Hi everybody,
In a recent blog article at PsychologyToday.com, Dr. Marc Bekoff has said that dogs have what's called a Theory of Mind, a theoretical construct used by cognitive researchers to determine where a particular species' forms of cognition lie on the evolutionary and psychological scale. In this case its the first of three levels of a ToM, the conscious awareness of the perceptual states of other beings (sometimes called "mind reading" by cognitive scientists). Dr. Bekoff writes, "We've ... learned that dogs know what others can and cannot hear," and provides a link to a new study, "Domesticated dogs (Canis familiaris) react to what others can and cannot hear."
This may sound like a reasonable assumption to some people, but is there really any merit to it? If so, I don't think the researchers responsible for this particular study have proved anything close to what Bekoff has said they have.
For anyone interested, Ive read the study several times, analyzed it in some detail, and have written two critiques: "Misunderstanding Dogs = Mistreating Them" ( condensed version of the study), and "Why Do Some Dogs Act Sneaky?" (which goes into more detail).
Here's the tease from the PsychologyToday.com website:
While some scientists want us to believe that dogs have cognitive abilities just like ours, by doing so they're actually ensuring that more dogs will be mistreated and abandoned. And not a single one of those poor doggies will have any idea as to why they've been beaten and abused, or left by the side of the road, or why the purity of their love has been denied.
I think it's vitally important for the safety and well-being of our doggies to understand these issues and get things right.
I hope some of you agree!
LCK