Does the 'button that allows you to talk to dogs' really have any meaning?
Dogs are said to
Do dog 'talking buttons' actually work? Does my dog understand me? Here's what the science says
https://theconversation.com/do-dog-talking-buttons-actually-work-does-my-dog-understand-me-heres-what-the-science-says-219807
A talking button is a simple device in which the owner pre-records words such as 'snack,' 'play,' and 'walk' on multiple buttons, and when the dog presses the button, the words are played. The manufacturer claims that if you train your dog to understand the meaning of the words coming from the talking button, it will be able to communicate with you.
The mechanism of the talking button, in which a voice with a specific meaning is played when the button is pressed, can be said to be a type of augmented/alternative communication that allows people to express their intentions without speaking. Hazell said that humans also use augmentative and alternative communication devices, including people with autism, sensory disorders, and people suffering from neurodegenerative diseases such as stroke.
The inventor of the Talking Button, Christina Hunger, had an understanding of augmentative and alternative communication devices from her experience as a speech therapist, and she came up with the idea of using a talking button to communicate with
There are talking buttons on the market that range in price from several thousand yen to tens of thousands of yen, and many review videos of people using talking buttons have been posted on SNS and video platforms.
????When I gave my dog a button that could talk in words, it was so amazing it was scary lol - YouTube
When I tried using the word button with a border collie for the first time, it was so easy to understand and it was fun (lol) - YouTube
Teaching a dog to use a talking button involves a process called operant conditioning , in which voluntary behavior is learned through rewards and punishments, and is basically the same as teaching a dog to sit or hand. .
By linking simple behaviors learned through operant conditioning, dogs will be able to perform complex tasks such as ``driving a car,'' but this is just a matter of learning a lot of ``simple behaviors that are connected together.'' Hazel points out that the dog has not truly learned how to drive. Understanding human language is a fairly complex cognitive task for dogs, and just because a dog can use a talking button doesn't mean it understands human language and is having a conversation with it. .
Meet Porter. The World's First Driving Dog. - YouTube
Some videos posted on social networking sites appear to show dogs mastering the talking button to converse with humans. Hazell points out that dogs pick up cues from people's subtle body language and tone of voice, which can make them appear to understand more than they actually do. .
A good example of how animals can read a lot of information from the smallest movements of humans is the wise horse Hans , who was popular in Germany in the early 1900s as a horse that could understand human language and do calculations. Hans became famous for his ability to answer calculation problems posed by his owner by clicking his hooves, and his owner himself believed that Hans had the ability to calculate.
However, detailed research by psychologists revealed that Hans only senses the correct answer from subtle changes in the posture and facial expressions of his owner and the audience, but does not necessarily understand the calculation problem. In the experiment, it was confirmed that if no one who knew the answer to the question was within Hans' field of vision, the rate of correct answers decreased significantly.
'Dogs are probably better at reading our body language cues than horses,' says Hazel. 'As the first domesticated animals, dogs have spent thousands of years thinking about what humans will do next. 'Think about your dog running to the door before you even pick up the leash.' Dogs can learn anything as simple as ``pressing the ``treat'' button and a treat will come out'' through operant conditioning. However, sentences that combine multiple buttons and answers to questions may be responding to the owner's body language and line of sight.
At the time of writing, a research team at the University of California, San Diego is working on a large-scale
The harm to giving a dog a talking button is that owners may think they can know exactly what their dog is thinking. For example, if your dog breaks something while you're away, you might ask the owner to press the 'sorry' button when the dog returns home. However, this was simply a matter of reading the body language and facial expressions of the owner when he returned home and pressing the appropriate button in response, so it cannot be said that the dog truly feels guilty. According to Hazel, many studies have been conducted on whether dogs feel guilty, and the conclusion is that dogs do not feel guilty .
That said, if owners are aware of the potential risks, there is no harm in purchasing a talking button other than a lighter wallet. Hazel says, ``Spending time with your dog in any form of positive reinforcement training will benefit both you and your dog. 'It's a unique animal that can do that, and it doesn't need to understand our language to do that.'
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