Auditory–Visual Matching of Conspecifics and Non-Conspecifics by Dogs and Human Infants

Gergely, Anna and Petró, Eszter and Oláh, Katalin and Topál, József (2019) Auditory–Visual Matching of Conspecifics and Non-Conspecifics by Dogs and Human Infants. ANIMALS, 9 (1). No. 17. ISSN 2076-2615

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Abstract

We tested whether dogs and 14–16-month-old infants are able to integrate intersensory information when presented with conspecific and heterospecific faces and vocalisations. The looking behaviour of dogs and infants was recorded with a non-invasive eye-tracking technique while they were concurrently presented with a dog and a female human portrait accompanied with acoustic stimuli of female human speech and a dog’s bark. Dogs showed evidence of both con- and heterospecific intermodal matching, while infants’ looking preferences indicated effective auditory–visual matching only when presented with the audio and visual stimuli of the non-conspecifics. The results of the present study provided further evidence that domestic dogs and human infants have similar socio-cognitive skills and highlighted the importance of comparative examinations on intermodal perception.

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