s41598-021-98967-w.pdf (1.39 MB)
Effect of pitch range on dogs’ response to conspecific vs. heterospecific distress cries
journal contribution
posted on 2023-06-10, 02:18 authored by Holly Root-Gutteridge, Victoria F Ratcliffe, Justine Neumann, Lucia Timarchi, Chloe Yeung, Anna Teresa KorzeniowskaAnna Teresa Korzeniowska, Nicolas Mathevon, David RebyDistress cries are emitted by many mammal species to elicit caregiving attention. Across taxa, these calls tend to share similar acoustic structures, but not necessarily frequency range, raising the question of their interspecific communicative potential. As domestic dogs are highly responsive to human emotional cues and experience stress when hearing human cries, we explore whether their responses to distress cries from human infants and puppies depend upon sharing conspecific frequency range or species-specific call characteristics. We recorded adult dogs’ responses to distress cries from puppies and human babies, emitted from a loudspeaker in a basket. The frequency of the cries was presented in both their natural range and also shifted to match the other species. Crucially, regardless of species origin, calls falling into the dog call-frequency range elicited more attention. Thus, domestic dogs’ responses depended strongly on the frequency range. Females responded both faster and more strongly than males, potentially reflecting asymmetries in parental care investment. Our results suggest that, despite domestication leading to an increased overall responsiveness to human cues, dogs still respond considerably less to calls in the natural human infant range than puppy range. Dogs appear to use a fast but inaccurate decision-making process to determine their response to distress-like vocalisations.
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Publication status
- Published
File Version
- Published version
Journal
Scientific ReportsISSN
2045-2322Publisher
Nature ResearchExternal DOI
Issue
1Volume
11Page range
1-10Article number
a19723Event location
EnglandDepartment affiliated with
- Psychology Publications
Full text available
- Yes
Peer reviewed?
- Yes
Legacy Posted Date
2022-01-14First Open Access (FOA) Date
2022-01-14First Compliant Deposit (FCD) Date
2022-01-14Usage metrics
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