Use of experimenter-given cues in dogs
Abstract
Since the observations of O. Pfungst the use of human-provided cues by animals has been well-known in the behavioural sciences ("Clever Hans effect"). It has recently been shown that rhesus monkeys (Macaca mulatta) are unable to use the direction of gazing by the experimenter as a cue for finding food, although after some training they learned to respond to pointing by hand. Direction of gaze is used by chimpanzees, however. Dogs (Canis familiaris) are believed to be sensitive to human gestural communication but their ability has never been formally tested. In three experiments we examined whether dogs can respond to cues given by humans. We found that dogs are able to utilize pointing, bowing, nodding, head-turning and glancing gestures of humans as cues for finding hidden food. Dogs were also able to generalize from one person (owner) to another familiar person (experimenter) in using the same gestures as cues. Baseline trials were run to test the possibility that odour cues alone could be responsible for the dogs' performance. During training individual performance showed limited variability, probably because some dogs already "knew" some of the cues from their earlier experiences with humans. We suggest that the phenomenon of dogs responding to cues given by humans is better analysed as a case of interspecific communication than in terms of discrimination learning.
Integrity signals
Registry
Cites
Statistics
Claims the paper makes
Claims other papers make about this one
Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?
Compared with wolves, dogs can use spontaneous eye contact behaviour toward humans in the context of the need for cooperative help from humans.
“Many comparative studies on dogs and wolves have shown that, compared with wolves, dogs can use spontaneous eye contact behaviour toward humans in the context of the need for cooperative help from humans [19,30,31].”
From Are dark-eyed dogs favoured by humans? Domestication as a potential driver of iris colour difference between dogs and wolves (2023) · cites this paper as [31]
Cites
Multiple and Ancient Origins of the Domestic Dog
Vilà, C., Savolainen, P., Maldonado, J. E., Amorim, I. R., Rice, J. E., Honeycutt, R. L., Crandall, K. A., Lundeberg, J., & Wayne, R. K. (1997) · Science · doi:10.1126/science.276.5319.1687 · Cited by 1,091 · see citing works
What minds have in common is space: Spatial mechanisms serving joint visual attention in infancy
Butterworth, G. E., & Jarrett, N. (1991) · British Journal of Developmental Psychology · doi:10.1111/j.2044-835x.1991.tb00862.x · Cited by 950 · see citing works
Genetics and the Social Behavior of the Dog
Scott, J. G., & Fuller, J. L. (1965) · Medical Entomology and Zoology · Cited by 600 · see citing works
Topál, J., Miklósi, Á., Csányi, V., & Dóka, A. (1998) · Journal of comparative psychology · doi:10.1037/0735-7036.112.3.219 · Cited by 564 · see citing works
Self-citationInferences about guessing and knowing by chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes).
Povinelli, D. J., Nelson, K. E., & Boysen, S. T. (1990) · Journal of comparative psychology · doi:10.1037/0735-7036.104.3.203 · Cited by 457 · see citing works
The Origin and Evolution of the Calls and Facial Expressions of the Primates
Andrew, R. (1963) · Behaviour · doi:10.1163/156853963x00220 · Cited by 349 · see citing works
Development of pointing as a social gesture.
Leung, E. H., & Rheingold, H. L. (1981) · Developmental Psychology · doi:10.1037/0012-1649.17.2.215 · Cited by 335 · see citing works
Chimpanzees: Joint Visual Attention
Povinelli, D. J., & Eddy, T. J. (1996) · Psychological Science · doi:10.1111/j.1467-9280.1996.tb00345.x · Cited by 306 · see citing works
Gaze following and joint attention in rhesus monkeys (Macaca mulatta).
Emery, N. J., Lorincz, E. N., Perrett, D. I., Oram, M. W., & Baker, C. I. (1997) · Journal of comparative psychology · doi:10.1037/0735-7036.111.3.286 · Cited by 278 · see citing works
Critical Period in the Social Development of Dogs
Freedman, D. G., King, J. A., & Elliot, O. (1961) · Science · doi:10.1126/science.133.3457.1016 · Cited by 247 · see citing works
Home Range and Daily March in a Hamadryas Baboon Troop
Sigg, H., & Stolba, A. (1981) · Folia Primatologica · doi:10.1159/000156008 · Cited by 244 · see citing works
Facial Expressions in Nonhuman Primates
Redican, W. K. (1975) · Elsevier eBooks · doi:10.1016/b978-0-12-534004-5.50007-5 · Cited by 212 · see citing works
Ausdrucks-Studien an Wölfen Gefangenschafts-Beobachtungen
Schenkel, R. (1948) · Behaviour · doi:10.1163/156853948x00065 · Cited by 202 · see citing works
Do rhesus monkeys (Macaca mulatta) attribute knowledge and ignorance to others?
