A recent study published in Current Biology reveals that some dogs possess the remarkable ability to not only remember the names of their favorite toys but also to apply those names to new objects that serve similar functions, even if their appearances differ. This cognitive skill, known as “label extension,” typically requires years of intensive training in captivity for animals to master. However, the dogs featured in this study showcased the ability to categorize their toys based on function simply through unstructured play with their owners.
Claudia Fugazza, a co-author from Eötvös Loránd University in Budapest, Hungary, compares this ability to a person referring to both a hammer and a rock with the same label, or a child recognizing that “cup” can apply to different vessels like a mug, glass, or tumbler due to their shared purpose. “Although the rock and the hammer differ in physical appearance, they can perform the same function,” Fugazza explained. “It appears these dogs are capable of making the same connections.”
Fugazza and her colleagues have spent several years studying dog behavior and cognition. In a previous study published in 2023, they explored how dogs interpret human gestures, noting that when a person points to an object, dogs see it as a directional cue, while a human toddler is more likely to focus on the object itself. This tendency, referred to as spatial bias, indicates that the way dogs process information relies on both visual acuity and cognitive ability, with more intelligent breeds prioritizing an object’s function as much as its location. This finding suggests that the information processing of smarter dogs may bear similarities to that of humans.
The current study also examined the length of the dogs’ heads, which prior research has linked to visual acuity. Dogs with shorter heads are known to have vision that’s more aligned with human sight due to a greater concentration of retinal ganglion cells in their visual field, enhancing their visual sharpness and providing binocular depth perception. The findings indicated that dogs exhibiting superior visual acuity and scoring higher on cognitive tests had reduced spatial bias. This implies that spatial bias in dogs is not merely a sensory issue but may also be shaped by cognitive processes, with more intelligent dogs displaying less spatial bias.
