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...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Linda Scheider, Susanne Grassmann, Juliane Kaminski, Michael Tomasello
Format: article
Language:EN
Published: Public Library of Science (PLoS) 2011
Subjects:
R
Q
Online Access:https://doaj.org/article/05885c0e7ab14398a59fbe23a8b9428c
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
id oai:doaj.org-article:05885c0e7ab14398a59fbe23a8b9428c
record_format dspace
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
_version_ 1718424269661143040