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The hierarchical structure of canine cognition: two domains and a general cognitive factor

Bognar, Z.; Turcsan, B.; Farago, T.; Szabo, D.; Iotchev, I. B.; Kubinyi, E.

2023-02-07 animal behavior and cognition
10.1101/2023.02.07.525704 bioRxiv
Show abstract

The complex human environment results in a hard-to-bridge gap between human and animal studies on general cognitive abilities (g; colloquially often referred to as "intelligence"). Pet dogs are adapted to our environment, but a convincing demonstration of g is missing. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses on seven tasks revealed a hierarchical structure with two cognitive domains (problem solving, learning) and an overarching canine g. Age did not affect the structure. Canine g was negatively linked to age, height, and the owners emotional attitude but positively to training level, activity/excitability trait, experienced trauma and normal body condition. The longitudinal analyses over three years differentiated three main trajectory clusters: declining, stable, improving. The diversity of ageing phenotypes supports dogs translational value in g factor and ageing research. One-Sentence SummaryThe canine g factor is linked to age, height, training level, personality, body condition, and owners attitude.

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