Editing Dog intelligence (section)

== Memory ==

=== Episodic memory ===
Dogs have demonstrated [[episodic memory|episodic-like memory]] by recalling past events that included the complex actions of humans.<ref>{{cite journal|doi=10.1016/j.cub.2016.09.057|pmid=27889264|title=Recall of Others' Actions after Incidental Encoding Reveals Episodic-like Memory in Dogs|journal=Current Biology|volume=26|issue=23|pages=3209–3213|year=2016|last1=Fugazza|first1=Claudia|last2=Pogány|first2=Ákos|last3=Miklósi|first3=Ádám|doi-access=free|bibcode=2016CBio...26.3209F }}</ref> In a 2019 study, a correlation has been shown between the size of the dog and the functions of memory and self-control, with larger dogs performing significantly better than smaller dogs in these functions. However, in the study brain size did not predict a dog's ability to follow human pointing gestures, nor was it associated with their inferential and physical reasoning abilities.<ref>{{cite journal|doi=10.1007/s10071-018-01234-1|pmid=30607673|hdl=10150/631852|title=Absolute brain size predicts dog breed differences in executive function|journal=Animal Cognition|volume=22|issue=2|pages=187–198|year=2019|last1=Horschler|first1=Daniel J.|last2=Hare|first2=Brian|last3=Call|first3=Josep|last4=Kaminski|first4=Juliane|last5=Miklósi|first5=Ádám|last6=MacLean|first6=Evan L.|s2cid=57428663|hdl-access=free}}</ref> A 2018 study on canine cognitive abilities found that various animals, including [[pig]]s, [[pigeon]]s and [[chimpanzee]]s, are able to remember the what, where and when of an event, which dogs cannot do.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/2018/10/01/dogs-not-intelligent-people-think-certainly-no-brighter-goats/ |title=Why your dog is not as clever as you thought |website=The Telegraph |date=1 October 2018 |access-date=12 May 2020}}</ref>

=== Learning and using words ===
Various studies have shown that dogs readily learn the names of objects and can retrieve an item from among many others when given its name. For example, in 2008, [[Betsy (dog)|Betsy]], a [[Border Collie]], knew over 345 words by the retrieval test, and she was also able to connect an object with a photographic image of the object, despite having seen neither before.<ref name="natgeo-article">{{cite web|url=http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/print/2008/03/animal-minds/virginia-morell-text|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080220012018/http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/print/2008/03/animal-minds/virginia-morell-text|url-status=dead|archive-date=February 20, 2008|title=Minds of their Own|publisher=National Geographic|first=Virginia|last=Morell|date=March 2008|access-date=2008-10-13}}</ref> In another study, a dog watched as experimenters handed an object back and forth to each other while using the object's name in a sentence. The dog subsequently retrieved the item given its name.<ref name="mckinley">{{Cite journal|title=The efficacy of the model-rival method when compared to operant conditioning for training domestic dogs to perform a retrieval-selection task|journal=AABS|year=2003|doi=10.1016/S0168-1591(02)00277-0|last1=McKinley|first1=Sue|last2=Young|first2=Robert J|volume=81|issue=4|pages=357–365}}</ref>

In humans, "[[fast mapping]]" is the ability to form quick and rough hypotheses about the meaning of a new word after only a single exposure. In 2004, a study with [[Rico (dog)|Rico]], a Border Collie, showed he was able to fast map. Rico initially knew the labels of over 200 items. He inferred the names of novel items by exclusion, that is, by knowing that the novel item was the one that he did not already know. Rico correctly retrieved such novel items immediately and four weeks after the initial exposure. Rico was also able to interpret phrases such as "fetch the sock" by its component words (rather than considering its utterance to be a single word). Rico could also give the sock to a specified person. This performance is comparable to that of 3-year-old humans.<ref name=kaminski2004/>
[[File:Chaser the BC, snow full body.jpg|thumb|Chaser the Border Collie]]
In 2013, a study documented the learning and memory capabilities of a Border Collie, "[[Chaser (dog)|Chaser]]", who had learned the names and could associate by verbal command over 1,000 words at the time of its publishing. Chaser was documented as capable of learning the names of new objects "by exclusion", and capable of linking nouns to verbs. It is argued that central to the understanding of the Border Collie's remarkable accomplishments is the dog's breeding background—collies bred for herding work are uniquely suited for intellectual tasks like word association which may require the dog to work "at a distance" from their human companions, and the study credits this dog's selective breeding in addition to rigorous training for her intellectual prowess.<ref>{{cite book|author=Pilley, John |year=2013|title=Chaser: Unlocking the genius of the dog who knows a thousand words|publisher = [[Houghton Mifflin Harcourt]]|isbn=9780544102576}}</ref>

Some research has suggested that while dogs can easily make a distinction between familiar known words and nonsensical dissimilar words, they struggle to differentiate between known familiar words and nonsense words that differ by only a single sound, as measurements of the dogs' brain activity showed no difference in response between a known word and a similar but nonsensical word. This would give dogs the word processing capability equivalent to the average 14-month human infant.<ref>Magyari, L., Zs Huszár, A. Turzó, and A. Andics. "Event-related potentials reveal limited readiness to access phonetic details during word processing in dogs." Royal Society Open Science 7, no. 12 (2020): 200851.</ref> An fMRI study found that the dog brain distinguished, without training, a familiar from an unfamiliar language. The study also found that older dogs were better at discriminating one language from the other, suggesting an effect of the amount of exposition to the language.<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Cuaya|first1=Laura V.|last2=Hernández-Pérez|first2=Raúl|last3=Boros|first3=Marianna|last4=Deme|first4=Andrea|last5=Andics|first5=Attila|date=2021-12-12|title=Speech naturalness detection and language representation in the dog brain|journal=NeuroImage|volume=248|pages=118811|doi=10.1016/j.neuroimage.2021.118811|pmid=34906714|s2cid=245022566|issn=1053-8119|doi-access=free|hdl=10831/83069|hdl-access=free}}</ref>