Picture-Sorting Dogs Show Human-Like Thought 175
ComputerDog writes "A new study shows they can sort photographs into categories in a similar way to humans. In experiments, dogs were shown photographs of a landscape and of a dog, and were rewarded if they selected the latter using 'a paw-operated computer touch-screen'. Later they were able to correctly categorize dogs shown on an unfamiliar background landscape. '' "
Or rather ... (Score:5, Insightful)
Well, kinda (Score:4, Funny)
Previously it was thought that dogs could only catagorize other dogs or people by the tried and true butt sniffing technique. This experiment shows that dogs, possibly due to their proximity to human DNA, have evolved more advanced ways to perceive others.
It's hotly debated whether mosquitos have transferred blood and DNA from humans to dogs to give them this power, as there are many other methods of transmission. Needless to say, the Bird Flu has helped that process greatly among many other species, but it has yet to be shown that is has factored into the human-dog element.
As for the dog to human question you posed... Have you seen furries?
Kennel + Server Farms (Score:2)
(Could you imagine a Beowoof cluster...?)
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So... (Score:2, Insightful)
... the dogs are learning provide whatever results the higher-ups want them to provide, and are rewarded or punished accordingly?
Sounds like doing science for the U.S. government.
Re:So... (Score:4, Interesting)
Mind that this was a Border Collie [wikipedia.org]. Even if she was small for her kind it caused some consternation among his friends seeing the dog in unfamiliar dog locations.
Cat behaviour in dogs (Score:3, Interesting)
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Whats the surprise? (Score:5, Insightful)
Reproduce? (Score:5, Insightful)
This is why turtles copulate while moving (Score:3, Funny)
Otherwise, they are very hard to tell from rocks
Well even a worm can do that! (Score:2)
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Re:Whats the surprise? (Score:4, Insightful)
door scratch -> wants out to pee or poop
Tail wag -> contentment
angry barking -> fight or flight mechanism has gone towards the former
Excited barking -> Smells owner, food, mate, friend, or stranger
Romeo's balcony soliloquies with Juliet's -> You've done too much LSD, go lie down
It all varies depending on the temperament but if you've owned a dog it's fairly obvious what they're meaning. However it's likely ham fisted autistic wolf language. Like having a child raised without anyone to teach it to speak. Parentless Child or Dog develop it's own system of communication.
Speak for yourself... (Score:3, Insightful)
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It's a lot like how a parent can interpret a toddler's yammerings. They aren't exactly words, but they have meaning and context; you just have to learn to recognise them (and sort that out from mere mumbling to oneself, which some dogs do too).
Just like toddlers, dogs can become frustrated when the Stupid Human can't figure out what they're "saying". A very few dogs will attempt to deliberately mimic human speech, apparently thinking that this will make them more intel
Try with cats (Score:3, Informative)
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More like when it says "mrrk" (sometimes transcribed as "mrrh") from the hall, and you just know, "oh shit, she's brought me another dying bird she hunted." As far as anyone can tell, that's their word for "food", typically as in "I brought you some." That's the word they use to call their weaned kittens to dinner when they hunted something for said kittens. But they've been known to try to feed their
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It was really a toy implementation that tried to interpret dog barks as being one of six emotions: happy, sad, frustrated, on-guard, assertive and needy. And most dog owners can already identify them from the barks of their own dogs. For example, I can tell when my dogs think there's someone at the door, or if they want to play, or if they're mad at each other. (They also sometimes greet me at the door by howling "Hello!" when I get home, but I had to teach them that.)
I
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Hint: "oh yeah" and "so there" might not find their way into communications with the second wife.
Your mileage may increase.
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And trust me, my mother will sit there go
Re:Whats the surprise? (Score:5, Insightful)
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My Cat. (Score:3, Funny)
Now, on the the intelligent part...
He is constantly on the lookout for "enemy cats" that want to move in on his territory. So, he has no problem with that normal cat function.
Food gathering...
