Dogs notice when computer animations violate laws of physics:
A pair of researchers at the Medical University of Vienna and University of Vienna has found that dogs notice when objects in the world do not conform to the laws of physics. In their paper published in the journal Biology Letters, Christoph Völter and Ludwig Huber describe experiments they conducted with pet dogs looking at objects depicted on a computer screen.
Prior research has shown that human babies and adult chimpanzees tend to notice if something they are looking at appears to violate the laws of physics—things dropping upwards, instead of down, for example. In this new effort, the researchers have found the same is true for pet dogs.
Journal Reference:
Christoph J. Völter and Ludwig Huber, Dogs' looking times and pupil dilation response reveal expectations about contact causality, Biology Letters (DOI: 10.1098/rsbl.2021.0465)
(Score: 2, Funny) by fustakrakich on Sunday December 26 2021, @05:36AM (1 child)
But what if the dog floats upwards [youtube.com]?
La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
(Score: 1) by Mockingbird on Sunday December 26 2021, @09:14AM
"Big Ed says, dogs can't look up."
(Score: -1, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday December 26 2021, @06:07AM
SN "editors" are not even trying.
(Score: 5, Funny) by MadTinfoilHatter on Sunday December 26 2021, @08:42AM
Dogs are intelligent enough to have mental models of how the world works, and will notice when something doesn't conform to it. Several years ago I recall seeing a youtube video of a magician performig a simple "disappearing" -type magic trick for dogs, and their reactions left no uncertainty about their bewilderment. Found it. [youtube.com] I especially enjoyed Sälli's "It's a witch! Burn him!" -reaction. :-)
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday December 26 2021, @10:37AM (1 child)
How are balloons perceived?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday December 26 2021, @01:14PM
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday December 26 2021, @02:23PM (8 children)
The dog sometimes perks up at a sound from TV but never the image.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday December 26 2021, @03:54PM (7 children)
I've known many dogs (and cats) to /watch/ TV though.
(Score: 2) by Reziac on Monday December 27 2021, @02:05AM (6 children)
Many years ago I had a puppy that would watch football, and Max Headroom. She wasn't interested in anything else, including the commercials. But she'd sit transfixed and staring at the TV for those two, and nothing else.
[canine professional here, over 50 years experience.]
And there is no Alkibiades to come back and save us from ourselves.
(Score: 2, Disagree) by The Vocal Minority on Monday December 27 2021, @03:56AM (3 children)
I didn't think screens work as well/at all for Dogs and Cats because they lack one of the colour receptors, and don't have a large proportion of their brain dedicated to visual processing like humans.
(Score: 4, Informative) by Reziac on Monday December 27 2021, @04:48AM (2 children)
Anyone who trains field trial retrievers will tell you that's nonsense. Yeah, it may be so for the majority of purely-pet breeds. But you'd be amazed how many working dogs see color. Usually red/orange/yellow, but I've had dogs that can see green, and one that could see blue.
Also, if anything those retrievers (and likely herding breeds and some other working types) have better visual processing than humans do. Both space relations and detail. The same dog that can see tiny bugs well enough to play with them (yes, I've seen dogs herd bugs, weirdest dog toy ever) can also keep track of four birds shot at distances of up to 400 yards, where the terrain is irregular and the flight paths cross, and the best dogs will have those birds marked well enough to go straight to 'em -- even if you move the starting point between retrieves. That's one hell of a lot of visual processing.
(It's also a massive IQ gap between those working dogs and purely-pet breeds.)
And there is no Alkibiades to come back and save us from ourselves.
(Score: 2) by The Vocal Minority on Tuesday December 28 2021, @01:19PM (1 child)
I'm almost certain that Dogs only have two different types of cones (colour receptors) in their retinas compared with the human three. This does not mean that they do not see colour, just that the range of colours they see will be somewhat truncated, like someone with dichromatic colour blindness. There are also humans with extra types of cones so it is possible you have come across dogs with extra cones as well.
Less certain about the visual processing claim, just something I saw in an unrelated talk by once. The claim was that whereas humans have a large proportion of their brains dedicated to processing visual information (i.e. one of four cortical lobes as well as a few other areas), dogs have an equivalent amount of brain capacity dedicated to processing olfactory information. I don't have time to look into this at the moment to see if it is true or find out what the implications are - if you do please report back as it is an interesting topic.
Anyway at the very least I would expect dogs to see screens in the same way as someone with an equivalent type of colour blindness.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Reziac on Tuesday December 28 2021, @03:22PM
I know what the research says, I also know what 52 years and some 3000 dogs worth of experience says is quite different from what the research says. The problem with the research is that it assumes dogs are monolithic, while in fact the scope of variation is larger than that for humans (in fact larger than for any other species; imagine an alien trying to visually classify a dachshund vs a borzoi). Frex, the IQ gap in dogs runs from what in humans would be a range of about 60 to about 160. Most research focuses on purely-pet breeds, which fall at the low end of the scale and are far more likely to be homogeneous.
