Dogs understand gestures as well as 2-year-old kids
July 14th, 2009 - 1:33 pm ICT by ANIWashington, July 14 (ANI): Dogs understand human pointing gestures as well as two-year-old children, according to two studies.
Also, the studies found that due to domestication, dogs appear to be predisposed to read other human visual signals, including head turning and gazing, reports Discovery News.
People often use baby talk, scientifically known as “motherese,” with both children and their pet dogs, allowing canines and kids to receive similar social stimulation.
Since chimpanzees and other non-human primates often fail to understand human pointing gestures, the studies suggest dogs may understand humans better than even our closest living animal relatives do.
In the first study, Gabriella Lakatos, a researcher in the Department of Ethology at Eotvos University, lead author of the first study, and her colleagues used a combination of finger-, elbow-, leg- and knee-pointing gestures to help dogs locate hidden food and, for children, a favourite toy.
The researchers found that two-year-olds and dogs understood everything except knee pointing and when the experimenter’s index finger pointed in a different direction than the protruding arm.
For example, they were confused when the individual raised an arm in a certain direction, but used her finger to point the other way.
In the second study, Marta Gacsi, also of Eotvos University, and her team analyzed 180 dogs of various ages to see how development and individual differences affect their understanding of human pointing.
They determined “the dogs showed no difference in the performance according to age, indicating that in dogs the comprehension of the human pointing may require only very limited and rapid early learning to fully develop.”
Lakatos, however, warned in thinking that dogs are just like furry two-year-old children.
“Any behavioral similarity or similar performance between dogs and children should be investigated separately in each case,” she said.
“Just to give an example for a reverse case: nobody has tried to herd a flock of sheep with two-year-old (human children),” she added.
The study has been published in the current issue of Animal Cognition. (ANI)
- Dogs, 2-year-olds similar when it comes to understanding unfamiliar gestures - Apr 07, 2009
- Children can read dog barks better than adults - Oct 14, 2011
- Dogs yawn hearing master do the same - May 10, 2012
- Dogs understand you as much as toddlers do - Jan 06, 2012
- Hormones shape kids' responses to stress - Jul 08, 2011
- Male mice sing to attract females - Jan 27, 2012
- Tiny male mice sing songs to impress females - Jan 29, 2012
- Dogs can make out meaning of different growls - Mar 09, 2010
- Mother's prattle helps kids pick up language - May 09, 2011
- Dogs don't care if their owners are a little nutty - Jan 06, 2011
- Parents fooling with kids give them headstart in life - Oct 28, 2011
- Parents' 'um's' and 'uh's' help kids learn new words - Apr 15, 2011
- Dogs really can understand human emotions - Apr 27, 2010
- 'Baby Falak case a failure of child protection machinery' - Feb 13, 2012
- Dogs pay close attention to human signals - May 06, 2012
Tags: animal relatives, canines, chimpanzees, comprehension, discovery news, dogs and children, eotvos university, ethology, experimenter, gabriella, gestures, human primates, index finger, individual differences, motherese, pet dogs, similarity, social stimulation, two year olds, visual signals