Do dogs (Canis lupus familiaris) make counterproductive choices because they are sensitive to human ostensive cues?

ABSTRACT: Dogs appear to be sensitive to human ostensive communicative cues in a variety of situations, however there is still a measure of controversy as to the way in which these cues influence human-dog interactions. There is evidence for instance that dogs can be led into making evaluation errors in a quantity discrimination task, for example losing their preference for a larger food quantity if a human shows a preference for a smaller one, yet there is, so far, no explanation for this phenomenon. Using a modified version of this task, in the current study we investigated whether non-social, social or communicative cues (alone or in combination) cause dogs to go against their preference for the larger food quantity. Results show that dogs' evaluation errors are indeed caused by a social bias, bu

SUBMITTER: Marshall-Pescini S 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3338840 | biostudies-literature | 2012

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature