Can dogs (Canis familiaris) detect human deception? 2009

Mark Petter, and Evanya Musolino, and William A Roberts, and Mark Cole
Department of Psychology, Dalhousie University, Halifax, Nova Scotia B3H 4J1, Canada.

In a series of experiments, dogs were allowed to choose between two containers, one of which contained a food reward. In Experiments 1 and 2, a cooperative human tester pointed to the baited container on half the trials, and a deceptive human tester pointed to the empty container on the other half of the trials. Dogs learned to approach the cooperator more often than the deceiver. Inanimate cues (black and white boxes) were used as the "cooperator" and "deceiver" in Experiment 3. As was the case in Experiments 1 and 2, the dogs learned to approach the "cooperator" box more often than the "deceiver" box. Thus, the experiments indicate that dogs are sensitive to the correlation between cues and their outcomes but offer no support for the idea that dogs understand human intentionality.

UI MeSH Term Description Entries
D008192 Deception The act of deceiving or the fact of being deceived. False Allegations,Lying,Hoax,Allegation, False,Allegations, False,False Allegation
D003463 Cues Signals for an action; that specific portion of a perceptual field or pattern of stimuli to which a subject has learned to respond. Cue
D004192 Discrimination, Psychological Differential response to different stimuli. Discrimination, Psychology,Psychological Discrimination
D004285 Dogs The domestic dog, Canis familiaris, comprising about 400 breeds, of the carnivore family CANIDAE. They are worldwide in distribution and live in association with people. (Walker's Mammals of the World, 5th ed, p1065) Canis familiaris,Dog
D005106 Exploratory Behavior The tendency to explore or investigate a novel environment. It is considered a motivation not clearly distinguishable from curiosity. Curiosity,Novelty-Seeking Behavior,Behavior, Exploratory,Behavior, Novelty-Seeking,Behaviors, Exploratory,Behaviors, Novelty-Seeking,Curiosities,Exploratory Behaviors,Novelty Seeking Behavior,Novelty-Seeking Behaviors
D006801 Humans Members of the species Homo sapiens. Homo sapiens,Man (Taxonomy),Human,Man, Modern,Modern Man
D000818 Animals Unicellular or multicellular, heterotrophic organisms, that have sensation and the power of voluntary movement. Under the older five kingdom paradigm, Animalia was one of the kingdoms. Under the modern three domain model, Animalia represents one of the many groups in the domain EUKARYOTA. Animal,Metazoa,Animalia
D001522 Behavior, Animal The observable response an animal makes to any situation. Autotomy Animal,Animal Behavior,Animal Behaviors

Related Publications

Mark Petter, and Evanya Musolino, and William A Roberts, and Mark Cole
March 2002, Journal of comparative psychology (Washington, D.C. : 1983),
Mark Petter, and Evanya Musolino, and William A Roberts, and Mark Cole
February 2019, Journal of comparative psychology (Washington, D.C. : 1983),
Mark Petter, and Evanya Musolino, and William A Roberts, and Mark Cole
November 2013, Learning and motivation,
Mark Petter, and Evanya Musolino, and William A Roberts, and Mark Cole
June 2001, Journal of comparative psychology (Washington, D.C. : 1983),
Mark Petter, and Evanya Musolino, and William A Roberts, and Mark Cole
June 1993, Journal of comparative psychology (Washington, D.C. : 1983),
Mark Petter, and Evanya Musolino, and William A Roberts, and Mark Cole
March 2017, Animal cognition,
Mark Petter, and Evanya Musolino, and William A Roberts, and Mark Cole
May 2020, Animal cognition,
Mark Petter, and Evanya Musolino, and William A Roberts, and Mark Cole
March 2000, American journal of physiology. Regulatory, integrative and comparative physiology,
Mark Petter, and Evanya Musolino, and William A Roberts, and Mark Cole
July 2014, Animal cognition,
Mark Petter, and Evanya Musolino, and William A Roberts, and Mark Cole
October 2015, Behavioural processes,
Copied contents to your clipboard!