Charmander
Breed: Irish Setter
Birth Year: 2016
Charmander is a Charmer!
Charmander can work a problem out on his own as well as anybody, but he prefers to rely on his secret weapon - you. As a Charmer, Charmander has exceptional social skills, which means he can read your body language like a book. He is not above using this information to get his own way. Charmander is no fool when it comes to independent problem solving, and his scores reflect a keen understanding of the physical world. However, Charmander's real genius is that he sees you as an ally and partner, and he will usually turn to you for help before trying to figure out a problem on his own.
Charmander's Empathy Results
Charmander's empathy scores were off the charts. Empathy is the ability to feel what someone else is feeling. Humans are extremely empathetic; it is one of our best qualities. Empathy is not something we are taught; it is present even in young children, growing and strengthening as we get older.
Researchers have recently suggested that other animals also have empathy, or at least a basic form of empathy. If this is true, dogs are an ideal place to look. Humans and dogs go back thousands of years - enough time for the bond between us to develop into something special.
You may be interested to know: initial results seem to suggest that large dogs like Charmander are generally more bonded than small dogs. If most dogs are bonded to their owners, Charmander absolutely adores you.
How this Graph Works
You can see how Charmander did by the position of the dotted line. The closer he is to either end, the more he relies on that strategy.
The white graph behind his result lets you see how other dogs in the Dognition database did in comparison. The higher the peak, the greater the proportion of dogs at that point.
Yawn Game
In this game, you yawned and recorded whether Charmander yawned in response. Yawning in dogs can be an indicator of stress, but we were measuring something different - social yawning. The rationale behind this game is that even as young children, we laugh when we see someone laughing, and we cry when we see someone in distress. Our ability to "catch" the emotions of others is called emotional contagion. A common form of emotional contagion is yawning. If you see, hear or even think about someone yawning, you will probably feel an irresistible urge to yawn.
Charmander did not yawn in response to your yawn, but this is not surprising. Although dogs are one of the few species besides humans that contagiously yawn, there is variation among dogs. Data from several research groups shows differing results, but our preliminary data shows that only 20% of dogs yawn contagiously.
Eye Contact Game
In this game, you timed how long Charmander held your eye contact. Before babies can hug or speak, they use eye gaze to bond with their mothers. Research with dogs has shown that a similar phenomenon may happen with owners and dogs. Owners whose dogs stared at them for longer had significant increases in the hormone oxytocin. Oxytocin, also known as the "hug hormone," is related to feelings of bonding, pleasure and affection.
Judging by the extraordinary length of time Charmander spent gazing soulfully into your eyes, you probably often find him staring at you for no reason. You might wonder if Charmander is trying to tell you something, like he is hungry, needs to go to the bathroom or has an opinion on what to do over the weekend. But Charmander may not want or need anything - he may be just hugging you with his eyes.
Charmander's Communication Results
Charmander's performance was highly collaborative. You probably notice that Charmander can read you like a book. Maybe he seems to know where you are going before you do. Maybe he can tell where to find a lost ball just by you glancing in the right direction. However his talent expresses itself, you can be sure that Charmander pays close attention to your gestures and what you are trying to communicate.
Charmander is remarkably like a human infant, who start reading communicative gestures at around nine months old. This ability is the foundation for all forms of culture and communication, including language.
Communication is the basis of many relationships, including our relationship with dogs. Charmander's behavior in the Communication games demonstrated exactly why the dog and human relationship is so special.
How this Graph Works
You can see how Charmander did by the position of the dotted line. The closer he is to either end, the more he relies on that strategy.
The white graph behind his result lets you see how other dogs in the Dognition database did in comparison. The higher the peak, the greater the proportion of dogs at that point.
Arm Pointing
Although the pointing game may have seemed simple, the skills it requires are quite specialized. Dogs are one of the only animals that rely on human gestures - but even among dogs there is variation. Some dogs are more like infants and rely heavily on our communicative gestures, while other dogs are more like chimpanzees and try to solve problems on their own without our help. Charmander seems to use a mixed strategy. Because Charmander could see food in both places, he didn't really need your help, but occasionally chose to follow your gestures anyway.
By no means did Charmander do badly on this game; in fact, he developed quite a clever strategy. He developed a right or left side bias, meaning when he didn't know which side was correct, he went to one side every time. This is pretty clever, because 50% of the time he was correct.
Foot Pointing
Just like in the hand pointing game, Charmander thought he had better cover all his bases by sometimes choosing the treat you pointed at and sometimes striking out on his own.
Charmander probably does not see you point with your foot very often, so this game was a way of seeing how flexibly Charmander can read new gestures. Giving animals a new version of a problem they have seen before is a common tactic used to reveal what strategy they are using to solve a problem.
Although Charmander did not follow you every time, he may have sensed your communicative intent, and would probably not need much practice to start using a range of new gestures.
Charmander's Cunning Results
It could be a tasty morsel left on a coffee table. Or a stuffed animal you've forbidden Charmander to chew up. As soon as you aren't paying attention, whatever Charmander has been lusting after mysteriously disappears. You might have wondered whether Charmander is incapable of learning a tiny word like 'No!'
On the contrary - Charmander has a keen mind and is not afraid to use it. The cunning games are based on research showing that many dogs use information about what you can and can't see when deciding how to behave - or, in some cases, misbehave.
