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animal psychology

·June 11, 2024·6 min read

Elephants Use Names to Call Each Other

Wild African elephants use name-like calls to address each other, a rare ability among nonhuman animals. Researchers confirmed this by using machine learning to analyze elephant calls and observing that elephants responded specifically to calls addressed to them.

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·June 4, 2024·5 min read

AI Decodes Dog Barks: Playful or Aggressive?

Researchers are using AI to interpret dog barks, distinguishing between playful and aggressive sounds. By adapting human speech models, they also identify dogs' age, breed, and sex. This approach could revolutionize understanding animal communication and improve animal care.

Featured Neuroscience Psychology

·April 12, 2024·5 min read

“Supernatural” Experiences Comfort Grieving Pet Owners

A new study explores the phenomenon of supernatural visits from deceased pets. Analyzing 544 accounts from dog owners on social media, researchers found that about half of these experiences were physical manifestations, such as hearing a dog's nails on the floor, while the others were symbolic signs like dreams or rainbows.

Featured Neuroscience Psychology

·April 2, 2024·7 min read

Canine Cognition Unleashed: Dogs Exhibit Human-like Intelligence Factor

Dogs possess a 'g factor' akin to humans, illuminating the hierarchical structure of canine intelligence and its implications for aging. By evaluating 129 family dogs over two and a half years, the team identified broad cognitive domains—problem-solving and learning ability—that interlink to form a canine general cognitive factor.

Featured Neuroscience Psychology

·March 28, 2024·4 min read

Dogs Sniffing Out PTSD

Dogs can be trained to detect stress-related volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in human breath, potentially identifying the onset of PTSD flashbacks. This groundbreaking study utilized two dogs to distinguish between the breath of individuals recalling traumatic experiences and control samples, achieving over 70% accuracy.

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·March 22, 2024·4 min read

Canine Cognition: Dogs Match Words with Objects

A new study reveals dogs' ability to understand words as representations of objects, indicating a deeper level of cognitive processing than previously thought. Researchers used non-invasive EEG to measure dogs' brain activity, finding distinct patterns when dogs heard a word and were then shown either a matching or mismatching object.

Featured Neuroscience Psychology

·March 15, 2024·4 min read

Paws for Thought: Dog Interaction Boosts Brainwaves and Relaxation

A new study highlights the psychological and neurological benefits of interacting with dogs, revealing that activities such as playing and walking with dogs enhance brain wave strengths linked to relaxation and concentration. This research moves beyond general observations by using EEG technology to quantify the brain's electrical activity during eight distinct dog-related activities, including grooming, playing, and feeding.

Featured Neuroscience Psychology

·December 18, 2023·5 min read

Apes’ Long-Term Social Memory Mirrors Human Ability

A new study reveals that apes possess a remarkably long-lasting social memory, comparable to humans. Researchers found that chimpanzees and bonobos can recognize former groupmates they haven't seen for over 25 years, showing more attention to those they had positive relationships with.

Featured Neuroscience Psychology

·November 29, 2023·5 min read

Personality and Attachment: Shaping the Pet-Owner Well-being Bond

A new study involving about 2,500 pet owners and 3,300 pets, has explored the dynamics of owner–pet attachment and its impact on mental wellbeing. The research, a first of its kind, considered both the personalities of pets and their owners, revealing how attachment styles (anxious and avoidant) relate to the mental wellbeing of both parties. Anxiously attached owners tend to have heightened needs for proximity, whereas avoidantly attached owners seek independence.

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·August 22, 2023·4 min read

Woofs & Whispers: Dogs Tune In More to Women’s Deliberate Tones

A recent study highlights that dogs are more receptive to speech directed specifically at them, especially when spoken by women. Using fMRI scans on trained family dogs, the study discovered that the canine brain responds more strongly to dog- and infant-directed speech than to regular adult speech.

Featured Neuroscience Psychology

·August 7, 2023·5 min read

Dog’s Facial Markings Influence Human-Canine Communication

Researchers discovered that the complexity of a dog's facial markings affects human interpretation of their expressions. It was revealed that dogs with plainer faces make more facial expressions and are better understood by humans than dogs with more complex markings.

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·July 26, 2023·4 min read

Child’s Age and Pet Ownership Improve Recognition of Dog Emotions

The ability to correctly identify dog emotions from their facial expressions appears to be influenced by a person's age and prior experience with dogs. This research found that adults and 6-year-olds were more accurate in recognizing aggressive expressions in dogs than 4-year-olds, regardless of whether they had pet dogs.