Strummer has been called back for a second experimental session at the
Canine Cognition Lab.
In May, she participated in a study called "Cognitive Processing in Domestic Dogs", conducted by Professor Marc Hauser, Director of the Cognitive Evolution Laboratory at Harvard University. The idea of the experiment was to determine dogs' ability to think through a problem on the basis of the choices they make.
I can't tell you about the experiment, because we never got to do it. Strummer never made it past the first warm-up exercise, during which she was supposed to learn how to interact with the experimenter.
During the first few warm-up exercises the dog was supposed to learn that the experimenter provides food and that the food is often hidden in a container. Strummer's "problem" was that I was not allowed to give her any feedback or information about what I wanted her to do. The experimenter used no verbal cues: The food was to be her reward.
This kind of thinking about what motivates dogs, i.e. the dog works for food, assumes a very poorly trained dog. Any dog that has been trained, like Strummer, that the relationship with her human (not the food) is the reward for good behavior will fail this test.
A pet dog, especially a well-trained pet dog, is not a tabula rasa. Most pet dogs have developed an understanding of what behavior is expected of them when it comes to food. Strummer, for example, eats her meals from her bowl, and she eats food that has been offered to her (she does not beg for food). We can put cheese and paté out on a coffee table and leave Strummer unattended in the room, and Strummer will not touch the food. By putting food in a container, the experimenter was inadvertently giving Strummer the choice to reward herself by stealing the food. That is not a choice that Strummer was willing to make.
Apparently, Strummer was not the only dog to reveal the flaws in the design of the experiment. A member of the Lab stopped me and Strummer on Harvard's campus about a month ago and invited us to participate in an experiment. When I told her that we already had and that Strummer didn't do very well, she explained that they had redesigned the experiments.
Yesterday, the Lab called and asked to make an appointment for an experimental session with Strummer. We're going back next week.
If you would like to participate with your dog in studies to understand canine cognition, you can sign up online.
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