Abstract
Categorization has been tested in non-human animals after extensive training procedures under laboratory conditions and it is assumed that in non-primate species categorization relies on perceptual similarity. We report evidence of the ability to categorize objects in absence of specific training in a family dog with vocabulary knowledge of multiple toys, including exemplars of 4 categories. Our experimental design was devised to test categorization in absence of specific training and based on the spontaneously learned vocal labels of the categories, a condition that mirrors human studies more than previous experiments on non-human animals. We also observed that the dog’s categorization skills were more accurate when, prior to the categorization test, she was given the opportunity to play with the novel exemplars, suggesting that category representations arise not only from physical resemblance, but also from objects’ affordances (function).
Highlights
Categorization has been tested in non-human animals after extensive training procedures under laboratory conditions and it is assumed that in non-primate species categorization relies on perceptual similarity
The aim of this study was to test whether, despite the lack of specific training, the dog would be able to categorize novel exemplars of objects belonging to those categories, since previous studies on categorization typically relied on extensive training of the subjects in laboratory conditions
We found the ability to categorize objects in absence of formal training in a dog with knowledge of multiple object names
Summary
Categorization has been tested in non-human animals after extensive training procedures under laboratory conditions and it is assumed that in non-primate species categorization relies on perceptual similarity. We report evidence of the ability to categorize objects in absence of specific training in a family dog with vocabulary knowledge of multiple toys, including exemplars of 4 categories. Our experimental design was devised to test categorization in absence of specific training and based on the spontaneously learned vocal labels of the categories, a condition that mirrors human studies more than previous experiments on non-human animals. Since the seminal work of Herrnstein and Loveland[9] showing that pigeons can discriminate pictures with people from pictures without people, categorization abilities have been studied in several additional non-human animal species. Birds (e.g.10) and fishes[11] have been found to categorize stimuli based on perceptual cues, while research regarding mammals has mainly focused on primates (for review see[4,12])
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