Domestic dogs use contextual information and tone of voice when following a human pointing gesture.

Domestic dogs are skillful at using the human pointing gesture. In this study we investigated whether dogs take contextual information into account when following pointing gestures, specifically, whether they follow human pointing gestures more readily in the context in which food has been found pre...

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Main Authors:	Linda Scheider, Susanne Grassmann, Juliane Kaminski, Michael Tomasello
Format:	article
Language:	EN
Published:	Public Library of Science (PLoS) 2011
Subjects:	Medicine R Science Q
Online Access:	https://doaj.org/article/05885c0e7ab14398a59fbe23a8b9428c
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id	oai:doaj.org-article:05885c0e7ab14398a59fbe23a8b9428c
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spelling	oai:doaj.org-article:05885c0e7ab14398a59fbe23a8b9428c2021-11-18T06:50:23ZDomestic dogs use contextual information and tone of voice when following a human pointing gesture.1932-620310.1371/journal.pone.0021676https://doaj.org/article/05885c0e7ab14398a59fbe23a8b9428c2011-01-01T00:00:00Zhttps://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/pmid/21765904/?tool=EBIhttps://doaj.org/toc/1932-6203Domestic dogs are skillful at using the human pointing gesture. In this study we investigated whether dogs take contextual information into account when following pointing gestures, specifically, whether they follow human pointing gestures more readily in the context in which food has been found previously. Also varied was the human's tone of voice as either imperative or informative. Dogs were more sustained in their searching behavior in the 'context' condition as opposed to the 'no context' condition, suggesting that they do not simply follow a pointing gesture blindly but use previously acquired contextual information to inform their interpretation of that pointing gesture. Dogs also showed more sustained searching behavior when there was pointing than when there was not, suggesting that they expect to find a referent when they see a human point. Finally, dogs searched more in high-pitched informative trials as opposed to the low-pitched imperative trials, whereas in the latter dogs seemed more inclined to respond by sitting. These findings suggest that a dog's response to a pointing gesture is flexible and depends on the context as well as the human's tone of voice.Linda ScheiderSusanne GrassmannJuliane KaminskiMichael TomaselloPublic Library of Science (PLoS)articleMedicineRScienceQENPLoS ONE, Vol 6, Iss 7, p e21676 (2011)
institution	DOAJ
collection	DOAJ
language	EN
topic	Medicine R Science Q
spellingShingle	Medicine R Science Q Linda Scheider Susanne Grassmann Juliane Kaminski Michael Tomasello Domestic dogs use contextual information and tone of voice when following a human pointing gesture.
description	Domestic dogs are skillful at using the human pointing gesture. In this study we investigated whether dogs take contextual information into account when following pointing gestures, specifically, whether they follow human pointing gestures more readily in the context in which food has been found previously. Also varied was the human's tone of voice as either imperative or informative. Dogs were more sustained in their searching behavior in the 'context' condition as opposed to the 'no context' condition, suggesting that they do not simply follow a pointing gesture blindly but use previously acquired contextual information to inform their interpretation of that pointing gesture. Dogs also showed more sustained searching behavior when there was pointing than when there was not, suggesting that they expect to find a referent when they see a human point. Finally, dogs searched more in high-pitched informative trials as opposed to the low-pitched imperative trials, whereas in the latter dogs seemed more inclined to respond by sitting. These findings suggest that a dog's response to a pointing gesture is flexible and depends on the context as well as the human's tone of voice.
format	article
author	Linda Scheider Susanne Grassmann Juliane Kaminski Michael Tomasello
author_facet	Linda Scheider Susanne Grassmann Juliane Kaminski Michael Tomasello
author_sort	Linda Scheider
title	Domestic dogs use contextual information and tone of voice when following a human pointing gesture.
title_short	Domestic dogs use contextual information and tone of voice when following a human pointing gesture.
title_full	Domestic dogs use contextual information and tone of voice when following a human pointing gesture.
title_fullStr	Domestic dogs use contextual information and tone of voice when following a human pointing gesture.
title_full_unstemmed	Domestic dogs use contextual information and tone of voice when following a human pointing gesture.
title_sort	domestic dogs use contextual information and tone of voice when following a human pointing gesture.
publisher	Public Library of Science (PLoS)
publishDate	2011
url	https://doaj.org/article/05885c0e7ab14398a59fbe23a8b9428c
work_keys_str_mv	AT lindascheider domesticdogsusecontextualinformationandtoneofvoicewhenfollowingahumanpointinggesture AT susannegrassmann domesticdogsusecontextualinformationandtoneofvoicewhenfollowingahumanpointinggesture AT julianekaminski domesticdogsusecontextualinformationandtoneofvoicewhenfollowingahumanpointinggesture AT michaeltomasello domesticdogsusecontextualinformationandtoneofvoicewhenfollowingahumanpointinggesture
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Domestic dogs use contextual information and tone of voice when following a human pointing gesture.

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