Title (eng)

Dogs understand the role of a human partner in a cooperative task

Author

Juliana Wallner Werneck Mendes   University of Veterinary Medicine Vienna

Friederike Range   University of Veterinary Medicine Vienna

Mayte Martínez   University of Veterinary Medicine Vienna / Georgia State University

Marie Vindevogel   Université de Rennes

Giulia Cimarelli   University of Veterinary Medicine Vienna

Ilka van Peer   HAS University of Applied Sciences

Publishing

Nature

Description (eng)

Humans are exceptionally flexible in cooperation, partly due to our ability to recognize the roles of cooperative partners. While some non-human animals understand the need for a partner in such interactions, it is unclear whether they grasp the consequences of their partner's actions and adjust accordingly. Previous studies utilizing economic games with non-human animals yielded mixed results. We investigated dogs, known for their close cooperation with humans, in a stag hunt game. Dogs could cooperate for better rewards or defect for lower ones, while their human partners would either cooperate, never cooperate, or act randomly. We control for attraction to food, side bias, and local enhancement. Dogs were more likely to coordinate with their partners when it led to better rewards, suggesting that they understood their partner's actions. By highlighting this cognitive skill in dogs, we advance our knowledge of the intricate mechanisms driving cooperative behavior in non-human animals.

Object languages

English

Date

2024

Rights

This work is licensed under a
CC BY 4.0 - Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

CC BY 4.0 International

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Classification

Animals; Dogs; Cooperative Behavior; Humans; Behavior, Animal Physiology; Reward; Male; Female

Member of the Collection(s) (1)