Dogs re-engage human partners when joint social play is interrupted: a behavioural signature of shared intentionality?

Horschler, Daniel J.; Bray, Emily E.; Gnanadesikan, Gitanjali E.; Byrne, Molly; Levy, Kerinne; Kennedy, Brenda; MacLean, Evan L.

doi:10.1016/j.anbehav.2021.11.007

Cited by 9 publications

(17 citation statements)

References 80 publications

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“…Hallmarks of human-human visual interaction, like joint attention during cooperative tasks, can now be explored in a cross-species context, contributing to a broader understanding of key features of visual communication and their role in components of human-dog partnerships like cooperation and bonding. This new method can also be used to evaluate complex social dynamics such as re-engagement, a process facilitated by joint intentionality and something recently demonstrated in dogs (Horschler et al, 2022). In an applied context, this method could clarify how, for example, guide dogs are able to safely navigate city streets to assist visually impaired individuals, or how search and rescue dogs are able to navigate rubble to locate missing people, facilitating improved training regimes.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Head-Mounted Mobile Eye-Tracking in the Domestic Dog: A New Method

Pelgrim¹,

Espinosa²,

Buchsbaum³

2022

Preprint

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Humans rely on dogs for countless tasks, ranging from companionship to highly specialized detection work. In their daily lives, dogs must navigate a human-built visual world, yet comparatively little is known about what dogs visually attend to as they move through their environment. Real-world eye-tracking, or head-mounted eye-tracking, allows participants to freely move through their environment, providing more naturalistic results about visual attention while interacting with objects and agents. In dogs, real-world eye-tracking has the potential to inform our understanding of cross-species cognitive abilities as well as working dog training, however a robust and easily deployed head-mounted eye-tracking method for dogs has not previously been developed and tested. We present a novel method for real-world eye-tracking in dogs, using a simple head-mounted mobile apparatus mounted onto goggles designed for dogs. This new method, adapted from systems that are widely used in humans, allows for eye-tracking during more naturalistic behaviors, namely walking around and interacting with real-world stimuli, as well as reduced training time as compared to traditional stationary eye-tracking methods. We found that while completing a simple forced-choice treat-finding task, dogs look primarily to the treat, and we demonstrated the accuracy of this method using alternative gaze-tracking methods. Additionally, eye-tracking revealed more fine-grained time course information and individual differences in looking patterns.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Head-Mounted Mobile Eye-Tracking in the Domestic Dog: A New Method

Pelgrim¹,

Espinosa²,

Buchsbaum³

2022

Preprint

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“…To address whether reengagement behaviour is specific to Pan or Homo , further studies might additionally apply this paradigm to other primate species, or animal taxa more distant from humans. One promising recent study has already shown reengagement behaviour in dogs [58], pointing to the possibility of convergent origins of the behavioural correlates of joint commitment.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Chimpanzees and bonobos reinstate an interrupted triadic game

Heesen,

Bangerter,

Zuberbühler

et al. 2023

Preprint

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When humans engage in joint action, they seem to so with an underlying sense of joint commitment, a feeling of mutual obligation towards their partner and a shared goal. Whether our closest living relatives, bonobos and chimpanzees, experience and understand joint commitment in the same way is subject to debate. Crucial evidence concerns how participants respond to interruptions of joint actions, particularly if they protest or attempt to reengage their reluctant or distracted partners. During dyadic interactions, bonobos and chimpanzees appear to have some sense of joint commitment, according to recent studies. Yet, data are inconsistent for triadic games with objects. We addressed this issue by engagingN=23 apes (5 adult chimpanzees, 5 infant bonobos, 13 adult bonobos) in a “tug-of-war” game with a human experimenter who abruptly stopped playing. Adult apes readily attempted to reengage the experimenter (>60% of subjects on first trial), with no group differences in the way of reengagement. Infant bonobos rarely reengaged and never did so on their first trial. Importantly, when infants reengaged passive partners, they mostly deployed (tactile) signals, yet rarely game-related behaviours (GRBs) as commonly observed in adults. These findings might explain negative results of earlier research. Bonobos and chimpanzees may thus have motivational foundations for joint commitment, although this capacity might develop over lifetime. We discuss this finding in relation to evolutionary and developmental theories on joint commitment.

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“…Hallmarks of human–human visual interaction, like joint attention during cooperative tasks, can now be explored in a cross-species context, contributing to a broader understanding of key features of visual communication and their role in components of human–dog partnerships like cooperation and bonding. This new method can also be used to evaluate complex social dynamics such as re-engagement, a process facilitated by joint intentionality and something recently demonstrated in dogs (Horschler et al, 2022 ). In an applied context, this method could clarify how, for example, guide dogs are able to safely navigate city streets to assist visually impaired individuals, or how search and rescue dogs are able to navigate rubble to locate missing people, facilitating improved training regimes.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%