DOI: 10.5061/dryad.9cnp5hqsh
title: Dogs do not use their own experience with novel barriers to infer others’ visual access

description: Despite extensive research into the Theory of Mind abilities in nonhuman
 animals, it remains controversial whether they can attribute mental states
 to other individuals or whether they merely predict future behaviour based
 on previous behavioural cues. In the present study, we tested pet dogs (in
 total, N=92) on adaptations of the “goggles test” previously used with
 human infants and great apes. In both a cooperative and a competitive
 task, dogs were given direct experience with the properties of novel
 screens (one opaque, the other transparent) inserted into identical, but
 differently coloured, tunnels. Dogs learned and remembered the properties
 of the screens even when, later on, these were no longer directly visible
 to them. Nevertheless, they were not more likely to follow the
 experimenter’s gaze to a target object when the experimenter could see it
 through the transparent screen. Further, they did not prefer to steal a
 forbidden treat first in a location obstructed from the experimenter’s
 view by the opaque screen. Therefore, dogs did not show perspective-taking
 abilities in this study in which the only available cue to infer others’
 visual access consisted of the subjects’ own previous experience with
 novel visual barriers. We conclude that the behaviour of our dogs, unlike
 that of infants and apes in previous studies, does not show evidence of
 experience projection abilities.
description: # Dogs do not use their own experience with novel barriers to infer
 others’ visual access
 [https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.9cnp5hqsh](https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.9cnp5hqsh) This study reports two implementations of the "goggles task" with dogs. ## Description of the data and file structure All information needed to reproduce the analyses is in the folder "Data_and_code_for_Lonardo_et_al_2024_PRSB.zip". The dogs' age is always reported in months. In all data files, missing data are indicated with NAs. ### Experiment 1 - gaze following in a cooperative, foraging context. The data are in the folder "data". The script containing the statistical analyses is in the file called "goggles_analysis.rmd". The R project and workspace are called "dog_goggles_exp.Rproj" and "goggles_workspace.RData", respectively. The R functions kindly provided by Roger Mundry are in the folder "functions", the plots are in the folder "graphics". The model outputs are in the folder "saves". The script to calculate inter-rater reliability is in the file called "inter_rater_reliability.qmd". This study was pre-registered: https://osf.io/xsgbz/?view_only=7b5ef9487213421a921965732e5a4ffb ###### Below we describe each variable of the data file, called "goggles\_looking\_time\_data.csv". The other two data files in the folder were only used to obtain this final file described here. * *first column*: row number * *Subject*: dog's name * *trial*: trial number * *dog_ID*: dog identifier number * *sex*: dog's sex * *birthday*: dog's date of birth (DD/MM/YYYY) * *test_date*: date of test * *age*: dogs' age on the test day, in months * *breed*: dog's breed * *transparent_screen*: colour of the tunnel containing the transparent screen * *tunnel_right_side*: colour of the tunnel positioned on the right side of the room  * *looking_direction*: L (left) or R (right) relative to the experimenter * *start_experience_phase*: whether the experience phase started from the L (left) or R (right) tunnel * *manipulation_check_times*: number of manipulation check trials * *Approach_transparent_screen_first*: whether the dog approached the transparent screen first (1) or not (0) during the manipulation check * *Help_introduction*: whether the dog received help or not from the experimenter to retrieve food from the buckets during the introduction phase * *notes*: notes, only filled in if something special happened during the trial * *transparent_side*: side of the room where the tunnel containing the transparent screen was placed * *looking_condition*: whether the experimenter looked through the opaque or transparent screen within a trial * *duration_opaque/transparent*: dog's cumulative looking time in the direction of the tunnel containing the opaque/transparent screen within a trial * *gaze_congruent_look*: dog's cumulative looking time in the direction of the tunnel signalled by the experimenter within a trial * *toal_looking_time*: dog's cumulative looking time in the direction of both tunnels/targets within a trial * *prop_duration_congruent_look*: dog's proportion of looking time in the direction of