Shany DrorEötvös Loránd University · Department of Ethology
Shany Dror
Master of Science
About
9
Publications
1,429
Reads
How we measure 'reads'
A 'read' is counted each time someone views a publication summary (such as the title, abstract, and list of authors), clicks on a figure, or views or downloads the full-text. Learn more
25
Citations
Introduction
Researching language-related concepts in family dogs.
Skills and Expertise
Publications
Publications (9)
While personality and cognition are distinct domains, some personality traits may affect the capacity for problem-solving. It was suggested that there is a positive association between the Playfulness trait and problem-solving performance in humans. Studies on giftedness (extremely good capacity in the case of a specific skill), typically aimed to...
Exceptional performance is present in various human activities but its origins are debated and challenging to study. We report evidence of exceptional performance and qualitative variation in learning object names in dogs. 34 naïve family dogs and 6 knowledgeable individuals that knew multiple toy names, found in 2 years of search around the Globe,...
Little research has been conducted on dogs’ (Canis familiaris) ability to integrate information obtained through different sensory modalities during object discrimination and recognition tasks. Such a process would indicate the formation of multisensory mental representations. In Experiment 1, we tested the ability of 3 Gifted Word Learner (GWL) do...
Little is known about head-tilts in dogs. Based on previous investigations on the head-turning and the lateralised brain pattern of human speech processing in dogs, we hypothesised that head-tilts may be related to increased attention and could be explained by lateralised mental functions. We observed 40 dogs during object-label knowledge tests and...
Dogs with a vocabulary of object names are rare and are considered uniquely gifted. In a few cases, these Gifted Word Learner (GWL) dogs have presented cognitive skills that are functionally similar to those of human infants. However, the acquisition rate of new object names and the ability of GWL dogs to form long-term memories of those is unknown...
Exceptional performance is present in various human activities but its origins are debated and challenging to study. We report evidence of exceptional performance and qualitative variation in learning object-names in dogs. 34 naïve family dogs and 6 knowledgeable individuals that knew multiple toy names, found in 2 years of search around the Globe,...
Learning object names after few exposures, is thought to be a typically human capacity. Previous accounts of similar skills in dogs did not include control testing procedures, leaving unanswered the question whether this ability is uniquely human. To investigate the presence of the capacity to rapidly learn words in dogs, we tested object-name lear...
In many parts of South and Southeast Asia, rural farmers living at the borders of protected areas frequently encounter Asian elephants (Elephas maximus) raiding their crops and threatening farmers lives and livelihoods. Traditional deterrent methods often have limited success as elephants become habituated or alternate their movement and behavior....
Projects
Projects (2)
We found that only a few, rare, gifted dogs worldwide show the unique skill of learning multiple object names – the name of their toys. These dogs can learn names very quickly and remember those for over two months. They called these dogs Gifted Word Learners. The ability to learn object names is very rare and dogs with this capacity are important for research. By studying these dogs, we can not only better understand dogs but also better understand the origins of talent and variation across individuals in cognitive capacities.
