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Generalize or personalize--do dogs transfer an acquired rule to novel situations and persons?

Publication ,  Journal Article
Hertel, A; Kaminski, J; Tomasello, M
Published in: PloS one
January 2014

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.

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Published In

PloS one

DOI

EISSN

1932-6203

ISSN

1932-6203

Publication Date

January 2014

Volume

9

Issue

7

Start / End Page

e102666

Related Subject Headings

  • Recognition, Psychology
  • Male
  • Linear Models
  • Learning
  • Knowledge
  • Humans
  • Human-Animal Bond
  • Germany
  • General Science & Technology
  • Female
 

Citation

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Hertel, A., Kaminski, J., & Tomasello, M. (2014). Generalize or personalize--do dogs transfer an acquired rule to novel situations and persons? PloS One, 9(7), e102666. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0102666
Hertel, Anne, Juliane Kaminski, and Michael Tomasello. “Generalize or personalize--do dogs transfer an acquired rule to novel situations and persons?PloS One 9, no. 7 (January 2014): e102666. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0102666.
Hertel A, Kaminski J, Tomasello M. Generalize or personalize--do dogs transfer an acquired rule to novel situations and persons? PloS one. 2014 Jan;9(7):e102666.
Hertel, Anne, et al. “Generalize or personalize--do dogs transfer an acquired rule to novel situations and persons?PloS One, vol. 9, no. 7, Jan. 2014, p. e102666. Epmc, doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0102666.
Hertel A, Kaminski J, Tomasello M. Generalize or personalize--do dogs transfer an acquired rule to novel situations and persons? PloS one. 2014 Jan;9(7):e102666.

Published In

PloS one

DOI

EISSN

1932-6203

ISSN

1932-6203

Publication Date

January 2014

Volume

9

Issue

7

Start / End Page

e102666

Related Subject Headings

  • Recognition, Psychology
  • Male
  • Linear Models
  • Learning
  • Knowledge
  • Humans
  • Human-Animal Bond
  • Germany
  • General Science & Technology
  • Female