Yawning And Dog Theory Of Mind

Note from Con Slobodchikoff: This week we have a guest post by Kristina Gage, CPDT, Ph.D. Candidate in Biopsychology at University at Albany, and at SmartDog Dog Training, www.smartdogschool.com. She is currently conducting a survey on yawning in dogs.

               We engage in social interactions with our dogs every day and they interact with us and with other dogs.  The study of social cognition is the study of the thought processes that underlie these interactions.  Research on social cognition in dogs will give us insight into aspects of their relationships with us and other animals, such as attachment, social learning and aggression.  A better understanding of the development and treatment of these problems will lead to a better quality of life for dogs and their human companions.  This, in turn, would help reduce the amount of dogs surrendered to shelters or euthanized for behavior problems every year.

                Theory of Mind (ToM) is one aspect of social cognition.  It refers to the ability to understand that other individuals have a different mental experience than your own.  For example, I know that I experience the world differently from my friends and that my emotions, memories, political views, etc. are different from theirs.  ToM is also connected to self-awareness.  If an animal is not aware of its own experience, it cannot speculate about the experiences of others.  ToM is also a precursor to empathy.  Animals with ToM can make inferences about how another is feeling and react appropriately, thus showing empathy.  It is likely that ToM abilities exist on a continuum, with some individuals showing stronger ToM skills than others of the same species. 

                We do not yet have enough evidence to say definitively whether or not dogs have any kind of ToM.  However, there is reason to believe they may.  First, dogs evolved from wolves which live in social groups and hunt and raise offspring cooperatively, so they are likely to have developed some kind of social cognition.  Dogs also evolved alongside humans, so they may have been selected for certain types of social intelligence (either intentionally or unintentionally).   Indeed, dogs have shown unique social skills in relation to interacting with humans, such as their ability to follow pointing cues to obtain food – they are actually better at this than our closest relative, the chimpanzee!  There are also many other studies that have provided evidence for some level of social intelligence in dogs – including forming strong social bonds with their owners (similar to those between children and parents) and learning to navigate through obstacles by observing a human doing the same.

                This is an important research topic for a number of reasons. There is evidence that certain mental illnesses in humans, such as autism and schizophrenia, involve ToM deficits.  If dogs do have ToM, it’s possible that different levels of ToM could be related to certain behavioral disorders in dogs, as it appears to be in humans.  For example, dogs that have more difficulty reading body language in humans and other dogs may be more likely to be aggressive because it’s more difficult for them to interpret intentions.  Understanding whether or not dogs have ToM and how it relates to other aspects of their behavior will make professionals better equipped to prevent and treat behavior problems in dogs.  Finally, looking at the function of social cognition across many different species provides a clearer picture of the role it plays in species survival and evolution in general. 

                One way of examining ToM in dogs is by looking at contagious yawning.  Susceptibility to contagious yawning in humans appears to be linked to ToM abilities – individuals that score poorly on ToM tests are less susceptible to contagious yawning.  In addition, children with autism don’t show contagious yawning.  I am conducting a survey that will ask dog owners to observe and report their dog’s yawning behavior to determine if dogs yawn contagiously.  If they do, this could indicate that dogs possess some degree of ToM.  This would provide a jumping off point for additional studies on ToM in dogs and how variations in ToM ability affect different aspects of their behavior.   

                Many dog trainers and behaviorists have observed that dogs appear to yawn when stressed or anxious.  Therefore, this study will also try to determine if dogs that are stressed and anxious in general, or are in a situation likely to trigger anxiety (such as going to the vet) are more likely to yawn.  The results of this study will help us understand the mental processes underlying social behavior in dogs and provide insight into the significance of yawning to help us more accurately interpret body language in our dogs.  Both of these things will allow us to improve the relationship between people and dogs and improve the quality of life for dogs in general.

               

                 

 

Comments

[Alicia Wolman]

This is very interesting!! My dog yawns when I ask her to "speak" on command. She usually yawns first and I think she does it so she can loosen her mouth muscles up or something so she can speak. She also yawns when other dogs are licking her mouth. That is about the only time she does it. Yawning is definitely not contagious - I watch tons of dogs and hardly ever see more than one yawn at a time. However dogs definitely observe the other's behaviors because I can get one to speak and then the others learn to do it too.

amazing creatures!

[Randall Johnson]

As I read Kristina’s guest post, I was reminded of the May 27th DBB post, which summarized two recent studies on contagious yawning in dogs that yielded completely different conclusions. This discrepancy may be due to different methodologies, i.e., one study used live human models and the other used video clips of humans and dogs.

I wholeheartedly believe all available tools should be brought to bear in terms of addressing the issue of ToM in other species and agree with Harr, A.L., et al. Do dogs (Canis familiaris) show contagious yawning? that this is “an exciting area for future studies”.

Although I haven’t knowingly seen examples of contagious yawning in my dogs, I’m fully prepared to acknowledge--and defend--that they exhibit ToM based on other behavioral aspects. I hope more DBB readers will chime in with their views and that Kristina will share the results of her survey with us when they become available.