Wolves beat dogs (and babies) in logic test

In a psychological experiment designed to test logic, dogs and babies have been shown to have similar logical abilities, whereas wolves have greater.

The test goes like this: a researcher hides an object in a box while the subject (dog, baby or wolf) is looking on and then allow the subject to find it. The researcher does this several times, but then switches and hides the object in another box.

When this happen, both dog and baby still go to the first box, even though they have seen the researcher hide the object in another box. Wolves, however, go for the second box.

“I wouldn’t say one species is smarter,” said Adam Miklosi of Eötvös University in Hungary, co-author of a paper describing the results in the Sept. 4 issue of the journal Science.

“If you assume an animal has to survive without human presence, then wolves are smarter. But if you are thinking that dogs have to survive in a human environment where it’s very important to follow the communications of humans, then in this aspect, dogs are smarter.” [LiveScience]

Dogs have been bred by humans for domestication for 10, 000 years and wolves have not, so no wonder dogs are more keen to follow and listen to humans than wolves are.

Still, there’s some difference between dog and baby. If, however, the researcher doing the hiding is switched mid-experiment, only the baby still looks for the object in the first box, while the dog go for the second.

Via 80beats.