Dogs / en In photos: 91łÔąĎ's Canine Cognition Lab, where dogs play and humans learn /news/photos-u-t-s-canine-cognition-lab-where-dogs-play-and-humans-learn <span class="field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden">In photos: 91łÔąĎ's Canine Cognition Lab, where dogs play and humans learn</span> <div class="field field--name-field-featured-picture field--type-image field--label-hidden field__item"> <img loading="eager" srcset="/sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_370/public/canine-lead.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=1fSMaiLn 370w, /sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_740/public/canine-lead.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=z4R2j_gK 740w, /sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_1110/public/canine-lead.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=_XfRjLsK 1110w" sizes="(min-width:1200px) 1110px, (max-width: 1199px) 80vw, (max-width: 767px) 90vw, (max-width: 575px) 95vw" width="740" height="494" src="/sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_370/public/canine-lead.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=1fSMaiLn" alt="Canine cognition lab"> </div> <span class="field field--name-uid field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden"><span>geoff.vendeville</span></span> <span class="field field--name-created field--type-created field--label-hidden"><time datetime="2019-03-13T00:00:00-04:00" title="Wednesday, March 13, 2019 - 00:00" class="datetime">Wed, 03/13/2019 - 00:00</time> </span> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-field-cutline-long field--type-text-long field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Cutline</div> <div class="field__item">Madeline Pelgrim demonstrates a social cognitive experiment with Loki, a four-year-old retriever, in 91łÔąĎ's Canine Cognition Lab (photo by Nick Iwanyshyn) </div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-author-reporters field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/authors-reporters/geoffrey-vendeville" hreflang="en">Geoffrey Vendeville</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-topic field--type-entity-reference field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Topic</div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/topics/city-culture" hreflang="en">City &amp; Culture</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-story-tags field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/dogs" hreflang="en">Dogs</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/faculty-arts-science" hreflang="en">Faculty of Arts &amp; Science</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/graduate-students" hreflang="en">Graduate Students</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/psychology" hreflang="en">Psychology</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/research-innovation" hreflang="en">Research &amp; Innovation</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/undergraduate-students" hreflang="en">Undergraduate Students</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/university-college" hreflang="en">University College</a></div> </div> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item"><p>Students and faculty might be curious about the series of four-legged visitors of all shapes and sizes who come through University College. There’s the one-eyed Frenchie, Eddie; Ryder, the fluffy Samoyed; and Bacon, the miniature Schnauzer.</p> <p>They have all come for the sake of science. The treats are just a bonus.</p> <p><strong>Daphna Buchsbaum</strong>, an assistant professor in the department of psychology, runs the <a href="http://www.cocodevlab.com/?page_id=136">Canine Cognition Lab</a> out of a sparsely decorated basement room of UC. She and a team of student-researchers and volunteers – about a dozen in all – conduct social cognitive experiments to gain insight into the mind of <em>canis familiaris</em>, the domestic dog.</p> <p>&nbsp;“What we’re trying to figure out is: What are dogs capable of in general as a species?” Buchsbaum says. “How do they reason about the world? How is it like how we think? How is it like how other animals think?”&nbsp;</p> <p>Dogs have been involved in psychology research since at least Ivan Pavlov’s experiments on classical conditioning in the early 20<sup>th</sup> century. But for many years researchers tended to focus more on primates because they share an evolutionary history and cognitive mechanisms with humans, Buchsbaum says. Just over a decade ago, psychologists’ interest in dog cognition grew after discoveries about their ability to communicate with people.</p> <p>“The finding was that, even when they’re compared to other animals including primates, they’re a lot better at understanding human communicative cues,” Buchsbaum says, including following a person’s gaze and pointing gestures.</p> <p>When it comes to pointing, dogs have proven to be particularly good at understanding humans. In a situation where food is hidden in one of two opaque cups outside of a dog’s view, and a person points to the cup containing food, the dog is very likely to choose the correct one. “This seems really simple, but it turns out it’s not for a lot of other animals,” Buchsbaum says.