One of the most fascinating areas of study when it comes to dogs is that of gifted word learnerthose specimens who are able to learn a large quantity of words and build a real vocabulary linked to their favorite objects (toys and more).
There is one project in particular that is exploring the capabilities and limits of GWL dogs: managed by the Eötvös Loránd University of Budapest, it is called Genius Dog Challenge and has just produced a study, published in Sciencewhich demonstrates how “superintelligent” dogs are capable of learning new words simply by listening to humans speak – an ability comparable to that of a one-and-a-half-year-old.
The baptism of toys. Let’s start with the experiment that demonstrated how certain dogs can “manage” words like a small human. The ten dogs involved in the study were faced with two different situations. In the first, their reference human presented them with two new toys, saying their name several times and pointing to them, to make the dog understand what each of them was called. In the second situation, however, the dog was on the sidelines listening to his humans talking about the toys, without addressing him directly but still “baptizing” the objects, pointing to them and handling them.
The experiment. After the learning session, the toys were placed in another room, and the human asked the dog to bring a particular one back to him. On average, seven out of ten dogs learned the name of the new toy, whether it was “presented” to them directly or they discovered the new word by listening to humans. In fact, in the first ever test, all ten dogs learned the name of the toy indirectly, simply by listening to a conversation.
More and more difficult! The team then made things even more complicated for the dogs: the humans showed them the toys, then put them in a bucket and only then taught the animal their name. Well, even in this case the dogs had no difficulty in learning new words, and in connecting name and object despite the temporal distance, the vision of the same and the moment in which it was given a name.
Plus-endowed. However, it is worth reiterating that GWL dogs are very rare and we are still trying to understand why they develop these exceptional verbal skills, and what differentiates them from “normal” dogs.
Certainly, knowing that some dogs use the same cognitive mechanisms as a one and a half year old child is surprising – at least for those unfamiliar with GWL.
