Dogs’ speech recognition: New study shows they listen beyond tone
A new study conducted by animal behavior and mammalian cognition experts at the Universities of Lincoln and Sussex, and Jean Monnet University, reveals that dogs may be far better at understanding human speech than previously understood.
This research took place in England, so we probably didn’t pay for it. So, that’s something.
A mixed group of dogs from a variety of breeds were recruited for the exercise and were each exposed to a stream of speech which contained both relevant commands and irrelevant information, all spoken in a flat tone. Surprisingly, the dogs consistently responded to the commands, demonstrating their ability to extract meaningful verbal content from what was spoken.
Sparky is not impressed.
