Study Aims To Read Dogs' Thoughts 154
jjp9999 writes "A new study at Emory University is trying to figure out what dogs think. The study uses functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) to scan the dogs' brains while they're shown different stimuli. Results from the first study will be published by the Public Library of Science, where the dogs were shown hand signals from their owners. 'We hope this opens up a whole new door for understanding canine cognition and inter-species communication. We want to understand the dog-human relationship, from the dog's perspective,' said Gregory Berns, director of the Emory Center for Neuropolicy and lead researcher of the dog project."
Hello? (Score:5, Funny)
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On top of this, geckos seem rather intelligent too. Their callsign "gecko" is not that easy to make, as it has tons of variations in the tune. If you have ever heard the noise a gecko makes you know what I'm
Re:Hello? (Score:5, Funny)
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Cats thoughts: Kill the human? No, need food, human bad to eat. Kill the human? No, need catnip. Kill the human? No, need water.
More likely- "Kill the human? No, way too big."
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(That line is the one which got Red Dwarf commissioned in the first place.)
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Too bad you fucked it up then isn't it. It goes....
"This is mine! That's mine, all this is mine! I'm claiming all this as mine! Except for that bit, I don't want that bit. But all the rest of this is mine! Hey this has been a good day, I've eaten five times, I've slept six times and I've made a lot of things mine...tomorrow I'm going to see if I can't have sex with something!" Ooowww Yeah!"
Cat, Red Dwarf. Season one episode five, Confidence and Paranoia.
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Yeah. I don't so much call it "googling" as "having it remembered for me wholesale".
Hey, wait... now apparently Google thinks I vacationed on Mars at some point...
Re:Hello? (Score:5, Funny)
Yeah, I used to think my cats jump up on the bed in the morning to see if I am awake so they can say hello and greet me as I start the new day. Actually I have figured out they are checking to see if I am alive or not so the feasting on my still-warm corpse can begin.
Re:Hello? (Score:5, Interesting)
Anybody that thinks that there can be no bond between Humans and cats has not had a close friendship with one!
In 1970 a few years after my dog Lady had died at age sixteen, a badly mauled little white tomcat was sitting in the hallway of the bldg in which I lived (it was open to the ally in the rear), I opened my door and said "you OK cat?" and with no warning he darted under my still opened sofa bed. Not wanting to lose any fingers by pulling him out I tried to coax him out with pieces of fried beef liver, he ate all the liver and a frankfurter (most of it from my hand) and finally got him to come out with a bowl of milk.
I named him Casey Cat, he was the toughest, most pugnacious, scarred up, feisty little runt I had ever seen! He was an American short haired all white alley cat, with one eye damaged, chewed up ears and a missing canine tooth. He weighed in at about six pounds.
Casey came and went as he pleased through an open window, He'd wake me by purring on my chest and when my eyes opened he'd grunt in my face with cat food breath (he could not meow). He was a very memorable friend!
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Cats certainly have higher mental functions, I had two Siamese sisters. Both would sulk when I pushed them away. In the last year of Tinkerbell's life, she started snuggling up real close to my chest at night in bed. This went on including her last night before I had to take her in for that last vet visit, kidney disease. That last night, Ariel was inconsolable, and she demanded to be right on the other side of Tinkerbell. Every night since Tinkerbell's last, Ariel snuggled up just like Tinkerbell had...inc
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Anybody that thinks that there can be no bond between Humans and cats has not had a close friendship with one!
Totally agree.
My cat asks me to spend time with him in the garden. We cuddle for a while, then just sit in each others' presence. Very relaxing, I must say.
Sometimes we go for night walks together. He alternates between walking alongside me and darting between shadows. And sometimes he wants us to just sit. (This can be a little uncomfortable for me when people walk by and wonder why some bloke is sitting/standing around, at night, seemingly alone, in suburbia.)
It seems to me that the difference in soc
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Cats have no sense of loyalty.
Cats are territorial lone hunters.
Dogs are roaming pack hunters.
So, yes, cats will be both more territorial and less loyal.
It's not that it loves you less, it loves you plenty here and now, but it's not a real attachment.
Add that cats have different sleep needs, and aren't always active when their human companions are, while dogs will adjust their sleep and wake periods to fit the pack and situation.
When I come home, and the dogs are at the door and the cats in the window, the dogs think "oh boy, oh boy, he
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It is quite funny to notice the hypocrisy of general human population. They love their cats and dogs, will go out of their way to help an animal who is in distress, but will not pause to think for a moment before ordering their next chicken wings, beef/pork hamburgers or lamb chops. These animals undergo a lot of suffering including their throats slit, being burned/cooked alive before they are ready to be served up as food.
