Do dogs (Canis lupus familiaris) make counterproductive choices because they are sensitive to human ostensive cues?

PloS One
S Marshall-PesciniE Prato-Previde

Abstract

Dogs appear to be sensitive to human ostensive communicative cues in a variety of situations, however there is still a measure of controversy as to the way in which these cues influence human-dog interactions. There is evidence for instance that dogs can be led into making evaluation errors in a quantity discrimination task, for example losing their preference for a larger food quantity if a human shows a preference for a smaller one, yet there is, so far, no explanation for this phenomenon. Using a modified version of this task, in the current study we investigated whether non-social, social or communicative cues (alone or in combination) cause dogs to go against their preference for the larger food quantity. Results show that dogs' evaluation errors are indeed caused by a social bias, but, somewhat contrary to previous studies, they highlight the potent effect of stimulus enhancement (handling the target) in influencing the dogs' response. A mild influence on the dog's behaviour was found only when different ostensive cues (and no handling of the target) were used in combination, suggesting their cumulative effect. The discussion addresses possible motives for discrepancies with previous studies suggesting that both the inten...Continue Reading

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Citations

Nov 26, 2015·Behavioural Processes·Maria Elena Miletto Petrazzini, Clive D L Wynne
Jun 5, 2019·Animal Cognition·Shanis BarnardEmanuela Prato-Previde
Aug 28, 2020·PloS One·Hoi-Lam JimFriederike Range
Apr 8, 2020·Animal Cognition·Maria Elena Miletto PetrazziniEmanuela Prato-Previde
Jul 7, 2020·Animal Cognition·Melanie HenschelJuliane Bräuer
Jan 5, 2021·Frontiers in Psychology·Judith Benz-SchwarzburgLudwig Huber
Apr 24, 2017·Research in Veterinary Science·Alessandro Di CerboTommaso Iannitti

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