Dogs understand nouns and know what some words stand for, study reveals

Dogs have a good understanding of certain words and they know what these words stand for, a study has revealed, based on recordings of their brain activity.

The study was conducted by Marianna Boros at Eötvös Loránd University in Budapest, Hungary, and her colleagues. The experiment was conducted on 18 dogs of different breeds, including Border collies, toy poodles and Labrador retrievers.

It was revealed that dogs can reach beyond basic commands such as ‘sit’ and ‘fetch’.

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How was the experiment conducted?

The owners of the dogs selected five familiar objects for each of their pets. During the experiment, they would utter the name of one of these objects and then present either the named object or a different one to the dog.

Using electroencephalography (EEG), the researchers monitored the brainwaves of each dog. They aimed to observe any variances in brain activity when the dog's owner mentioned a specific object, such as a "ball", but displayed a different item, like a stick, as opposed to when both the spoken word and the presented object matched.

“The idea was that if dogs understand the meaning of the words, their brain responses will differ between the presentation of matching and mismatching objects,” said Boros.

Results of the study

The results showed that distinct EEG signals were monitored when the objects didn't match with the words. A more pronounced effect on dogs was observed for words that they were more familiar with.

“The most important realisation of this study is not only that non-humans are capable of understanding words referentially, but this capacity seems to be generally present in dogs as well,” added Boros. “This study demonstrates that dogs may understand more than they show.”

These findings mirror similar patterns seen in humans, implying that dogs possess an understanding that certain words correlate with specific objects.

(With inputs from agencies)