Well, a study published in the journal Scientific Reports reveals that rapid object-name learning is possible for a non-human species (dogs), although memory consolidation may require more exposures.
According to the researchers, some dogs are indeed able to learn the names of new objects, through play.
Dr. Claudia Fugazza of Eötvös Loránd University in Hungary, an author of the new study said: “It is similar to the situation [by] which human children learn words, but we don’t know if the mechanism [in the brain] is the same.”
In the research, Fugazza and colleagues reveal how they tested two dogs whose owners reported they were good at picking up names: a four-year old Border Collie called Whisky, and a nine year-old Yorkshire Terrier called Vicky Nina.
After confirming that both dogs were indeed able to select known toys upon request the team carried out two experiments.
In one, the dog was presented with a new object among seven familiar toys and was instructed by their owner to fetch one of the items by name. In the other task each dog played with a novel toy while the toy’s name was repeated by the owner. Both tasks were repeated with two novel toys for each dog, and in each the name of the new toy was uttered just four times.
The team found that Whisky, and to a lesser extent Vicky Nina, generally picked the novel toy among familiar items when its name was said – despite the name of the toy being new to the dog. But neither animal did better than chance when subsequently asked to select one of the two novel toys by name.
In other words, Fugazza explained, the dogs picked the right toy in the initial task by simply excluding the items whose names they already knew.
By contrast, when the name of the novel toy was said during play, the dogs subsequently chose correctly when asked to select one of the two novel toys by name, with Whisky picking the correct toy in 17 out of 24 trials and Vicky Nina in 15 out of 20 trials – although their success waned over time.
Fugazza said the talent for word learning appears to be specific to a few “gifted” canines: 20 other family dogs showed no word learning abilities when tested by the team.
Dr. Federico Rossano, director of the Comparative Cognition Lab at the University of California San Diego, who was not involved in the research, said it was probably easier to learn new words in a social context, but that did not rule out that Rico and Chaser had the ability to learn new words via exclusion.
Rossano added it would now be useful to explore to whether training would enable the average dog to learn words, or whether the skill is an inherent trait.
Sarah-Jayne Blakemore, professor in cognitive neuroscience at University College London, said: “These findings cast doubt on the assumption that the ability to learn word sounds linked to particular objects is unique to humans.”
While welcoming the study, she however, noted that questions remained, “such as why some dogs are able to learn object names but others aren’t, how long memory for new words lasts, whether word learning in dogs uses the same mechanism as word learning in humans, and whether this ability is unique to certain dog breeds, perhaps breeds that have lived alongside humans for millennia.”
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