Dogs understand morality and imagination

Dogs become increasingly intelligent, know how to create images in the brain and even understand human code of conduct. This is the conclusion of Austrian scientists at a dog forum.

More than 200 scientists from all over the world came to Hungary's capital, Budapest, on August 21 to attend the Dog Science Forum. Here, many interesting studies on this animal have been discussed.

A team of experts from the University of Vienna (Austria) found that dogs' banter drives rarely turned into fights. This shows that this animal knows to abide by some social rules. To find out if they have a concept of " fairness ", they conduct a test for many dogs. Experts ask some children to stand upright and reward them with a hearty meal. However, one child in the group must not eat after fulfilling their request. The results showed that the animal demanded its reward during the next 30 minutes.

In the next experiment, the team ordered two dogs to stand upright but only one to eat. In the second turn, the dog is not rewarded to refuse to do as the scientists demand.

Dr. Friederike Range, the leader of the research team, said: "Dogs show an aversion to inequality. It's a sense of their fairness."

Domestic dogs evolved from gray wolves about 10,000 years ago. Since then, their brain size has decreased over time. According to experts, the dogs' brains are now 10% smaller than their ancestors. However, they have developed countless skills that can exist with humans.

Dr. Peter Pongracz and his colleagues at Eotvos Loran University in Budapest (Hungary) have found evidence that dog barks contain information that humans can understand . They found that even those who had never had a dog could feel their emotional nuances through barking: happy to joke, sad when starved, angry when faced with strangers.

Thanks to a special computer program, the team realized that each bark has its own characteristics of frequency, rhythm and volume.

Dr. Akiko Takaoka, an expert at Kyoto University (Japan), conducted experiments to prove that dogs have the ability to create images in the brain whenever they hear the voice of a stranger . She gave a pack of dogs a recording of many human voices, both male and female. Every time a voice comes out, the screen will show a human face. The screen is placed in front of the dogs.

Akiko noticed, if the speaker produced a female voice, but the screen showed a male face, the dogs would look at the screen longer. This shows that they know how to establish a picture and sound connection in the brain.

"Perhaps dogs have the ability to create an image inside the brain whenever they hear someone's voice. This ability helps them communicate with people easily," Akiko said.

Each bark has its own characteristics of frequency, rhythm and volume
(Photo: Thesun.co.uk)