New discoveries are often made about the way dogs see the world. Intelligence and behavioral tests usually yield results with unexpected novelties, as in this case. Dogs identify objects by their texture rather than their shape, according to a new study.
The discovery arose by exploring how these animals recognize and generalize objects. Stucco by researchers from Eötvös Lorand University (Budapest). What they found was that dogs prioritize texture over shape when identifying objects.
Tests with options
For the study, the researchers recruited a total of 35 dogs. Previously, they went through training, in which they had to look for a specific object within a set of distractors. During the test, the dogs were presented with two options. In the first case, the object matched the target in shape. And in the second case, in the texture.
The process was divided into stages. The test consisted of eight tests. There were four target trials, where they had to choose between the trained target object and an object with a similar shape or texture. And four generalization tests, where the dogs chose between two objects: one similar to the target in shape, but with a different texture, and the other with the same texture, but different shape.
Tactile signals
The dogs often approached the object that matched the shape first. However, they finally selected the object that matched the texture. What this suggests is that they first tended to use vision to approach the object that was visibly similar to the target in shape. But then tactile cues were key in their final choice.
Dogs identify objects by their texture, which has not been previously studied. According to a statement, these results highlight that dogs depend on different sensory modalities. They are similar to humans only to a certain extent, in identifying and generalizing objects.
