Truth is in the eye of the beholder: Perception of the Müller-Lyer illusion in dogs

Visual illusions are objects that are made up of elements that are arranged in such a way as to result in erroneous perception of the objects’ physical properties. Visual illusions are used to study visual perception in humans and nonhuman animals, since they provide insight into the psychological and cognitive processes underlying the perceptual system. In a set of three experiments, we examined whether dogs were able to learn a relational discrimination and to perceive the Müller-Lyer illusion. In Experiment 1, dogs were trained to discriminate line lengths using a two-alternative forced choice procedure on a touchscreen. Upon learning the discrimination, dogs’ generalization to novel exemplars and the threshold of their abilities were tested. In the second experiment, dogs were presented with the Müller-Lyer illusion as test trials, alongside additional test trials that controlled for overall stimulus size. Dogs appeared to perceive the illusion; however, control trials revealed that they were using global size to solve the task. Experiment 3 presented modified stimuli that have been known to enhance perception of the illusion in other species. However, the dogs’ performance remained the same. These findings reveal evidence of relational learning in dogs. However, their failure to perceive the illusion emphasizes the importance of using a full array of control trials when examining these paradigms, and it suggests that visual acuity may play a crucial role in this perceptual phenomenon

ManyDogs 1: A Multi-lab replication study of dogs' pointing comprehension (pre-registered report)

To promote collaboration across canine science, address reproducibility issues, and advance open science practices within animal cognition, we have launched the ManyDogs consortium, modeled on similar ManyX projects in other fields. We aimed to create a collaborative network that (a) uses large, diverse samples to investigate and replicate findings, (b) promotes open science practices of preregistering hypotheses, methods, and analysis plans, (c) investigates the influence of differences across populations and breeds, and (d) examines how different research methods and testing environments influence the robustness of results. Our first study combines a phenomenon that appears to be highly robust—dogs’ ability to follow human pointing—with a question that remains controversial: do dogs interpret pointing as a social communicative gesture or as a simple associative cue? We collected preliminary data (N = 61) from a single laboratory on two conditions of a 2-alternative object choice task: (1) Ostensive (experimenter pointed to a baited cup after making eye-contact and saying the dog’s name); (2) Non-ostensive (experimenter pointed to a baited cup without making eye-contact or saying the dog’s name). Dogs followed the ostensive point, but not the non-ostensive point, significantly more often than expected by chance. Preliminary results also provided suggestive evidence for variability in point-following across dog breeds. The next phase is the global participation stage of the project. We propose to replicate this protocol in a large and diverse sample of research sites, simultaneously assessing replicability between labs and further investigating the question of dogs’ point-following comprehension

ManyDogs 1: A multi-lab replication study of dogs' pointing comprehension

To promote collaboration across canine science, address replicability issues, and advance open science practices within animal cognition, we have launched the ManyDogs consortium, modeled on similar ManyX projects in other fields. We aimed to create a collaborative network that (a) uses large, diverse samples to investigate and replicate findings, (b) promotes open science practices of pre-registering hypotheses, methods, and analysis plans, (c) investigates the influence of differences across populations and breeds, and (d) examines how different research methods and testing environments influence the robustness of results. Our first study combines a phenomenon that appears to be highly reliable—dogs’ ability to follow human pointing—with a question that remains controversial: do dogs interpret pointing as a social communicative gesture or as a simple associative cue? We collected data (N = 455) from 20 research sites on two conditions of a 2-alternative object choice task: (1) Ostensive (pointing to a baited cup after making eye-contact and saying the dog’s name); (2) Non-ostensive (pointing without eye-contact, after a throat-clearing auditory control cue). Comparing performance between conditions, while both were significantly above chance, there was no significant difference in dogs’ responses. This result was consistent across sites. Further, we found that dogs followed contralateral, momentary pointing at lower rates than has been reported in prior research, suggesting that there are limits to the robustness of point-following behavior: not all pointing styles are equally likely to elicit a response. Together, these findings underscore the important role of procedural details in study design and the broader need for replication studies in canine science

Training, development and learning

This chapter discusses and explores a number of critical issues related to training, development and learning (TDL). It does this by highlighting the differ­ences between the terms, reflecting on older, more classical approaches to training versus more contemporary and recent trends that are more situation­ or context-specific. Such context-specificity means that the older approaches to training, although useful, have to be rethought. More recent trends in global organizations such as technological advances, human expectations of what constitutes a valuable job, organizational expectations related to capabilities that match strategic business needs, and increased social interaction, have meant that the older approaches are now less valuable

Coordinating knowledge creation: A systematic literature review on the interplay between operational excellence and industry 4.0 technologies

In the process of creating new knowledge, literature has scarcely studied how bodies of knowledge arising from different sources should be coordinated to enhance performance. In particular, the present research focuses on two sources of newly created knowledge, i.e., operational excellence and Industry 4.0, to understand whether they should be implemented sequentially or simultaneously. Operational excellence refers to the implementation of practices such as just in time, total quality management, and Six Sigma that help a firm to create knowledge that facilitates waste reduction and customer value improvement. Industry 4.0 refers to the implementation of new technologies such as artificial intelligence, big data, robotics, Internet of Things, and laser cutting that help a firm to create knowledge to improve overall business performance. We identified and analyzed 30 papers published in 13 peer-reviewed journals and conference proceedings in the field of operations management. Our findings based on the systematic literature review suggest that the interplay between operational excellence and Industry 4.0 can be categorized into four groups: (1) Industry 4.0 supports operational excellence; (2) operational excellence supports Industry 4.0; (3) complementary; and (4) no interdependence. Majority of the papers under study are in the first category, suggesting Industry 4.0 technologies as enabler of operational excellence