&nbsp;</p> <p>Even chimps sometimes get this wrong, she says&nbsp;–&nbsp;perhaps because they see humans as competitors who are trying to trick them to keep the food for themselves.</p> <p>Hundreds of dogs have participated in studies at the Canine Cognition Lab since it was established around 2015. In dog-crazed Toronto, they have had little trouble&nbsp;recruiting volunteers through the lab’s increasingly popular <a href="https://www.instagram.com/torontodoglab/?hl=en">Instagram page</a> and by&nbsp;word of mouth. The researchers pay close attention to the dogs’ moods and will stop an experiment if a dog appears anxious.</p> <p>Buchsbaum obtained her PhD in psychology from the University of California, Berkeley and has a background in statistics and artificial intelligence. While in California, she and her dog Pumpkin trained for a wilderness search-and-rescue team. The experience led her to become even more curious about what goes on inside the mind of a dog, the first domesticated species.</p> <p><img alt class="media-image attr__typeof__foaf:Image img__fid__10408 img__view_mode__media_original attr__format__media_original" src="/sites/default/files/tube-task.JPG" style="width: 200px; height: 196px; margin: 10px; float: left;" typeof="foaf:Image">With her former 91łÔąĎ postdoctoral researcher&nbsp;<strong>Emma Tecwyn</strong>, now on faculty at Birmingham City University, Buchsbaum <a href="https://journals-scholarsportal-info.myaccess.library.utoronto.ca/details/07357036/v133i0001/4_wfridddttttr.xml">debunked the idea that dogs, like toddlers, have a “gravity bias”</a>&nbsp;– that they expect unsupported objects to fall straight down, regardless of obstacles that redirect their path.</p> <p>They dropped food down a diagonal tube that led to one of three cups&nbsp;on the floor. Most dogs, for whatever reason, searched for treats from the centre outward.</p> <p>Buchsbaum's current students, undergraduate <strong>Madeline Pelgrim</strong> and PhD student <strong>Julia Espinosa</strong>, are taking research into dogs’ ability to understand pointing cues a step further. In an ongoing study, they are looking at whether dogs can distinguish between an accurate and inaccurate human pointer, someone who’s been reliable in the past versus someone who hasn’t.</p> <p>Even after conducting studies with more dogs than she could count, Pelgrim says they never cease to surprise her. In one experiment, a dog tasked with looking for a treat inside a box strolled up to it, paused and sat on top.&nbsp;</p> <p>“Why did you do that?” she thought, surely not for the last time.</p> <hr> <p>Pelgrim and Espinosa took <em>91łÔąĎ News</em> on a tour of the lab and carried out a demonstration with Loki, a four-year-old purebred&nbsp;retriever (all photos below by Nick Iwanyshyn):</p> <p><img alt class="media-image attr__typeof__foaf:Image img__fid__10409 img__view_mode__media_original attr__format__media_original" height="501" src="/sites/default/files/dog-door.jpg" typeof="foaf:Image" width="750" loading="lazy"><br> <em>The dog lab would be easy to miss if it weren't for its sign.&nbsp;</em></p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p>&nbsp;<img alt="Loki, dog" class="media-image attr__typeof__foaf:Image img__fid__10401 img__view_mode__media_original attr__format__media_original" src="/sites/default/files/loki-1.jpg" style="width: 750px; height: 500px;" typeof="foaf:Image"><br> <em>Loki sits in the Canine Cognition Lab under a blackboard bearing his likeness.</em></p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p><img alt class="media-image attr__typeof__foaf:Image img__fid__10403 img__view_mode__media_original attr__format__media_original" height="501" src="/sites/default/files/understanding-dog-behaviour.jpg" typeof="foaf:Image" width="750" loading="lazy"><br> <em>Madeline Pelgrim opens a storage closet with a poster showing illustrations of dog behaviour. Researchers at the Canine Cognition Lab monitor a dog's body language to make sure it is comfortable throughout a study.</em></p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p><img alt class="media-image attr__typeof__foaf:Image img__fid__10404 img__view_mode__media_original attr__format__media_original" height="501" src="/sites/default/files/closet.jpg" typeof="foaf:Image" width="750" loading="lazy"><br> <em>A look inside the lab's equipment closet.&nbsp;</em></p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p><img alt class="media-image attr__typeof__foaf:Image img__fid__10405 img__view_mode__media_original attr__format__media_original" height="500" src="/sites/default/files/pointing-cue.jpg" typeof="foaf:Image" width="750" loading="lazy"><br> <em>Experiments follow a carefully scripted routine of hand gestures and cues. Studies show dogs naturally follow human points with a great degree of accuracy, even more than chimps or toddlers.</em></p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p><img alt class="media-image attr__typeof__foaf:Image img__fid__10406 img__view_mode__media_original attr__format__media_original" height="500" src="/sites/default/files/tape-markings.jpg" typeof="foaf:Image" width="750" loading="lazy"><br> <em>Blue tape on the ground marks the dog's position during an experiment, one of the many variables that has to remain consistent between experiments.