Dog intelligence is the ability of the
dog to perceive information and retain it as knowledge for applying to solve
problems. Dogs have been shown to learn by inference. A study with Rico showed
that he knew the labels of over 200 different items. He inferred the names of
novel items by exclusion learning and correctly retrieved those novel items
immediately and also 4 weeks after the initial exposure. Dogs have advanced
memory skills. A study documented the learning and memory capabilities of a
border collie, "Chaser", who had learned the names and could
associate by verbal command over 1,000 words. Dogs are able to read and react
appropriately to human body language such as gesturing and pointing, and to
understand human voice commands. Dogs demonstrate a theory of mind by engaging
in deception. An experimental study showed compelling evidence that Australian
dingos can outperform domestic dogs in non-social problem-solving, indicating
that domestic dogs may have lost much of their original problem-solving abilities
once they joined humans. Another study indicated that after undergoing training
to solve a simple manipulation task, dogs that are faced with an insoluble
version of the same problem look at the human, while socialized wolves do not.
Modern domestic dogs use humans to solve their problems for them.
Evolutionary perspective
Dogs
have often been used in studies of cognition, including research on perception,
awareness, memory, and learning, notably research on classical and operant
conditioning. In the course of this research, behavioral scientists have
uncovered a surprising set of social-cognitive abilities in the domestic dog,
abilities that are not possessed by dogs' closest canine relatives nor by other
highly intelligent mammals such as great apes. Rather, these skills parallel
some of the social-cognitive skills of human children. This may be an example
of Convergent evolution, which happens when distantly related species
independently evolve similar solutions to the same problems. For example, fish,
penguins and dolphins have each separately evolved flippers as solution to the
problem of moving through the water. With dogs and humans, we may see
psychological convergence; that is, dogs have evolved to be cognitively more
similar to humans than we are to our closest genetic relatives.
However,
it is questionable whether the cognitive evolution of humans and animals may be
called "independent", as the cognitive capacities of dogs have
inevitably been shaped by millennia of contact with humans. As a result of this
physical and social evolution, many dogs readily respond to social cues common
to humans, quickly learn the meaning of words, show cognitive bias and exhibit
emotions that seem to reflect those of humans.
Research
suggests that domestic dogs may have lost some of their original cognitive
abilities once they joined humans. For example, one study showed compelling
evidence that dingos (Canis dingo) can outperform domestic dogs in non-social
problem-solving experiments. Another study indicated that after being trained
to solve a simple manipulation task, dogs that are faced with an insoluble
version of the same problem look at a nearby human, while socialized wolves do
not. Thus, modern domestic dogs seem to use humans to solve some of their
problems for them.
In
2014, a whole genome study of the DNA differences between wolves and dogs found
that dogs did not show a reduced fear response, they showed greater synaptic
plasticity. Synaptic plasticity is widely believed to be the cellular
correlates of learning and memory and this change may have altered the learning
and memory abilities of dogs.
Most
modern research on dog cognition has focused on pet dogs living in human homes
in developed countries, which is only a small fraction of the dog population
and dogs from other populations may show different cognitive behaviors. Breed
differences possibly could impact on spatial learning and memory abilities.
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