Collie's vocabulary rivals young child's, study says

By Rob Stein
The Washington Post

FRTIZ REISS / AP Rico, a 9-year-old Border collie from Germany, understands 200 human words, according to a new study.

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A series of carefully designed studies concluded that the German dog has a stunningly large vocabulary and apparently can do something scientists thought only humans could do: Figure out, by the process of elimination, that a sound he has never heard must be the name of a toy he has never seen.

That feat, described in today's issue of the journal Science, suggests that dog owners who claim their pets understand what they're saying and are trying to respond may have been right.

"Maybe this is the Albert Einstein of dogs. Or maybe this is something that other dogs can do, too," said Julia Fischer, a biologist at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany, who helped test Rico. "We just don't know. We need to find out."

While many species can be trained to recognize the names of objects, Rico is unusual because he recognizes so many names, can puzzle out names of new objects on the first try, and is surprisingly good at remembering what he learns weeks later, researchers said.

The findings are the latest evidence that animals are capable of more complex communication than had been thought, with dogs being especially astute at comprehending their human companions.

Some scientists are going so far as to speculate that dogs might even have the capacity to speak — like Mister Ed, the talking horse in the 1960s television show — if only they had the necessary anatomy.

"If Rico had a human vocal tract, one would presume that he should be able to say the names of the items as well, or at least try to do so," said Sue Savage-Rumbaugh, who studies animal communication and intelligence at Georgia State University. "It also raises the issue of whether Rico and/or other dogs or other mammals might already be trying to say words but have great difficulty being understood."

"This is an extremely provocative paper," said Robert Seyfarth, a University of Pennsylvania psychologist who studies monkey behavior and communication. "Dog owners will say a lot of things about their dogs. The question is always, 'Are dogs really as smart as they think they are?' This says they might be."

Patti Strand, an American Kennel Club board member, called the report "good news for those of us who talk to our dogs."

"Like parents of toddlers, we learned long ago the importance of spelling key words like bath, pill or vet when speaking in front of our dogs," Strand said. "Thanks to the researchers who've proven that people who talk to their dogs are cutting-edge communicators, not just a bunch of eccentrics."
 
Other scientists, while praising the new work, remained cautious, saying that the research must be repeated to confirm the findings and that it was far from clear what Rico really understands about the sounds to which he responds.

"I think it's a gorgeous study. It's clever and impressive," said Paul Bloom, a Yale University psychologist who wrote an article accompanying the new study. "But I'm skeptical about exactly what he has learned. I'm not sure I would call it a 'word.' "

Scientists long have debated animals' ability to think and communicate.

They have determined that many species have complex vocalizations that enable them to communicate sophisticated information among themselves. And researchers have been able to teach many creatures to recognize human symbols and language.

An ape named Kanzi, for example, can understand dozens of symbols. Alex, an African grey parrot, can identify a wide array of objects, shapes, colors and materials. And recent studies have shown that dogs are remarkably adept at reading human gestures.

Researchers had thought, however, that the only creatures capable of instantly assigning meaning to a novel word — called "fast-mapping" — were human toddlers, who use the strategy to learn language.

"Fast mapping was thought to be something exclusively human. It is how children learn the meanings of new words," Fischer said. "Nobody thought this could be done by an animal."

She and her colleagues conducted a series of experiments on the 9-year-old border collie after his owners claimed he knew the names of about 200 objects — his collection of toys, balls and stuffed animals.

In the first experiment, researchers put 10 of Rico's toys in one room and Rico and his owner in another. The investigators then instructed the owner to order Rico to fetch two randomly selected items. As Rico ran into the other room and began searching for the items, he could not have picked up any hints from his owner because he was out of sight.

In 40 tests, Rico was correct 37 times, demonstrating he had a vocabulary comparable to dolphins, apes, sea lions and parrots who have undergone extensive training.

Researchers then repeated the test, except this time they put seven toys in the other room along with one he had never seen. His owner then called out the unfamiliar name of the new toy. Rico correctly retrieved the new item in seven of 10 tries.

"This tells us he can do simple logic," Fischer said. "It's like he's saying to himself, 'I know the others have names so this new word cannot refer to my familiar toys. It must refer to this new thing.' Or it goes the other way around and he's thinking, 'I've never seen this one before so this must be it.' He's actually thinking."

Researchers retested Rico a month later, prompting him to retrieve objects from groups of four familiar and four new toys. He was correct three of six times, a success rate comparable to what a typical 3-year-old human toddler could do.

"Of course, for a child, a word very rapidly means much more than it does for a dog. ... Their representation will be much richer than it is for a dog," Fischer said. "But in terms of this task, he is as smart as kids are."

Other scientists said there remains no evidence that animals are capable of complex syntax, which makes human communication unique. But many said Rico's apparent capabilities nevertheless appeared remarkable.

"A lot of people have argued that the perceptual and cognitive mechanism that underlie what we call language and speech acquisition are unique to humans," said Mark Bekoff, who studies dogs at the University of Colorado. "What this study shows clearly is that is not the case. What this shows is that other animals possess those cognitive and perceptual abilities."

Savage-Rumbaugh, who works with the famous bonobo Kanzi, a primate that understands language, said she has demonstrated, although not yet published, similar findings from tests on at least two other dogs.

"No doubt others will quickly replicate this study," she wrote in an e-mail, "and Rico will be shown to be an ordinary dog with a large vocabulary."

Strand's comments were reported by The Associated Press.