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posted by mrpg on Thursday November 22 2018, @02:58AM   Printer-friendly
from the smart dept.

Submitted via IRC for SoyCow1984

Dogs know when they don't know

In the field of comparative psychology, researchers study animals in order to learn about the evolution of various traits and what this can tell us about ourselves. At the DogStudies lab at the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History, project leader Juliane Bräuer studies dogs to make these comparisons. In a recent study published in the journal Learning & Behavior, Bräuer and colleague Julia Belger, now of the Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences, explore whether dogs have metacognitive abilities -- sometimes described as the ability to "know what one knows" -- and in particular whether they are aware of what information they have learned and whether they need more information.

To test this, the researchers designed an apparatus involving two V-shaped fences. A reward, either food or a toy, would be placed by one researcher behind one of the two fences while another researcher held the dog. In some cases, the dog could see where the reward was placed, while in others the dog could not. The researchers then analyzed how frequently the dogs looked through a gap in the fence before choosing an option. The question was whether, like chimps and humans, the dog would "check" through the gap when he or she had not seen where the reward was placed. This would indicate that the dog was aware that he or she did not know where the reward was -- a metacognitive ability -- and would try to get more information before choosing a fence.


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  • (Score: 2) by Reziac on Friday November 23 2018, @04:28AM

    by Reziac (2489) on Friday November 23 2018, @04:28AM (#765440) Homepage

    Pro dog trainer here. Hunting dogs do this kind of thing all the time. Retrievers in particular tend to be good at it. An experienced dog will use a variety of techniques to find a lost bird, including eliminating ground already searched and returning to the start point to get re-oriented (yes, some can tell when they've gotten turned around and need to get their bearings, and will act on it on their own). People who've only had relatively-untrained pets really do not understand what a good dog is capable of, then are amazed by research that demonstrates a level of "hunt" I'd expect from a six week old puppy.

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