In my point of view, there is no problem in killing your game and eating its meat as our ancestors used to do. But raising cattle just for the purpose of food, keeping them in horrifying condition and then killing them in even more horrifying ways is morally repugnant. The modern meat industry allows a general sensitive, virtuous person to be insulated from all this torture and indirectly make him/her responsible for all this.
We can't feed everyone without raising animals for slaughter.
I'm all for fewer people and better conditions for livestock, but if you think a soy burger is any better, you're retarded. The negative impact caused by growing and harvesting that soy, and then processing and fortifying it so you can live off of it, is as high or higher than that of the beef industry. The crops worse are corn and tobacco.
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Seems more like "DOG! EAT IT! QUICK BEFORE IT GETS AWAY!"
Lameness filter encountered. Post aborted!
Filter error: Don't use so many caps. It's like YELLING
ZOMG! Slashdot is censoring me just like Facebook!
I CAN HAZ TRANSLATION? (Score:5, Funny)
Cats thoughts
Good attempt but your dialect and accent are off. As a long-time scholar of Cat, let me translate for you:
I CAN KILLZ HOOMAN? No, need füdz, hoomanz is made of bad füdz.
I CAN KILLZ HOOMAN? No, give catnipz plz. Kthnxbai.
I CAN KILLZ HOOMAN? No, give waterz plz. Kthnxbai.
DOG. RUN.
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I question the general assumption that felines are inherently deficient in the area of grammar and sentence structure. [photobucket.com]
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No, need füdz, hoomanz is made of bad füdz.
What kind of "cat scholar" are you? What cat ever uses an ümlaüt? No cat I've ever seen.
Not even German cats. And I've spoken with plenty of German cats.
-
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Cats thoughts: Kill the human? No, need food, human bad to eat. Kill the human? No, need catnip. Kill the human? No, need water. DOG. RUN.
According to watching my 2 dogs, dog thoughts are thus:
Squirrel! No, false alarm. Hey, what's that? I need to sniff it. Can I eat it? No. Can I pee on it? No. I'll bark at it! Hey, my humans are home! It's been 10 minutes that seemed like forever I need to sniff them. Hey, what's that? I need to sniff it.
Wash, rinse, repeat.
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Cats have 3 thoughts:
Lunch
Nap
If I were bigger, you'd be lunch
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I read at one point that the reason cats are independent is not because they choose to, because they are not intelligent enough to form packs. I figure that is a stretch but I wish I could find that paper
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Cats pack, or pride. There was TV doc on cats and they had one story where a dog was terrorizing cats in a neighborhood. One day, they set up a trap. The dog went after a cat as bait and the rest jumped him.
Re:Hello? (Score:4, Informative)
A cat's thoughts [kittens-lair.net]
Cats and dogs are both quite intelligent. They're very different, dogs are typically more loyal, and they're social/pack oriented. They want to be part of a heirarchy with a leader (usually an alpha male). They want approval and acceptance into the pack.
Cats are more possessive (they "own" you) and independent. Cats have a "language", their different vocalizations have different meanings. I learned to tell the difference such that I could recognize when I cats were asking for food, water, attention, going outside, caution, or when they just wanted to "talk" (be social). It's simplistic as a "language", but it's effective, and appears to be common to most cats, so it fulfills the requirements of being a "language".
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Dogs also have a "language" - different types and tones of bark (danger, fear, play), many other combinations of body language and sound.
(Said as an owner of three dogsand one retarded cat, and companion/housemate to a cat of normal feline intellect )
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I have had with cats and dogs my whole life. I find both to be equally interesting and I would love to know how a dog thinks. We had a mixed German Sheppard guard dog at our business named Lucky. He had a voracious appetite and would try to eat everything he could (amazingly he didn't eat his own feces, it wasn't good enough for him). That dog lived for food and escaping to find more food. He was also an individual, he was lovable and loyal but never wanted to really listen to anyone. Sometimes when we cal
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Cats are amazingly intelligent, but like people their individual intelligences vary. I knew a cat who could open a door by jumping up and grabbing the knob and swinging. I taught another cat to play dead on cue, point your finger at him and say "bang" and he'd fall over. One time maybe fifteen years ago I was visiting a frined in St Louis, and was woken up by what sounded like a child crying for help, plain as day -- "Help! Help! Help!" I opened the door and Jeff's cat walked in and sad, again plain as day,
Canine Decoder (Score:5, Funny)
The Canine speech decoder already exists:
http://d1syadvoyajtpr.cloudfront.net/534fa0b9aacaf866a8eb6c6f51fa1388_500.jpg [cloudfront.net]
BACON!! (Score:2)
bacon!
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scooby, is that you? lol... I suggest you offer them your services for translation :)
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"Why would they prefer stakes over steak? Are they vampire hunters?"
They're dyslexic _and_ color-blind.
Already done (Score:3, Funny)
Bacon? Is that Bacon? Got to have that bacon! Bacon!
