Posts tagged "psychology"

Sure, some pet owners treat their dogs like dogs. But plenty of us treat our pets like furry little people (or even better than people). In fact, pets have become such important parts of our families that traditional pet names such as Fluffy and Fido have, in recent years, given way to adorable human names such as Max and Lily, "Psychology Today" reports.

What gives?

Psychology researcher Adam Waytz of Harvard University studies why people anthropomorphize, or attribute human traits to animals and objects. In a recent study, Waytz found a variety of explanations for the all-too-common behavior.

Not surprisingly, loneliness can drive anthropomorphism. In Waytz's study, people who were lonesome were more likely to describe their pets as having human qualities like thoughtfulness.

But loneliness is hardly the only reason that people treat their pets like kids, Waytz says. He found humans may have a natural tendency to anthropomorphize objects and animals because it helps them make sense of the world around them.

"People might humanize pets for any number of reasons," Waytz told Paw Nation. "I imagine that non-lonely people may already have a sense of affiliation with their pets and want to anthropomorphize them because they like them so much."

That makes sense to Lisa Hanock-Jasie of New York. "We treat Hugo, our 8-year-old Belgian shepherd/chow mix, as if he were a child because he is our baby," she says. "We celebrate his birthdays as we celebrate our own. His photos are included in our family album. [One] reason we treat him as a furry person is that he actually understands what we say, even full sentences. He's very intelligent." she tells Paw Nation.

Dogs are cuddly, playful, loyal -- and smart. But you totally already knew that. Now science tells us just how smart they really are.

The average dog has mental abilities akin to those of a two-year-old child, according to Stanley Coren, a dog expert and professor emeritus at the University of British Columbia. Coren presented an overview of dog-intelligence studies at the American Psychological Association's annual meeting this week.

In tests of language development, Coren said, the average dog can learn 165 words, including signals and gestures. That's comparable to the performance of a two-year-old toddler. The brainiest breeds can do even better, with some smarty-pants mastering a whopping 250 words (we're guessing half of these are synonyms for dinner).

Dogs are also impressive when it comes to crunching numbers. Pups can count to four or five -- a skill on par with a three- or four-year old child, reports Livescience.com.

Other studies have found that dogs have good spatial problem-solving skills, and can show basic emotions such as happiness, disgust and anger. One emotion man's best friend doesn't suffer from? Guilt. What may seem like a guilty look is actually a dog's fear, according to Coren.

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Is your cat a righty or a lefty? The question's not as kooky as it sounds. A new study reveals that domestic cats are right- or left-handed, just like us.

Psychologists at Queen's University Belfast in Northern Ireland gave cats small jars with bits of tuna tucked inside. They found that female cats tend to be righties, while the boy cats fell to the left. The gender divide was clear: Among 21 lady kitties, 20 nabbed the fish with their right paws. On the flip side, 20 of 21 males proved left-handed. One nimble-fingered male turned out to be ambidextrous, reports New Scientist magazine.

Hormone levels might be responsible for the difference between the sexes, the researchers say. Other studies have linked testosterone to left-handedness in people; men are more likely to be left-handed than women, notes the Daily Mail. Similar gender differences have also shown up in dogs and horses.

Want to find out whether your cat is a lefty? You'll need to devise a tricky-fingered test to get to the truth. Cats' preferences for the left or right don't show up in less complicated tasks, like batting at a dangling toy. The true nature of cat handedness is only revealed during more complex manipulations -- like fishing tuna or treats from a jar too small for the kitty's head.

If setting up a feline experiment isn't your thing, it's probably a safe bet that your cat falls into the left or right camp depending on its gender. Just something to keep in mind if you're teaching your kitty to high five.

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If you pride yourself on being able to interpret your pup's every whine and whimper, you might be disappointed to learn the cold, hard truth: Decoding different dog barks is little more than child's play, according to U.S. News & World Report. Researchers at Brigham Young University report that babies can understand the meanings of different dog barks well before they say their first word.

BYU psychology researchers showed six-month-old babies two photos of the same dog. In one shot, the dog had a playful, friendly stance, in the other, the dog assumed an aggressive pose. Then the researchers played sound clips of friendly-sounding dog barks and aggressive-sounding snarls.

The brainy babies spent most of their time looking at the friendly dog while listening to the welcoming yaps, and they stared at the mean-looking mutt while listening to the threatening snarls. Even babies who had never been around dogs before successfully matched the sound to the correct photo. The findings are reported in the journal Developmental Psychology.

"Emotion is one of the first things babies pick up on in their social world," BYU psychology professor Ross Flom said in a BYU press release. And now, evidence indicates those emotional signals aren't limited to humans. But if babies can understand dogs, count us doubly disappointed that six-month-olds can't talk. If only our babies could translate, maybe they could tell us why Rover keeps chewing on the remote?

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