Post by Brooke on Jun 16, 2004 23:01:07 GMT -5
Border collie learns new words as quickly as toddlers
Last Updated Mon, 14 Jun 2004 9:45:09
WASHINGTON - A border collie with a "vocabulary" of more than 200 words can learn new ones as quickly as a toddler, scientists have shown.
Rico (AP photo)
Nine-year-old Rico belongs to a family in Germany. He responds when his owner asks him to fetch dozens of play toys and can learn the name of a new toy after being exposed to it once.
Researchers tested how well the dog could link a new word to a toy to see if he understands the words. As working dogs, border collies were bred to respond to human commands.
When Rico's owner asked him to fetch a toy from another room using a name the border collie hadn't heard before, he brought back the new toy seven times out of 10.
"You don't have to be able to talk to understand a lot," said Julia Fischer of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany. Fischer is the study's senior author.
Fischer and her colleagues said Rico's abilities seem to use "fast mapping," which young children use when they're starting to learn language. It allows children to make a quick guess about the meaning of a new word the first time they hear it.
The researchers are now testing if Rico can show he understands words by putting the toy in a box or delivering it to a certain person.
They said his "vocabulary" size is comparable to apes, dolphins, sea lions and parrots that are trained in language.
Four weeks later, Rico showed he remembered a new word about half the time – a retrieval rate comparable to a three-year-old, according to the scientists.
"Children can understand words used in a range of contexts," said psychologist Paul Bloom of Yale University in a commentary accompanying the study in Friday's issue of the journal Science. "Rico's understanding is manifested in his fetching behavior."
The dog can link objects and sounds, but researchers need to test if he can understand abstract concepts, said Bloom, an expert in how people learn what words mean.
For example, researchers need to find out whether Rico can learn the word for an object other than one to be fetched or follow instructions not to fetch an item.
www.cbc.ca/stories/2004/06/10/dog_learn040610
Last Updated Mon, 14 Jun 2004 9:45:09
WASHINGTON - A border collie with a "vocabulary" of more than 200 words can learn new ones as quickly as a toddler, scientists have shown.
Rico (AP photo)
Nine-year-old Rico belongs to a family in Germany. He responds when his owner asks him to fetch dozens of play toys and can learn the name of a new toy after being exposed to it once.
Researchers tested how well the dog could link a new word to a toy to see if he understands the words. As working dogs, border collies were bred to respond to human commands.
When Rico's owner asked him to fetch a toy from another room using a name the border collie hadn't heard before, he brought back the new toy seven times out of 10.
"You don't have to be able to talk to understand a lot," said Julia Fischer of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany. Fischer is the study's senior author.
Fischer and her colleagues said Rico's abilities seem to use "fast mapping," which young children use when they're starting to learn language. It allows children to make a quick guess about the meaning of a new word the first time they hear it.
The researchers are now testing if Rico can show he understands words by putting the toy in a box or delivering it to a certain person.
They said his "vocabulary" size is comparable to apes, dolphins, sea lions and parrots that are trained in language.
Four weeks later, Rico showed he remembered a new word about half the time – a retrieval rate comparable to a three-year-old, according to the scientists.
"Children can understand words used in a range of contexts," said psychologist Paul Bloom of Yale University in a commentary accompanying the study in Friday's issue of the journal Science. "Rico's understanding is manifested in his fetching behavior."
The dog can link objects and sounds, but researchers need to test if he can understand abstract concepts, said Bloom, an expert in how people learn what words mean.
For example, researchers need to find out whether Rico can learn the word for an object other than one to be fetched or follow instructions not to fetch an item.
www.cbc.ca/stories/2004/06/10/dog_learn040610