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Author Gácsi, M.; Kara, E.; Belényi, B.; Topál, J.; Miklósi, Á. url  doi
openurl 
  Title The effect of development and individual differences in pointing comprehension of dogs Type Journal Article
  Year 2009 Publication Animal Cognition Abbreviated Journal Anim. Cogn.  
  Volume 12 Issue 3 Pages 471-479  
  Keywords Age Factors; Analysis of Variance; Animals; *Association Learning; Attention; Chi-Square Distribution; Choice Behavior; *Comprehension; *Concept Formation; Dogs/*psychology; Female; *Gestures; Humans; Male; Orientation; Statistics, Nonparametric  
  Abstract In spite of the rather different procedures actually used in comparative studies to test the ability of different species to rely on the human pointing gesture, there is no debate on the high performance of dogs in such tasks. Very little is known, however, on the course through which they acquire this ability or the probable factors influencing the process. Important developmental questions have remained unsolved and also some methodological concerns should be addressed before we can convincingly argue for one interpretation or another. In this study we tested 180 dogs of different age (from 2 months to adults) to investigate their performance in the human distal momentary pointing gesture. The results, analyzed at both the group and the individual levels, showed no difference in the performance according to age, indicating that in dogs the comprehension of the human pointing may require only very limited and rapid early learning to fully develop. Interestingly, neither the keeping conditions nor the time spent in active interaction with the owner, and not even some special (agility) training for using human visual cues, had significant effect on the success and explained individual differences. The performance of the dogs was rather stable over time: during the 20 trials within a session and even when subsamples of different age were repeatedly tested. Considering that in spite of the general success at the group level, more than half of the dogs were not successful at the individual level, we revealed alternative “decision-making rules” other than following the pointing gesture of the experimenter.  
  Address Department of Ethology, Eotvos University, Budapest, Hungary. gm.art@t-online.hu  
  Corporate Author Thesis  
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  Series Volume Series Issue Edition  
  ISSN 1435-9456 ISBN Medium  
  Area Expedition Conference  
  Notes PMID:19130102 Approved no  
  Call Number Equine Behaviour @ team @ Serial 4969  
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Author Soproni, K.; Miklósi, A.; Topál, J.; Csányi, V. url  doi
openurl 
  Title Comprehension of human communicative signs in pet dogs (Canis familiaris) Type Journal Article
  Year 2001 Publication Journal of Comparative Psychology (Washington, D.C. : 1983) Abbreviated Journal J Comp Psychol  
  Volume 115 Issue 2 Pages 122-126  
  Keywords Animals; *Behavior, Animal; Choice Behavior; Dogs/*psychology; Female; Humans; Male; Nonverbal Communication/*psychology; *Recognition (Psychology); *Social Behavior  
  Abstract On the basis of a study by D. J. Povinelli, D. T. Bierschwale, and C. G. Cech (1999), the performance of family dogs (Canis familiaris) was examined in a 2-way food choice task in which 4 types of directional cues were given by the experimenter: pointing and gazing, head-nodding (“at target”), head turning above the correct container (“above target”), and glancing only (“eyes only”). The results showed that the performance of the dogs resembled more closely that of the children in D. J. Povinelli et al.'s study, in contrast to the chimpanzees' performance in the same study. It seems that dogs, like children, interpret the test situation as being a form of communication. The hypothesis is that this similarity is attributable to the social experience and acquired social routines in dogs because they spend more time in close contact with humans than apes do, and as a result dogs are probably more experienced in the recognition of human gestures.  
  Address Department of Ethology, Budapest, Hungary. lavina@ludens.elte.hu  
  Corporate Author Thesis  
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  Language English Summary Language Original Title  
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  Series Volume Series Issue Edition  
  ISSN 0735-7036 ISBN Medium  
  Area Expedition Conference  
  Notes PMID:11459158 Approved no  
  Call Number Equine Behaviour @ team @ Serial 4963  
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Author Soproni, K.; Miklósi, Á.; Topál, J.; Csányi, V. url  doi
openurl 
  Title Dogs' (Canis familiaris) responsiveness to human pointing gestures Type Journal Article
  Year 2002 Publication Journal of Comparative Psychology (Washington, D.C. : 1983) Abbreviated Journal J Comp Psychol  
  Volume 116 Issue 1 Pages 27-34  
  Keywords Analysis of Variance; Animals; *Behavior, Animal; Choice Behavior; Dogs/*psychology; Female; Gestures; Male; *Recognition (Psychology); Species Specificity  
  Abstract In a series of 3 experiments, dogs (Canis familiaris) were presented with variations of the human pointing gesture: gestures with reversed direction of movement, cross-pointing, and different arm extensions. Dogs performed at above chance level if they could see the hand (and index finger) protruding from the human body contour. If these minimum requirements were not accessible, dogs still could rely on the body position of the signaler. The direction of movement of the pointing arm did not influence the performance. In summary, these observations suggest that dogs are able to rely on relatively novel gestural forms of the human communicative pointing gesture and that they are able to comprehend to some extent the referential nature of human pointing.  
