Posted on 11/28/2007 7:54:46 PM PST by blam
Dogs display aspects of human intelligence
By Roger Highfield, Science Editor
Last Updated: 6:01pm GMT 28/11/2007
Dog lovers have long claimed that their pets are smarter than many of us realise.
New evidence to back that view comes from research published today which concludes that, like us, our canine friends are able to form abstract concepts.
Friederike Range and colleagues from the University of Vienna, Austria, show for the first time that dogs are able to learn how to classify complex colour photographs and place them into categories in the same way that humans do.
Training stimuli: Images of dogs and landscapes are used to test dogs' recognition of abstract concepts
"Dogs were for a long time considered to be just pets - so showing that they are able to also form abstract concepts maybe gives their cognitive abilities more credit," she said.
However, the abstract concept they were able to grasp in this pioneering experiment was rather familiar, that of "dog."
The team reports in the journal Animal Cognition a clever way to show that the dogs are not picking up subtle signals from their handlers: the dogs successfully demonstrate their learning through the use of computer touch-screens, eliminating potential human influences.
Four dogs were shown both landscape and dog photographs simultaneously and were rewarded with food if they selected the dog picture on the touch screen.
Then they were shown a new set of dog and landscape pictures. They continued to reliably select the dog photographs, demonstrating that they could transfer their knowledge gained in the training phase to a new circumstance, even though they had never seen those particular pictures before.
In a second test, the dogs were faced with a choice between a new dog pasted on a familiar landscape and a completely new landscape with no dog, In this case, they reliably selected the landscape with the dog.
"These results show that the dogs were able to form a concept, that is 'dog', although the experiment cannot tell us whether they recognized the dog pictures as actual dogs," said Dr Range.
"Using touch-screen computers with dogs opens up a whole world of possibilities on how to test the cognitive abilities of dogs."
The dogs that took part were a Border Collie (Maggie), one Border Collie mix (Lucy), one Australian Shepherd (Bertl), and one mongrel (Todor). Two dogs were male (Bertl, Todor), two were female (Maggie, Lucy).
In earlier work, the team showed striking similarities between humans and dogs in the way they imitate others, showing they do more than copy. They also interpet what they see.
They are such good natured dogs.
Mine puts presents in bed with my husband.Usually one of her many balls. She doesn’t want him to play...She wants him to have them. Won’t take them back.
She also puts her toys on his pillow..
Now when she wants to play ball.. She really wants to play ball.
“I’ve read that if your dog will eat poop...he’s not being proprely fed.”
Or it’s a beagle that will eat anything until it bursts. She is eating just right (food and quantity) according to the vet. She got into her 5 gallon bucket of food one day and ate until her belly was almost touching the floor. The dog could hardly move. I wish I had taken pictures but we were too worried about her at the time to think about it.
It does. But the germs it has are really, realy nasty.
They also stay 2 y.o. mentally - but ya gotta love ‘em. “Supper!!” “Breakfast!!” “Toy!!” “Wanna treat??”
Every day’s a great day for a dog in a loving home....
Some groups of hominids score around 80 collectively or less on occasion in standardized IQ tests
some dogs can’t be far behind....if they could only speak English..lol
Don’t go Berkowitz on us...
Lovely pic - I am partial to GSDs.
[Every day’s a great day for a dog in a loving home....]
For sure, especially when we spoil them like we all do!
In her younger days my Jack Russell terrier repeatedly tried to chase a neighbor’s lawn gnome. She was very disappointed when it didn’t run!
I can just see that...
My dogs delight in keeping the squirrels fit and well exercised.
Jesus had an Alsatian?
Very cool pack!
What kind of a name is Bertl???
Who the heck would name a dog BERTL???
What is that? Russian for mertle?
With the sole tree in my backyard being a walnut, my deck suffered from squirrels leaving broken walnuts and stains - that all changed when I got a dog. Now all I have to worry about is the 85# beast making me get the deck stairs replaced! Many, many trips up & down...
My dog watches TV when there is a dog on. Even when the dog is not making a sound so long as it catches his attention.
Do the dogs watch American IDLE?
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