Theory of mind refers to the ability of one person to infer the contents of another person’s mind by observing their behavior. The concept of theory of mind was advanced by Premack and Woodruff as early as 1978 to explain the behavior of chimpanzees. In a landmark article, Povinelli, Nelson, and Boysen reported the classic […]
Animal Learning & Cognition
According to some estimates, there are about 1 billion dogs sharing Planet Earth with us. Most live in largely unrestricted conditions as village or pariah dogs, while only a small percentage of the world’s dog population live independently from humans. Most dogs have to maintain regular connections with humans to share our resources, which is […]
Looking into the eyes of our new puppy, Kit Kat, it is hard not to feel as if she understands me. While I usually describe myself as a cat person, our family cats have never evoked the same feeling of “understanding” for me as our family dogs have, even though the cats arguably spend much […]
This post was co-authored by Ludwig Huber. We were guest editors of a special issue of Learning & Behavior that is entirely devoted to the cognitive (and sensory) abilities of dogs (Canis lupus familiaris). The articles can be accessed from this landing page for free until 31 December 2018. As far as we know, apart […]
I live on an island that is famous for quite a few things, among them the apparent love affair between its human and canine inhabitants. According to an English journalist writing for a mainstream newspaper, “Many Englishmen reserve their deepest feelings for dogs and other dumb beasts.” (Her words, not mine). According to another journalist, […]
Suppose I were to show you three different objects – a Jeep, Honda, and Ferrari. You could quickly name their shared category as “car”. Pigeons, honeybees, dogs, rats, and a variety of primates can answer that question just as fast as a human, after sufficient experience. Even more impressive is that all of these species can […]
Long ago (~ 1050 AD) in the Western Alps, a monk by the name St. Bernard de Menthon established a monastery to help travelers across the dangerous St. Bernard’s Pass. Roughly 600 years later, the monks of this monastery acquired their first St. Bernard dog; a breed that ultimately became renowned for its ability to […]
Perhaps like no other animal, dogs have been offering companionship to us humans for millennia. Indeed, it has been suggested that dogs have been partners in our evolutionary journey. Dogs split from grey wolves more than 30,000 years ago. Since then, the brains and some other organs of domestic dogs have evolved in ways that […]
Last January, I celebrated the end of my sabbatical with a trip to a tropical paradise to conduct research, right before my next teaching term began. This enabled me to trade the middle of winter in south Texas for this: Paradise “lost”. To prepare for my forthcoming blog deadlines (and to avoid procrastination in its […]
Sir Winston Churchill once made the following statement: “I am fond of pigs. Dogs look up to us. Cats look down on us. Pigs treat us as equals.” While Sir Churchill’s perspective may be indicating the direction of a partnership, it also reminds us that we must be mindful of the biases and assets that […]