  Address Department of Ethology, Eotvos Lorand University, Budapest, Hungary. krisztinasoproni@hotmail.com  
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  Series Volume Series Issue Edition  
  ISSN 0735-7036 ISBN Medium  
  Area Expedition Conference  
  Notes PMID:11926681 Approved no  
  Call Number Equine Behaviour @ team @ Serial 4962  
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Author Schwab, C.; Huber, L. url  doi
openurl 
  Title Obey or not obey? Dogs (Canis familiaris) behave differently in response to attentional states of their owners Type Journal Article
  Year 2006 Publication Journal of Comparative Psychology (Washington, D.C. : 1983) Abbreviated Journal J Comp Psychol  
  Volume 120 Issue 3 Pages 169-175  
  Keywords Animals; *Attention; Awareness; *Bonding, Human-Pet; *Cooperative Behavior; Cues; Dogs/*psychology; Humans; Motivation; *Nonverbal Communication; Social Perception; *Speech Perception; *Verbal Behavior  
  Abstract Sixteen domestic dogs (Canis familiaris) were tested in a familiar context in a series of 1-min trials on how well they obeyed after being told by their owner to lie down. Food was used in 1/3 of all trials, and during the trial the owner engaged in 1 of 5 activities. The dogs behaved differently depending on the owner's attention to them. When being watched by the owner, the dogs stayed lying down most often and/or for the longest time compared with when the owner read a book, watched TV, turned his or her back on them, or left the room. These results indicate that the dogs sensed the attentional state of their owners by judging observable behavioral cues such as eye contact and eye, head, and body orientation.  
  Address Department for Behavior, Neurobiology and Cognition, University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria. cpriberskyschwab@yahoo.de  
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  Series Volume Series Issue Edition  
  ISSN 0735-7036 ISBN Medium  
  Area Expedition Conference  
  Notes PMID:16893253 Approved no  
  Call Number Equine Behaviour @ team @ Serial 4961  
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Author Pennisi, E. doi  openurl
  Title Animal cognition. Man's best friend(s) reveal the possible roots of social intelligence Type
  Year 2006 Publication Science (New York, N.Y.) Abbreviated Journal Science  
  Volume 312 Issue 5781 Pages 1737  
  Keywords Animals; *Cognition; Comprehension; Cooperative Behavior; Cues; Dogs/*psychology; *Evolution; *Intelligence; *Social Behavior  
  Abstract  
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  Series Editor Series Title Abbreviated Series Title  
  Series Volume Series Issue Edition  
  ISSN 1095-9203 ISBN Medium  
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  Notes PMID:16794056 Approved no  
  Call Number Equine Behaviour @ team @ Serial 2835  
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Author Virányi, Z.; Topál, J.; Miklósi, Á.; Csányi, V. doi  openurl
  Title A nonverbal test of knowledge attribution: a comparative study on dogs and children Type Journal Article
  Year 2006 Publication Animal Cognition Abbreviated Journal Anim. Cogn.  
  Volume 9 Issue 1 Pages 13-26  
  Keywords Animals; *Child Psychology; Child, Preschool; Cues; Dogs/*psychology; Female; Humans; Male; Nonverbal Communication; *Problem Solving; Species Specificity  
  Abstract The sensitivity of eleven pet dogs and eleven 2.5-year-old children to others' past perceptual access was tested for object-specificity in a playful, nonverbal task in which a human Helper's knowledge state regarding the whereabouts of a hidden toy and a stick (a tool necessary for getting the out-of-reach toy) was systematically manipulated. In the four experimental conditions the Helper either participated or was absent during hiding of the toy and the stick and therefore she knew the place(s) of (1) both the toy and the stick, (2) only the toy, (3) only the stick or (4) neither of them. The subjects observed the hiding processes, but they could not reach the objects, so they had to involve the Helper to retrieve the toy. The dogs were more inclined to signal the place of the toy in each condition and indicated the location of the stick only sporadically. However the children signalled both the location of the toy and that of the stick in those situations when the Helper had similar knowledge regarding the whereabouts of them (i.e. knew or ignored both of them), and in those conditions in which the Helper was ignorant of the whereabouts of only one object the children indicated the place of this object more often than that of the known one. At the same time however, both dogs and children signalled the place of the toy more frequently if the Helper had been absent during toy-hiding compared to those conditions when she had participated in the hiding. Although this behaviour appears to correspond with the Helper's knowledge state, even the subtle distinction made by the children can be interpreted without a casual understanding of knowledge-formation in others.  
