Bark 1: Babies know when a bark is angry
New research shows babies have a handle on the meaning of different dog barks – despite little or no previous exposure to dogs.
Infants just 6 months old can match the sounds of an angry snarl and a friendly bark to photos of dogs displaying threatening and welcoming body language, according to researchers at Brigham Young University.
“Emotion is one of the first things babies pick up on in their social world,” said BYU psychology professor Ross Flom, lead author of the study. Flom and two BYU students report their findings in the journal Developmental Psychology.
The new findings come on the heels of a study from the same lab showing that infants can detect mood swings in Beethoven’s music.
“We chose dogs because they are highly communicative creatures both in their posture and the nature of their bark,” Flom said.
In the experiment, the babies first saw two different pictures of the same dog, one in an aggressive posture and the other in a friendly stance. Then the researchers played – in random order – sound clips of a friendly and an aggressive dog bark.
Posted by jwoestendiek July 23rd, 2009 under Muttsblog.
Tags: angry, babies, bark, barks, brigham young university, byu, difference, dog, dogs, emotions, friendly, infants, meaning, psychology, research, snarl, study, understanding, yap
