The Department of Psychology, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada.
The Department of Cognitive, Linguistic, and Psychological Sciences, Brown University, 190 Thayer Street, Buchsbaum Lab, Providence, RI, 02912, USA.
Anim Cogn. 2021 Mar;24(2):281-297. doi: 10.1007/s10071-021-01493-5. Epub 2021 Mar 6.
Dogs excel at understanding human social-communicative gestures like points and can distinguish between human informants who vary in characteristics such as knowledge or familiarity. This study explores if dogs, like human children, can use human social informants' past accuracy when deciding whom to trust. Experiment 1 tested whether dogs would behave differently in the presence of an accurate (vs. inaccurate) informant. Dogs followed an accurate informant's point significantly above chance. Further, when presented with an inaccurate point, dogs were more likely to ignore it and choose the correct location. Experiment 2 tested whether dogs could use informant past accuracy to selectively follow the point of the previously accurate informant. In test trials when informants simultaneously pointed at different locations (only one of which contained a treat), dogs chose the accurate informant at chance levels. Experiment 3 controlled for non-social task demands (e.g. understanding of hidden baiting and occlusion events) that may have influenced Experiment 2 performance. In test trials, dogs chose to follow the accurate (vs. inaccurate) informant. This suggests that like children, dogs may be able to use informants' past accuracy when choosing between information sources.
狗在理解人类社交交际手势（如指点）方面表现出色，并且可以区分在知识或熟悉程度等特征上有所不同的人类告知者。本研究探讨了狗是否像人类儿童一样，可以在决定信任谁时利用人类社交告知者的过去准确性。实验 1 测试了狗在准确（与不准确）告知者在场时的行为是否不同。狗跟随准确告知者的指点明显超过机会水平。此外，当呈现不准确的指点时，狗更有可能忽略它并选择正确的位置。实验 2 测试了狗是否可以使用告知者过去的准确性来选择性地跟随之前准确告知者的指点。在测试试验中，告知者同时指向不同的位置（只有一个位置有诱饵），狗随机选择准确的告知者。实验 3 控制了可能影响实验 2 表现的非社交任务要求（例如，对隐藏诱饵和遮挡事件的理解）。在测试试验中，狗选择跟随准确（与不准确）的告知者。这表明，像儿童一样，狗在选择信息源时可能能够利用告知者的过去准确性。
