Research study shows dogs can classify complex photos

Animals continue to prove how intelligent they are.

A study from the University of Vienna in Austria has shown that dogs can classify complex color photographs and categorize them just like how humans can. The dogs also used touch-screen computers during the study, which eliminated possible human influence.

To show that dogs can place pictures into categories and transfer their knowledge to new situations, four dogs were shown landscape and dog photos in their training process. If the dog selected the dog picture, they were rewarded with a treat.

The dogs then participated in two tests. First, they were shown different dog and landscape pictures that they had never seen before. The dogs continued to select the photos with dogs on them, which showed that they could transfer what they learned before to a new situation.

In the second test, the dogs were shown new dog pictures pasted onto the landscape picture they initially saw in their training process. They were also shown pictures of a new landscape picture with no dog on the photo. The idea was to make them face contradictory information — a new positive stimulus in the form of new dogs’ pictures, and a familiar negative stimulus in the form of the landscape.

The dogs reliably chose the option with the dog in the photograph. Researchers said these results showed that dogs were able to form a concept, i.e. ‘dog’.

Reference: www.itchmo.com

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