While we may never be able to read a dog’s mind, new research indicates that some “smarter” dogs may be able to better interpret where an object is in space. By studying how this phenomenon called spatial bias may reflect what dogs see, researchers could potentially show that dogs process information similarly to the way humans do. The findings are described in a study published November 18 in the journal Ethology.
[Related: Dogs and wolves remember where you hide their food.]
What is spatial bias?
Spatial bias is how the brain processes information related to space, location, or distance when that same information could easily apply to an object.
When a person points to an object, a human toddler will generally focus directly on the object. However, a dog will usually take the gesture as cue to look in that specific direction. This difference is not necessarily due to the dog’s eyesight, but how they think and interpret gestures. Spatial bias is often demonstrated in the difference in how dogs and children react when a person shows them where a toy or treat may be.
“Very early on, children interpret the gesture as pointing to the object, while dogs take the pointing as a directional cue. In other words, regardless of the intention of the person giving the cue, the meaning for children and dogs is different,” study co-author Ivaylo Iotchev said in a statement. Iotchev is a neuroscientist and ethnologist at Eötvös Loránd University in Budapest, Hungary.
Spatial bias has been observed in behavioral tests that show how dogs learn and imitate, but hadn’t been studied until now, according to Iotchev. Earlier studies have not clarified if dogs behave this way due to inferior vision compared to primates, or if it is because the parameters of the space around them are more important to dogs than specific, nearby objects.
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