If there is anything that is guarenteed, it is that I love me some furry canine creatures with some big paws. Left, a picture of my dog from this previous Halloween dressed in my brothers work clothes... he's cute and looks very upset, awww.
While checking my morning e-mail this morning, I get a weekly email alert from e! Science News (Not E!, that E is....crappy) with this article in the list of the smorgasbord of science-y updates. This one caught my eye.. It's been about three days since I saw my dog and I already miss him. Plus, it really fascinates me to understand how other animals identify objects.
According to Emilie van der Zee and colleges from the University of Lincoln, UK, dogs learn to associate words with objects in a completely different way that we do. At an early age, we learn how to identify a ball by the size and shape of the object. However, it was concluded in this study that dogs associate textures to objects instead of shape after a period of of exposure to objects of similar size and shape. It is a different perspective of the world... it shows that even though both canines and humans are in the same kingdom, our evolutionary history takes part in many things, including processing and association of information. I wonder if there are animals more closely related to canines that also process information this way...
It also explains perfectly why my dog, Charlie, loved eating the edges of the table when he was a puppy. It possibly had the same texture as rawhide or a toy. I wonder what he associates meat or ice cream with.
Link to article: http://esciencenews.com/articles/2012/11/21/call.a.ball.dogs.learn.associate.words.with.objects.differently.humans.do
While checking my morning e-mail this morning, I get a weekly email alert from e! Science News (Not E!, that E is....crappy) with this article in the list of the smorgasbord of science-y updates. This one caught my eye.. It's been about three days since I saw my dog and I already miss him. Plus, it really fascinates me to understand how other animals identify objects.
According to Emilie van der Zee and colleges from the University of Lincoln, UK, dogs learn to associate words with objects in a completely different way that we do. At an early age, we learn how to identify a ball by the size and shape of the object. However, it was concluded in this study that dogs associate textures to objects instead of shape after a period of of exposure to objects of similar size and shape. It is a different perspective of the world... it shows that even though both canines and humans are in the same kingdom, our evolutionary history takes part in many things, including processing and association of information. I wonder if there are animals more closely related to canines that also process information this way...
It also explains perfectly why my dog, Charlie, loved eating the edges of the table when he was a puppy. It possibly had the same texture as rawhide or a toy. I wonder what he associates meat or ice cream with.
Link to article: http://esciencenews.com/articles/2012/11/21/call.a.ball.dogs.learn.associate.words.with.objects.differently.humans.do