Summary: A recent study found that dogs who are trained to use soundboard buttons can read and respond to certain words, which suggests that they may actually be able to understand and interpret them rather than just take cues from their owners. Scientists found that pups responded adequately to comments like “play” and “outside”, regardless of who pressed the switches, suggesting true word understanding.
The study, part of a larger research job, aims to deepen our understanding of dog consciousness and conversation. This work also emphasizes the value of conducting animal research in their natural settings to obtain precise knowledge about animal capabilities.
Important Facts:
- Canines that are trained to use boards buttons you read and respond to particular words.
- The study suggests pups respond to comments themselves, not only associated signals from users.
- This research is part of the nation’s largest vertical initiative on button-trained animals.
Origin: UCSD
If you’ve seen those popular social media clips of dogs using board switches to “talk”, you’re never alone. These buttons have become a sensation in the pet industry, causing amazing and eerily magical feats to be shared across platforms like Instagram and TikTok. But are these dogs really communicating, or are they just responding to signals from their masters?
A new study published in the journal PLOS ONE , by researchers from the University of California San Diego and other institutions, has revealed that dogs that were trained with soundboard buttons can truly comprehend certain words and produce socially appropriate responses.
This is the first experimental research to come out of the world’s largest vertical initiative on button-trained dogs under the direction of Federico Rossano, associate professor in the Department of Cognitive Science at UC San Diego and nose of the , Comparative Cognition Lab.
Rossano, who is also featured in the popular new Netflix documentary” Inside the Mind of a Dog”, emphasizes that , this research is just one step in his lab’s ongoing investigation of interspecies communication.
Key findings: The study shows that dogs trained to use soundboards responded appropriately to words like “play” and “outside” regardless of whether the words were uttered by their owners or were triggered by a button, as well as whether the buttons were pressed by the owner or an unrelated person.
This suggests that dogs are actually processing words rather than just “reading” their owners ‘ body language or presence.
Rossano remarked,” This study addresses public skepticism about whether dogs actually comprehend what the buttons mean.” Our findings are significant because they demonstrate that dogs respond to words themselves and not just to associated cues.
The research involved two complementary experiments. The first test was conducted in person, with researchers taking 30 dogs to different homes across the nation to see how they responded to soundboard buttons. 29 dog owners conducted the trials themselves at home under the guidance of a remote-controlled citizen science experiment.
The study’s methodology was rigorously pre-registered, ensuring transparency and replicability. This pre-registration, which is publicly available online, outlines the study’s hypotheses, data collection methods, variables, and analysis plans before any data was collected.
This process, Rossano explained, enhances accountability, reduces the risk of cherry-picking results, and aligns with a growing movement in cognitive science and psychology to increase scientific rigor and reduce the likelihood of bias or fraud.
Rossano added,” We’re just scratching the surface in this study. Future studies examine the significance and systematicity of the sequence of button presses used by dogs. Our study provides a more ecologically sound understanding of animal abilities by highlighting the importance of studying them in their natural environment.
This study is a significant piece of a larger, ongoing study that involves a large number of participants worldwide. In upcoming research, more detail will be discovered about how dogs use soundboard buttons incessantly, revealing the complexity of dog cognition and communication.
The paper’s first author is Amalia Bastos, a former postdoc at UC San Diego now a postdoc at Johns Hopkins University. The study was also conducted in collaboration with researchers from UC Davis, University of St. Andrews, Universitat de València, and the University of Veterinary Medicine Vienna.
The study data was collected in 2022 during the Omicron surge of the COVID-19 pandemic, with participants generously opening their homes to researchers, highlighting the growing public interest and engagement in citizen science.
Funding: A RG 103503 Research Grant from the University of San Diego was used to support this study.
About this news about language and neuroscience research on animals
Author: Inga Kiderra
Source: UCSD
Contact: Inga Kiderra – UCSD
Image: The image is credited to Neuroscience News
Original Research: Open access.
” How do soundboard-trained dogs respond to human button presses? An investigation into word comprehension” by Federico Rossano et al. PLOS ONE
Abstract
How do soundboard-trained dogs respond to human button presses? An investigation into word comprehension
Animals can be trained to use Augmentative Interspecies Communication ( AIC ) devices, such as soundboards, to make simple requests of their caretakers, according to previous research on interspecies communication.
A novel opportunity to investigate whether AIC can be done with owner-trained family dogs is offered by the recent uptake in AIC devices by hundreds of pet owners around the world.
To answer this question, we carried out two studies to test pet dogs ‘ ability to recognise and respond appropriately to food-related, play-related, and outside-related words on their soundboards.
One study was conducted by researchers, and the other by citizen scientists who followed the same procedure. Further, we examined whether these behaviors were related to the type of language or method of its production ( spoken or produced by a pressed button ) and the identity of the person who was using the word (unfamiliar person or dog’s owner ).
Regardless of the identity of the person producing them or the method in which they were produced, we discover that dogs produced contextually appropriate behaviors for both play-related and non-related words.
Therefore, pet dogs can be successfully taught by their owners to associate words that have been recorded on soundboards with their experiences in the real world, and they continue to respond appropriately to these words even when they are not.
