How dogs learn to recognise the meaning of words

The finding is in contrast to human learning, with children associating words with the shapes of objects

Dogs learn words by linking them to size and textures rather than shapes, a new study claims. Researchers from the University of Lincoln found that when a dog learns to associate a word with an object, it makes the association in a completely different way to humans. When toddlers pick up language, they learn by associating words with the shapes of objects.

Fetch! When you tell your dog ‘ball’ it understands ‘furry small thing’ rather than ‘spherical thing’ claims a new study into how man’s best friend picks up language

For example, toddlers who learn what a ‘ball’ is and are then presented other objects with similar shapes, sizes or tex- tures will identify a similarlyshaped object as ‘ball’, rather than one of the same size or texture. Dogs have been shown to associate words with objects, such as toys, but their learning process was unstudied. In the study, researchers presented Gable, a five year old Border Collie, with similar choices to see if this ‘shape bias’ exists in dogs. They found that after a brief training period, Gable learned to associate the name of an object with its size, identifying other objects of similar size by the same name. After a longer period of exposure to both a name and an object, the dog learned to associate a word to other objects of similar textures, but not to objects of similar shape. The difference in the thought process between dogs and humans may come down to how evolutionary history has shaped our sense of perceiving shapes, sizes and textures, said Dr Emile van der Zee, who led the research. ‘Though your dog understands the command “Fetch the ball”, he may think of the object in a very different way than you do when he hears it,’ Dr van der Zee said.