Episodic memory is the ability to consciously recall personal experiences and events, and in particular, to consciously place oneself within that memory. As such, it is typically associated with self-awareness. Self-awareness is something that has typically been seen as a uniquely human trait. It has been observed that some species, such as jays, hummingbirds, rats and apes, exhibit "episodic-like" memory, but this has been observed for behavior that is required for them to survive in their environment and not necessarily a general capability.
A group of researchers from Hungary devised a set of experiments to test the episodic memory capacity of dogs. They worked with 17 dog owners and had them train their dogs in the method known as do-as-I-do, where dogs are trained to imitate the action of their owner. For instance, if the owner jumps up in the air, when the dog is commanded "do it", the dog jumps in the air. Next, the owners would perform actions, but wouldn't require the dogs to imitate them and would have them lie down. However, after a certain amount of time, they would unexpectedly command their dogs to "do it" and the dog would have to remember what action it was that their owner performed. In these trials, the dogs correctly performed the action 33 out of 35 trials. They presented their work in the journal Current Biology .
"It shows that our dogs remember events much like we do, and [it] blows out of the water the old way that most scientists would characterize animal memory," says Brian Hare, a dog cognition expert at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina, who was not involved in the study. "Our dogs' memories aren't based simply on repetition and reward."
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Dogs have pet facial expressions to use on humans, study finds
Dogs really do turn on the puppy eyes when humans look at them, according to researchers studying canine facial expressions. Scientists have discovered that dogs produce more facial movements when a human is paying attention to them – including raising their eyebrows, making their eyes appear bigger – than when they are being ignored or presented with a tasty morsel.
The research pushes back against the belief that animal facial expressions are largely unconscious movements, that reflect internal sentiments, rather than a way to communicate. "Facial expression is often seen as something that is very emotionally driven and is very fixed, and so it isn't something that animals can change depending on their circumstances," said Bridget Waller, professor of evolutionary psychology at the University of Portsmouth, and an author of the study.
Also at Popular Science.
Human attention affects facial expressions in domestic dogs (open, DOI: 10.1038/s41598-017-12781-x) (DX)
Earlier research: Paedomorphic Facial Expressions Give Dogs a Selective Advantage (open, DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0082686) (DX)
Related: Ethiopian Wolves and Gelada Monkeys Show Signs of Cooperation
Your Dog Remembers More Than You Might Think
STSR Tests Confirm That Dogs Have Self-Awareness
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday November 28 2016, @06:13AM
I shouldn't have let the dog watch me masturbate.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday November 28 2016, @06:15AM
That's alright, your dog doesn't have the same bio-mechanics to imitate that. Keep on doin whatcha been doin....
(Score: 2, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Monday November 28 2016, @06:25AM
No worry, your dog just thinks you're lame. After all, he can give himself a blow job.
(Score: 3, Funny) by Bogsnoticus on Monday November 28 2016, @06:49AM
After all, the reason why dogs lick themselves is because they can't make a fist.
Genius by birth. Evil by choice.
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Monday November 28 2016, @08:42AM
So you're saying you can't give yourself a blowjob? You're so lame.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday November 28 2016, @04:40PM
The problem with sucking your own dick is that the pleasure of having your dick sucked is juxtaposed with the displeasure of having a cock in your mouth.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday November 28 2016, @07:37PM
Unless you're into that sort of thing...
(Score: 2) by fubari on Monday November 28 2016, @07:32AM
Very cool - a clever way to study intelligence.
The title ScienceMag used on TFA: "Your Dog is a Copycat" seems click-baity.
I might have called it "Study shows Dog thinking closer to Apes and Humans"... hard to phrase concisely and precisely (which I suppose is why I'm not a writer).
Much deeper behavior than simply "copycat".
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday November 28 2016, @10:05AM
But "copycat" plays the dog vs cat idiom, or in many cases dog owner vs humans owned by their cats.
I think this is an interesting experiment, but IMHO having some form of episodic memory doesn't really qualify for a title like "Study shows Dog thinking closer to Apes and Humans". I think it means dogs understand more during the training process than most accedmics gave them credit for. Pet owners often see the talent & abilities their pets exhibit and know that there's more going on inside those little brains than we understand or imagine.
(Score: 2) by fubari on Monday November 28 2016, @05:32PM
I agree with what you say, I'm probably overstating the case with "closer".
Anon wrote:
IMHO having some form of episodic memory doesn't really qualify for a title like "Study shows Dog thinking closer to Apes and Humans".
Consider this excerpt from The Fine Article (1st paragraph, 4th sentence):
(emphasis added)
It sounds at least a little closer to me.
*shrug* Still, I struggle with how to phrase it. I can see how the use of "closer" could have equivalence connotations that I didn't intend.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday November 28 2016, @07:38PM
In the end the dogs are great, and their masters think they (the masters) are smarter for having taught their dogs how to be more human-like in their thinking. The dogs just want to turn everything into a party ... which does indeed make them more human-like.
(Score: 3, Touché) by GreatAuntAnesthesia on Monday November 28 2016, @10:07AM
Does it remember my webmail password?
(Score: 3, Interesting) by bradley13 on Monday November 28 2016, @12:27PM
Once, we thought we were the only tool-users - then came chimpanzees, otters and even crows. One by one, "uniquely human" attributes have fallen, but we still could pat ourselves on the back as being the only "self-aware" critters on the planet.
Perhaps intellectual abilities are simply a spectrum, just like all of the other attributes: speed, stamina, strength, eyesight, etc..
Everyone is somebody else's weirdo.
(Score: 2) by art guerrilla on Monday November 28 2016, @03:56PM
oh, i will go even more than that:
hu mans = responsible for approx 99.99% of the problems in the universe...
dogs = responsible for approx .00001% of the problems in the universe...
(AND a lot of those originate from stoopid hu mans: fido pooped on the rug because you didn't walk them)
ALL the hu mans in the universe account for approx 32% of the love; EACH dog accounts for approx 1.4% of the love in the universe, PER DOG ! ! !
based on a true story...
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday November 28 2016, @04:24PM
You, my friend, live in a pretty small universe.
(Score: 2) by fubari on Monday November 28 2016, @05:39PM
r.e. 99.99% of problems in the universe....
Maybe... is entropy a problem or a "feature" ? (Heat Death [wikipedia.org])
Then there's that Big Rip [wikipedia.org] thing.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday November 28 2016, @07:41PM
hu mans = responsible for approx 99.99% of the problems in the universe...
I got 99 problems but my dog ain't one.
(Score: 3, Informative) by hubie on Monday November 28 2016, @06:57PM
Sorry, I forgot to include the link to the Science article where I pulled this from: http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2016/11/your-dog-remembers-more-you-think [sciencemag.org]