While some dogs can fetch various objects based on commands, few perform well in such tests in laboratory settings. Additionally, it's unclear whether dogs understand words as object labels rather than just commands.
To explore this, a team led by Marianna Boros at Eötvös Loránd University in Hungary tested 18 dogs from different breeds, including Border Collies, Toy Poodles, and Labrador Retrievers.
Each dog's owner selected five familiar items for their dog. During the test, the owner would say the name of an object and then show either the corresponding object or a different one to the dog.
Researchers monitored the dogs' brain waves using electroencephalography (EEG) to see if there were differences in their responses when their owner said "ball" but displayed a stick, compared to when the word matched the object.
Boros stated, "The idea was that if dogs understand the meaning of words, their brain responses would differ depending on whether the objects matched or didn't match."
The researchers found that when the object did not match the word, there were distinct differences in the EEG signals, with a stronger effect observed for words familiar to individual dogs. This parallels results seen in humans, indicating that dogs understand that certain words represent certain objects.
The findings of this study were published on March 22nd in Current Biology.
Image credit: Gorodenkoff
Boros remarked, "This study suggests that dogs might be smarter than they appear, enriching our understanding of canine cognition."
Associate Professor Susan Hazel from the University of Adelaide, Australia, mentioned, "Canine cognition is now among the most researched topics globally. I adore all studies about dogs but also wish to see more research on other animals that share our lives closely, such as cats, rabbits, and horses."
For more details, check out the paper at: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2024.02.029