Open the Refrigerator, or try and make something to eat, and he suddenly appears, telling you that he is a good cat, and deserves some of whatever you are
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I have three dogs (and a cat) in my house, sometimes more, as my wife is a dog trainer who sometimes boards the dogs she trains. One of our dogs recognizes pictures of dogs on TV and reacts to them, but the other dogs almost never notice, except perhaps to cock their ears at the sound of barking.
So the result of the experiments is not as obvious as many posters are making it out to be.
Not news, dogs are smart (Score:4, Funny)
As a dog myself... (Score:5, Funny)
P.S. Thanks to all those who bow to their new photograph sorting, canine overlords, but it's really not necessary. We are a humble species and have no designs on taking over earth. Unless... a mailman should ever come into power, then of course we would have no recourse but violence. Until then, thank you but no thank you.
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What?!? (Score:1)
Re:What?!? (Score:4, Funny)
OTOH if you could make a cat do anything, I'd be impressed.
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Done that (Score:2)
My brother taught our parents' cat to play fetch. She loved it, in fact.
It's a bit harder than teaching tricks to a dog, because, well, the cat doesn't have the reflex to try to please the alpha at all cost. Although stray cats do form packs, they hunt separately and being the alpha is more like "first advisor" than anything like a "master."
So, well, the whole trick is that you have to keep the cat'
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"First adviser"? You clearly never had several cats at home. The "pack" structure of cats is *very* hierarchical, and the hierarchy is *very* rigid. There's just no concept of "leader", or first advisor, or whatever. They're just bullies, really. It's more like "If I'm pissed off, I'll slap somebody around -- somebody less important than myself. Oh, and I get dibs on food too." My aunt usually has around 5 cats at home, and she often literally has episodes where she tells off the top dog... er... cat, who t
Point taken (Score:2)
Wolves (and therefore dogs) have the concept of "I must do this because the alpha wants me to". Unless you want to challenge the alpha for leadership, you follow the gang, go hunt when the alpha wants to go hunt, etc. And if the alpha is pissed off at you, your options are appease him or challeng
How to show him who's boss (Score:2)
Tricks cats like to do (Score:3, Interesting)
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A picture worth a thousand words (Score:2)
A dog can find a dog in a two-dimensional landscape photograph.
In an experiment far removed from the ordinary way in which he experiences his world - and do it with no other sensory or behavioral cues.
That does not strike me as an insignificant achievement.
It would be interesting to know if a dog could recognize a painting of a dog, a sculpture, a cartoon or caricature.
Even more interesting, perhaps, if he could sort the result
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This is purely anecdotal, but my dogs (both of them), respond to dogs on TV (in a sense, the test they portrayed here), sometimes ramming against the TV paws first and barking at it, other times just staring intently. They also clearly identify at least some cartoon dogs (e.g, Scooby Doo), reacting in much the same way as with real dogs.
They also tend to react to other non-human animals on TV, with reactions varying dramatically with the species (they seem to have a fascination with bulls), and definitely
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What about gender? (Score:3, Funny)
Now can the dogs determine the gender of the other dog ... without having to resort to sniffing the other dog's butt?
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DoggyStyle/
MilkBoned/
ShortTails/
KittyCrush/
If you ask me, it's a race of time, between the animal behavioralists and Google.
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And some of 'em know which "parts" do the job, too... I had one bitch who'd get impatient if the male didn't "do her" RIGHT NOW, and if he took too long about it, she would grab him by the penis and drag him around!!
They learn much faster (Score:1)
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Obvious. (Score:5, Insightful)
The examples in the article are all "A dog can tell the difference between a landscape and a dog, even if the dog is on a landscape" which just shows that, like us, their eyes are drawn to the animal before the scenery. Classic response for an animal concerned with predator/prey responses. The mountains are nice, but you have to make sure of the animal first.
The main differences in visual perception would be dealing with stuff like ranging, depth perception, night-vision, day-vision, etc...All stuff to do with the actual hardware of the eye, not in the basic ability to distinguish between two similar objects.
This should be obvious from a dog's ability to tell one person from another. I've witnessed similar behavior in herbivores as well, so I'd not be surprised to find that they had the same sort of abilities, though it would be difficult to test.
