PSYO 2160 Lecture Notes - Lecture 4: Fast Mapping, Blind Experiment, Interspecies Communication
9 May 2018
School
Department
Course
Professor
Dog Domestication
Dog Domestication
o Although we are genetically closest to apes, we evolved alongside dogs which some
people say, aided in our evolution
o Direct pathway - we actively went out and looked for the tamest wolves and
bred them and domesticated dogs
o Commensal pathway - simply that dogs, who are scavengers, hung around
humans. Those individuals had a higher stress tolerance and a lower fear bar
made a relationship with humans.
o 85% of dogs are wild
o Research group in Russia who are taming foxes using the direct pathway
o They found that the further generations they got by breading the tame foxes,
they started to change their phenotype and retained their juvenile
characteristics for a longer period of time
o Great apes are our closest relatives
o We evolved alongside dogs
Dogs and Human Social Cues Following Points
o Interspecies communication - dogs are exceptional with reading humans
o Examine their ability to understand pointing because pointing is a movement
that only humans do and understand
o There are studies that are trying to prove that apes don't understand pointing
o Between the ages two and three, humans develop body language
comprehension
Dogs and Human Social Cues - Emotional Intelligence
o Played an audio clip of someone either happy or sad, they also posted two faces, one
happy and one sad. When the happy voice was played, the dog looked at the happy
face and when the angry voice was played the dog looked at the angry face
o They were able to understand emotional context
Dogs and Humans Social Cues - Clever Hans
o Hans' owner discovered that Hans was able to understand the alphabet, do math and
do complicated problems but the horse was actually reading the physical response of
his owner
o He tapped his foot to give answers, but when Hans got close to the answer, the
owner would give an unconscious signal and then Hans would know the
answer
o Hans didn't perform and get answers when the experiment was double blind
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