Dogs understand human perspective, say researchers

[xchrom]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-21411249


Dogs can understand a human perspective, say researchers

***SNIP

Dog's understanding
It found that when the lights were turned off, dogs in a room with their human owners were much more likely to disobey and steal forbidden food.

The study says it is "unlikely that the dogs simply forgot that the human was in the room" when there was no light. Instead it seems as though the dogs were able to differentiate between when the human was unable or able to see them.

The experiments had been designed with enough variations to avoid false associations - such as dogs beginning to associate sudden darkness with someone giving them food, researchers said.

Dr Juliane Kaminski, from the University of Portsmouth's psychology department, said the study was "incredible because it implies dogs understand the human can't see them, meaning they might understand the human perspective".

[d_r]

1. well yeah

we have a labradeagle who will try to check out what is on the teable if no one is in the dining room and she thinks no one can see her

[Rhiannon12866]

2. My cocker spaniel always sat by my grandmother

She was always feeding the pup under the table...

[fozzieferocious]

3. Duh.

These studies always make me roll my eyes. It seems like they must always be done by researchers who only spend time with animals in a lab setting. Anyone who has owned a dog knows this stuff. It saddens me that the general consensus about animals seems to always be that they're all incoherent things just designed to eat and reproduce without any intelligence. All of these studies always say the researchers were "shocked" to find out the subject could do anything beyond the most basic instinct. We've got a golden doodle who is glaringly intelligent... easily on par with an child. She's always showing her reasoning ability and understanding of cause/effect with regards to us or basic physics and the environment... even at less than 1 yr old she understood she could push a ball further under some furniture to get it to come out the other side. She knows her limits with things and instantly demands our help when what she wants is past her ability, like which doors she can jump up to push open and which ones we have to pull for her. Now I'm just waiting for her to start using sticks as tools... :-D

[LWolf]

4. Dogs understand a great deal

about humans, and a great deal that humans don't.

Anyone who's ever been loved by a dog knows this.

[ScreamingMeemie]

5. Shocking...

[OldDem2012]

6. I call our dog "The Phantom" because we NEVER catch him doing what he shouldn't be doing.....

...but we definitely know when he's done it.

[Puzzledtraveller]

7. I don't think the correlation is correct

It is more likely dogs learned what works, not what humans are thinking. If a dog was successful at being undetected when getting into something it is not supposed to then chastised when they are caught in different circumstances i.e when the lights are on then a dog will "learn" that it is able to steal food in the dark. I think that also it will learn to watch the owners actions only because they are connected to the dogs intentions. Simple conditionion, no breakthrough here.

[GreenStormCloud]

8. Andif the same experiment were done with cats?

They would discover - cat's don't care. Cat will eat forbidden food anyway, even if humans can see.

[DreamGypsy]

9. Some more discussion on the research is available ...

...from the Animal Cognition journal site: http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs10071-012-0579-6

To read the first 2 pages, click on Look Inside. For more, you'd have to buy the paper from the publication.

[nashville_brook]

10. predators tend to be good at exploiting weakness.

sneaky bastages.