Dogs Know a Smile When They See One
A recent study from the University of Veterinary Medicine Vienna found that dogs can differentiate between angry and happy faces when shown photos on a touchscreen.
To account for the possibility of the dogs choosing faces based off of conspicuous differences, such as teeth or frownlines, the researchers split the pictures horizontally so the dogs only saw either the area around the mouth or the eyes.
Most dogs were able to differentiate between happy and angry faces, even in face halves that were not shown to the dogs during training or ones in which a novel mood was indicated.
The authors of the study hypothesized that dogs draw on their memory for this exercise, pulling from stored images of facial expressions they had seen before. They supposed that dogs with limited human interaction would perform worse on this task or could not solve it at all.
Source:http://www.colgate.com/app/CP/US/EN/OC/Information/Articles/ADA/2015/article/ADA-03-dogs-know-a-smile-when-they-see-one.cvsp
R. Eric Emery, DDS
Morgan A. Emery, DDS
Smile Station Dental
2901 Dougherty Ferry Rd. Suite 400
St. Louis, MO 63122
(314)821-7100
smilestationdental.com
Like us on Facebook!
No comments:
Post a Comment