Presentation Details
| Humans Can Discriminate Dogs Based on Their Growls Petra Szögi, Tamás Faragó. BARKS Lab, Dept.of Ethology, ELTE, Budapest Hungary |
Abstract
For social animals, individual recognition is essential. The coexistence of humans and dogs has provided an opportunity for interspecific individual recognition to emerge, an ability for which no other example is known. Dogs’ vocalizations can carry unique characteristics, which can be measured using acoustic parameters. Humans can differentiate dogs by their whines, but are unsuccessful at doing so with barks. However, data regarding growls has been lacking, thus our study addresses this gap. We collected data through an online questionnaire where participants listened to growl pairs and decided after each one whether they originated from the same or different dogs. Results show that participants performed significantly above chance in both scenarios. A larger acoustic distance between growls negatively affected performance when the growls originated from the same dog, but improved it when they originated from different dogs. Key decision-making factors included length, pitch, harmonic-to-noise ratio, jitter and differences in formant dispersion. In summary, humans can differentiate dogs based on the acoustic characteristics of their growls.
No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the author.
No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the author.
Content Locked. Log into a registered attendee account to access this presentation.