A photo from open sources
Most people believe that dogs see the outside world in black and white and determine the outlines of objects in various brightness level. Previously, colored objects were not even used in training dogs so as not to confuse them. But Russian Scientists have been able to prove that dogs distinguish colors, albeit in limited range. This allows them to distinguish between objects and choose from them the most acceptable option for them.
In 2012, American scientist Jay Neitz from University of Washington found that dog vision is still not monochrome, but the perception of colors is less developed than in humans. This is due to the fact that people in the retina have three types of photoreceptor cones, and in dogs – only two. Therefore, they, like color blind, do not can adequately perceive red and green colors.
A team of Russian scientists from the Sensory Processing Laboratory Institute of Information Transmission Problems RAS continued Neitz study by conducting an experiment involving eight dogs different breeds.
Four sheets of paper were painted in dark yellow, dark blue, light yellow and light blue colors. Dark and light shades were used to test the theory that dogs discern elements in depending on the brightness level.
During the experiment, scientists placed sheets of certain colors. in front of food bowls locked in a drawer (a dark yellow sheet was hung over a bowl of raw meat). So animals could not neither by sight nor by smell determine what is in the feeder. At first, the animals got acquainted with the contents of each bowl and correlated him with flowers sheets. After three approaches, each dog remembered that a dark yellow color indicates a clean meat dish (which for them is preferred).
A photo from open sources
After that, the scientists decided to check whether the dogs are guided by brightness or solely on color. They suggested the animals choose between light yellow and light blue. If the dog chose light blue color, this would mean that the animals are guided by brightness, since its brightness approximately corresponds to brightness dark yellow leaf. And if light yellow, it would mean that they remember the color. As a result, each dog gave preference yellow color.
“Our studies show that in natural lighting dogs are more focused on color, – comment researchers. – When choosing between visual stimuli, various in terms of brightness and color, eight previously untrained dogs found color is a more informative factor. Thus, even for animals with two photoreceptor cones, condition color gradation may be predominant. ”
Dogs
