US EditionDogs build their vocabularies like toddlers
Gifted word-learning dogs match toddlers by learning new toy names through overheard conversations, with 7 out of 10 dogs succeeding in tests, researchers found.
- On Thursday, Shany Dror and colleagues at Eötvös Loránd University published in Science that Gifted Word Learner dogs can learn new toy names by overhearing human conversations.
- Amid evidence dogs pick up words indirectly, researchers probed temporal discontinuity by testing whether Gifted Word Learner dogs could learn new labels from overheard speech within the Genius Dog Challenge research project.
- Owners introduced two new toys, and in the overhearing phase, researchers asked the 10 tested GWL dogs to retrieve them, with about 80% success and seven dogs performing above chance.
- The results suggest GWL dogs match 18-month-old toddlers in overheard-word learning, adding evidence that these socio-cognitive processes aren't uniquely human, and researchers invite owners to contact them via Facebook or Instagram.
- Despite promising results, scientists caution that label learning is rare and a control group of 10 border collies did not learn from overhearing, urging replication under more controlled conditions.
14 Articles
14 Articles
Thus some dogs show abilities similar to those of 18 months old infants. The mechanisms of listening and learning could be older than the language.
Dogs are smart. Especially talented quadrupeds can even learn the name of toys when listening to conversations. This ability is comparable to that of an 18-month-old toddler, according to the research team, which has carried out various tests.
New York— Dogs are good at learning orders of action like “sit down” and “quiet.” They’re not as good at remembering the names of things, like the names of their stuffed toys or with sound. Only a select group of dogs with a special ability to learn words can remember the names of hundreds of toys. Scientists know about 50 of these dogs, but they’re still not sure what’s behind their language skills. Now, a new research is expanding the limits o…
Some dogs can assimilate words simply by hearing humans speak to each other.
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