“Gifted word learner” dogs can pick up new words by overhearing their owners’ talk

A group of “gifted word learner” dogs can learn new words that label objects by overhearing their owners talking with each other, according to a new study by Shany Dror and colleagues. These dogs can map a new word to a new object even when the word and object are not presented simultaneously. Together, these abilities put these special dogs at the same word-learning level as 18 to 23-month-old children, Dror et al. conclude. Their findings suggest that humans are not the only animals that can learn new labels by overhearing third-party interactions. The researchers tested this effect in dogs dubbed “gifted word learners” that had previously shown unusually good ability to acquire new word labels under natural conditions, without intentional training. The gifted dogs were able to learn new words/labels passively, by listening in on conversations.