Heberlein Marianne T E, Oberliessen Lina V, Virányi Zsófia, Lutonsky Christiane, Turner Dennis C
Core Facility Wolf Science Center, University of Veterinary Medicine Vienna, Vienna, Austria.
Animal Behavior, Department of Evolutionary Biology and Environmental Studies, University of Zurich, Zürich, Switzerland.
Front Psychol. 2025 Jun 25;16:1608797. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2025.1608797. eCollection 2025.
The characterization of imperative pointing as intentional communication, aimed at eliciting specific actions from a partner, has been debated, with some suggesting it reflects an understanding of others as causal agents rather than attributing intentional states to them. While gaze alternation has been identified as an important form of intentional communication in humans and apes, its interpretation in dogs remains unclear.
This research investigates dogs' capacity for gaze alternation and other showing behaviors, examining their flexibility in adjusting to the cooperativeness or knowledge state of their human partners. Two experiments were conducted: (1) hiding food in the presence of dogs either with or without their owners observing the hiding procedure, and (2) hiding food in the presence of dogs and a cooperative or a competitive human partner. In the first experiment the behaviors of 21 dogs and in the second experiment 23 dogs were analyzed.
Dogs exhibited more gaze alternation and food-directed showing behaviors when their owner lacked knowledge of the food location and in the presence of a cooperative partner. Conversely, they showed an empty hiding place to the competitive partner, suggesting an understanding of the partner's intention to consume the hidden reward.
In the two independent experiments, we showed how flexibly dogs adapt their showing behavior to the knowledge or expected behavior of their human partners. These findings confirm dogs' comprehension of the informative value of their behavior, suggesting that their showing behavior is a form of intentional communication.
将命令性指向表征为旨在引发伙伴特定行为的有意交流一直存在争议，一些人认为这反映了对他人作为因果主体的理解，而非将意向状态归因于他们。虽然目光交替已被确认为人类和猿类有意交流的一种重要形式，但在狗身上的解读仍不明确。
本研究调查了狗的目光交替能力及其他展示行为，考察它们在适应人类伙伴的合作性或知识状态方面的灵活性。进行了两项实验：（1）在狗在场的情况下藏食物，其主人要么观察要么不观察藏食物的过程；（2）在狗在场的情况下，与一个合作或竞争的人类伙伴一起藏食物。分析了第一项实验中21只狗的行为以及第二项实验中23只狗的行为。
当狗的主人不知道食物位置且有合作伙伴在场时，狗表现出更多的目光交替和指向食物的展示行为。相反，它们向竞争伙伴展示空的藏物处，这表明它们理解伙伴想要获取隐藏奖励的意图。
在这两项独立实验中，我们展示了狗如何灵活地根据人类伙伴的知识或预期行为调整它们的展示行为。这些发现证实了狗对其行为信息价值的理解，表明它们的展示行为是一种有意交流的形式。
