Word learning dogs (Canis familiaris) provide an animal model for studying exceptional performance

Claudia Fugazza,Andrea Temesi,Shany Dror,Andrea Sommese,Ádám Miklósi

doi:10.1038/s41598-021-93581-2

Claudia Fugazza, Andrea Temesi + Show 3 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-93581-2

Copy DOI

Abstract

Exceptional performance is present in various human activities but its origins are debated and challenging to study. We report evidence of exceptional performance and qualitative variation in learning object-names in dogs. 34 naïve family dogs and 6 knowledgeable individuals that knew multiple toy names, found in 2 years of search around the Globe, were exposed to 3 months of training to learn two novel toy-names and were tested in two-way choice tests. Only 1 naïve and all 6 knowledgeable dogs passed the tests. Additionally, only these dogs learned at least 10 new toy names over the 3 months, showing qualitative variation in this capacity. Although previous object-name knowledge could provide an explanation for the superior performance of the knowledgeable dogs, their rarity and the absence of previous training of this skill point to exceptional giftedness in these individuals, providing the basis to establish dogs as a model-species for studying talent.

Highlights

Exceptional performance is present in various human activities but its origins are debated and challenging to study
All Word knowledgeable dogs (WK dogs) were successful above chance in the baseline test (Table 1)
The performance of the two groups did not depend on the trial (z = − 1.516, p = 0.129) while there was a significant difference between the performance of the naïve and WK group (z = 8.661, p < 0.001), with the WK dogs being significantly more successful (Fig. 1)

Summary

Introduction

Exceptional performance is present in various human activities but its origins are debated and challenging to study. 1 naïve and all 6 knowledgeable dogs passed the tests Only these dogs learned at least 10 new toy names over the 3 months, showing qualitative variation in this capacity. Exceptional performance—i.e., the performance of outliers in individual variability—is a well-known, established phenomenon that is present in various human activities such as music, mathematic and linguistics (e.g.3). Cognitive performance in the different domains mostly shows a continuous distribution (e.g.12) but there is no consensus on the mechanisms behind individual variation (e.g.6,10–12). Variation in human mathematical ability is believed to originate from the integration of several different factors such as an extensive network of cognitive skills and mathematics-specific knowledge, underpinned by specific aspects of motivation (e.g.13,14). Absolute pitch is considered an ideal model for investigating the influences of genes and environment on the development of a highly specific ability and its neural underpinnings, it has stimulated research in neuroscience, psychology genetics and music s cience[19]

Methods

Results

Conclusion