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What are you or who are you? The emergence of social interaction between dog and Unidentified Moving Object (UMO)

Gergely, Anna and Petró, Eszter and Topál, József and Miklósi, Ádám (2013) What are you or who are you? The emergence of social interaction between dog and Unidentified Moving Object (UMO). PLOS ONE, 8 (8). e72727. ISSN 1932-6203

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Abstract

Robots offer new possibilities for investigating animal social behaviour. This method enhances controllability and reproducibility of experimental techniques, and it allows also the experimental separation of the effects of bodily appearance (embodiment) and behaviour. In the present study we examined dogs’ interactive behaviour in a problem solving task (in which the dog has no access to the food) with three different social partners, two of which were robots and the third a human behaving in a robot-like manner. The Mechanical UMO (Unidentified Moving Object) and the Mechanical Human differed only in their embodiment, but showed similar behaviour toward the dog. In contrast, the Social UMO was interactive, showed contingent responsiveness and goal-directed behaviour and moved along varied routes. The dogs showed shorter looking and touching duration, but increased gaze alternation toward the Mechanical Human than to the Mechanical UMO. This suggests that dogs’ interactive behaviour may have been affected by previous experience with typical humans. We found that dogs also looked longer and showed more gaze alternations between the food and the Social UMO compared to the Mechanical UMO. These results suggest that dogs form expectations about an unfamiliar moving object within a short period of time and they recognise some social aspects of UMOs’ behaviour. This is the first evidence that interactive behaviour of a robot is important for evoking dogs’ social responsiveness.

Item Type: Article
Additional Information: http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.00727 27
Subjects: B Philosophy. Psychology. Religion / filozófia, pszichológia, vallás > BF Psychology / lélektan > BF08 Comparative psychology / összehasonlító pszichol.
Q Science / természettudomány > QH Natural history / természetrajz > QH301 Biology / biológia
Q Science / természettudomány > QL Zoology / állattan
SWORD Depositor: MTMT SWORD
Depositing User: MTMT SWORD
Date Deposited: 18 Oct 2013 11:37
Last Modified: 18 Oct 2013 11:56
URI: http://real.mtak.hu/id/eprint/6924

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