Francine Hannan / Shany Dror
A dog named Mugsy learned the names of many of her toys
Certain particularly intelligent dogs can learn words like young children by listening to family members’ conversations. At least, if they are names of toys…
Some more intelligent dogs can learn new words simply by listen to our conversationsconcluded a new study, conducted by researchers from the Eötvös Loránd University (ELTE), in Budapest, and the University of Veterinary Medicine, in Vienna, and published this Thursday in the journal Science.
These gifted dogs, nicknamed Gifted Word Learners (GWL), were found to have linguistic learning abilities similar to those of one-year-old human children.
In their study, the researchers tested the ability of these intelligent dogs to learn the names of new toys and pick them up when requested.
“We found that not only were the dogs able to learn the names of the two new toys by listening to their owners’ interactions, but the dogs’ performance was similar to that recorded when the owners directly taught the dogs the names of two new toys,” he said. Shany Drorcognition researcher at ELTE and first author of the study,
“These results are consistent with findings from studies of 18-month-olds, which demonstrated that children at this age are equally capable of learn from overheard conversations and direct interactions”, adds Dror.
In experiments conducted by researchers, each dog was presented with two new toys. In some cases, they were presented directly, and the owners they told them the names of the toys.
In other cases, researchers let dogs “secretly” listen to conversations between two human family members, in which the names of toys were mentioned. The experiments were repeated several times over a few days, giving the dogs the opportunity to play with their new toys.
Then, the researchers tested the dogs’ word learning ability. In a new experiment, the two toys whose names the dogs had heard were placed in a room, with 9 other toys. The study authors then asked the dogs to look for a specific toy.
The smartest dogs correctly brought the toys they had been introduced to in 92%. If they had only heard conversations about a toy, this number dropped slightly – but only for 83%.
Dror emphasizes that it is important to note that his conclusions were specific to a small group of exceptionally intelligent dogs. “However, from previous studies we know that, compared to other species, dogs have an exceptional ability to interpret human communicative signals.”
“I hope this study helps both the general public and scientists develop a deeper appreciation of just how extraordinary social skills of dogsso that we can maximize their potential in our communication with dogs”, concludes the researcher.