the tunnel signalled by the experimenter within a trial ### Experiment 2 - stealing context Empty cells in the data files are in place for different reasons: for formatting; in the "Stop" and "Stop_Frame" because the scored behaviour is an event (and not a duration), hence it does not have a time length; in the "notes" column, because nothing special disturbed the experimental trial; in the "trial" column, because pre-test trials were not assigned a trial number as test trials were (so as not to confuse the two types of trial); in the "Partner" column because the experiment was performed with one subject at a time; in the "Initiation", "Termination" and "interaction_subject_id" columns because these columns were generated automatically by the software used for scoring the videos even if no values were scored for these variables.   The data are in the folder "data", the script containing the statistical analyses is in the file called "stealing_behind_tunnels_analysis.rmd". The R project and workspace are called "dog_stealing_behind_tunnels.Rproj" and "stealing_behind_tunnels_workspace.RData", respectively. The R functions kindly provided by Roger Mundry are in the folder "functions", the plots are in the folder "graphics", the model outputs are in the folder "saves". The script to calculate inter-rater reliability is in the file called "inter_rater_reliability.qmd". Data, code and a written description of the power analysis conducted to establish the sample size are in the folder "simulation". ###### Below we describe the most important variables of the data file called "scoringproject\_83\_stealing\_behind\_tunnels\_scoring.csv". Not all the variables in the file were used for the analyses). Variables in columns R to Z refer to the specifications of the graphic interface in which the scoring was carried out in the software Loopy, such as the colour with which the behaviours were coded and are therefore not explained here, as totally irrelevant to the study. * *first column*: row number * *Scoring*: name of the scoring for that test * *Start/Stop*: time the behaviour was started/finished to be scored [in ms] * *Start_Frame/Stop_Frame*: frame number in which the behaviour scoring started/finished * *Subject*: dog's name * *Behaviour*: the phase or variable of the experiment that was scored * *Value*: the value scored, referred to the previous column * *trial*: trial number * *_event*: whether the scored behaviour was coded as an event (TRUE) or as a duration (FALSE) * *percentage_start/stop*: percentage of the video elapsed when the behaviour scoring started/stopped ###### Below we describe each variable of the data file called "counterbalancing\_stealing\_tunnels.csv". Empty cells in the column "training" mean that the dog's caregiver did not report any previous formal training for the dog. Empty cells in the column "trial_comments" and "Comment" mean that the experimenter did not have any special remarks on the trial;  * *Subject*: dog's name  * *subj_ID*: dog identifier number * *first_condition*: whether the dog was tested first in the control ("contr") or experimental ("test") condition * *transparent.sc*: the colour of the tunnel containing the transparent screen * *sex*: dog's sex * *breed*: dog's breed * *fci_group*: the FCI (Fédération Cynologique Internationale) group to which the dog's breed belongs * *terrier*: whether the dog was a terrier or not * *independent_heberlein*: whether the dog's breed was classified as "independent" in the paper by Heberlein et al. (2017). * *independent_breed_fci*: whether the dog's breed belonged to the same FCI group as one of the breeds that were classified as "independent" by Heberlein et al. (2017). * *family_style_fci*: whether the dog's breed belonged to the same FCI group as one of the breeds that were classified as "family" by Heberlein et al. (2017). * *training*: the dog's previous training. Abbreviations refer to the increasing levels of the "companion dog test" of the "Österreichischer Gebrauchshundesport-Verband" (Austrian utility dog sport association) * *testdate*: date of test * *birthdate*: dog's date of birth (DD/MM/YYYY) * *age_months*: dogs' age on the test day, in months * *pretest1a/pretest2/pretest1b*: number of trials in the respective pre-test phase * *firstchoice_pretest2*: dog's first choice (food behind the opaque or transparent screen) during pre-test 2 * *trial_comments/Comment*: comments from the experimenter * *used_command*: the word the experimenter used to ask the dog to not move * *experience_starting_colour*: the colour of the tunnel behind which the experience phase started. ## Sharing/Access information Data also on GitHub (links in related works section). ## Code/Software R.