Department of Evolutionary Anthropology, Duke University, Durham, NC, USA.
School of Veterinary Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA.
Anim Cogn. 2024 Nov 20;27(1):78. doi: 10.1007/s10071-024-01901-6.
Dogs' comprehension of human gestures has been characterized as more human-like than that of our closest primate relatives, due to a level of flexibility and spontaneous performance on par with that of human infants. However, many of the critical experiments that have been the core evidence for an understanding of human communicative intentions in dogs have yet to be replicated. Here we test the ability of dogs to comprehend a pointing gesture while varying the salience of the gesture and the context in which it is made. We find that subjects' (N = 70) choices across two experiments are consistent with an understanding of communicative intentions. Results largely replicate previous critical controls that rule out a number of egocentric hypotheses including an attraction to human hands and novelty. We also find that dogs spontaneously follow a human gesture in a new context: choosing which direction to navigate around a barrier. The flexible and spontaneous problem solving observed in dogs' gesture comprehension is discussed in relation to its similarity to that of human infants. We conclude with important avenues for future research.
狗对人类手势的理解被描述为比我们最亲近的灵长类近亲更像人类，因为它们的灵活性和自发性表现与人类婴儿相当。然而，许多被认为是狗能够理解人类交流意图的关键实验尚未被复制。在这里，我们测试了狗在改变手势的显著性和手势出现的情境的情况下理解手势的能力。我们发现，在两个实验中，被试者（N=70）的选择与对交流意图的理解一致。结果在很大程度上复制了之前的关键控制实验，排除了一些自我中心的假设，包括对人类手和新奇事物的吸引力。我们还发现，狗在新的情境中会自发地跟随人类的手势：选择绕过障碍物的导航方向。我们讨论了狗在理解手势时所表现出的灵活和自发的解决问题的能力，这与人类婴儿的能力相似。最后，我们提出了未来研究的重要方向。
