According to researchers in Hungary, dogs understand when they are spoken to and, like humans, are capable of associating a word with an object.
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00:00 Dogs can understand more than we thought, according to a new study.
00:06 Researchers in Hungary have shown that they can recognize the names of their favorite
00:10 toys as well as the more obvious commands like sit and stay.
00:15 But scientists have trouble determining whether dogs genuinely activate a mental image in
00:20 their minds when they hear the name of an object.
00:25 We expected that if dogs really understand the meaning of the word, of the object word,
00:31 it will expect to see that object and if the owner shows a different one there will be
00:37 a so-called surprise reaction in the brain.
00:40 And this is exactly what we found.
00:43 The study suggests our furry friends have a deeper grasp of language, similar than previously
00:49 thought.
00:50 But it also has lessons about humanity.
00:54 When we are trying to pinpoint some capacities in dogs or understand how their brain is processing
01:01 certain types of stimuli, we also learn in the meantime about what is shared with humans
01:08 and what might be uniquely humans.
01:12 The experiments conducted on 18 dogs also served to find out what in dogs' minds is
01:18 similar to humans, which makes such understanding possible.
01:25 (whooshing)