Dogs’ comprehension of referential emotional expressions: familiar people and familiar emotions are easier

Abstract

Dogs have been shown to discriminate between human facial expressions, and they seem to use human emotional communication to regulate their behaviour towards an external object/situation. However, it is still not clear (1) whether they just respond to the emotional message received with a corresponding increase/decrease in their level of activation or whether they perceive that the emotional message refers to a specific object, (2) which emotional message they use to modify their behaviour (i.e. whether they are following the positive message or avoiding the negative one) and (3) whether their familiarity with the informant has an effect on the dogs' behaviour. To address these issues, five groups of dogs were tested in two experiments. The first group observed the owner delivering two different emotional messages (happiness and fear) towards two identical objects hidden behind barriers, and the second group observed the owner delivering the same emotional messages but with no-objects present in the room. The third and the fourth groups observed the owner delivering a happy versus a neutral, and a negative versus a neutral emotional message towards the hidden objects. Finally, the fifth group observed a stranger acting like the owner of the first group. When the owner was acting as the informant, dogs seemed to be capable of distinguishing between a fearful and happy emotional expression and preferentially chose to investigate a box eliciting an expression of happiness rather than of fear or neutrality. Dogs, however, seemed to have greater difficulty in distinguishing between the fearful and neutral emotional messages delivered by the owner and between the happy and fearful expressions delivered by the stranger. Results suggest that dogs have learned to associate their owners' positive emotional messages to positive outcomes, and hence use their communicative messages to guide their actions. However, negative emotional messages and those delivered by strangers are not as clear to dogs.

Auditory Communication in Domestic Dogs

“…In a preferential choice paradigm in which only one box out of two contained a reward, dogs were more likely to choose a box to which they had seen a person respond with a happy reaction than one paired with a disgusted reaction, demonstrating their ability to use human emotional expressions to guide their choice (Buttlemann & Tomasello, 2012). Interestingly, dogs are better at making such decisions based on emotional expressions of familiar rather than unfamiliar people (Merola et al, 2013). This study also found that dogs' responses are more strongly guided by happy expressions than by avoiding boxes paired with neutral or fearful expressions.…”

Functionally relevant responses to human facial expressions of emotion in the domestic horse ( Equus caballus )

“…Alternatively, individuals may have to learn to interpret human expressions during their lifetime experience with humans. In support of the latter argument, familiarity is found to be a significant factor in dogs' recognition of human expressions; they perform better when faced with their owners [13] or with people of the same gender as their owners [4], suggesting that lifetime experience has a significant role in shaping this ability. To elucidate the evolutionary and ontogenetic mechanisms involved, the responses of species and individuals with varying degrees of human exposure should be compared.…”

Current perspectives on attachment and bonding in the dog–human dyad

“…However, to the authors’ knowledge, there is no documented evidence of imitation occurring naturally in dog–human relationships; thus, its relevance is questionable. Despite this, the ability of dogs to demonstrate social referencing, adapting their behavior according to human emotional signals,57,63 further reinforces the relevance of social learning in the dog–human relationship. Therefore, it is reasonable to postulate that dogs view humans as peers who often provide salient information about the surrounding environment but are distinct from conspecifics.…”

“…This suggests that social referencing does not always operate in the dog–human dyad. Indeed, dogs seem to struggle to distinguish between fearful and neutral emotional messages about certain objects and to respond appropriately to emotional messages given by a stranger 63. As such, relational factors and attachment dimensions probably influence the degree of social referencing between dogs and owners.…”