&nbsp;</em></p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p><img alt class="media-image attr__typeof__foaf:Image img__fid__10407 img__view_mode__media_original attr__format__media_original" height="500" src="/sites/default/files/julia.jpg" typeof="foaf:Image" width="750" loading="lazy"><br> <em>Julia Espinosa pets Loki after a job well done. Like many researchers and volunteers at the lab, Espinosa is a dog lover. When she was 12 years old, her parents wouldn't let her have a dog –&nbsp;so she started a dog-walking business.&nbsp;</em></p> <p>&nbsp;</p> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-home-page-banner field--type-boolean field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">News home page banner</div> <div class="field__item">Off</div> </div> Wed, 13 Mar 2019 04:00:00 +0000 geoff.vendeville 152987 at How do dogs learn? 91łÔąĎ's undergrads look for answers /news/how-do-dogs-learn-u-t-s-undergrads-look-answers <span class="field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden">How do dogs learn? 91łÔąĎ's undergrads look for answers </span> <div class="field field--name-field-featured-picture field--type-image field--label-hidden field__item"> <img loading="eager" srcset="/sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_370/public/2017-03-08-dogs.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=38mdS7v2 370w, /sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_740/public/2017-03-08-dogs.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=Hye8DpoV 740w, /sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_1110/public/2017-03-08-dogs.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=BnFRHMN- 1110w" sizes="(min-width:1200px) 1110px, (max-width: 1199px) 80vw, (max-width: 767px) 90vw, (max-width: 575px) 95vw" width="740" height="494" src="/sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_370/public/2017-03-08-dogs.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=38mdS7v2" alt="Photo of olive"> </div> <span class="field field--name-uid field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden"><span>ullahnor</span></span> <span class="field field--name-created field--type-created field--label-hidden"><time datetime="2017-03-08T14:30:30-05:00" title="Wednesday, March 8, 2017 - 14:30" class="datetime">Wed, 03/08/2017 - 14:30</time> </span> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-field-cutline-long field--type-text-long field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Cutline</div> <div class="field__item">One of the studies finds dogs are not interpreting what they are being shown as a “teaching” moment in the same way that a child does. Photo of Olive, one of the dogs participating in the research (photo by Diana Tyszko)</div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-author-reporters field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/authors-reporters/peter-boisseau" hreflang="en">Peter Boisseau</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-author-legacy field--type-string field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Author legacy</div> <div class="field__item">Peter Boisseau</div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-topic field--type-entity-reference field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Topic</div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/topics/breaking-research" hreflang="en">Breaking Research</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-story-tags field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/dogs" hreflang="en">Dogs</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/animal" hreflang="en">Animal</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/faculty-arts-science" hreflang="en">Faculty of Arts &amp; Science</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-subheadline field--type-string-long field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Subheadline</div> <div class="field__item">They've discovered dogs are selective when copying humans, and how we train dogs may not be that helpful</div> </div> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item"><p>Undergraduate students in 91łÔąĎ's Faculty of Arts &amp; Science are assisting with ongoing research that sheds some light on what goes on inside a dog’s head when humans are trying to train them.</p> <p>Among their findings:&nbsp;</p> <ul> <li>Dogs learn, and look to us for direction, but the ways we “teach” may not be as helpful as we think</li> <li>Dogs are less prone to the “gravity bias” – the belief that objects land directly beneath where there they are dropped. Gravity bias often stumps human infants and monkeys.</li> </ul> <p>The findings are part of two separate dog cognition studies&nbsp;led by <strong>Daphna Buchsbaum</strong>, an assistant professor of psychology, and postdoctoral researcher<strong> Emma Tecwyn.</strong> The research included extensive&nbsp;assistance from undergraduate students, including several in the Faculty of Arts &amp; Science's research opportunity program.