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Audio-visual crossmodal correspondences in domestic dogs (Canis familiaris)

journal contribution
posted on 2023-06-09, 19:31 authored by Anna Teresa KorzeniowskaAnna Teresa Korzeniowska, Holly Root-Gutteridge, Julia SimnerJulia Simner, David Reby
Crossmodal correspondences are intuitively held relationships between non-redundant features of a stimulus, such as auditory pitch and visual illumination. While a number of correspondences have been identified in humans to date (e.g. high pitch is intuitively felt to be luminant, angular and elevated in space), their evolutionary and developmental origins remain unclear. Here, we investigated the existence of audio–visual crossmodal correspondences in domestic dogs, and specifically, the known human correspondence in which high auditory pitch is associated with elevated spatial position. In an audio–visual attention task, we found that dogs engaged more with audio–visual stimuli that were congruent with human intuitions (high auditory pitch paired with a spatially elevated visual stimulus) compared to incongruent (low pitch paired with elevated visual stimulus). This result suggests that crossmodal correspondences are not a uniquely human or primate phenomenon and they cannot easily be dismissed as merely lexical conventions (i.e. matching ‘high’ pitch with ‘high’ elevation).

Funding

How Dogs Hear Us: Human voice perception by domestic dogs; G2020; BBSRC-BIOTECHNOLOGY & BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES RESEARCH COUNCIL; BB/P00170X/1

History

Publication status

  • Published

File Version

  • Accepted version

Journal

Biology Letters

ISSN

1744-9561

Publisher

Royal Society, The

Issue

11

Volume

15

Page range

1-5

Department affiliated with

  • Psychology Publications

Full text available

  • Yes

Peer reviewed?

  • Yes

Legacy Posted Date

2019-10-31

First Open Access (FOA) Date

2019-10-31

First Compliant Deposit (FCD) Date

2019-10-30

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