Abstract
Dogs discriminate human direction of attention cues, such as body, gaze, head and eye orientation, in several circumstances. Eye contact particularly seems to provide information on human readiness to communicate; when there is such an ostensive cue, dogs tend to follow human communicative gestures more often. However, little is known about how such cues influence the production of communicative signals (e.g. gaze alternation and sustained gaze) in dogs. In the current study, in order to get an unreachable food, dogs needed to communicate with their owners in several conditions that differ according to the direction of owners’ visual cues, namely gaze, head, eyes, and availability to make eye contact. Results provided evidence that pet dogs did not rely on details of owners’ direction of visual attention. Instead, they relied on the whole combination of visual cues and especially on the owners’ availability to make eye contact. Dogs increased visual communicative behaviors when they established eye contact with their owners, a different strategy compared to apes and baboons, that intensify vocalizations and gestures when human is not visually attending. The difference in strategy is possibly due to distinct status: domesticated vs wild. Results are discussed taking into account the ecological relevance of the task since pet dogs live in human environment and face similar situations on a daily basis during their lives.
Highlights
A number of studies have already shown dogs’ ability to distinguish human direction of attention cues, such as body, head and eye orientation in several situations [1,2,3,4]. How these cues affect the production of communicative signals in dogs has not been thoroughly explored [5,6,7]
Perceiving one’s direction of visual attention is an important aspect of human development because it is related to joint attention, joint goals and the capacity of attributing mental states to others [8,9,10]
Previous studies have found that dogs adjust their communicative signals, such as gaze alternation, according to the presence of an audience and its attentional posture [6,7]
Summary
A number of studies have already shown dogs’ ability to distinguish human direction of attention cues, such as body, head and eye orientation in several situations [1,2,3,4] How these cues affect the production of communicative signals in dogs has not been thoroughly explored [5,6,7]. Perceiving one’s direction of visual attention is an important aspect of human development because it is related to joint attention, joint goals and the capacity of attributing mental states to others [8,9,10] It is ecologically relevant for non-human primates living in social groups, showing cooperation, sharing food and socially learning complex tasks [11,12,13,14,15], as well as for animal-human interactions. It is an important skill for communicative purposes: PLOS ONE | DOI:10.1371/journal.pone.0162161 September 14, 2016
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