  Address Department of Ethology, ELTE University Budapest, Pazmany P. setany 1/C H-1117, Hungary. zsofi.viranyi@freemail.hu  
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  Series Volume Series Issue Edition  
  ISSN 1435-9448 ISBN Medium  
  Area Expedition Conference  
  Notes PMID:15895261 Approved no  
  Call Number Equine Behaviour @ team @ Serial 2486  
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Author Topál, J.; Byrne, R.W.; Miklósi, Á.; Csányi, V. doi  openurl
  Title Reproducing human actions and action sequences: “Do as I Do!” in a dog Type Journal Article
  Year 2006 Publication Animal Cognition Abbreviated Journal Anim. Cogn.  
  Volume 9 Issue 4 Pages 355-367  
  Keywords Animals; *Comprehension; Conditioning, Operant; *Discrimination Learning; Dogs/*psychology; Humans; *Imitative Behavior; Male; *Serial Learning  
  Abstract We present evidence that a dog (Philip, a 4-year-old tervueren) was able to use different human actions as samples against which to match his own behaviour. First, Philip was trained to repeat nine human-demonstrated actions on command ('Do it!'). When his performance was markedly over chance in response to demonstration by one person, testing with untrained action sequences and other demonstrators showed some ability to generalise his understanding of copying. In a second study, we presented Philip with a sequence of human actions, again using the 'Do as I do' paradigm. All demonstrated actions had basically the same structure: the owner picked up a bottle from one of six places; transferred it to one of the five other places and then commanded the dog ('Do it!'). We found that Philip duplicated the entire sequence of moving a specific object from one particular place to another more often than expected by chance. Although results point to significant limitations in his imitative abilities, it seems that the dog could have recognized the action sequence, on the basis of observation alone, in terms of the initial state, the means, and the goal. This suggests that dogs might acquire abilities by observation that enhance their success in complex socio-behavioural situations.  
  Address Comparative Ethology Research Group, Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Budapest, Pazmany, P. 1/c H-1117, Hungary. kea@t-online.hu  
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  Series Volume Series Issue Edition  
  ISSN 1435-9448 ISBN Medium  
  Area Expedition Conference  
  Notes PMID:17024511 Approved no  
  Call Number Equine Behaviour @ team @ Serial 2434  
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Author Gácsi, M.; Miklósi, Á.; Varga, O.; Topál, J.; Csányi, V. doi  openurl
  Title Are readers of our face readers of our minds? Dogs (Canis familiaris) show situation-dependent recognition of human's attention Type Journal Article
  Year 2004 Publication Animal Cognition Abbreviated Journal Anim. Cogn.  
  Volume 7 Issue 3 Pages 144-153  
  Keywords Animals; Association Learning; *Attention; Bonding, Human-Pet; Cognition; *Concept Formation; Cues; Dogs/*psychology; *Facial Expression; Female; Humans; Male; *Nonverbal Communication; *Recognition (Psychology); Social Behavior  
  Abstract The ability of animals to use behavioral/facial cues in detection of human attention has been widely investigated. In this test series we studied the ability of dogs to recognize human attention in different experimental situations (ball-fetching game, fetching objects on command, begging from humans). The attentional state of the humans was varied along two variables: (1) facing versus not facing the dog; (2) visible versus non-visible eyes. In the first set of experiments (fetching) the owners were told to take up different body positions (facing or not facing the dog) and to either cover or not cover their eyes with a blindfold. In the second set of experiments (begging) dogs had to choose between two eating humans based on either the visibility of the eyes or direction of the face. Our results show that the efficiency of dogs to discriminate between “attentive” and “inattentive” humans depended on the context of the test, but they could rely on the orientation of the body, the orientation of the head and the visibility of the eyes. With the exception of the fetching-game situation, they brought the object to the front of the human (even if he/she turned his/her back towards the dog), and preferentially begged from the facing (or seeing) human. There were also indications that dogs were sensitive to the visibility of the eyes because they showed increased hesitative behavior when approaching a blindfolded owner, and they also preferred to beg from the person with visible eyes. We conclude that dogs are able to rely on the same set of human facial cues for detection of attention, which form the behavioral basis of understanding attention in humans. Showing the ability of recognizing human attention across different situations dogs proved to be more flexible than chimpanzees investigated in similar circumstances.  