The conclusions about how dogs see also derive from purely-pet breeds, which are commonly nearsighted. Well, that's not the species norm; most working breeds can spot a head-sized object at 400 yards. (Show me the humans who can do that...) BTW this also affects other research; eg. the conclusions about puppy development are valid for slow-developing purely-pet breeds, but comically wrong for active working breeds. (And those difference can be likewise huge. Toy breeds might not be mature enough to leave the nest until 12 weeks, while working breeds can be independent little dogs by 5 weeks, and never go through a "puppy phase" at all.)
What colors a dog can see is predictable from the color of the tapetum -- those with a dark blue or dark green tapetum are likely to see in the red/orange/yellow spectrum, while those with a pale green or yellow tapetum (which appears to be recessive) are 1) less likely to see color at all, and 2) if they do, it's likely to be in the green spectrum (or in one case, blue). We use colored training aids with working retrievers, which sometimes makes it fairly obvious, because the dog immediately picks up on what it did not see placed (but is marked in red for the handler's benefit). In my long-ago training group we had to stop using red markers for blinds (a bird placed way the hell out there, that the dog did not see and is directed to by the handler) because we had so many dogs who spotted the red bit even when we made sure there was nothing flapping or otherwise identifiable, and would go straight to it with no direction. Ooops.
Turns out humans have an olfactory bulb the same size as dogs with middling-good scenting ability; we're just much better at ignoring irrelevant input. Research subjects were able to follow an =interesting= trail better than some dogs (small paintbrush dragged first across chocolate, then across a carpet). Goes to show the notion of relative brain volume... doesn't really work.
And there is no Alkibiades to come back and save us from ourselves.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday December 27 2021, @06:34AM (1 child)
Is that in dog years? Or human years? ;-)
(Score: 2) by Reziac on Tuesday December 28 2021, @03:24PM
LOL, well, you never know... I might have turned into a dog while I wasn't paying attention :)
And there is no Alkibiades to come back and save us from ourselves.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday December 26 2021, @03:46PM
must know do they know if that pic of them playing cards, is fake or not?
(Score: 3, Interesting) by VLM on Sunday December 26 2021, @04:11PM (1 child)
Its interesting to quantify in the lab, but they could have done it outdoors and done some machine vision stuff to analyze dog reaction to curveballs and frisbee tosses that spin at the end.
Dogs are pretty good at "catch the tennis ball out of the air in mid-flight" and the doggie behavior markers they're using WRT pupil size and position probably work just as well when a frissbee hangs a crazy curve at the last instant.
I would theorize it would be a pretty interesting scientific study to go across training and breeds WRT some dogs being more into the "run and jump" than others for a variety of reasons.
(Score: 2) by Reziac on Monday December 27 2021, @02:10AM
Dogs are generally pretty good at calculating intercept paths, including when the target's behavior isn't a straight line. (Some definitely better than others.)
Which stands to reason -- you don't catch prey by chasing it from behind, you catch it by watching it zigzag and cutting across to intercept its predicted path. In its more refined form -- herding sheep.
And there is no Alkibiades to come back and save us from ourselves.
(Score: 2) by looorg on Monday December 27 2021, @04:59AM (3 children)
How did they make the animals pay attention to the tv/monitor? The parents dogs and cats couldn't give a shit about the TV. They might toss it at glance at some moment but nothing more, even if Lassie was showing they wouldn't watch it. In some sense I guess they don't smell it and consider it to be real. The cats only liked the old CRT televisions cause it was a source of heat to sleep/rest on or nearby.
(Score: 2) by Reziac on Tuesday December 28 2021, @03:35PM (2 children)
My observation (speaking as a canine professional) is that there's a broad range of responses, from my puppy who had her ideas of what to watch and would do so with utter attention (she watched football and Max Headroom, and nothing else), to dogs that quickly twig to it not being real people and ignore it, to dogs that think it's real and respond like the TV is full of intruders (and never learn better).
Dogs generally ID stuff by sight, then if necessary use scent to confirm what they thought they saw.
Side point to something I mentioned above: nearsighted dogs generally have poor scenting abilities (much worse than humans). Dogs with good distance vision generally have much better noses... and are far more intelligent. When the brain works better, it works better across the board.
And there is no Alkibiades to come back and save us from ourselves.
(Score: 2) by looorg on Tuesday December 28 2021, @04:43PM (1 child)
I always assumed it was that the TV or what they think they saw on the TV didn't smell right so it was weird to them. Also things that appear to come closer somehow never does, as it's stuck in the box. The type of programs doesn't appear to have much impact from what I have been able to observe, they don't like loud noises tho so no like war movies and such. But I thought they would like nature shows etc to see other animals, or their own kind. But no. Not interesting enough for more then a glance. I guess it might be cause they live out in the sticks so they can go outside into the woods and see real animals all the time. It's not like they are city dogs (and cats) that are stuck in a flat. Beyond that I think the main reason they hang around the TV is cause they get petted there by my dad, and also there might be snacks.
(Score: 2) by Reziac on Tuesday December 28 2021, @04:52PM
So they've figured out whatever critters are on TV are not real and not worth their attention. Friend had a little dog that never did twig to this and would bark at animals on TV. Also... generally people-oriented dogs are not interested in strange dogs, except as intruders.
Sounds like yours have a tough life. :D
And there is no Alkibiades to come back and save us from ourselves.
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Monday December 27 2021, @01:35PM
Nobody knows that you're a dog. Of course they know.