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Does the A-not-B error in adult pet dogs indicate sensitivity to human communication?

Kis, Anna and Topál, József and Gácsi, Márta and Range, Friederike and Huber, Ludwig and Miklósi, Ádám and Virányi, Zsófia (2012) Does the A-not-B error in adult pet dogs indicate sensitivity to human communication? Animal Cognition, 15 (4). pp. 737-743. ISSN 1435-9448 (print version) 1435-9456 (electronic version)

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Abstract

Recent dog-infant comparisons have indicated that the experimenter's communicative signals in object hide-and-search tasks increase the probability of perseverative (A-not-B) errors in both species (Topál et al. 2009). These behaviourally similar results, however, might reflect different mechanisms in dogs and in children. Similar errors may occur if the motor response of retrieving the object during the A trials cannot be inhibited in the B trials or if the experimenter's movements and signals toward the A hiding place in the B trials ('sham-baiting') distract the dogs' attention. In order to test these hypotheses, we tested dogs similarly to Topál et al. (2009) but eliminated the motor search in the A trials and 'sham-baiting' in the B trials. We found that neither an inability to inhibit previously rewarded motor response nor insufficiencies in their working memory and/or attention skills can explain dogs' erroneous choices. Further, we replicated the finding that dogs have a strong tendency to commit the A-not-B error after ostensive-communicative hiding and demonstrated the crucial effect of socio-communicative cues as the A-not-B error diminishes when location B is ostensively enhanced. These findings further support the hypothesis that the dogs' A-not-B error may reflect a special sensitivity to human communicative cues. Such object-hiding and search tasks provide a typical case for how susceptibility to human social signals could (mis)lead domestic dogs.

Item Type: Article
Uncontrolled Keywords: Dog, A-not-B error, Social cognition, Communication
Subjects: Q Science / természettudomány > QL Zoology / állattan
Depositing User: Anna Vargane Kis
Date Deposited: 12 Dec 2012 08:16
Last Modified: 04 Apr 2023 11:25
URI: http://real.mtak.hu/id/eprint/3554

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