英 [snaʊt] 美 [snaʊt]

n.(猪等动物的)口鼻部，吻;(人的)鼻子;吻状突出物

8、arbitrarily英 [ˈɑːbɪtrərɪli] 美 [ˈɑrbɪˌtrɛrəli]

adv.任意(性)的，随意的;(个人)主观武断的，随心所欲的;反复无常的，任性多变的，无定见的，变幻莫测的

9、cursor英 [ˈkɜːsə(r)] 美 [ˈkɜːrsər]

n.(计算机荧光屏上的)光标，游标

10、dicier美 [ˈdaɪsiər]

adj.前途未卜的;冒险的;危险的

dicey的比较级

11、phase英 [feɪz] 美 [feɪz]

n.阶段;时期;月相;(月亮的)盈亏

v.分阶段进行;逐步做

12、porcine英 [ˈpɔːsaɪn] 美 [ˈpɔːrsaɪn]

adj.像猪的;猪的

13、aptitude英 [ˈæptɪtjuːd] 美 [ˈæptɪtuːd]

n.天资;天生的才能;天赋

14、hint英 [hɪnt] 美 [hɪnt]

n.暗示;提示;示意;征兆;迹象;少许;少量

v.暗示;透露;示意

15、sophisticated英 [səˈfɪstɪkeɪtɪd] 美 [səˈfɪstɪkeɪtɪd]

adj.见多识广的;老练的;见过世面的;复杂巧妙的;先进的;精密的;水平高的;在行的

16、forge英 [fɔːdʒ] 美 [fɔːrdʒ]

v.艰苦干成;努力加强;**;假冒;锻造;制作

n.铁匠铺;锻铁炉;锻造车间;锻造工厂

17、dispenser英 [dɪˈspensə(r)] 美 [dɪˈspensər]

n.(取款、售货等用的)自动取物装置

18、verbal英 [ˈvɜːbl] 美 [ˈvɜːrbl]

adj.文字的;言语的;词语的;口头(而非书面)的;动词的

19、actile英 [ˈtæktaɪl] 美 [ˈtæktl]

adj.触觉的;有触觉的;能触知的

20、endear英 [ɪnˈdɪə(r)] 美 [ɪnˈdɪr]

v.使受喜爱;使受青睐

21、pneumonia英 [njuːˈməʊniə] 美 [nuːˈmoʊniə]

n.肺炎

22、ethical英 [ˈeθɪkl] 美 [ˈeθɪkl]

adj.(有关)道德的;伦理的;合乎道德的

四、声明：

1、用于英文学习，侵删；

2、英文原文：https://www.vice.com/en/article/y3g4d5/pigs-can-game-scientists-discover