HOW SMART ARE DOGS?
Smart at
what?
A point. A new rule. An object name. Dog cognition is more interesting than a place on an IQ ladder.
Start with the question ↗
THE SHORT ANSWER
Keep the task
in the answer.
Dogs show learning, social-cue and problem-solving abilities. A result in one setup does not rank a whole dog. Read the sample, the response and the exposure history before repeating a headline.
STUDY PAIR / A RESEARCH COMPARISON
Two papers.
Not one scoreboard.
Compare four actual study designs in six pairings. See why a rare vocabulary sample, a task battery and a follow-up do not answer the same question.
EIGHT RESEARCH GUIDES
Read past the label.
How smart are dogs? Ask: smart at what?
A task, a response and an interpretation are different parts of the answer.
↗02A breed finding is not your dog's rank
Group comparisons need their sample and their limits, even when the headline is short.
↗03A missed cue is not an intelligence score
An everyday response is not a controlled measure of general ability.
↗04Following a point answers a particular question
Social-cue tasks are interesting without standing in for every kind of cognition.
↗05Toy words: exceptional dogs, specific evidence
Seven full completers can reveal an ability without representing every family dog.
↗06The second encounter can change the result
Repeated exposure is a detail in the evidence, not a promise of an intelligence boost.
↗07Looking at a person is a response, not a defeat
Independent action and human-directed behavior need descriptions before value judgments.
↗08Learning does not need an intelligence audition
Humane teaching and a research measurement are different goals.
↗LATEST FROM THE METHODS NOTEBOOK
The rosette in the drawer
A fictional ribbon, two different questions and a result that does not need a winner.
Read the notebook ↗