Pies: Dogs are about as smart as a two- or three-year-old child

Evidence: 26 • authority: 88

Infants who are rarely spoken to nevertheless understand many words. Theories of language development---informed largely by studies of Western, middle-class infants---have highlighted the language that caregivers direct to children as a key driver of language learning. However, some have argued that language development unfolds similarly across environmental contexts, including those in which child-directed language is scarce. This raises the possibility that children adapt their learning strategies to the language available in their environments, such that some children come to rely on speech that they overhear. We explore this hypothesis with infants in an indigenous Tseltal-speaking comm…

Evidence: 26 • authority: 72

The dog (Canis familiaris or Canis lupus familiaris) is a domesticated descendant of wolves. Also called the domestic dog, it was selectively bred during the Late Pleistocene by hunter-gatherers. Dogs and the modern gray wolf share a common ancestor. Dogs were the first species to be domesticated over 14,000 years ago, before the development of agriculture, though genetic studies suggest the domestication process may have begun over 25,000 years ago. Due to their long association with humans, dogs have gained the ability to thrive on a starch-rich diet that would be inadequate for other canids. Dogs have been bred for specific behaviors, sensory abilities, and physical traits. Dog breeds va…

Evidence: 26 • authority: 72

Language acquisition is the process by which humans acquire the capacity to perceive and comprehend language. In other words, it is how human beings gain the ability to be aware of language, to understand it, and to produce and use words and sentences to communicate. Language acquisition involves structures, rules, and representation. The capacity to successfully use language requires human beings to acquire a range of tools, including phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics, and an extensive vocabulary. Language can be vocalized as in speech, or manual as in sign. Human language capacity is represented in the brain. Even though human language capacity is finite, one can say and understand…

Evidence: 20 • authority: 80

Understanding unfamiliar words in a text: Do L2 learners understand how much they don't understand?

Evidence: 20 • authority: 72

Dog intelligence or dog cognition is the process in dogs of acquiring information and conceptual skills, and storing them in memory, retrieving, combining and comparing them, and using them in new situations. Studies have shown that dogs display many behaviors associated with intelligence. They have advanced memory skills, and are able to read and react appropriately to human body language such as gesturing and pointing, and to understand human voice commands. Dogs demonstrate a theory of mind by engaging in deception, and self-awareness by detecting their own smell during the "sniff test", a proposed olfactory equivalent to the mirror test.

Evidence: — • authority: 38