Unbeknown to some of us at Bishop's (me, anyway) two of our support staff, husband and wive, librarian and carpenter, have a secret life as sheep farmers and world-class competitors in the dog-eat-dog world of sheep-herding competition (actually it's all very polite and friendly but I couldn't resist that pun). When I found out, I contributed a scientific note on the topic to our local university list (which I run, and for which I am almost the sole contributor).
As it concerns an amazing (not stupid) dog trick, I thought it might be of interest to TIPSters. Here it is: ------------------------------------- As most probably know, there's going to be an international sheepdog contest at Bishop's tomorrow and Sunday (July 24th and 25th), organized by Bishop's Dave and Mary-Ellen Young (starts at 7:00 am!) (see http://www.frontenac.net/~duke/nebca/lisdten.htm) The trial involve a breed called the border collie (see e.g. http://www.bordercollie.org/). While I know nothing about sheep- herding or border collies, I've recently learned that to say that a border collie herds sheep is like saying that Lance Armstrong rides a bicycle. My source for this assertion is a timely research article just published in one of the world's foremost scientific journals, _Science_, which I'm happy to bring to people's attention. The report was published just last month by Juliane Kaminski et al under the title "Word learning in a domestic dog: evidence for "fast mapping". The participant (the politically-correct term for "subject" now mandated in experimental psychology) was Rico, a 9-year old pet border collie. Under rigorous experimental control, the researchers showed that Rico could retrieve from another room with almost perfect accuracy a requested item from a collection of 200 (tested in sets of 10), indicating a working vocabulary of at least 200 words. Even more remarkably, when tested with a collection of seven old items and a new item, Rico retrieved the new item in response to hearing its name for the first time, and showed good retention of this learning four weeks later. In effect, the animal appeared to reason "I've never heard that word before and I've never seen that item, so that must be it". This appears to be identical to the procedure by which young children learn new words at a rapid rate, a phenomenon known in my business as "fast mapping". The question remains whether Rico is a superstar among dogs, the canine equivalent of Justine Henin-Hardenne or Tiger Woods, or whether his ability is merely (!) a characteristic of border collies in general. I suspect that those entering their dogs in the sheepdog trial tomorrow would argue for the latter. The CBC news has a non-technical report on the research at http://www.cbc.ca/stories/2004/06/10/sci-tech/dog_learn040610 Stephen Black References Kaminski, J. et al (2004). Word learning in a domestic dog: evidence for "fast mapping". Science, 304, 1682-1683 Bloom, P. (2004). Can a dog learn a word? _Science_, 304, 1605-06. --------------------------------------------------------------------- Afterword: I attended the trial for about an hour or so. It's never going to put Hockey Night in Canada out of business in terms of fast-paced action, but it was nevertheless of interest as an impressive example of human- animal cooperation. Border collies are not distinguished-looking, instead rather mutt- like, only vaguely resembling their elegant cousin Lassie. The dogs competed one at a time on a football-sized field, the dog released at one end, and a trio of sheep (two adults, one lamb) at the other. The dog tears up the field, sweeps wide to come around behind them, and drives them forward (gently, no barking, no nipping) through a set of gates guided by a series of whistles from the handler (distance too great for voice). It's like croquet for dogs, only the croquet balls have a mind of their own and rarely cooperate (groans from the audience). The first objective is a stand-still in front of the handler. Then the sheep must be guided into a small pen. Finally, the sheep are released from the pen and the dog's task is to cut one of the animals away from the others (they tend to stick together, like sheep). The handler can whistle, command, and wave a staff but must not touch either the dog or the sheep. Judges give points for performance, as in figure skating, although I bet they're more honest than in that discredited sport. I don't expect sheep-herding to become an Olympic sport any time soon (although it might well be appropriate in Greece this year), but for anyone interested in animal behaviour, it's worth a look. You might even catch it in Lennoxville next year. Stephen ___________________________________________________ Stephen L. Black, Ph.D. tel: (819) 822-9600 ext 2470 Department of Psychology fax: (819) 822-9661 Bishop's University e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Lennoxville, QC J1M 1Z7 Canada Dept web page at http://www.ubishops.ca/ccc/div/soc/psy TIPS discussion list for psychology teachers at http://faculty.frostburg.edu/psyc/southerly/tips/index.htm _______________________________________________ --- You are currently subscribed to tips as: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To unsubscribe send a blank email to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
