A study published in the Journal of the Acoustical Society of America presents the world's first evidence that size can be assessed on the basis of vocal signals. Anna Taylor, a psychologist at the University of Sussex, and her colleagues recorded growls emitted by 30 privately owned domestic dogs of 22 different breeds. An experimenter would get a dog to growl by showing up at the dog's house, approaching it and then staring into its eyes. The dog perceives this as an intimidating move and emits a defensive growl. The researchers then played these growls back to over 50 human listeners, who were asked, "What is the size of this dog?" In virtually all cases, the listeners correctly guessed the general size of the dog, be it a 45 kilos Rottweiler or a miniature Dachshund, based on just the animal's growl.
8 comments:
Interesting but I suppose not unexpected. It would be better the other way around, little dog big growl since that would make up for lack of size.
That reminds me of the Wizard of Oz
Wow... I love your blog. You have some insightful and interesting articles on here.
I rarely hear our dogs growl, they just bark!
CJ xx
My dog barks loudly but is a pussycat in temperament!! He sort of sings in frustration when he sees a cat pass by the gate, but I don't think I have ever heard him growl.
Interesting photo!
That's quite interesting, and makes sense.
I don't think I ever heard my dog Sam growl. He was so laidback.
I always thought it was "Little dog, big growl"! It is in Simi's case!
Post a Comment