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The dogs displayed a type of logic called "inferential reasoning" when not influenced by the experimenters, meaning they made deductions and solved problems immediately, as opposed to acting on training or copying the behaviors of others. "Other non-human species, like chimpanzees and grey parrots, also have this skill, which is very useful in complex social situations and can be regarded as an evolutionary adaptation," Erdohegyi said. In terms of the goofs the dogs made during the study, she explained, "Dogs, like human babies, are very sensitive to human communicative cues. This ability evolved to recognize the relevant information in teaching situations." Josep Call, a noted animal expert and researcher at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, thinks the new paper "is an imaginative study that challenges the idea that dogs are incapable of inferential reasoning." Call told Discovery News that he too was reminded of studies on children "in which the cues they get from adults also send them down the wrong path, and [they] end up using inefficient strategies simply because children are so attuned to what adults do." He added, "Here we see a very interesting convergence between the behavior of dogs and children." Related Links: |
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