  Address Comparative Ethology Research Group, Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Pazmany P. 1/c., 1117, Budapest, Hungary. gm.art@axelero.hu  
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  Series Volume Series Issue Edition  
  ISSN 1435-9448 ISBN Medium  
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  Notes PMID:14669075 Approved no  
  Call Number Equine Behaviour @ team @ Serial 2547  
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Author Fiset, S.; Beaulieu, C.; Landry, F. doi  openurl
  Title Duration of dogs' (Canis familiaris) working memory in search for disappearing objects Type Journal Article
  Year 2003 Publication Animal Cognition Abbreviated Journal Anim. Cogn.  
  Volume 6 Issue 1 Pages 1-10  
  Keywords Animals; Dogs/*psychology; *Exploratory Behavior; Female; Male; *Memory; Visual Perception  
  Abstract Two experiments explored the duration of dogs' working memory in an object permanence task: a delay was introduced between the disappearance of a moving object behind a box and the beginning of the search by the animal. In experiment 1, the dogs were tested with retention intervals of 0, 10, 30, and 60 s. Results revealed that the dogs' accuracy declined as a function of the length of the retention interval but remained above chance for each retention interval. In experiment 2, with new subjects, longer retention intervals (0, 30, 60, 120, and 240 s) were presented to the dogs. Results replicated findings from experiment 1 and revealed that the dogs' accuracy remained higher than chance level with delays up to 240 s. In both experiments, the analysis of errors also showed that the dogs searched as a function of the proximity of the target box and were not subject to intertrial proactive interference. In the discussion, we explore different alternatives to explain why dogs' search behaviour for hidden objects decreased as a function of the retention intervals.  
  Address Secteur Sciences Humaines, Universite de Moncton, Campus d'Edmundston, E3V 2S8, Edmundston, New Brunswick, Canada. sfiset@umce.ca  
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  Language English Summary Language Original Title  
  Series Editor Series Title Abbreviated Series Title  
  Series Volume Series Issue Edition  
  ISSN 1435-9448 ISBN Medium  
  Area Expedition Conference  
  Notes PMID:12658530 Approved no  
  Call Number Equine Behaviour @ team @ Serial 2586  
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Author Osthaus, B.; Lea, S.E.G.; Slater, A.M. doi  openurl
  Title Dogs (Canis lupus familiaris) fail to show understanding of means-end connections in a string-pulling task Type Journal Article
  Year 2005 Publication Animal Cognition Abbreviated Journal Anim. Cogn.  
  Volume 8 Issue 1 Pages 37-47  
  Keywords Animals; *Association Learning; *Cognition; Dogs/*psychology; *Problem Solving  
  Abstract Domestic dogs (Canis lupus familiaris) were tested in four experiments for their understanding of means-end connections. In each of the experiments, the dogs attempted to retrieve a food treat that could be seen behind a barrier and which was connected, via string, to a within-reach wooden block. In the experiments, either one or two strings were present, but the treat was attached only to one string. Successful retrieval of the treat required the animals to pull the appropriate string (either by pawing or by grasping the wooden block in their jaws) until the treat emerged from under the barrier. The results showed that the dogs were successful if the treat was in a perpendicular line to the barrier, i.e. straight ahead, but not when the string was at an angle: in the latter condition, the typical response was a proximity error in that the dogs pawed or mouthed at a location closest in line to the treat. When two strings that crossed were present, the dogs tended to pull on the wrong string. The combined results from the experiments show that, although dogs can learn to pull on a string to obtain food, they do not spontaneously understand means-end connections involving strings.  
  Address School of Psychology, University of Exeter, Exeter, EX4 4QG, UK. b.osthaus@exeter.ac.uk  
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  Series Volume Series Issue Edition  
  ISSN 1435-9448 ISBN Medium  
  Area Expedition Conference  
  Notes PMID:15338446 Approved no  
  Call Number Equine Behaviour @ team @ Serial 2513  
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