MTA-ELTE Comparative Ethology Research Group, Budapest, Hungary.
Department of Ethology, Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest, Hungary.
Sci Rep. 2022 Feb 11;12(1):2370. doi: 10.1038/s41598-022-06382-6.
Perception of inanimate objects as animate based on motion cues alone seems to be present in phylogenetically distant species, from birth (humans and chicks). However, we do not know whether the species' social and ecological environment has an influence on this phenomenon. Dogs serve as a unique species to investigate whether selection for specific behavioural traits influences animacy perception. We tested purebred companion dogs, and assigned them into two groups based on the type of work they were originally selected for: (1) Chasers, tracking and chasing prey; (2) Retrievers, mark and remember downed game. We displayed isosceles triangles presenting a chasing pattern vs moving independently, in parallel on a screen. We hypothesised that Chasers prefer to look at chasing and Retrievers eventually focus their visual attention on the independent motion. Overall, we did not find a significant difference between groups regarding the looking duration of dogs or the frequency of their gaze alternation between the chasing and independent motions. Thus it seems that selection for specific traits does not influence the perception of animate entities within the species.
基于运动线索将无生命物体视为有生命的感知似乎存在于从出生（人类和小鸡）起就与人类在进化上相距甚远的物种中。然而，我们不知道物种的社会和生态环境是否会对此现象产生影响。狗是一种独特的物种，可以用来研究特定行为特征的选择是否会影响有生命实体的感知。我们测试了纯种宠物狗，并根据它们最初被选择的工作类型将它们分为两组：（1）追逐者，追踪和追逐猎物；（2）检索者，标记和记住倒下的猎物。我们在屏幕上显示等腰三角形，展示追逐模式与独立移动模式。我们假设追逐者更喜欢看追逐，而检索者最终会将视觉注意力集中在独立运动上。总的来说，我们没有发现两组狗的注视持续时间或它们在追逐和独立运动之间的注视交替频率有显著差异。因此，似乎特定特征的选择不会影响物种内对有生命实体的感知。