Povinelli, D. J., Parks, K. A., & Novak, M. A. (1991) · Journal of comparative psychology · doi:10.1037/0735-7036.105.4.318 · Cited by 200 · see citing works
Use of experimenter-given cues during object-choice tasks by capuchin monkeys
Anderson, J. R., Sallaberry, P., & Barbier, H. (1995) · Animal Behaviour · doi:10.1016/0003-3472(95)80168-5 · Cited by 193 · see citing works
Clever Hans (the horse of Mr. Von Osten) a contribution to experimental animal and human psychology,
Pfungst, O., & Rahn, C. L. (1911) · Henry Holt and Company eBooks · doi:10.5962/bhl.title.56164 · Cited by 189 · see citing works
Interrelations Between People and Pets
Fogle, B. (1981) · Medical Entomology and Zoology · Cited by 181 · see citing works
A Comparative Study of the Development of Facial Expressions in Canids; Wolf, Coyote and Foxes
Fox, M. (1970) · Behaviour · doi:10.1163/156853970x00042 · Cited by 168 · see citing works
Itakura, S., & Tanaka, M. (1998) · Journal of comparative psychology · doi:10.1037/0735-7036.112.2.119 · Cited by 166 · see citing works
An exploratory study of gaze‐monitoring in nonhuman primates1
Itakura, S. (1996) · Japanese Psychological Research · doi:10.1111/j.1468-5884.1996.tb00022.x · Cited by 140 · see citing works
Rhesus monkeys fail to use gaze direction as an experimenter-given cue in an object-choice task
Anderson, J. R., Montant, M., & Schmitt, D. (1996) · Behavioural Processes · doi:10.1016/0376-6357(95)00074-7 · Cited by 139 · see citing works
Clever Hans, the Horse of Mr. Von Osten; A Contribution to Experimental Animal and Human Psychology
S., E. C., Pfungst, O., & Rahn, C. L. (1914) · The American Journal of Psychology · doi:10.2307/1413026 · Cited by 133 · see citing works
Genetics and the Social Behaviour of the Dog
Scott, J. G., & Fuller, J. L. (1974) · University of Chicago Press eBooks · doi:10.7208/chicago/9780226190822.001.0001 · Cited by 132 · see citing works
Specificity of gaze‐following in young chimpanzees
Povinelli, D. J., & Eddy, T. J. (1997) · British Journal of Developmental Psychology · doi:10.1111/j.2044-835x.1997.tb00735.x · Cited by 122 · see citing works
Clever Hans: The Horse of Mr. von Osten
(1969) · Clinical Pharmacology & Therapeutics · doi:10.1002/cpt1969101125 · Cited by 119 · see citing works
Factors influencing young chimpanzees' (Pan troglodytes) recognition of attention.
Povinelli, D. J., & Eddy, T. J. (1996) · Journal of comparative psychology · doi:10.1037/0735-7036.110.4.336 · Cited by 118 · see citing works
Evolution of Canine Information Processing under Conditions of Natural and Artificial Selection
Frank, H. A. (1980) · Zeitschrift für Tierpsychologie · doi:10.1111/j.1439-0310.1980.tb01059.x · Cited by 111 · see citing works
Learning to use experimenter-given cues during an object-choice task by a capuchin monkey.
Itakura, S., & Anderson, J. R. (1996) · Cahiers De Psychologie Cognitive-current Psychology of Cognition · Cited by 89 · see citing works
Feral Children and Clever Animals
Candland, D. K. (1993) · doi:10.1093/oso/9780195074680.001.0001 · Cited by 89 · see citing works
McConnell, P. B., & Baylis, J. R. (1985) · Zeitschrift für Tierpsychologie · doi:10.1111/j.1439-0310.1985.tb01396.x · Cited by 77 · see citing works
(1995) · Cited by 73 · see citing works
The Human-Canine Bond: Closer Than Family Ties?
Barker, S. B., & Barker, R. T. (1988) · Journal of Mental Health Counseling · Cited by 65 · see citing works
The effect of spatial contiguity of cue and reward in the object-quality learning of rhesus monkeys.
Murphy, J. V., & Miller, R. E. (1955) · Journal of Comparative and Physiological Psychology · doi:10.1037/h0045441 · Cited by 62 · see citing works
Bolwig, N. (1964) · Behaviour · doi:10.1163/156853964x00012 · Cited by 58 · see citing works
Gestural Communication and Its Cognitive Implications in Pigtail Macaques (Macaca Nemestrina)
Dario Maestripieri, A. (1996) · Behaviour · doi:10.1163/156853996x00576 · Cited by 57 · see citing works
The Facial Expressions of the Brown Capuchin Monkey (Ceb Us Apella)
Weigel, R. M. (1979) · Behaviour · doi:10.1163/156853979x00331 · Cited by 53 · see citing works
Pepperberg, I. M., & McLaughlin, M. A. (1996) · Journal of comparative psychology · doi:10.1037/0735-7036.110.3.286 · Cited by 53 · see citing works
Pointing as an act of social communication by monkeys
Blaschke, M., & Ettlinger, G. (1987) · Animal Behaviour · doi:10.1016/s0003-3472(87)80023-4 · Cited by 46 · see citing works
Effects of domestication on animal behaviour
Kretchmer, K., & Fox, M. (1975) · Veterinary Record · doi:10.1136/vr.96.5.102 · Cited by 40 · see citing works
Choice Behavior in Rhesus Monkeys: Effect of Stimulation during the First Month of Life
Sackett, G. P., Porter, M., & Holmes, H. (1965) · Science · doi:10.1126/science.147.3655.304 · Cited by 39 · see citing works
Miller, R. E., & Murphy, J. V. (1964) · Journal of Experimental Psychology · doi:10.1037/h0040113 · Cited by 33 · see citing works
The Human/Animal Bond as a Correlate of Family Functioning
Cox, R. P. (1993) · Clinical Nursing Research · doi:10.1177/105477389300200210 · Cited by 29 · see citing works
A spatial factor in chimpanzee learning.