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Dogs can be pretty clever though. I've been observing the development of my delightful pomeranian puppy and have noticed some quite complex emergent behaviour in terms of how she tries to manipulate me to get treats and stuff. Also I've translated a few of the cues she gives - two forepaws slapped down on the ground means no, jumping up in the air and spinning round means yes when I start listing off activities.
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Dogs can be pretty clever though. I've been observing the development of my delightful pomeranian puppy and have noticed some quite complex emergent behaviour
Just ask any pet owner and they'll tell you how communicative animals are, especially the most popular ones (cats&dogs). You just have to spend some time around them...
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9M7dt80zMYc [youtube.com]
i always liked this commercial despite not liking the product.
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Squirrel!
Thanks to scientists... (Score:1, Funny)
Instead of Woof! we'll have
"You are now trespassing on my territory. I have determined that you are not a friend and have no rights to your position. You are hereby advised to withdraw immediately, or run the risk of forcible removal and/or dismemberment."
They could have just played Black & White 2... (Score:4, Interesting)
Read their diaries (Score:3, Funny)
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I prefer this one: http://textfromdog.tumblr.com/ [tumblr.com]
Combine with the FX show "Wilfred" and you've got everything you need to peer into a dog's psyche.
Old news. (Score:5, Funny)
Gary Larson figured this out ages ago. [staticflickr.com]
Re:Old news. (Score:5, Funny)
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Ok, you win at the internet.
Squirrel! (Score:5, Insightful)
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This. First thought I had when seeing the headline.
And now to contribute a bit here.. Meet Doug [youtube.com]
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Don't tell the dog near this lady [youtube.com] (found on VideoSift [videosift.com]). ;)
Dogs? (Score:1)
Why not try to figure out what attractive women think instead of...okay mod me down now.
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Why not try to figure out what attractive women think instead of
"I bet that guy posts on Slashdot. Shun! Shun!
Canine desires? (Score:1)
Your dog wants steak.
Gary Larson is still a genius (Score:2, Funny)
I think The Far Side [whichdog101.com] nailed it, circa 25 years ago.
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Or this one:
https://www.blogmutt.com/images/farside.jpg [blogmutt.com]
"Hello." (Score:1)
Proof of concept! (Score:1)
Top 3 dog thoughts (Score:1)
Can I eat that?
Mitt Romney is a dick.
In other news (Score:3)
A similar study to try to discover what cat's think, was foiled when the cats refused to participate fully in the study. Before they left, initial results showed the following thought: "Get out! The're onto us!"
Profit (Score:5, Funny)
1) Read dog's thoughts. .......
2)
3) Profit.
What's the missing 2nd step here?
Only a dog would know. If only we could read their thoughts. Wait.....
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2) Sell these "insights" to all the crazy people who'd do more for their dogs than their kids. What foods it likes, what play toys it likes, whatever else it wants... with kickbacks from the companies that make it, of course.
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"Hmm...let me try a canine-human mind meld. It's an incredibly rare psychic power possessed only by me and three other clerks at this store."
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So your assertion is that no parents anywhere use techniques provided by developmental psychology for their children?
Because otherwise I fail to see how using training techniques provided by the very same could be considered doing more for the pet than the child.
Fake the throw? (Score:1)
Scrabble tiles (Score:4, Insightful)
Have they tried Scrabble tiles?
It's about time, we can learn from other species. (Score:4, Insightful)
I think this is a very good idea and there should be lots of research in this area. If we discover that animals have thoughts similar enough to ours then we will have to give them rights. Depending on how complex the thoughts they might require person status.
This would at least in theory suggest we will need to consider animal rights when making political or economic decisions. Dogs in specific if they could communicate with us could completely change the relationship humans have with them.
Although I'm going to be honest I don't expect talking dogs anytime soon.
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That is a good argument if you want to convince people *not* to encourage this research.
The research is already being done encouraged or not. If you want to encourage it then you'll have to find some military application for it.
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Combat. Dolphins.
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There's a story that in WW2 the Russians trained dogs to run under tanks by placing food there. Then, they released them in front of the enemy with bombs attached to their backs.
However the dogs only associated food with friendly tanks - and they were smart enough to tell the difference. An own goal was recorded.
Some might say it served them right, the godless commie bastards.
Re:It's about time, we can learn from other specie (Score:4, Funny)
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Of all the hippy nonsense...
I can assure you that dogs are not intelligent enough to be given the standard personal rights, and in some countries they already do have a (very) minimal set of rights.
On the other hand, what this research will do (if successful) is allow us some insight into the workings of an intelligence entirely different from our own. Dogs and Humans common lineage is pretty far removed by any scale, so having a look could teach us a lot of things about intelligence.
I'd wager that this can
I learned my dogs thoughts long ago (Score:2)
It's simply, "Hunh?".
