Research showed that man’s best friend does not just pick up on the tone of human voices – the animal learns the meaning of individual words.
Hungarian scientists found dogs can recognise up to 1,000 words.
And their brains process information much like humans, the left side dealing with words and the right side with tone.
The study is the first to investigate how dogs follow speech.
Thirteen dogs were trained to listen to their owners’ voices while an MRI scanner checked brain activity.
Results showed that dogs processed words with the left hemisphere, while intonation was processed with the right hemisphere – just like humans
What’s more, the dogs only registered that they were being praised if the words and intonation were positive.
Meaningless words spoken in an encouraging voice, or meaningful words in a neutral tone, didn’t have the same effect.
Lead researcher Attila Andics of Eotvos Lorand University, Budapest, said: “For dogs, nice praise can work very well as a reward.
“But it does work best if both words and intonation match.
“So, dogs not only tell apart what we say and how we say it.
“They can also combine the two, for a correct interpretation of what those words really meant.
“This is very similar to what human brains do.”
So next time you say “Good boy”, to your dog, just make sure you sound like you really mean it.
Posted by , Published at August 30, 2016 and have
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"Good boy" take note mentura
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