![]() ![]() The findings were a striking illustration of how little science knows about canine perception, even though humans have for millennia had close relationships with dogs, says Byosiere, now the director of the Thinking Dog Center at Hunter College in New York. But rather than falling for the trick as humans do, picking the circle surrounded by smaller circles as being larger, the dogs did the exact opposite. To Byosiere’s excitement, the data revealed that dogs did indeed show susceptibility to the Ebbinghaus-Titchener illusion they consistently selected one of the two identical circles in the illusory image more than the other. The team had collected data using a range of control images, too, in which both the center circles and the overall stimulus size varied, to test whether dogs were biased towards choosing one of the images over the other. Each dog had been trained, using a generous supply of dog biscuits in exchange for right answers, to select whichever of the two center circles it perceived to be larger by tapping its nose to that part of the screen. The team used various versions of the Ebbinghaus-Titchener illusion, in which two same-sized circles appear to humans to be different sizes due to arrangement of other circles around them. But the initial results, published in 2016, were eye-opening. Getting the first few animals-Lagotto Romagnolo dogs brought in by owners who had volunteered to work with the researchers-familiarized with the apparatus took months, Byosiere says. The team created a small testing room with a touchscreen inside that would show various optical illusions and that dogs could interact with using their noses. She moved to La Trobe to work under the supervision of dog researcher Pauline Bennett, and devised a setup that would enable dogs to communicate what they were perceiving. According to one study, the effect is reversed in dogs.īyosiere decided to dig into the question for her doctoral research. To humans, the circle surrounded by smaller circles appears larger. In the Ebbinghaus-Titchener illusion, the two central circles have equal diameters. Identifying when and how mistakes such as these arise can offer clues as to how cognition works, in humans or other animals, such as domestic dogs ( Canis familiaris). Usually, shortcuts are a reliable way for brains to obtain information rapidly, he says, but sometimes they’ll result in a mistake-causing us to “see” things that aren’t there, or to perceive a difference in size between two identical objects, for example. Psychologists use visual illusions all the time to study the shortcuts the human brain uses to extract information about the world, explains Philippe Chouinard, an expert on illusions and one of the La Trobe psychologists at that barbecue. What at first sounded like a gimmick soon morphed into a serious proposal. “We had this crazy question of: Could you give a dog an illusion, and would they be able to see it?” she recalls. Chatting at the barbecue with a group of psychologists who were studying how the human brain perceives visual illusions, it struck her that the same approach could provide a window into how dogs see the world around them-and how their perception differs from our own. It was 2015, and she was visiting La Trobe University shortly after finishing a master’s degree on canine cognition back home in the US. In addition to the millions of hits, the one minute 48-second clip has received about 38,000 likes.Sarah Byosiere was at a barbecue just outside Melbourne, Australia, when she came up with the idea of presenting optical illusions to dogs. In the video's description, Ahonen notes, "By the way, all the dogs got treats before and after the trick." He also says that a sequel is on the way. After the biscuit goes missing, the dog frantically walks in a circle and then in multiple directions as he sniffs his paws. However Gado, one of the dogs, might have the funniest reaction. One pup barks at Ahonen, and another licks him. ![]() A couple pets start walking around in circles. Most dogs immediately look in each direction and then begin sniffing downward to see if they can find the hidden treat. The driving force behind the 5 million views this video has received is the fashion in which the dogs react to Ahonen. None of the pets notice this.ĭetails of the trick itself though are insignificant. From at least one angle, it looks as if Ahonen pulls the treat into his right sleeve. But as soon as the dog moves to grab it, the biscuit suddenly disappears. The premise is simple: Ahonen kneels down in front of each canine with a treat in his hands. Yes, even puppies can fall for sleight of hand, and their reactions to Ahonen's antics are pretty hilarious. ![]() Jose Ahonen is a Finnish magician who is racking up millions of YouTube views with a new video in which he pulls a "hidden-treat trick" on dogs. ![]()
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