Babies Understand Dogs, Bark-matching Study Finds

sciencedaily ^ | July 21, 2009

[JoeProBono]

New research shows babies have a handle on the meaning of different dog barks – despite little or no previous exposure to dogs.

Infants just 6 months old can match the sounds of an angry snarl and a friendly yap to photos of dogs displaying threatening and welcoming body language.

The new findings come on the heels of a study from the same Brigham Young University lab showing that infants can detect mood swings in Beethoven’s music.

Though the mix of dogs and babies sounds silly, experiments of this kind help us understand how babies learn so rapidly. Long before they master speech, babies recognize and respond to the tone of what’s going on around them.

“Emotion is one of the first things babies pick up on in their social world,” said BYU psychology professor Ross Flom, lead author of the study.

[JoeProBono]

[JoeProBono]

[Joe 6-pack]

[JoeProBono]

[JoeProBono]

[Joe 6-pack]

[MHGinTN]

Three and four are absolutely precious!

[Lady Jag]

Thought transference.

[JoeProBono]

[bgill]

Our husky (may she rest in peace) would lay down with the kids on their blankets at naptime, too.

[Lady Jag]

[JoeProBono]

[wardaddy]

this is a poor segue to David Berkowitz

[Colonel Kangaroo]

The friend of all babies and toddlers.

[JoeProBono]

[martin_fierro]

[JoeProBono]

LOL!!

[Lady Jag]

Side of what?

[Lady Jag]

[MHGinTN]

I am told that when one of my uncles was a toddler, he would dump his cereal on his head so ‘Duke’ the family dog would lick it off. The first tiem he did it, my grandmother shooed the dog away and cleaned him up. That prompted him to keep doing it until grandmother just let it go and let Duke clean up the little stinker. My uncle remained that way the rest of his life, a pushing stinker ...