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That said, I agree with you that this is obvious; it should be obvious to anyone who has ever owned a smart dog, like a border collie or maybe a german shepherd. I used to have a border collie, and his responses to most things were so incredibly human-like that it was very, very clear that he thought like a human in many ways. (Indeed, I think he thought he was human in many ways
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In my experience, dogs identify stuff first and foremost by vision, and only use scent as a "backup" -- to confirm what they already thought, or to see where you've been (they're just like kids going "Daddy, where did you go today?
(
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I think that sense-of-scale issue is definitely a weak spot for a lot of dogs. It's one of the reasons that very large dogs can sometimes react to very small dogs at an intermediate distance as they would to a very large dog at a greater distance. And anyone who's ever dealt with a terrier knows that they not only have no idea how small they are themselves, they have no appre
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All dogs believe they're about 60 pounds, and behave accordingly. This make sense when you realise that at root they're just funny-looking wolves; size differences are merely cosmetic, and don't do much to alter their fundamental nature.
I do think the juvenile paranoia that's common in toy dogs is the result of a disconnect caused by their small size -- they're born believing the world should be proportioned differently than it is, and it takes them some time to "get used to" how overwh
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Yes, completely obvious! Evolution has spent millions of years rewarding animals who are able to identify photographs of other animals - and specifically non-life-sized photographs of their predators. After all, if a gazelle couldn't distinguish a 6x9" photo of a mouse from a 6x9" photo of... um... a gazelleeater, she'd be constantly fleeing harmless Polaroids (the native habitat of the gazelle, which is, um, Gazelle
Birds (Score:5, Interesting)
Birds rely heavily on their eyesight to find or distinguish food and prey. Thus, they may be as good or better than dogs, who use mostly hearing and smell. Plus, dogs are partly color blind.
Virtually the same experiment... (Score:3, Interesting)
On the other hand, virtually the same experiment as the one conducted with dogs was conducted with pigeons, in 1964, by Herrnstein and Loveland. So, someone beat you to it. =)
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You never hear the Animal Rights people going on about slugs or centipedes, do you?
Of course they found this in Dogs .. (Score:2)
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It's common knowledge that dogs have owners and that cats have servants... next to the fact that one always have to move the cat to get the best place in a given location.
The amount of evidence is stunning:
http://www.sinfest.net/archive_page.php?comicID=44 [sinfest.net]
http://www.sinfest.net/archive_page.php?comicID=43 [sinfest.net]
http://www.sinfest.net/archive_page.php?comicID=1907 [sinfest.net]
http://www.sinfest.net/archive_page.php?c [sinfest.net]
Not My Dog... (Score:3, Funny)
Again, As a Dog Myself... (Score:4, Funny)
I hope this has helped. BTW, I'm working on a gpl'ed evolutionary firmware update that moves the urge in question from the leg to the shoe, as this is less disturbing. I've tried to get rid of the trait altogether, but it's tough. A lot of the code is proprietary, and well God just doesn't like to give the darn stuff up. We're working on it though. Link to our project www.opensourceevolutionarydogimprovement.org.
Also in the news (Score:2)
Seems to be some naivete in the responses (Score:3, Informative)
We need more semiotics taught in the schools.
The animals weren't responding to other dogs and landscapes. They were responding to _photographs_ of dogs and landscapes. And dealing with them accordingly.
Do not confuse the finger with the moon, Grasshopper.
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It's just not news, and didn't need any 'research' to discover it.
Whether they can tell the difference between a photograph and the real thing is another question. I'm betting they're just hardwired to recognize 'dog shape'.
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Are they any good at Poker? (Score:2, Funny)
I see an application here (Score:2)
It's pretty strange.. (Score:3, Interesting)
For example, take a piece of food being dropped on the floor just out of her reach behind a barrier. Most dogs would simply shove their snout under the barrier and root at it with their tongue for hours. With this dog though, she only did the snout rooting thing once, stopped, reached under the barrier with her paws trying to grip the food, stopped and finally removed the barrier itself to get at the food.
In my previous experience, only a cat would have ever made it to step 2.
Needless to say, the dog is now quite an escape artist, having deciphered how to use doors, removing collars like houdini and bypassing six foot tall chain-link fences.
