dog-iron behavioral and cognition studies , like their human being twin , are often lacking in one thing : numbers . It ’s difficult to get as many dogs and possessor into the lab as necessary to get really significant event . But what if dog owners could test their pets at home and put in the event to researchers ?
According to a new study in the journalPLOS ONE , this character of citizen scientific discipline could help give dog inquiry a much - need hike . Experts from Duke University and a company call Canines , Inc. compare data submitted by regular pet proprietor who perform mental testing with their dogs to traditional lab - based experiments , and incur that the solvent were more or less equal .
The field focused on more than 500 citizen scientist who sign on up for Dognition.com . Volunteers completed questionnaires about their dogs and get instructions for how to perform 10 dissimilar knowledge trial with their canine Friend . They could submit their data point on the web from any computer , lozenge , or smartphone . Here ’s one test they used :
The results bow replicate the determination of several conventional science laboratory study on dog knowledge , and there was no evidence that the volunteers control the solution . This show that citizen scientific discipline initiatives could be a boon for dog study . After all , it ’s much easier to get a large , various sample of dogs and their owners by enter volunteers on the Internet and letting them perform trial at home . It ’s also possible that performing the experiments in an environment that ’s comfy for the dogs ( the home ) allow for a more precise word-painting of their capabilities than an unfamiliar place like a university cognition lab .
More than 17,000 dog proprietor from around the world have signed up to share datum with the research worker , compared with the mesh of 1,000 dog proprietor who Duke University asks to bring ducky into the research laboratory for testing . “They’re just games , ” as Duke dog investigator Brian Hare , who develop the website , explains of the trial in apress exit . “ The owner enjoy play them and the dog fuck playing them . ” Now go play with your dog for skill .
