Thursday, November 29, 2007

Dogs Can Classify Complex Photos in Categories like Humans Do

We all know that dogs have very sensitive of olfactory. In addition, dogs can see well in both bright and dim light. Even though dogs are not quite good as cats, they can still see in light five times dimmer than a human can see in. Recently, researchers discovered that dogs can classify complex photos in categories like humans do. “And the dogs successfully demonstrate their learning through the use of computer automated touch-screens, eliminating potential human influence.”

Friederike Range and his colleagues from the University of Vienna in Austria discovered dogs could classify complex photos in categories like humans do. In the train phase, the dogs were shown with both the landscape and dog pictures, and the dogs got rewarded if they selected the dog pictures as a positive stimulus. In the first test, the dogs were shown with different kinds of dogs and different kinds of landscape pictures; the dogs could successfully use their training knowledge to choose the dogs pictures. At the second test, the dogs were given the new dog on a familiar landscape and a completely new landscape with no dog. The dogs ended up choose the new dog on the familiar landscape. Based on these data, the researchers suggested that dogs could form a concept.

Source: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/11/071128105543.htm

Posted By Xuni Li (10)

1 Comments:

At 10:57 PM, Blogger PWH said...

It is very interesting to see how we are discovering that animals are not as dumb as we thought they were. Animals surprise me everyday with their capabilities and I am glad that researchers are beginning to see this too.

Posted by Carmen B. Arsuaga (10)

 

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