Certain canines can learn using cues from people’s gaze, gestures, attention and voices, researchers find
Whether it is a piece of food or a four-letter expletive, words can be learned by young children overhearing adults – but now researchers have found certain dogs can do something similar.
Scientists have discovered canines with the unusual ability to learn the names of myriad objects can pick up such labels by eavesdropping on conversations.
The team say such abilities are thought to rely on a host of social cognitive skills, from identifying the relevant word within a conversation to using cues from people’s gaze, gestures, and voices to understand what the word refers to.
“There is a lot of complex social things that are happening here and we don’t know if the dogs are doing it the same way as the kids,” said Dr Shany Dror, first author of the research from the University for Veterinary Medicine in Vienna. “But on the surface level, we see that the outcome seems to be the same.”
