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Gaze Following in Dogs
3
Gesture and Gaze Understanding in Dogs and Wolves
Kerry Cantrell
Comparative Psychology
References
Canidae. (2023). In Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Canidae&oldid=1133345017
Hare, B., Brown, M., Williamson, C., & Tomasello, M. (2002). The Domestication of Social Cognition in Dogs. Science, 298.
Miklósi, A., Kubinyi, E., Topal, J., Gacsi, M., Viranyi, Z., & Csanyi, V. (2003). A Simple Reason for a Big Difference: Wolves Do Not Look Back at Humans, but Dogs Do. Current Biology, 13, 763–766.
Background
Hare et al.,
Following Gestures
- many primates follow their conspecific's gaze
- or humans' gaze
- evolutionary value of following gaze
- gestures towards hidden food
- usually learn instead of spontaneous understanding
- except dogs--display spontaneous understanding
Why Can Dogs Perform Well?
Why Do Dogs Excel?
Canid Hypothesis
Canid
- canids' social structure
- therefore, wolves will have equal capabilties
(“Canidae,” 2023)
Socialization
Humans' Influence
- chimps aren't socialized
- therefore, dogs that are highly socialized and relatively older will respond better
Artificial Selection
Modern dogs are more likely to follow human communicative gestures than other animals
We breed more dog ancestors who follow our social cues
Humans favor the dog ancestor that displays human-like communication
Domestication/Artificial Selection
- dogs would outperform wolves
- socialization would not influence preformance
Hare et al., Dogs v. Chimps
Do dogs outperform chimps in human social cues?
Dogs v. Chimps
- marked chamber with food via:
- gaze
- reaching toward
- wooden block
- all three at once
Dogs v. Wolves
Hare et al., and Miklósi et al., Dogs v. Wolves
Hare et al., Adult Dogs v. Adult Wolves
Can wolves also read human gestures, meaning a shared ancestor of canids could?
Adults
- 7 adults of each
- Conditions: identify food location by :
- gazing, pointing, and tapping (GPT)
- gaze and point (GP)
- point (P)
- control (no gesture or sightline) (C)
Hare et al., Nonsocial Food Finding
Are dogs just better at finding food than wolves?
Fastest Food-Finder
- Conditions: showed 5 adults of each hidden food, allowed time to lapse, then the canid chose where they thought the food was
- Control: animal didn't see where the food was hidden
Miklósi et al., Socialized Wolves and Gestures
Does socialization/human exposure increase understanding of cues?
Socialized Wolves
- 4 socialized wolves
- 3 cues:
- distal pointing (>50 cm)
- proximal pointing (5-10 cm)
- direct contact
- generally, below dogs
- why is distal pointing so low?
- maybe the wolves avoid looking at people?
Miklósi et al., Wolves v. Dogs Eye Contact
Do wolves miss cues because they aren't looking at the human?
Eye Contact
- trained socialized wolves and dogs to perform a task
- then made that task unsolvable
- who looked at the human more in the unsolvable task?
Hare et al., Dog Puppies
Does socialization influence dog responses?
Results
Dogs
- 9-26 weeks old
- 32 individuals
- family- and kennel-reared
- Conditions: indicate food via:
- gaze and pointing (GP)
- gaze (G)
Conclusions
- dogs outperform wolves - gaze following likely wasn't inhereited by a common ancestor
- wolves are less likely to look at humans - may be why they miss distance cues
- wolves perform below dogs even when socialized - cue understanding is not acquired by human interaction
- dogs equal wolves for finding food - the set up of the experiments was not biased towards dogs
- dogs respond to cues equally with different socialization levels - cue response is an innate trait in dogs