Dogs have thoughts? (Score:2)
Interesting (Score:2)
I've always wondered what a dog is thinking that all these humans must be doing all day long.
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Out hunting, probably. We seem to bring back food often enough.
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Out hunting, while sitting in front of strange boxes that give light all day?!
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I took 'doing' as in 'away from the home'. Otherwise, well, we could just be 'resting nervously'. Dogs can and will just lay there for hours on end if there's nothing all that necessary to do.
It has already been decoded. (Score:4, Funny)
You: Stupid dog Bingo, Why did you do that Bingo? Should you always shred the paper like this Bingo? How can I read it now Bingo! You dimwit Bingo!
Dog hears: xxxxxx xxx Bingo, xxx xxx xxx xxx xxxx Bingo? xxxxx xxx xxxxxx xxxxx xxx xxxxx xxxx xxxx Bingo? xxx xxx X xxxx xx xxx Bingo! xxx xxxxxx Bingo!
Vomit! (Score:3)
I forget which comedian this was from:
"What would your dog say if it could talk? Probably 'You know, vomit really ain't half bad!'"
They already talk (Score:5, Funny)
But dogs can already talk. I swear, here's an absolutely true conversion I had with my dog:
Me: "Sparky, what's on top of a house?"
Dog: "Roof!"
Me: "Sparky, how does sand-paper feel?"
Dog: "Rough!"
Me: "Sparky, who is the best baseball player of all time?"
Dog: "Ruthf!"
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Me: "Sparky, who is the best baseball player of all time?"
Dog: "Ruthf!"
Me: "Stupid dog. You're just barking."
Dog (walks away, muttering): "DiMaggio?"
Pretty much... (Score:2)
Dogs are pretty easy to read:
If you have food:
DROP THE FOOD! Oh PHULLEEZZZ drop the foooooddd!
If you have beer:
SPILL THE BEER! Oh PHULLLEEZZZ drop the beeeer!
If you're leaving:
STAY WITH MEEEEE.. Oh PHULEEZZZZ stay with meeee!
When you're returning:
OH BOY! You're HEEERRRREE!
Cats are even easier:
Are you food yet?
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Here's one of the major reasons I don't own a dog.
If they're inside:
Please let me out!
If they're outside:
Please let me in!
Steak Steak Steak Chicken Whiz Poop (Score:2)
That's pretty much what my dogs think, apart from Rabbit Rabbit Rabbit Rabbit sniff sniff sniff Rabbit Rabbit sniff
Try asking. (Score:4, Interesting)
Try asking the dog. I have a large pack of working livestock dogs on our farm. We use sign language with them. They use some of the signs back to us. There are some limitations, they can't finger spell or do certain moves, but we have have developed a dog-gin mix of sign and vocal language. I also understand some of their own language. All told we have about 300 words that we use back and forth. This is enough language to talk about a lot of things.
If you want to know what they're thinking, ask.
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What Slashdot Posters Hear (Score:2)
findings (Score:2)
The following two sets of data were collected:
Set 1. Notes. Helmet fitted to dog. System started.
Dog: "OMG this poop is delicious! I'm going eat ALL of it! And then go lick the lab human."
Set 2. Notes. Helmet fitted to dog. System started. Note: I seem to have forgotten what I did here, and the dog is missing.
Dog: "These damned humans interrupted me while I was contemplating superluminal particle theory. You! Human! Remove the helmet. Forget. Forget. Now sleep."
finally! we'll get to know who let the dogs out (Score:2)
ouf
0ther Gary Larson (Score:2)
Thought to Text output follows... (Score:2)
Bow, Wow Wow!
Bow! Woooo! Wow bow bow!
FMRI output (Score:2)
"Chase the cat! Chase the cat! Smell the butt! Hump the leg! Hump the leg! Smell the butt! Mmmmm! Bacon! Chase the cat! Chase the cat!"
i love my dog (Score:2)
Up! (Score:2)
Re:Ignoring the more important question.... (Score:4, Insightful)
Probably the case with any relationship, actually. Do we really want to know what other people are thinking? Or cats?
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Do we want to know what dogs are thinking? Or would knowing that ruin the dog-human relationship?
We own a yellow lab, and I'm pretty confident I know what she's thinking about most of the time - she's not that complicated of a creature.
Of course, she might be thinking the same thing about me...
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There was that old joke that if aliens were to observe Earth, they would assume cats and dogs were the rulers and humans there slaves.
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You do urine analysis?
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This pretty much sums it up [likemyphrase.com]
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"I hid under the porch....
Because I LOVE you!"
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Treats, sure. Dogs also chainsmoke when in a panic, as demonstrated by the Kids in the Hall. [youtube.com]
Occasionally when remonstrating myself about something I think "Justify Your Existence!"