Domestic dogs (Canis familiaris) recognise meaningful content in monotonous streams of read speech
Abstract Domestic dogs (Canis familiaris) can recognize basic phonemic information from human speech and respond to commands. Commands are typically presented in isolation with exaggerated prosody known as dog-directed speech (DDS) register. Here, we investigate whether dogs can spontaneously identi...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Springer
2025-04-01
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| Series: | Animal Cognition |
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| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1007/s10071-025-01948-z |
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| author | Holly Root-Gutteridge Anna Korzeniowska Victoria Ratcliffe David Reby |
| author_facet | Holly Root-Gutteridge Anna Korzeniowska Victoria Ratcliffe David Reby |
| author_sort | Holly Root-Gutteridge |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Abstract Domestic dogs (Canis familiaris) can recognize basic phonemic information from human speech and respond to commands. Commands are typically presented in isolation with exaggerated prosody known as dog-directed speech (DDS) register. Here, we investigate whether dogs can spontaneously identify meaningful phonemic content in a stream of putatively irrelevant speech spoken in monotonous prosody, without congruent prosodic cues. To test this ability, dogs were played recordings of their owners reading a meaningless text which included a short meaningful or meaningless phrase, either read with unchanged reading prosody or with an exaggerated DDS prosody. We measured the occurrence and duration of dogs’ gaze at their owners. We found that, while dogs were more likely to detect and respond to inclusions that contained meaningful phrases spoken with DDS prosody, they were still able to detect these meaningful inclusions spoken in a neutral reading prosody. Dogs detected and responded to meaningless control phrases in DDS as frequently as to meaningful content in neutral reading prosody, but less often than to meaningful content in DDS. This suggests that, while DDS prosody facilitates the detection of meaningful content in human speech by capturing dogs’ attention, dogs are nevertheless capable of spontaneously recognizing meaningful phonemic content within an unexaggerated stream of speech. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-5f12d547c7d045c8ad72ed849c0f4599 |
| institution | DOAJ |
| issn | 1435-9456 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2025-04-01 |
| publisher | Springer |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Animal Cognition |
| spelling | doaj-art-5f12d547c7d045c8ad72ed849c0f45992025-08-20T03:10:18ZengSpringerAnimal Cognition1435-94562025-04-0128111510.1007/s10071-025-01948-zDomestic dogs (Canis familiaris) recognise meaningful content in monotonous streams of read speechHolly Root-Gutteridge0Anna Korzeniowska1Victoria Ratcliffe2David Reby3School of Psychology, University of SussexSchool of Psychology, University of SussexDefence Science and Technology LaboratorySchool of Psychology, University of SussexAbstract Domestic dogs (Canis familiaris) can recognize basic phonemic information from human speech and respond to commands. Commands are typically presented in isolation with exaggerated prosody known as dog-directed speech (DDS) register. Here, we investigate whether dogs can spontaneously identify meaningful phonemic content in a stream of putatively irrelevant speech spoken in monotonous prosody, without congruent prosodic cues. To test this ability, dogs were played recordings of their owners reading a meaningless text which included a short meaningful or meaningless phrase, either read with unchanged reading prosody or with an exaggerated DDS prosody. We measured the occurrence and duration of dogs’ gaze at their owners. We found that, while dogs were more likely to detect and respond to inclusions that contained meaningful phrases spoken with DDS prosody, they were still able to detect these meaningful inclusions spoken in a neutral reading prosody. Dogs detected and responded to meaningless control phrases in DDS as frequently as to meaningful content in neutral reading prosody, but less often than to meaningful content in DDS. This suggests that, while DDS prosody facilitates the detection of meaningful content in human speech by capturing dogs’ attention, dogs are nevertheless capable of spontaneously recognizing meaningful phonemic content within an unexaggerated stream of speech.https://doi.org/10.1007/s10071-025-01948-zDog-directed speechHeterospecific communicationSpeech recognitionWord recognitionHuman-animal communication |
| spellingShingle | Holly Root-Gutteridge Anna Korzeniowska Victoria Ratcliffe David Reby Domestic dogs (Canis familiaris) recognise meaningful content in monotonous streams of read speech Animal Cognition Dog-directed speech Heterospecific communication Speech recognition Word recognition Human-animal communication |
| title | Domestic dogs (Canis familiaris) recognise meaningful content in monotonous streams of read speech |
| title_full | Domestic dogs (Canis familiaris) recognise meaningful content in monotonous streams of read speech |
| title_fullStr | Domestic dogs (Canis familiaris) recognise meaningful content in monotonous streams of read speech |
| title_full_unstemmed | Domestic dogs (Canis familiaris) recognise meaningful content in monotonous streams of read speech |
| title_short | Domestic dogs (Canis familiaris) recognise meaningful content in monotonous streams of read speech |
| title_sort | domestic dogs canis familiaris recognise meaningful content in monotonous streams of read speech |
| topic | Dog-directed speech Heterospecific communication Speech recognition Word recognition Human-animal communication |
| url | https://doi.org/10.1007/s10071-025-01948-z |
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