Dog intelligence is the ability of a dog to learn, think, and solve problems, according to Science Daily.
Dog intelligence or dog cognition is the process in dogs of acquiring, storing in memory, retrieving, combining, comparing, and using in new situations information and conceptual skills. Just like it is in humans. Studies have shown that dogs display many behaviors associated with intelligence. They have advanced memory skills, are able to read and react appropriately to human body language such as gesturing and pointing, and to understand human voice commands. Dogs demonstrate a theory of mind by engaging in deception.
“Theory of mind” is the ability to attribute mental states—beliefs, intents, desires, pretending, knowledge, etc.—to oneself and others and to understand that others have beliefs, desires, intentions, and perspectives that are different from one’s own.
Here is an example of demonstrating a theory of mind using deception. One observer reported that a dog hid a stolen treat by sitting on it until the rightful owner of the treat left the room. Although this could have been accidental, it suggests that the thief understood that the treat’s owner would be unable to find the treat if it were out of view. A study found that dogs are able to discriminate an object that a human partner is looking for based on its relevance for the partner and they are more keen on indicating an object that is relevant to the partner compared to an irrelevant one; this suggests that dogs might have a rudimental version of some of the skills necessary for theory of mind.
I have seen young wire fox terriers exhibit behavior very similar to this. They will sit innocently while their human is in the room and immediately upon the human’s departure will engage in inappropriate behavior.
We all know dogs are very capable of learning. Most everyone is familiar with Pavlov’s experiment. Other researchers looking into classical and operant conditioning have seen evidence of social-cognitive abilities in domesticated dogs. They’ve also found that these same characteristics are not found in the dog’s closest non-domesticated canine relative or in other highly intelligent mammals such as apes.
Instead, the domesticated canine’s skills resemble the social-cognitive skills of human children. It has been hypothesized that this could be an example of convergent evolution, which happens when distantly related species independently evolve similar solutions to the same problems. For example, fish, penguins and dolphins have each separately evolved flippers as a to the problem of moving through the water. With dogs and humans, we may see psychological convergence; that is, dogs have evolved to be cognitively more similar to humans than we are to our closest genetic relatives.
Researchers continue to question, however, whether the cognitive evolution of humans and animals may be called “independent”. The cognitive capacities of dogs have inevitably been shaped by years of contact with humans. As a result of this physical and social evolution, many dogs readily respond to social cues common to humans, quickly learn the meaning of words, show cognitive bias and exhibit emotions that seem to reflect those of humans.
All the while we discuss how dogs’ intelligence or cognition may have evolved with their relationship with humans, we also must ask if it has “devolved” as well.
Research suggests that domestic dogs may have lost some of their original cognitive abilities once they joined humans. For example, one study showed compelling evidence that dingos (Canis dingo) can outperform domestic dogs in non-social problem-solving experiments. Another study indicated that after being trained to solve a simple manipulation task, dogs that are faced with an unsolvable version of the same problem look at a nearby human, while socialized wolves do not. Thus, modern domestic dogs seem to use humans to solve some of their problems for them.[3][13]
Of course, as evolution occurs, the genetic make-up of an animal is subject to change. In 2014, a whole genome study of the DNA differences between wolves and dogs found that dogs did not show a reduced fear response, they showed greater synaptic plasticity.
In neuroscience, synaptic plasticity is the ability of synapses to strengthen or weaken over time, in response to increases or decreases in their activity.[1] Since memories are believed to be represented by vastly interconnected neural circuits in the brain, synaptic plasticity is one of the important neurochemical foundations of learning and memory. It is widely believed to be the cellular correlate of learning and memory, and this change may have altered the learning and memory abilities of dogs.[14]
The first intelligence test for dogs was developed in 1976. It included measurements of short-term memory, agility, and ability to solve problems such as detouring to a goal. It also assessed the ability of a dog to adapt to new conditions and cope with emotionally difficult situations. The test was administered to 100 dogs and standardized, and breed norms were developed.[17] Stanley Coren used surveys done by dog obedience judges to rank dog breeds by intelligence and published the results in his book The Intelligence of Dogs.
Most modern research on dog cognition has focused on pet dogs living in human homes in developed countries, which is only a small fraction of the dog population and dogs from other populations may show different cognitive behaviors.[15] Breed differences possibly could impact on spatial learning and memory abilities.
Perception is another element of intelligence that must be taken into consideration.
Perception refers to mental processes through which incoming sensory information is organized and interpreted in order to represent and understand the environment.[18] Perception includes such processes as the selection of information through attention, the organization of sensory information through grouping, and the identification of events and objects.
In the dog, olfactory information (the sense of smell) is particularly salient (compared with humans) but the dogs senses also include vision, hearing, taste, touch and proprioception. There is also evidence that dogs sense the earth’s magnetic field. One researcher has proposed that dogs perceive the passing of time through the dissipation of smells.
Another aspect of intelligence is object permanence.
The concept of “object permanence” refers to the ability of an animal or human to understand that objects continue to exist even when they have moved outside of their field of view. This ability is not present at birth, and developmental psychologist Jean Piaget described six stages in the development of object permanence in human infants.
A similar approach has been used with dogs, and there is evidence that dogs go through similar stages and reach the advanced fifth stage by an age of 8 weeks. At this stage they can track “successive visible displacement” in which the experimenter moves the object behind multiple screens before leaving it behind the last one. It is unclear whether dogs reach Stage 6 of Piaget’s object permanence development model[21][22] .
I know of one wire fox terrier named Helen whose abilities is a perfect example of object permanence. She remembers of location of an object for weeks after first being introduced to it if that object is something that interests her.
Dogs are capable of learning through simple reinforcement (e.g., classical or operant conditioning), but they also learn by watching humans and other dogs.[22][25]
One study investigated whether dogs engaged in partnered play would adjust their behavior to the attention-state of their partner. It was observed that play signals were only sent when the dog was holding the attention of its partner. If the partner was distracted, the dog instead engaged in attention-getting behavior before sending a play signal.[26]
Puppies learn behaviors quickly by following examples set by experienced dogs.[22] This form of intelligence is not particular to those tasks dogs have been bred to perform, but can be generalized to various abstract problems.
The social rank of dogs also affects their performance in social learning situations. In social groups with a clear hierarchy, dominant individuals are the more influential demonstrators and the knowledge transfer tends to be unidirectional, from higher rank to lower. In a problem-solving experiment, dominant dogs generally performed better than subordinates when they observed a human demonstrator’s actions, a finding that reflects the dominance of the human in dog-human groups. Subordinate dogs learn best from the dominant dog that is adjacent in the hierarchy.[28]
There are many other aspects of intelligence in our canine friends. In another post, we will explore how dogs communicate and develop a receptive language vocabulary and solve problems, demonstrate emotional intelligence.
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