Referential Understanding in Dogs

Owner and dog with EEG electrodes. Credit: Oszkár Dániel Gáti.

Humans understand that certain words “stand for” certain objects, and this understanding is assumed to depend on the formation of mental representations of words. This is called referential understanding, and it’s been argued that it is uniquely human.

Now, a new study shows that dogs may understand certain object words in a similar way. Brain recordings from dogs suggest that they, like humans, activate mental representations in their minds when they hear those words. The results provide the first neural evidence for object word knowledge in a nonhuman animal.

Read more at my Animal Minds blog: Dogs Understand Some Words “Stand For” Objects.