A new study finds that dogs can understand noun meanings

According to a study based on brain activity recordings, dogs understand certain words and know what they mean.

Marianna Boros and colleagues from Eötvös Loránd University in Budapest, Hungary, conducted the study. The experiment involved 18 dogs of various breeds, including Border collies, toy poodles, and Labrador retrievers.

It was discovered that dogs can go beyond basic commands like ‘sit’ and ‘fetch’.

The researchers used electroencephalography (EEG) to monitor each dog’s brain waves

The dog owners chose five familiar objects for their pets. During the experiment, they would say the name of one of these objects and then show the dog either that object or another.

The researchers used electroencephalography (EEG) to monitor each dog’s brain waves. They wanted to see if there were any differences in brain activity when the dog’s owner mentioned a specific object, such as a “ball,” but displayed a different item, such as a stick, as opposed to when both the spoken word and the presented object matched.

Dogs responded more strongly to words they were more familiar with

“The idea was that if dogs understand the meaning of the words, their brain responses will differ between the presentation of matching and mismatching objects,” said Boros.

The findings revealed that distinct EEG signals were detected when the objects did not match the words. Dogs responded more strongly to words they were more familiar with.

“The most important realization of this study is not only that non-humans are capable of understanding words referentially, but this capacity seems to be generally present in dogs as well,” added Boros. “This study demonstrates that dogs may understand more than they show.”

These findings are consistent with those observed in humans, implying that dogs understand how certain words correlate with specific objects.