MbShea@PWP@English@UMCP

Abstract: Whether or not animals have theory of mind—the ability to understand beliefs, intentions, and knowledge and attribute these mental states to other individuals—remains one of the most hotly contested questions in the field of animal behavior. The focus of this paper will be exploring the concept of theory of mind in domestic dogs and examining practical applications of this theory in human-dog interactions. This paper highlights a number of recent studies in the fields of animal cognition and behavior, all of which involve experimental paradigms that require a dog to use theory of mind, engaging in perspective-taking and understanding of the mental state of another individual, in order to complete an assigned task. Together, the studies reviewed in this paper build a case that supports the existence of theory of mind in domestic dogs. Building off of this assumption then, this paper proposes that humans can use the results of these experiments to modify their own behavior in order to induce certain desired behaviors in dogs. This knowledge is of particular interest to veterinarians, who can use sustained eye contact and specific head and body positioning in order to convey an attentional state that a dog can read and respond to using theory of mind.

WC—207

Reader’s Profile: I imagine a reader, probably an expert in the fields of animal behavior and animal cognition with knowledge of theory of mind, who believes that dogs don’t exhibit true theory of mind. Rather, this reader would be skeptical of basing a paper on the assumption that dogs do have theory of mind and would instead argue that dogs are responding not to the mental states of humans but rather, are responding to remembered outcomes from past repeated patterns of behavior.

Reader’s Response: To base an entire paper on the assumption that dogs do have theory of mind seems silly. Animal theory of mind can never be proven because one can never know for sure what an animal is thinking, given that they are language-less. In fact, I have read many studies that advocate not only that theory of mind in animals cannot be proven, but that performance that looks like animals might have theory of mind is actually explained better by theory of behavior. Not to mention, I think that we are being anthropocentric in our studies trying to attribute theory of mind to animals by using what we know about human theory of mind as the guide for how to design experimental paradigms for other species. While I would like to learn how I could use theory of mind to have more meaningful communication with my dog, I just don’t see the practicality of a guide likes this when the underlying animal cognition science behind the guide cannot be proven.

A -- your plan looks strong and interesting. I am not sure you can address this person, except to say, that descriptive narrative about pets has a kind of standing even if we do not prove or disprove theory of mind. Anyway, you do capture the curmudgeon-scientists pretty well. :)