</p> <h3><a href="http://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/dogs-deception-1.4019103?cmp=rss">Read more at CBC News</a></h3> <p>“People want to know how their dog thinks. Understanding how they learn from us could help us train them better,” says Buchsbaum.</p> <p>“The dog wants to listen and learn, but it doesn’t understand that it’s being taught. They are paying attention, it’s just that their interpretation is maybe not the same as what you are trying to communicate.”</p> <p><img alt class="media-image attr__typeof__foaf:Image img__fid__3732 img__view_mode__media_original attr__format__media_original" src="/sites/default/files/Pumpkin%20with%20Daphna%2C%20Aarushi%2C%20Julia%2C%20Madeline.jpg" style="width: 750px; height: 498px;" typeof="foaf:Image"><br> <em>From left to right, Assistant Professor Daphna Buchsbaum, and&nbsp;undergraduate student Aarushi Gupta,&nbsp;graduate student Julia Espinosa,&nbsp;undergraduate student Madeline Pelgrim,&nbsp;and Buchsbaum's dog Pumpkin, a senior Labrador Retriever mix (photo by&nbsp;Diana Tyszko)</em></p> <p>The researchers found that even using teaching cues they thought would be helpful, such as saying “hey look” to a dog just before a demonstration, actually distracted them into maintaining eye contact rather than watching what the person was doing.</p> <p>“Everything we’re discovering is either confirming a result for the very first time or doing something nobody has ever really looked at before,” says <strong>Madeline Pelgrim</strong>, a second-year student majoring in psychology and human biology.</p> <p>“Our research and our findings are going to influence the future of the field, and 10 years down the line, people will be looking at the research we’re doing now and wondering what they can do to build on that.”</p> <p>Researchers have long argued about whether the ability to discern what&nbsp;they are being taught is innate to humans and other animals. There is little evidence that animals in the wild, for example, are “taught” by their parents: they simply learn through observation, and trial and error.</p> <p>But their long association with their human companions have made dogs uniquely sensitive to cues thought to be associated with teaching, such as sharing, pointing and directing their attention to certain actions.</p> <p>The researchers had high hopes this would make dogs one of the few animal species that – like young children – are aware of when they are being “taught” something. The study, however, seems to suggest otherwise.</p> <p><img alt class="media-image attr__typeof__foaf:Image img__fid__3733 img__view_mode__media_original attr__format__media_original" src="/sites/default/files/Pumpkin%202%20with%20Madeline%2C%20Daphna%2C%20Julia.jpg" style="width: 750px; height: 498px;" typeof="foaf:Image"><br> <em>Daphna Buchsbaum observes an experiment conducted by Julia Espinosa (right) and Madeline Pelgrim (left) (photo by&nbsp;Diana Tyszko)</em></p> <p>The dogs were shown a sequence of events – such as spinning a dial and then pushing a button – that would produce a treat from a box. The dogs tended to copy the second action they saw and ignore the first, especially when they figured out the box would still produce a treat if they just followed one action instead of both.</p> <p>This experiment showed the dogs were not interpreting the demonstration they were being shown as a “teaching” moment in the same way that a child does.&nbsp;</p> <p>“It shows selectivity in their copying, whereas a three- to five-year-old child would copy both actions exactly,” says Tecwyn.</p> <p>A second study is exploring if dogs – unlike infant children and monkeys – can locate an object that is dropped but does not fall straight down because it is directed somewhere else by a barrier, like a shelf or a curved tube.</p> <p>Gravity bias makes children and monkeys look for the object on the ground directly beneath where it was dropped.</p> <p>“Dogs do not appear to have this gravity bias,” says Tecwyn. “They learn how to solve the task.”</p> <p>The program enables researchers to involve undergraduate students in ongoing projects with multiple experiments,&nbsp;says Buchsbaum.</p> <p>Many of the experiments require at least three people in the lab to assist, and the undergraduates have been&nbsp;an invaluable part of the process. They not only help with collecting data&nbsp;but also with every other aspect of the experiments&nbsp;from recruiting the subjects&nbsp;to reviewing the literature and verifying the results.</p> <p>“We need them for every aspect of this work,” says Buchsbaum. “It literally wouldn’t be possible to run the studies without them.”</p> <p><strong>Aarushi Gupta</strong>, a second-year human biology and physiology major, says she was nervous when she first started the research opportunity program, but gained confidence over time.<br> “It’s cool and exciting to be part of original research that is going to be published.”&nbsp;</p> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-home-page-banner field--type-boolean field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">News home page banner</div> <div class="field__item">Off</div> </div> Wed, 08 Mar 2017 19:30:30 +0000 ullahnor 105515 at