New study published in Animal Behaviour found that dogs were able to differentiate between dog-directed and adult-directed speech even when the recordings were adjusted to have the same average pitch.
Previous research shows dogs have a preference for dog-directed speech over adult-directed speech. It was thought it might be because of differences in average pitch.
In the study, recordings were made of 6 female humans saying a sentence to their own dog, their 0-8 month infant and an adult experimenter. The recordings were processed by combining all 6 voices for each condition, averaging pitch across the conditions and removing word sounds.
60 dogs took part in trials where they chose between two tennis balls in front of two speakers. One speaker played one recording (adult-, dog- or infant-directed), there was a 2 second pause and then the other speaker played a second recording. The dog was released, chose a ball and played with it.
Dogs chose the dog-directed speech more often than the adult-directed speech despite there being no difference in average pitch. They did not, however, differentiate between infant-directed and dog-directed speech (although there are differences between them).
Interestingly, dogs also showed a bias for the speaker on the left side which suggests they process this sort of sound information in the right hemisphere of their brains.
The study provides evidence that differences in average pitch and word information are not crucial for dogs to maintain their preference for dog-directed speech. Other elements of speech may be important such as intonation, harmonicity, pitch range, rhythm and call length.
Do you think your pitch increases when you talk to your dog? Or do other aspects of your voice change?
Paper: Is it all about the pitch? Acoustic determinants of dog-directed speech preference in domestic dogs, Canis familiaris - Animal Behaviour, June 2021
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