Dogs have different abilities to observe and interpret reality than humans. It may seem like an obvious truth, but experts continue studying the issue in the absence of detailed explanations. In a classic example, ethologists explain that when an adult points his finger at an object to a child, the child concentrates on observing the object, while if the same is done to a dog, the animal usually interprets the gesture as a signal. of direction.
A study on communication in dogs led by researchers from the Department of Ethology at Eötvös Loránd University (Hungary) provides a new hypothesis on the conceptualization of communication in dogs, trying to explain this dilemma (the gesture indicated above, to know if it refers to the object or address).
Professors Ivaylo Borislavov Iotchev, Zsófia Bognár, Soufiane Bel Rhali and Enikő Kubinyi, authors of the study, indicate that the discrepancy (different interpretation of the gesture) "is not only due to how the dogs see [the reality around them], but In fact, it may reflect how they think.
The Hungarian team indicates in this study that, in general, dogs only look at the direction in which the finger is pointing [from the example mentioned above] but that for "more intelligent" dogs the appearance of an object matters as much as their location, suggesting that their information processing is more similar to that of humans. The results of this study have been presented in an article in the journal Ethology, with a title that certainly does not make interpretation easy for the inexperienced: "Cognitive and sensory ability contribute to canine spatial bias"
Spatial bias is the phenomenon of interpreting information in relation to space, location or distance when the same information could easily be applied to an object, Eötvös Loránd University recalls in an informative note on the results of the new study by its experts. .
Spatial bias "manifests itself, for example, in the way dogs and children react to gestures when we show them the position of an object." "From very early on, children interpret the gesture as pointing at the object, while dogs take the pointing as a direction signal." "In other words, regardless of the intention of the person giving the signal, the meaning for children and dogs is different," said Ivaylo Iotchev, first signatory of the new study.
"This phenomenon has previously been observed in dogs using a variety of behavioral tests, ranging from simple associative learning to imitation, but has never been studied per se."
Researchers have concluded that spatial bias is an untapped opportunity to better understand how dogs think.
Previous research has not clarified whether dogs behave this way because they have inferior vision compared to primates, or whether it is actually a bias in information processing, whereby the parameters of the space around them are more important to dogs than specific nearby objects.
The researchers measured spatial bias in two behavioral tests involving 82 dogs. In one task, the dogs had to learn, in up to 50 trials, whether the treat was always on the right or left plate, so they learned a location.
In the other task, two types of plates were used, one round white and another square black, these were always placed in the middle. A dog was always given only one type of dish to eat, but was exposed to each in a semi-random sequence. In this constellation they learned about the properties of the plate. Learning was measured by how quickly a dog ran toward the correct dish.
The results showed that the animals learned faster when the treat was placed on the right or left, so they had to choose which direction to go. They had a harder time remembering whether the treat was on the round white plate or the black square. The "spatial bias" measure described how much faster dogs learn about place than about object features.
If the dogs already knew where the treat was, a more complicated task followed, because then the situation was reversed. That is, if they had previously received the prize on the right, it was now on the left in the new position, and if it had been on the white plate, it was now on the black plate.
To find out whether the spatial bias is sensory, cognitive or mixed, the researchers needed to detect and measure differences between the dogs' visual and cognitive abilities.
Learn about objects: the treat is always only on the white plate or only on the black plate, the other is empty. Credit: Eniko Kubinyi
This involved measuring how short the dog's head is (as this correlates with visual acuity) and also measuring how efficiently they solve problem tasks.
The shape of the head was investigated by Zsófia Bognár Ph.D. Student and co-author of the study.
"The visual abilities of dog breeds differ from each other, which indirectly results from the shape of their head. Dogs with shorter heads (scientifically known as brachycephalic) develop human-like vision. The structure of their retina involves sharper and more focused vision than their longer dogs. This has allowed us to use a measure of head shape (the so-called cephalic index) as an approximate measure of the quality of vision in dogs, which is calculated by dividing the width of the skull by the length of the head. skull. The shorter the head, the higher the number," explained Zsófia Bognár.
To measure cognitive ability, the dogs participated in a series of tests. "We tested their memory, attention skills, and perseverance. We found that the dogs with better cognitive performance on the more difficult spatial bias task linked information to objects as easily as to places. We also see that as children develop, the bias space decreases as intelligence increases," added Eniko Kubinyi, head of the companion animal research group MTA-'Lendület' Momentum.
The study found that spatial bias is lower in dogs with better visual acuity and who are "smarter." "Spatial bias in dogs is not simply a sensory problem but also a way of thinking. We also found that 'smarter' dogs are resilient in difficult learning situations and can overcome their biases," Iotchev said.