Charmander is the perfect example of a dog using cognitive strategies effectively. He knew he should wait when you were watching, and that it was safe to swoop in and take the treat when you had your back turned or your eyes covered.
The fact that Charmander didn't wait as long to take the treat when your eyes were covered is impressive, since you looked almost exactly the same as when you were watching Charmander - the only difference was that you had your hands over your eyes. Many animals can tell the difference between your front and back, but even some primates (like lemurs) have difficulty detecting the subtle meaning of covering your eyes. Charmander's performance shows a sophisticated mind at work.
Interestingly, although chimpanzees would not do so well in the Communication dimension where gestures are cooperative, they do very well in games where they have to compete with or deceive a human. In fact, just like Charmander, they can tell what you can or can't see, and use this social information for their own ends.
How this Graph Works
You can see how Charmander did by the position of the dotted line. The closer he is to either end, the more he relies on that strategy.
The white graph behind his result lets you see how other dogs in the Dognition database did in comparison. The higher the peak, the greater the proportion of dogs at that point.
Charmander's Memory Results
Charmander has an amazing working memory, which is a type of memory that allows your dog to keep information in mind for a few minutes and mentally manipulate it. This may sound simple, but working memory is crucial for any kind of problem-solving. In humans, working memory has been found to correlate with skills in learning, math, reading, and language. Researchers have even found some evidence that in children, working memory is more predictive of academic success than IQ.
In these memory games, Charmander had to understand that the treat continued to exist, even though it had disappeared from view. In the wild, this ability is essential. Animals have to keep track of mates, predators, and prey that might disappear momentarily behind a bush or a rock.
If Charmander is an avid fetch player, you've probably noticed that no stick or ball escapes for long. Charmander skillfully searching for an object that has briefly disappeared is a perfect example of him using his working memory to solve a problem.
For Charmander, out of sight is definitely not out of mind.
How this Graph Works
You can see how Charmander did by the position of the dotted line. The closer he is to either end, the more he relies on that strategy.
The white graph behind his result lets you see how other dogs in the Dognition database did in comparison. The higher the peak, the greater the proportion of dogs at that point.
Memory versus Pointing
Charmander was clearly trying hard to figure this one out. When he saw you hide the treat under one cup but point to the other cup, he wanted to use the information you were giving him, but he also knew what he saw. Rather than choose one strategy, he switched back and forth between the two, which shows impressive flexibility.
Memory versus Smell
Since dogs have such a keen sense of smell, you may have been surprised that after you switched the cups, Charmander used his memory over his sense of smell. He went to where he remembered seeing the treat hidden, rather than sniffing out where the treat was.
Because a dog's nose can sniff everything from narcotics to cancer, whenever we run a study where we hide a treat under one of two cups, the first question people always ask is, "Can't my dog just smell the food under the cup?" It was certainly our first question, but extensive research by half a dozen independent research groups has concluded that dogs do not rely on their sense of smell to find the food in these games.
If dogs were using smell, they would go directly to the cup with the hidden food. In fact, these studies found that dogs only choose the correct cup around half the time - which means they are guessing. Dogs do have an excellent sense of smell and can probably detect food if allowed to sniff both cups before choosing. But when you study their first choice, they cannot localize the food to a specific cup from a distance of six feet away.
Delayed Cup Game
This game was a perfect demonstration of Charmander's excellent working memory. After you hid the treat Charmander had to retain the information for up to two and a half minutes before making a choice.
This skill comes in handy in the wild. Feral dogs tend to be endurance hunters, slowly wearing down their prey. During the chase, the prey may not always be in direct sight, and feral dogs have to remember where their prey was last seen and predict where they might reappear.
Charmander's Reasoning Results
You can be very proud. Charmander just aced the most difficult games in the Assessment. Reasoning is the ability to solve a problem when you can't see the answer and have to imagine the solution. Unlike learning through trial and error, which doesn't necessarily require much understanding, reasoning requires that you truly understand the problem and the phenomena behind the problem.
A Sherlock Holmes among dogs, Charmander was able to solve the mystery by imagining different solutions and choosing the one that made the most sense. This leads to a lot of flexibility. He can solve a new version of a problem he has seen before, and spontaneously solve new problems he has never seen before. This is a sign of true genius.
How this Graph Works
You can see how Charmander did by the position of the dotted line. The closer he is to either end, the more he relies on that strategy.
The white graph behind his result lets you see how other dogs in the Dognition database did in comparison. The higher the peak, the greater the proportion of dogs at that point.
Inferential Reasoning Game
In this game, you presented Charmander with a problem and provided some, but not all of the information needed to solve it. When you showed Charmander the empty cup he had to infer that the treat must be in the other cup.
This is not as easy as it sounds because Charmander was also attracted to the empty cup, for the simple reason that you touched it. It looks like Charmander switched back and forth between strategies in this game, sometimes making an inference and choosing the correct cup, and sometimes relying on your social cues. Either way, this shows impressive flexibility.
Physical Reasoning Game
In this game, Charmander demonstrated an excellent understanding of a fundamental property of the physical world - that one solid object cannot pass through another solid object.
Charmander had to infer that a piece of paper on an angle meant that a treat was hidden behind it. This talent would come in handy in the wild, since animals often have to keep track of objects that become hidden. To find these objects, animals have to maintain a representation of the object and predict where it might appear.
Humans intuitively understand basic physical phenomena like the solidity principle - it looks like Charmander does too.