研究表明 幼童與類人猿有96%的動作相同

Most parents of young children will have referred to their troublesome toddlers as "little monkeys" at some point or another.

大多數父母會把他們處在某個特定階段的、淘氣的孩子叫做“小猴子”。

But an eye-opening new study has actually confirmed that young children are "just tiny apes" who share exactly 96 per cent of their mannerisms with monkeys.

但一項令人大開眼界的新研究證實，幼童“就是小類人猿”，兩者有96%的動作相同。

Researchers at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland found that toddlers use a variety of gestures similar to chimpanzees and gorillas when they're first learning to communicate.

蘇格蘭聖安德魯斯大學的研究人員發現，幼童剛開始學說話時，他們用一系列的手勢和身體動作來作爲交流手段，就像黑猩猩和大猩猩那樣。

From stamping their feet to shaking their heads, the study (published in Animal Cognition) found that children aged between one and two years old rely on precisely 52 gestures to convey their emotions.

發表在《動物認知》雜誌上的這項研究發現，一歲到兩歲的幼童會做出跺腳、搖頭等52種動作來表達他們的情感。

And out of these movements, 50 of these gestures are also shared with apes. So before children have learnt to communicate their needs through language, it now appears they rely on our evolutionary past to get their feelings across.

他們發現，其中有50種動作與類人猿相同。這表明，在孩子們學會用語言表達他們的需求之前，他們已經依靠我們在進化史上的動作來表達他們的感受。

Dr Catherine Hobaiter from the St Andrews School of Psychology and Neuroscience said: "Wild chimpanzees, gorillas, bonobos and orangutans all use gestures to communicate their day-to-day requests."

聖安德魯斯大學心理學與神經科學學院的凱瑟琳·霍貝特博士說：“野生黑猩猩、大猩猩、倭黑猩猩和紅毛猩猩都會用各種動作來進行日常交流。”

But before this groundbreaking new research, young children have never before been directly studied in relation to apes.

但在這項開創性的新研究之前，幼童與猿類的關係從未被直接研究過。

Dr Hobaiter added: "We used exactly the same approach to study young chimpanzees and children, which makes sense -- children are just tiny apes."

霍貝特博士補充稱：“我們用同樣的方法研究年幼的黑猩猩和人類幼童，這是有道理的--幼童就是小類人猿。”

Examining children in both their nursery and home environments, researchers then compared the toddlers' gestures to those used by chimpanzees in their natural habitat in Uganda.

研究人員對託兒所和家庭中的兒童進行了研究，然後將這些幼兒的動作與烏干達黑猩猩在自然棲息地使用的手勢進行了比較。

And while apes have over 80 gestures, which they use to communicate with each other, researchers were surprised by the overlap between young tots and chimpanzees.

類人猿使用超過80種不同的動作來交流，研究人員對幼童和黑猩猩之間動作的重疊現象感到驚訝。

For instance, both toddlers and chimpanzees rely on specific gestures to indicate they want attention. What's more, young children also depend upon certain movements (such as touching a person's face) to communicate when they want to be picked up or followed just like monkeys.

例如，幼兒和黑猩猩都依賴特定的手勢來表示他們想要被關注。此外，小孩也用某種動作（比如摸人的臉）來表示自己想要被抱起來或者被人跟隨。

Dr Hobaiter said: "We thought that we might find a few of these gestures -- reaching out your palm to ask for something or sticking your hand up in the air -- but we were amazed to see so many of the 'ape' gestures used by the children."

霍貝特博士表示：“我們以爲可能會發現少數這樣的動作--伸出手索要東西或將手舉起來--但我們驚訝地看到孩子們做出'類人猿'的很多動作。”