Yawning is so contagious(具有传染性) that chimpanzees can “catch” it from cartoons, according to research.
Scientists from Emory University in Atlanta, US, have discovered that a cartoon of a yawning chimp will stimulate(刺激) real chimps to yawn. They describe in the Royal Society journal, Proceedings B, how this could assist in the future study of empathy(移情作用). The work could also help explain if and how computer games might cause children to imitate what they see on screen.
Previous studies have already shown contagious yawning in chimpanzees—stimulated by video-recorded footage of yawns.
“We wanted to expand on that, “explained Matthew Campbell, a researcher from Emory University’s Yerkes National Primate Research Center and lead author of the study. “We’re interested in using cartoon for presenting stimuli to animals, because we can control all the features of what we show them,” he continued.
Although Dr. Campbell doesn’t think the chips were “fooled” by the cartoons into thinking they were looking at real chimps, he explained that there was evidence that chimpanzees “process animated (动画的) faces the same way they process photographs of faces”.
He said: “It’s not a real chimpanzee, but it kind of looks like a chimpanzee, and they’re responding to that.”
He and his team, including Devyn Carter who designed the cartoons, showed the animals the yawning sequences.
“We also had the cartoons doing other movements with their mouths that the chimps often do,’’ he said. “The chimps showed a lot more yawning during the yawn video when the control videos were playing.”
He told BBC News that the only way he and his colleagues could explain the “very strong difference” they saw was that seeing the yawns was making the animals yawn.
According to the passage, the scientists have found that________.
A.yawning is a contagious facial expression among chimps |
B.chimps will imitate a cartoon chimp who is yawning |
C.chimps are able to understand cartoons very well |
D.chimps like watching cartoons very much |
According to the passage we can learn that_______.
A.yawning on both cartoon videos and pictures can make chimps yawn |
B.Devyn Carte led the study about contagious yawning[ |
C.children will also be stimulated to yawn by the videos of chimps |
D.people can control all the features of animals through cartoon |
By studying the action of chimps, the scientists hope to ________.
A.teach them more body language of human beings |
B.learn how chimps use their brains to study |
C.control the actions and behaviors of animals |
D.create more charming cartoon characters |
The passage is mainly talking about________.
A.a serious research about chimps’ body language |
B.those contagious gestures of animals |
C.why children imitate what they see on TV |
D.a study about chimps’ ability of imitating |