Generalize or personalize--do dogs transfer an acquired rule to novel situations and persons?
Journal Article (Journal Article)
Recent studies have raised the question of whether dogs, like human infants, comprehend an established rule as generalizable, normative knowledge or rather as episodic information, existing only in the immediate situation. In the current study we tested whether dogs disobeyed a prohibition to take a treat (i) in the presence of the communicator of the ban, (ii) after a temporary absence of the communicator, and (iii) in the presence of a novel person. Dogs disobeyed the rule significantly more often when the communicator left the room for a moment or when they were faced with a new person, than when she stayed present in the room. These results indicate that dogs "forget" a rule as soon as the immediate human context becomes disrupted.
Full Text
Duke Authors
Cited Authors
- Hertel, A; Kaminski, J; Tomasello, M
Published Date
- January 2014
Published In
Volume / Issue
- 9 / 7
Start / End Page
- e102666 -
PubMed ID
- 25029253
Pubmed Central ID
- PMC4100895
Electronic International Standard Serial Number (EISSN)
- 1932-6203
International Standard Serial Number (ISSN)
- 1932-6203
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)
- 10.1371/journal.pone.0102666
Language
- eng