Hungarian research shed light on whether dogs recognize words

Researchers at ELTE (Eötvös Loránd University) made a stunning discovery: our dogs are even smarter than we thought, they recognize the meaning of words.

As dog owners, we are not surprised by the results that the researchers of the Department of Ethology at ELTE recently published. However, the fact that this is now supported by a study emphasizes the point: our dogs not only understand intonation but also the meaning of words, making speech an important factor in communication between dogs and their owners.

Dogs Understand Human  Speech

In a recent brainwave study published in the journal Current Biology, the authors, including experts from ELTE, Magyari Lilla and her colleagues, shed new light. While previous studies by several research groups worldwide have determined that dogs can understand commands based on circumstances and intonation, in this latest study, the brains of 18 dogs were examined, leading to the discovery that dogs are capable of associating objects with their names independently of context.

In the laboratory of the Department of Ethology in Budapest, 18 dogs were examined using a non-invasive method: electrodes were placed on their heads, and the patterns of brain waves were observed in various situations. They were curious whether the four-legged animals could recognize individual objects solely based on the spoken word.

Not only speech but words themselves carry meaning for dogs too

Owners uttered the name of a particular object, showed it to the dog (for example: “Look, the ball!”), and presented another object as well. After analyzing the EEG recordings, various brain patterns were found when the dogs saw the corresponding and non-corresponding object to the word. This type of experiment has been used in humans for decades as evidence of semantic processing or understanding of meaning. In this study, semantic processing was observed in 14 out of the 18 dogs. Andics Attila, the head of the research group, stated:

No matter how extensive a dog’s vocabulary is, the dog’s mind is capable of retrieving the associated mental representation upon hearing a word. Thus, it seems that this ability is not only characteristic of a few individuals who know exceptionally many object words, but is generally present in dogs.

The lesson of the study is that dogs understand human sounds much better than we previously imagined. Foreign experts in the field are also optimistic about the results, and as dog owners, we are pleased that what we have known – or at least suspected – will now become common knowledge for everyone.