Re:It's pretty strange.. (Score:4, Interesting)
He also used to get agitated if you wore a hat because he couldn't recognise you if you did, he would even bark at my uncle if he was wearing a hat and stop immediately if he removed it.
Having been a building site dog he developed a strange habit of barking when you called "FIRING!" which they used to do before anyone used a nail gun, he would as a result bark on demand any time any place, quite an amusing party trick.
He also used to have what can only be described as a guilty look that he would give you when he had done something wrong, sometimes he would even give the look before doing something wrong and then go and do it!
All in all I think we are not giving dogs nearly enough credit on the smarts front.
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Dogs are smart.
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No kidding. They've managed to get themselves shacked up in houses with infinite food supplies, and as often as they get in trouble for taking more than their share, providing they do it in a funny or amazing way, they actually gets praised.
Who is that once said if aliens came to Earth they'd assume that dogs ran the
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Similarly, she also does the "try
Re:It's pretty strange.. (Score:5, Funny)
So there's a dog who demonstrated an understanding of strategy, tactics, and deception. He lured her away from the food under false pretenses. He knew the back route into the kitchen was unguarded. Most importantly, he put a multi-step plan together in his little canine brain before executing it.
Humans don't have a monopoly on thought. We just have all the components of intelligence wrapped up in a meat package that can orchestrate them. If that dog had had opposable thumbs, there's no telling where it would have stopped!
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And dogs can learn how to "predict" future events. I had a dog that learned to predict trajectories.
I used to throw a soft playground ball onto our sloped garage roof, and let it rol
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Experienced gundogs can also read river currents well enough to figure out how far down the bank they need to run to interc
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Even difficult dogs don't need spirit-breaking intensive training. Though, in my opin
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I used to have quite a smart cat with a vocabulary of at least 50 words (at least as far as I could tell). He was an alley cat before we adopted him, and he'd learned a large number of cool skills, including feeding himself from tins, opening doors, and was quite adept at picking up stuff after seeing it once.
Once I opened the sliding window in the dining room, and he was watching. He liked the cool breeze, so whenever he wanted it, he'
I, for one... (Score:2)
To hell with iPhoto etc., these doggies help us to rid ourselves of one massive problem: those countless digital photographs we never have time to browse through! We might finally get some printed on paper!
Just think of the outsourcing potential! (Score:2)
eh - cats are smarter. (Score:2)
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It's not just recognizing dogs from other things. (Score:2)
Half full or half empty (Score:2)
No doubt owners of sheep-herding dogs everywhere will be greatly relieved.
Good thing for all these science-fair-level studies that most of the important problems are already solved.
Not surprising (Score:2)
Yet another example of taxpayer money wasted on rediscovering the obvious.
Doesn't surprise me at all (Score:2)
The single main reason why I've always hated canines myself isn't because of a lack of intelligence...on that score, they're fine. Said intelligence however is hamstrung by a tendency towards chronic emotional codependency. People call that loyalty, when in reality in most cases it's just
Little surprise (Score:2)
Little surprise to anyone who has trained dogs, specially retrievers. They have very good sight recall and of course even better smell recall/use. Retriever hunt tests [akc.org] test a dog's sight memory. With no training, many dogs will reason their way to a fallen bird by going around areas of tall grass, brush, etc. Silly humans, though, then train and grade them on their ability to blindly push their way through these things i
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until then it's just trained repetition which is not human like at all
I disagree. Isn't pretty much everything "trained repetition" when you think of it? Look at neural nets... they train... by repetition... to do something "intelligent".
There's not much difference between training a dog to recognize photos of dogs and training a human child to recognize Latin characters. The only difference between us and dogs is neural capacity, learning rules, and societal environment.
What studies like this one do is help us to further understand what those hard-wired rules in animals
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For example my toy helicopter relies on the same basic principles as a full size freight helicopter, but they are no where near similar.
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I can imagine these facilities as being very out-of-country and very sub-par in terms of quality of life. The truth is that neural nets are just better at some types of analysis than others, and animals are a really really cheap form of self-contained, self-order
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And an apt signature—given my committing a Nesmanism.