Research article summary (published 2 Sep 2009):

Differential sensitivity to human communication in dogs, wolves, and human infants.

Full Abstract

Ten-month-old infants persistently search for a hidden object at its initial hiding place even after observing it being hidden at another location. Recent evidence suggests that communicative cues from the experimenter contribute to the emergence of this perseverative search error. We replicated these results with dogs (Canis familiaris), who also commit more search errors in ostensive-communicative (in 75% of the total trials) than in noncommunicative (39%) or nonsocial (17%) hiding contexts. However, comparative investigations suggest that communicative signals serve different functions for dogs and infants, whereas human-reared wolves (Canis lupus) do not show doglike context-dependent differences of search errors. We propose that shared sensitivity to human communicative signals stems from convergent social evolution of the Homo and the Canis genera.

Author information

Author/s: Topál, József (J); Gergely, György (G); Erdohegyi, Agnes (A); Csibra, Gergely (G); Miklósi, Adám (A);

Affiliation: Research Institute for Psychology, Hungarian Academy of Sciences, 1132 Budapest, Hungary. topaljozsef(-atsign-)gmail.com

Journal and publication information

Publication Type: Comparative Study; Journal Article; Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

Journal: Science (New York, N.Y.) (Science), published in United States. (Language: eng)

Reference: 2009-Sep; vol 325 (issue 5945) : pp 1269-72

Dates: Created 2009/09/04; Completed 2009/09/18;

PMID: 19729660, status: MEDLINE (last retrieval date: 9/18/2009, IMS Date: )

Sourced from the National Library of Medicine. Abstract text and other information may be subject to copyright.

Comments and Corrections

CommentIn: Science. 2009 Sep 4;325(5945):1213-4. (PMID: 19729645)

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MeSH headings (categories)

This article was linked to the MESH Headings shown below.

Animal Communication Animals Behavior, Animal Cognition Cues Dogs Evolution Female

Female Humans Infant Learning Male Nonverbal Communication Social Behavior Wolves

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