This study shows that dogs trained with soundboards can use the buttons intentionally rather than randomly. While we don’t yet know how well they understand the meanings of words, the data suggest that their presses are not simply the result of rote training. It’s an important step toward understanding how animals can communicate with humans, and future research will continue to explore how far this interaction can go.
Research into how different species communicate has a challenging history. Scientists initially tried to teach language to great apes, such as chimpanzees, using gestures or sounds.
Despite intriguing stories, such as the case of Washoe, a chimpanzee who supposedly combined “water” and “bird” when she saw a swan, the methods used were inconsistent, and the results often resulted in exaggerated interpretations. Furthermore, raising primates in human environments posed ethical concerns and harmed the animals.
Deborah and Roger Fouts in 1995 with Washoe, who was able to use American Sign Language. Credit: Central Washington University
After initial criticism, scientists sought new ways to investigate animal communication. This led to the emergence of devices such as keyboards with symbols (lexigrams), buttons with sounds and even magnetic chips.
These methods had the advantage of requiring less vocal imitation or motor coordination, which allowed them to involve more species, including parrots, dolphins and dogs. With these devices, animals could press buttons to make simple requests, such as asking to play or go for a walk.
However, these studies also faced criticism. Many researchers questioned whether the animals truly understood what they were doing or were simply reacting to involuntary cues from humans. For example, in the so-called Clever Hans effect, animals interpret subtle, involuntary signals from their trainers, without truly understanding the meaning of the actions they perform.
In recent years, many dog owners have begun training their pets using soundboards, devices with buttons that, when pressed, play recorded human words or phrases.
These dogs not only use buttons to ask for simple things, like food or walks, but some owners claim that their pets can "speak" more abstract concepts, like "help" or "later." There have also been reports of dogs combining buttons in sequences, such as “I want to play now.”
Recent research shows that dogs recognize the sounds associated with buttons. For example, they react differently when someone presses the “play” button compared to other buttons, even in the absence of contextual cues. This suggests that they understand at least part of the meaning of the words.
To investigate whether dogs actually use these buttons deliberately, scientists analyzed a large database of recordings of dogs and their owners using soundboards.
They checked three main points. (1) Are the presses deliberate? This means that the dogs are not simply pressing buttons accidentally or randomly. The results indicated that the dogs choose the buttons intentionally.
(2) Are the presses non-random? That is, the dogs do not press any button expecting a reward, but rather appear to choose according to the context or purpose.
(3) Are the dogs simply imitating their owners? The analysis showed that the dogs’ presses were not simply copies of what their owners did. This suggests that the dogs play an active and independent role in using the buttons.
In addition, the data revealed that certain button pairs, such as “play” and “now,” appeared together more often than expected. This suggests that the dogs may be associating concepts and using button combinations in meaningful ways.
The results show that dogs trained with soundboards can use the buttons intentionally rather than randomly. While we don’t yet know how well they understand the meanings of words, the data suggest that their presses are not simply the result of rote training.
This is an important step in understanding how animals can communicate with humans, and future research will continue to explore how far this interaction can go.
While we are still far from saying that dogs can truly “talk” like humans, the soundboard studies show that they have the capacity to learn and associate symbols with concepts.
More importantly, these experiments highlight how science and owner curiosity can work together to explore fascinating interspecies communication.
READ MORE:
Soundboard-trained dogs produce non-accidental, non-random and non-imitative two-button combinations
Amalia P. M. Bastos, Zachary N. Houghton, Lucas Naranjo & Federico Rossano
Scientific Reports. volume 14, Article number: 28771 (2024)
Abstract:
Early studies attempting interspecies communication with great apes trained to use sign language and Augmented Interspecies Communication (AIC) devices were limited by methodological and technological constraints, as well as restrictive sample sizes. Evidence for animals’ intentional production of symbols was met with considerable criticisms which could not be easily deflected with existing data. More recently, thousands of pet dogs have been trained with AIC devices comprising soundboards of buttons that can be pressed to produce prerecorded human words or phrases. However, the nature of pets’ button presses remains an open question: are presses deliberate, and potentially meaningful? Using a large dataset of button presses by family dogs and their owners, we investigate whether dogs’ button presses are (i) non-accidental, (ii) non-random, and (iii) not mere repetitions of their owners’ presses. Our analyses reveal that, at the population level, soundboard use by dogs cannot be explained by random pressing, and that certain two-button concept combinations appear more often than expected by chance at the population level. We also find that dogs’ presses are not perfectly predicted by their owners’, suggesting that dogs’ presses are not merely repetitions of human presses, therefore suggesting that dog soundboard use is deliberate.
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