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Controversy over whether dogs understand the words of their owners, or they just pick up the intonations of the voice, they have been going on for a very long time. IN a new study on this subject says that a four-legged friend a person not only perceives the intonation of the voice, but also understands the meaning of the words of his master. Study co-author, doctoral student psychology Victoria Beckoff, says: “Although the new data is not prove that dogs can fully understand human speech, however, we now know for sure that dogs understand the meaning of many words. “For example, it’s no secret that dogs respond very well to such commands as: sit, lie, next to, you can’t, voice and others. Although skeptics may insist that the dog is only responding to Victoria’s intonations and non-verbal host signals, Victoria is sure that dogs understand their owner’s speech. To prove it Beckoff and her colleagues brought 250 pets to the laboratory completely different breeds. Dogs were placed in a special room, equipped with speakers. The sound that dogs heard in their right the ear, is processed in the left hemisphere of the brain (and vice versa). Therefore, when the dog turns its head to the right, the researchers remember which hemisphere of her brain this sound is processed. Scientists scrolled a sound recording in which commands were given for the dog in the owner’s voice, as if addressing the dog by the nickname, so without it. In addition, on some entries the words of the command were distorted, and the emphasis was on the intonations of the owner’s voice. Specialists found that dogs turned their heads to the right, when they heard words without emotion. Based on this, it became apparent that the dog’s left brain processes the meaning of words, that is speech. When dogs heard words colored with emotions, they turned their heads to the left, when the pets heard a faint noise, they turned their heads in completely different directions. It turns out that in dogs, as in humans, the processing process emotional content information occurs in the right hemisphere brain, and speech processing – in the left. However, despite the similarities processes occurring in the brain of a dog and a person, scientists believe this is not enough to say with confidence that dogs understand our speech. In their new experiments, scientists are going to go further and finally get an answer to this exciting question.
Dogs
