Editing Dog intelligence (section)

== Social cognition ==

=== Social learning: observation and rank ===
[[File:Dog with treat.jpg|thumb|A dog being instructed by its owner to resist eating a [[dog biscuit]]]]
Dogs are capable of learning through simple [[reinforcement learning|reinforcement]] (e.g., [[classical conditioning|classical]] or [[operant conditioning]]), but they also learn by watching humans and other dogs.<ref name="coren"/><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.naiaonline.org/articles/article/how-dogs-learn1|title=How Dogs Learn|publisher=National Animal Interest Alliance|access-date=4 July 2014}}</ref>

One study investigated whether dogs engaged in partnered play would adjust their behavior to the attention-state of their partner. The experimenters 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.<ref name="ach">{{Cite journal |title= Attention to attention in domestic dog (Canis familiaris) dyadic play |journal=Animal Cognition |volume=12 |year=2009 |doi=10.1007/s10071-008-0175-y |last= Horowitz |first=Alexandra |authorlink=Alexandra Horowitz |pages= 107–18|pmid=18679727|issue=1|s2cid=207050813}}</ref>

Puppies learn behaviors quickly by following examples set by experienced dogs.<ref name="coren"/> This form of intelligence is not particular to those tasks dogs have been bred to perform, but can be generalized to various abstract problems. For example, [[Dachshund]] puppies were set the problem of pulling a cart by tugging on an attached piece of ribbon in order to get a reward from inside the cart. Puppies that watched an experienced dog perform this task learned the task fifteen times faster than those left to solve the problem on their own.<ref name="coren"/><ref>{{Cite journal|doi=10.1002/dev.420100310|journal=Developmental Psychobiology|volume =10|issue=3|pages= 267–271|year=2004|title = Ontogeny of observational learning in the dog (Canis familiaris)|author1=Adler, Leonore Loeb  |author2=Adler, Helmut E. |pmid=863122}}</ref>

The social rank of dogs 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.<ref name=pongracz2012/>

=== Following human cues ===
{{Further|Dog communication}}
Dogs show human-like [[social cognition]] in various ways.<ref name=hare2002/><ref name=hare2005/><ref name=miklosi2003/> For example, dogs can react appropriately to human body language such as gesturing and pointing, and they also understand human voice commands.<ref>{{cite web | url = https://www.theguardian.com/science/head-quarters/2013/sep/23/dogs-uncomplicated-relationship-research | title = Dogs: an uncomplicated relationship | first = Nathalia | last = Gjersoe | date = Sep 23, 2013 | work = [[The Guardian]]}}</ref> In one study, puppies were presented with a box, and shown that, when a handler pressed a lever, a ball would roll out of the box. The handler then allowed the puppy to play with the ball, making it an intrinsic reward. The pups were then allowed to interact with the box. Roughly three quarters of the puppies subsequently touched the lever, and over half successfully released the ball, compared to only 6% in a control group that did not watch the human manipulate the lever.<ref name="hungary">{{Cite journal|author1=Kubinyi, E. |author2=Topal, J. |author3= Miklosi, A. |name-list-style=amp |year=2003|title=Dogs (canis familiaris) learn their owners via observation in a manipulation task|journal=Journal of Comparative Psychology|doi=10.1037/0735-7036.117.2.156|pmid=12856786|volume=117|pages=156–165|issue=2}}</ref>

Similarly, dogs may be guided by cues indicating the direction of a human's attention.<ref name="coren">{{Cite book | last=Coren | first=Stanley | title=The Intelligence of Dogs: A Guide to the Thoughts, Emotions, and Inner Lives of Our Canine Companions | publisher=Bantam Books | isbn=978-0-553-37452-0 | year=1995 | url=https://archive.org/details/intelligenceofdo00core }}</ref> In one task a reward was hidden under one of two buckets. The experimenter then indicated the location of the reward by tapping the bucket, pointing to the bucket, nodding at the bucket, or simply looking at the bucket. The dogs followed these signals, performing better than [[Common chimpanzee|chimpanzee]]s, wolves, and human infants at this task; even puppies with limited exposure to humans performed well.<ref name="hare">{{Cite journal|author1=Hare, B. |author2=Brown, M. |author3=Williamson, C. |author4= Tomasello, M. |s2cid=13369396 |name-list-style=amp |date=Nov 2002|title=The domestication of social cognition in dogs|journal=Science|doi=10.1126/science.1072702|volume=298|pmid=12446914|issue=5598|pages=1634–6|issn=0036-8075|bibcode = 2002Sci...298.1634H |url=https://escholarship.org/content/qt3cz975nj/qt3cz975nj.pdf?t=nvcuyy }}</ref>{{rp|pages=1634–6}}

Dogs can follow the direction of pointing by humans. [[New Guinea singing dog]]s are a half-wild proto-dog endemic to the remote alpine regions of New Guinea and these can follow human pointing as can Australian dingoes. These both demonstrate an ability to read human gestures that arose early in domestication without human selection. Dogs and wolves have also been shown to follow more complex pointing made with body parts other than the human arm and hand (e.g. elbow, knee, foot).<ref name=udell2012/> Dogs tend to follow hand/arm pointed directions more when combined with eye signaling as well. In general, dogs seem to use human cues as an indication on where to go and what to do.<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Kaminski|first1=Juliane|last2=Nitzschner|first2=Marie|title=Do dogs get the point? A review of dog–human communication ability|journal=Learning and Motivation|volume=44|issue=4|pages=294–302|doi=10.1016/j.lmot.2013.05.001|year=2013}}</ref> Overall, dogs appear to have several cognitive skills necessary to understand communication as information; however, findings on dogs' understanding of referentiality and others' mental states are controversial and it is not clear whether dog themselves communicate with informative motives.<ref>{{Cite journal |doi = 10.1177/0963721416661318|title = Current Trends in Dog-Human Communication|year = 2016|last1 = Kaminski|first1 = Juliane|last2 = Piotti|first2 = Patrizia|s2cid = 151423286|journal = Current Directions in Psychological Science|volume = 25|issue = 5|pages = 322–326|hdl = 2434/727094| url=https://researchportal.port.ac.uk/portal/en/publications/current-trends-in-doghuman-communication(7ad71a39-fc44-4c26-b7ee-91e779276cd7).html |hdl-access = free}}</ref>

For canines to perform well on traditional human-guided tasks (e.g. following the human point) both relevant lifetime experiences with humans—including socialization to humans during the critical phase for social development—and opportunities to associate human body parts with certain outcomes (such as food being provided by humans, a human throwing or kicking a ball, etc.) are required.<ref name=udell2014/>

In 2016, a study of water rescue dogs that respond to words or gestures found that the dogs would respond to the gesture rather than the verbal command.<ref>{{cite journal|doi=10.1007/s10071-016-1010-5|pmid=27338818|title=The importance of gestural communication: A study of human–dog communication using incongruent information|journal=Animal Cognition|volume=19|issue=6|pages=1231–1235|year=2016|last1=d'Aniello|first1=Biagio|last2=Scandurra|first2=Anna|last3=Alterisio|first3=Alessandra|last4=Valsecchi|first4=Paola|last5=Prato-Previde|first5=Emanuela|s2cid=3913013}}</ref>