Acquisition and long-term memory of object names in a sample of Gifted Word Learner dogs
Dogs with a vocabulary of object names are rare and are considered uniquely gifted. In a few cases, these Gifted Word Learner (GWL) dogs have presented cognitive skills that are functionally similar to those of human infants. However, the acquisition rate of new object names and the ability of GWL d...
| Main Authors: | , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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The Royal Society
2021-10-01
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| Series: | Royal Society Open Science |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rsos.210976 |
| _version_ | 1818983658631987200 |
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| author | Shany Dror Ádám Miklósi Andrea Sommese Andrea Temesi Claudia Fugazza |
| author_facet | Shany Dror Ádám Miklósi Andrea Sommese Andrea Temesi Claudia Fugazza |
| author_sort | Shany Dror |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Dogs with a vocabulary of object names are rare and are considered uniquely gifted. In a few cases, these Gifted Word Learner (GWL) dogs have presented cognitive skills that are functionally similar to those of human infants. However, the acquisition rate of new object names and the ability of GWL dogs to form long-term memories of those is unknown. In this study, we examine the ability of six GWL dogs to acquire the names of new objects in a short period and to retain those in their long-term memory without post-acquisition exposures. In Experiments 1 and 2, the dogs were tested on their ability to learn, during social interactions with their owners, the names of 6 and 12 new toys respectively, in one week. In Experiments 3 and 4, the dogs' memory of these objects was tested after one and two months. GWL dogs typically learned the names of the new objects and remembered those. We suggest that dogs with knowledge of object names could be a powerful model for studying mental mechanisms related to word acquisition in a non-human species. |
| first_indexed | 2024-12-20T18:06:37Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-ead6f8e02f2543beb09d97cc9963a9c1 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2054-5703 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-12-20T18:06:37Z |
| publishDate | 2021-10-01 |
| publisher | The Royal Society |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Royal Society Open Science |
| spelling | doaj.art-ead6f8e02f2543beb09d97cc9963a9c12022-12-21T19:30:33ZengThe Royal SocietyRoyal Society Open Science2054-57032021-10-0181010.1098/rsos.210976Acquisition and long-term memory of object names in a sample of Gifted Word Learner dogsShany Dror0Ádám Miklósi1Andrea Sommese2Andrea Temesi3Claudia Fugazza4Department of Ethology, Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest, HungaryDepartment of Ethology, Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest, HungaryDepartment of Ethology, Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest, HungaryDepartment of Ethology, Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest, HungaryDepartment of Ethology, Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest, HungaryDogs with a vocabulary of object names are rare and are considered uniquely gifted. In a few cases, these Gifted Word Learner (GWL) dogs have presented cognitive skills that are functionally similar to those of human infants. However, the acquisition rate of new object names and the ability of GWL dogs to form long-term memories of those is unknown. In this study, we examine the ability of six GWL dogs to acquire the names of new objects in a short period and to retain those in their long-term memory without post-acquisition exposures. In Experiments 1 and 2, the dogs were tested on their ability to learn, during social interactions with their owners, the names of 6 and 12 new toys respectively, in one week. In Experiments 3 and 4, the dogs' memory of these objects was tested after one and two months. GWL dogs typically learned the names of the new objects and remembered those. We suggest that dogs with knowledge of object names could be a powerful model for studying mental mechanisms related to word acquisition in a non-human species.https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rsos.210976dogsword learningobject nameslong-term memory |
| spellingShingle | Shany Dror Ádám Miklósi Andrea Sommese Andrea Temesi Claudia Fugazza Acquisition and long-term memory of object names in a sample of Gifted Word Learner dogs Royal Society Open Science dogs word learning object names long-term memory |
| title | Acquisition and long-term memory of object names in a sample of Gifted Word Learner dogs |
| title_full | Acquisition and long-term memory of object names in a sample of Gifted Word Learner dogs |
| title_fullStr | Acquisition and long-term memory of object names in a sample of Gifted Word Learner dogs |
| title_full_unstemmed | Acquisition and long-term memory of object names in a sample of Gifted Word Learner dogs |
| title_short | Acquisition and long-term memory of object names in a sample of Gifted Word Learner dogs |
| title_sort | acquisition and long term memory of object names in a sample of gifted word learner dogs |
| topic | dogs word learning object names long-term memory |
| url | https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rsos.210976 |
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