Jenkins, W. O. (1943) · Journal of comparative psychology · doi:10.1037/h0063484 · Cited by 25 · see citing works
Warden, C. J., Jenkins, T. N., & Warner, L. H. (1937) · The Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease · doi:10.1097/00005053-193707000-00040 · Cited by 24 · see citing works
EVOLUTION OF COMMUNICATION PATTERNS IN ANIMALS
Ginsburg, B. E. (1976) · Elsevier eBooks · doi:10.1016/b978-0-12-314350-1.50011-8 · Cited by 4 · see citing works
Communicative behaviour and evolution
Nelson, J. B. (1978) · Animal Behaviour · doi:10.1016/0003-3472(78)90044-1 · Cited by 2 · see citing works
Flagged first, then by citations
Cited by
Sorted by citations
The eyes have it: the neuroethology, function and evolution of social gaze
Emery, N. J. (2000) · Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews · doi:10.1016/s0149-7634(00)00025-7 · Cited by 2,037 · see citing works
Human-like social skills in dogs?
Hare, B., & Tomasello, M. (2005) · Trends in Cognitive Sciences · doi:10.1016/j.tics.2005.07.003 · Cited by 967 · see citing works
A Simple Reason for a Big Difference
Miklósi, Á., Kubinyi, E., Topál, J., Gácsi, M., Virányi, Z., & Csányi, V. (2003) · Current Biology · doi:10.1016/s0960-9822(03)00263-x · Cited by 718 · see citing works
Self-citationSocial cognition and the evolution of language: constructing cognitive phylogenies
Fitch, W. T., Huber, L., & Bugnyar, T. (2010) · Neuron · doi:10.1016/j.neuron.2010.03.011 · Cited by 264 · see citing works
“One explanation may be that, during domestication, dogs have been specifically selected to attend to human communicative cues (Hare et al., 2002; Miklósi et al., 2003).”
Horowitz, A. (2017) · Behavioural Processes · doi:10.1016/j.beproc.2017.08.001 · Cited by 134 · see citing works
Plotnik, J. M., Pokorny, J. J., Keratimanochaya, T., Webb, C., Beronja, H. F., Hennessy, A., Hill, J., Hill, V. J., Kiss, R., Maguire, C., et al. (2013) · PLoS ONE · doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0061174 · Cited by 58 · see citing works
Fujita, K., Morisaki, A., Takaoka, A., Maeda, T., & Hori, Y. (2012) · Animal Cognition · doi:10.1007/s10071-012-0529-3 · Cited by 46 · see citing works
Ueda, S., Kumagai, G., Otaki, Y., Yamaguchi, S., & Kohshima, S. (2014) · PLoS ONE · doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0098217 · Cited by 34 · see citing works
Konno, A., Aoki, H., Suzuki, E., Furuta, S., & Ueda, S. (2023) · Royal Society Open Science · doi:10.1098/rsos.230854 · Cited by 7 · see citing works
“Many comparative studies on dogs and wolves have shown that, compared with wolves, dogs can use spontaneous eye contact behaviour toward humans in the context of the need for cooperative help from humans [19,30,31].”
Background
- Authors
- Miklösi, Á., Polgárdi, R., Topál, J., & Csányi, V.
- Affiliations
- Eötvös Loránd University (HU)
- ORCID
- Venue
- Animal Cognition
- Published
- 1998-10
- Volume
- 1
- Issue
- 2
- Pages
- 113-121
- ISSN
- 1435-9448 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W2050687700
- Cited by
- 428
- References
- 46
- Citations by year
- 2026: 12 · 2025: 7 · 2024: 9 · 2023: 16 · 2022: 17 · 2021: 11 · 2020: 19 · 2019: 18 · 2018: 18 · 2017: 24 · 2016: 31 · 2015: 11 · 2014: 18 · 2013: 24 · 2012: 13
- FWCI
- 2.72
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Licence
- www.springer.com/tdm (tdm)
- Locations
- Animal Cognition (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Funders
- Hungarian Scientific Research Fund
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Genetics › Human-Animal Interaction Studies
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Developmental and Educational Psychology › Child and Animal Learning Development
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Primate Behavior and Ecology
- Keywords
- dogs, gesturing, pointing, interspecific communication, social cognition, hidden food location, gaze direction, olfactory cues, discrimination learning, Clever Hans effect
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.
What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›
Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review
