The order of ostensive and referential signals affects dogs' responsiveness when interacting with a human

Animal Cognition
Tibor TauzinJózsef Topál

Abstract

Ostensive signals preceding referential cues are crucial in communication-based human knowledge acquisition processes. Since dogs are sensitive to both human ostensive and referential signals, here we investigate whether they also take into account the order of these signals and, in an object-choice task, respond to human pointing more readily when it is preceded by an ostensive cue indicating communicative intent. Adult pet dogs (n = 75) of different breeds were presented with different sequences of a three-step human action. In the relevant sequence (RS) condition, subjects were presented with an ostensive attention getter (verbal addressing and eye contact), followed by referential pointing at one of two identical targets and then a non-ostensive attention getter (clapping of hands). In the irrelevant sequence (IS) condition, the order of attention getters was swapped. We found that dogs chose the target indicated by pointing more frequently in the RS as compared to the IS condition. While dogs selected randomly between the target locations in the IS condition, they performed significantly better than chance in the RS condition. Based on a further control experiment (n = 22), it seems that this effect is not driven by the av...Continue Reading

References

Apr 23, 2005·Animal Cognition·Julia RiedelMichael Tomasello
Oct 20, 2005·Animal Cognition·Adam Miklósi, Krisztina Soproni
Mar 23, 2006·Journal of Comparative Psychology·Juliane BräuerMichael Tomasello
Mar 13, 2008·Current Biology : CB·Kate Arnold, Klaus Zuberbühler
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Feb 24, 2012·Developmental Science·Juliane KaminskiMichael Tomasello
Apr 20, 2012·Proceedings. Biological Sciences·Arik KershenbaumEli Geffen

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Citations

Aug 11, 2016·PloS One·Patrizia Piotti, Juliane Kaminski
Feb 15, 2018·Animal Cognition·Erin N Colbert-WhiteKaylana E Patterson
Feb 12, 2020·Learning & Behavior·Tatjana Jarvis, Nathanial J Hall
Aug 10, 2017·Royal Society Open Science·Charlotte DurantonZsófia Virányi
Jan 28, 2021·Scientific Reports·Claudia FugazzaÁdám Miklósi
Nov 27, 2020·Frontiers in Psychology·Enikő KubinyiÁdám Miklósi
Jun 5, 2021·Current Biology : CB·Emily E BrayEvan L MacLean

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