Posted on 11/07/2007 8:03:14 AM PST by Daffynition
Dog owners who think their beloved pooch can read their mind may be right.
Canterbury University psychology student Michelle Maginnity has just completed a masters research project looking at whether the domestic dog has a theory of mind - that is, whether they can think about the thoughts and feelings of self and others.
She said after carrying out a range of experiments which tested the cognitive skills of dogs, she believed they were not only sensitive to human cues, but also had the ability to think about what their human companions may be thinking.
"So, in a way, dogs may be able to read minds," she said.
Michelle's research involved testing the social-cognitive skills of 16 dogs, some pure bred and others of mixed breed, in a food-finding task. In four different experiments the dogs had to decide where the food was hidden by following cues from people who either did or didn't know where the food was.
Michelle said a range of scenarios were tested, for example, one person watched food being hidden while the other covered their eyes, and in each test the dogs showed a preference for the person who they believed knew where the food was.
"What this showed was that the dogs were able to take the perspective of the humans involved in the experiment, and attribute states of knowledge to those people," Michelle said.
"This means dogs may possess a functional theory of mind."
Michelle said research on the social cognition skills of animals had largely focused on chimpanzees and other primates, with relatively inconclusive results. However, she believed dogs were a more appropriate species to look at.
"Domestic dogs have evolved from wolves, which are social pack animals. It would therefore be advantageous to them to be able to think about what other pack members are thinking, especially when taking part in co-operative hunting. In that situation it also helps if they're able to think about what their prey may be thinking," she said.
"Another important factor is that dogs have evolved alongside humans and are likely to have become attuned to human behaviour and social cues to help in their interactions with people."
I think my dogs will need a larger house in which to conduct the study...maybe a new car as well.
bump & a ping
Great photo! Thanks!
Most of the time, I don't know why my dogs do what they do. They seem aware that I have a way of doing things. They've learned that we don't walk in the street, that I don't distribute food from my plate, that there will be a bone or treat after dinner. But they are creatures of habit and instinct, especially when it comes to food, work, and attention. I often think of them as stuff-pots wedded to ritual, resistant and nervous about change.
That's attributing a lot of intellectual activity to an animal that can recognize a few dozen words but has none of its own, that reads human emotions but doesn't experience the same ones.
And this excellent comment:
Dogs' emotional makeup (and their ability to express emotions), their pack instincts to follow and obey, and their intelligence are clearly extremely favorable adaptive traits, since they've allowed Canis lupus familiaris, through its partnership with Homo sapiens, to reach population levels that would have been impossible for it in the wild (compare domestic dog populations with wolf populations.)
What's not so often noticed is that man has corresponding traits that allow him to form a partnership with dogs. His own intelligence and emotions clearly enter into it, but so does his instinctive anthropomorphism (which extends to a great many things, not just animals). We can collaborate with dogs so well, and enjoy them so much, because we cannot help but thinking of them as like ourselves. I couldn't agree more with Katz--I've thought many of the things he says for many years--but that doesn't prevent me from thinking and talking about my dogs exactly like they were my children, my friends, my hunting buddies, etc. Like all dog owners, I feel I can read their minds, but in fact I'm attributing to them thoughts they cannot possibly have.
By fortunate accident, dogs' physiognomy and behavior are close enough to ours that we effortlessly substitute our thoughts for theirs. Yet, inaccurate as this must, it obviously works most of the time. I don't see how we could ever have partnered with dogs but for the closeness of the relationship, and that closeness is partly a consequence of our wildly inaccurate anthropomorphizing.
Well, my dog is clever Hans (Hans Friedrich to be exact, a 3 yo German Shorthair). The other night I was having yogurt at the kitchen table. As usual, he got to lick the cup. Well, trying to read and hold the cup for him to slurp can be tricky and I dropped the cup. It rolled somewhere and for the life of me I couldn't find it.
Frustrated, I said "Hans, where's the cup". He went under the table and, with his nose, scooted it out to where I could pick it up. True story, no embellishment.
'Nuther true story. We have a number of squeaky things for him to play with; a duck, a robin, a goose, etc. They're always out on the LR floor, although we have a basket next to the TV cabinet for them. One night before bed, my wife saw Hans standing with "Mr. Goose" in his mouth. Julie told Hans "Hans, Mr. Goose needs to go to bed too. Put him in the basket". Hans swung his head and let the goose fly, it falling just short of the basket.
Dogs know what people want.
ROTFLMAO
Oh, you dog is excited because he thinks you decided to play hooky. YOu just minunderstood him.
I have to agree. My dogs know how to mesh with me—how to cause no trouble, how to ask for what they want, how we are going to spend the day (they associate some behavior patterns of mine with leaving or staying) how to alert me to a potential problem, stuff like that. Dog behavior, pack behavior.
Exactly. Hans knows when I’m going out for awhile. He also knows right away when I plan to take him along (no, I don’t grab a leash). When Julie’s baking something, he comes and gets her when the oven timer goes off. If he needs to go outside he simply sits down in front of you and gives you ‘the stare’. And he won’t eat out of a bowl that hasn’t been cleaned that day, and won’t drink anything but purified water from the tap.
What a load of BS.
These people are probably firmly entrenched in the belief that man has caused global warming too.
Ah! So it’s true that there are some people a dog will never love...
You might like this.
Our dog only barks at uninvited visitor that we don’t like. If someone comes to the door that we like, she’s fine.
Oh and she barks at the mailman. Same one we’ve had for 20 years. We like him, but she must not like bills. She read my mind on that one.
An incident of communication with my two parakeets: I had them out of their separate cages, then put them back in the wrong cage. Both birds froze on their respective perch, cocked their head at me and looked me right in the eye with a very deliberate look that said, what's the matter with you?
Birds are pretty smart creatures.
Crows have been observed snapping off twigs, bending them and using them as tools, and then saving the tools for future use.
And crows, if I am correct, can be taught to talk...
I think someone recently published about an African Gray that was reputed to have a huge vocabulary that evidenced appropriate conversational skills.
Except for chickens.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.