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Arthur T Knackerbracket has found the following story:
If you have a dog, hopefully you're lucky enough to know that they are highly attuned to their owners and can readily understand a wide range of commands and gestures. But are these abilities innate or are they exclusively learned through training?
To find out, a new study in Frontiers in Psychology investigated whether untrained stray dogs could understand human pointing gestures.
The study revealed that about 80% of participating dogs successfully followed pointing gestures to a specific location despite having never received prior training. The results suggest that dogs can understand complex gestures by simply watching humans and this could have implications in reducing conflict between stray dogs and humans.
Dogs were domesticated 10,000-15,000 years ago, likely making them the oldest domesticated animals on the planet. Humans then bred dogs with the most desirable and useful traits so that they could function as companions and workers, leading to domesticated dogs that are highly receptive to human commands and gestures.
However, it was not clear whether dogs understand us through training alone, or whether this was innate. Can dogs interpret a signal, such as a gesture, without specific training, or even without having met the signaling person previously? One way to find out is to see whether untrained, stray dogs can interpret and react to human gestures.
[...] To investigate, Dr. Anindita Bhadra of the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research Kolkata, India, and colleagues studied stray dogs across several Indian cities. The researchers approached solitary stray dogs and placed two covered bowls on the ground near them. A researcher then pointed to one of the two bowls, either momentarily or repeatedly, and recorded whether the dog approached the indicated bowl. They also recorded the perceived emotional state of the dogs during the experiment.
Approximately half of the dogs did not approach either bowl. However, the researchers noticed that these dogs were anxious and may have had bad experiences with humans before. The dogs who approached the bowls were noted as friendlier and less anxious, and approximately 80% correctly followed the pointing signals to one of the bowls, regardless of whether the pointing was momentary or repeated. This suggests that the dogs could indeed decipher complex gestures.
"We thought it was quite amazing that the dogs could follow a gesture as abstract as momentary pointing," explained Bhadra. "This means that they closely observe the human, whom they are meeting for the first time, and they use their understanding of humans to make a decision. This shows their intelligence and adaptability."
Journal Reference:
Debottam Bhattacharjee, Sarab Mandal, Piuli Shit, Mebin George Varghese, Aayushi Vishnoi, Anindita Bhadra. Free-Ranging Dogs Are Capable of Utilizing Complex Human Pointing Cues. Frontiers in Psychology, 2020; 10 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2019.02818
(Score: 2, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday January 26 2020, @12:29AM (4 children)
I bet strays, much like immigrants, would be able to learn new tricks even at an old age.
Unlike those who have gotten comfortable from the achievements of their ancestors. They won't learn new tricks, aka "facts" or more culturally "world views"? Won't accept reality? Here, try again and see which bits you find lacking credibility. Falling back on tired sayings "all politicians are corrupt" is not only provably false but intellectually infantile and reprehensible as an excuse for criminal behavior.
Try again and consider what you're giving a pass:
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday January 26 2020, @12:33AM (1 child)
The above post made as a middle finger to the SN admins hiding their fascism while pretending to be champions of freedom and truth.
It is too much. Longer rant at https://soylentnews.org/comments.pl?noupdate=1&sid=35707&page=2&cid=948647#commentwrap [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday January 26 2020, @01:15AM
Do you speak Russian?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday January 26 2020, @01:22AM
A long time ago I heard on AFN that parents had to take special steps in registering an overseas birth, so that the child gets citizenship.
That was during Slick Willy's time. But don't let me stop you blaming Trump personally for everything and the ice ages.
(Score: 2) by Pslytely Psycho on Sunday January 26 2020, @10:59PM
For starters I utterly despise the orange idiot in office. However, you apparently expected no one to read your cites.
I only got through four before deciding you're propagating an amazingly overzealous and disingenuous worldview.
Number one.
"• Children of deployed US troops will no longer get automatic American citizenship if born overseas during deployment. This includes US troops posted abroad for years at a time (August 28, 2019)"
The linked article points out that the policy does not effect full citizens and only those who are not full citizens while allowing a relatively painless way to make those children citizens. It brings two conflicting laws into alignment with each other. As to whether they should of aligned the other way is a matter of personal opinion and the article does not address such.
Number two.
"• On August 2, 2019, Trump requisitioned military retirement funds towards border wall"
The linked article makes no mention of retirement funds being diverted.
Number three.
"• On July 31, 2019, Trump ordered the Navy rescind medals to prosecutors who were prosecuting war criminals"
Some truth here. However, the prosecutors did defy ethics rules by including trackers in emails sent to the defense. That prosecutor was dismissed. The medals presented appear to be more political than earned, as he was found guilty of only the least serious of the offenses, they don't seem earned to me. You also appear to be promoting guilty until proven innocent and pissed he was found innocent by the court. As a veteran I personally find his actions reprehensible but the prosecution was unable to convict and did violate ethics, weakening their case even with the dismissal.
Number four.
"• In July 2019, Trump denied a United States Marine of 6 years entry into the United States for his scheduled citizenship interview (Reported July 17, 2019)"
Again, some truth here. While he was refused entry. He was asking for 'parole' to do so. He entered the Marines initially with false credentials. As he was overseas (years after his discharge) when they apparently figured it out he was denied entry and CBP officials waved them to the side then eventually told them to go through Immigration and Customs Enforcement to request parole, but those officials sent them back to Mexico. Yes, they could of let him through on humanitarian grounds, and now he will likely have to go to court to gain entry and plead his case. However the fact remains that he joined the Marines on false paperwork. He served honorably, and was honorably discharged, but the political landscape has changed (and not for the better). My father joined underage in WWII simply by lying about his age, many did at that time, the political landscape 'willingly overlooked' such people as they did in Korea and Vietnam. It sucks for him but this in not something that DJT is directly responsible for and he did not directly deny entry, these policies have been in effect long before he entered office and were just not enforced.
There are plenty of real things to blame him for, and trying to make him the punching bag for old policies and things he did not directly have a hand in just gives the locked step boot lickers real things to point at and yell 'fake news' at.
For fucks sake keep it legitimate and quit polluting every goddamn non-political story with this diatribe. Plenty of political stories here to comment on and be on-topic. But hell, quit giving them ammo by exaggerating shit.
Mod this with a deserved off-topic. I just couldn't let this toxic shit go un-rebutted, plenty of real things to complain about without making up shit. We bitched about the right lying about Obama, let's not go down that road just because 'the other guys did it.' (There were plenty of real things to bitch about the deporter-in-chief then too, but lies just propagate so much better.)
To all of you sane people on both sides of the aisle, have a great week.
Alex Jones lawyer inspires new TV series: CSI Moron Division.