Department of Ethology, Institute of Biology, Eötvös Loránd University, Pázmány Péter Sétány 1/C, 1117, Budapest, Hungary.
MTA-ELTE Lendület "Momentum" Companion Animal Research Group, Budapest, Hungary.
Sci Rep. 2023 Oct 19;13(1):17899. doi: 10.1038/s41598-023-45241-w.
Body-awareness is one of the fundamental modules of self-representation. We investigated how body-awareness could contribute to dogs' decision making in a novel spatial problem where multiple solutions are possible. Family dogs (N = 68) had to obtain a treat from behind a transparent fence. They had two options: either detour around the fence (7 m), or take a shortcut through a doorway (2 m). We had three conditions: small door open, large door open, and doors closed. Our results indicated that dogs assess the size of the doorway, and if they find it too small, they decide to detour instead, while in the case of the open large door, they rather opted for the shortcut without hesitation. Shorter headed dogs tended to choose open doors more often, while longer headed dogs rather chose detours, probably because of their better peripheral vision. While body size awareness did not manifest differently in dogs with short or long heads, we showed for the first time a connection between head shape and physical cognition in dogs. We showed that dogs rely on their body-awareness in a naturalistic setting where multiple solutions exist simultaneously. Dogs make decisions without lengthy trial-and-error learning and choose between options based on their body-awareness.
身体意识是自我表现的基本模块之一。我们研究了身体意识如何帮助狗在一个新颖的空间问题中做出决策，在这个问题中存在多种可能的解决方案。家庭犬（N=68）必须从透明围栏后面获取食物。他们有两个选择：要么绕过围栏（7 米），要么通过门口走捷径（2 米）。我们有三种情况：小门打开、大门打开和门关闭。结果表明，狗会评估门口的大小，如果它们发现门口太小，就会决定绕道而行，而在大门打开的情况下，它们会毫不犹豫地选择走捷径。头部较短的狗往往更频繁地选择打开的门，而头部较长的狗则更倾向于选择绕道，这可能是因为它们的周边视觉更好。虽然身体大小意识在头部短或长的狗中没有表现出不同，但我们首次表明头型与狗的身体认知之间存在联系。我们表明，狗在存在多种同时存在的解决方案的自然环境中依靠身体意识做出决策。狗无需经过漫长的试错学习即可做出决策，并根据身体意识在选项之间做出选择。
