Dogs (Canis familiaris), but not chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes), understand imperative pointing.

PloS One
Katharina C KirchhoferMichael Tomasello

Abstract

Chimpanzees routinely follow the gaze of humans to outside targets. However, in most studies using object choice they fail to use communicative gestures (e.g. pointing) to find hidden food. Chimpanzees' failure to do this may be due to several difficulties with this paradigm. They may, for example, misinterpret the gesture as referring to the opaque cup instead of the hidden food. Or perhaps they do not understand informative communicative intentions. In contrast, dogs seem to be skilful in using human communicative cues in the context of finding food, but as of yet there is not much data showing whether they also use pointing in the context of finding non-food objects. Here we directly compare chimpanzees' (N = 20) and dogs' (N = 32) skills in using a communicative gesture directed at a visible object out of reach of the human but within reach of the subject. Pairs of objects were placed in view of and behind the subjects. The task was to retrieve the object the experimenter wanted. To indicate which one she desired, the experimenter pointed imperatively to it and directly rewarded the subject for handing over the correct one. While dogs performed well on this task, chimpanzees failed to identify the referent. Implications for...Continue Reading

References

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Citations

May 9, 2014·Proceedings. Biological Sciences·Federico RossanoMichael Tomasello
May 7, 2013·Trends in Cognitive Sciences·Adám Miklósi, József Topál
Mar 22, 2014·PloS One·Sebastian TempelmannMichael Tomasello
Feb 15, 2018·Animal Cognition·Erin N Colbert-WhiteKaylana E Patterson
Apr 18, 2019·Proceedings. Biological Sciences·Alicia P Melis, Michael Tomasello
Aug 6, 2017·Animal Cognition·David A LeavensWilliam D Hopkins
Apr 3, 2018·Biology & Philosophy·James Thomas, Simon Kirby
Apr 2, 2020·Biology Letters·Stephen R Ross, Jesse G Leinwand
Oct 12, 2018·PloS One·Toyomi Matsuno, Kazuo Fujita
Feb 12, 2020·Learning & Behavior·Tatjana Jarvis, Nathanial J Hall
Jul 3, 2016·Psychonomic Bulletin & Review·Aniruddh D Patel
Sep 27, 2018·Learning & Behavior·Stephen E G Lea, Britta Osthaus
Jul 7, 2020·Animal Cognition·Melanie HenschelJuliane Bräuer
May 29, 2015·Integrative Psychological & Behavioral Science·Jill T Byrnit
Feb 11, 2021·Animal Cognition·Heidi LynBeatrice Chenkin
Jul 14, 2021·Current Biology : CB·Hannah SalomonsBrian Hare
Aug 8, 2021·Animals : an Open Access Journal From MDPI·Patrizia PiottiFederica Pirrone
Sep 3, 2021·Scientific Reports·Britta SchünemannJuliane Bräuer

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