Dogs are surprised when a person incorrectly names familiar objects.
Many dog owners believe that their pets are capable of understanding human speech, and there is some truth to this. Although not all words are known to them, dogs can indeed learn a certain number of terms; after all, they respond to our commands. A striking example is a border collie named Chaser, who knew over a thousand words, most of which referred to different toys. However, Chaser was a unique case.
As for ordinary dogs that do not undergo special training to recognize many objects, the question arises as to how exactly they learn human words. Does a dog that hears the word “ball” understand that it refers to a specific round object that feels soft to the touch? Does it realize that a ball is different from a stick? Or, when a dog hears the command “ball,” does it trigger something like a reflex to familiar sounds of human speech?
Researchers from the University of Budapest suggest that an ordinary dog is quite capable of understanding the concept of an object — that is, realizing how a ball differs from a stick, and that the word “ball” does not refer to a stick. The experiment involved twenty-seven dogs of various breeds, brought to the laboratory by their owners. Electrodes were placed on the dogs' heads to read brain waves, and then they were laid on a comfortable mattress where they were to listen to commands. There was a window on the wall that periodically became transparent: when the owner's voice was heard, the window opened, and the owner appeared with a toy in hand.
The essence of the experiment was that the owner's voice would say the phrase “Look, a ball!” while the owner in the “window” would show either a ball or something else, such as a rope toy. If the dog truly understands how certain sounds of speech relate to a specific toy, it should be surprised if something other than a ball appears in the window when the word “ball” is spoken. Surprise could be recorded by brain activity — a characteristic signal that also occurs in humans when they encounter the unexpected. Researchers recorded such a signal of surprise in dogs. The ability of dogs to understand the meaning of words had been studied before, but in this case, the experiments were conducted with pets that were not specifically trained. Thus, it can be argued that an ordinary dog actually understands more than it seems at first glance. The results of the study were published in the journal Current Biology.
