What question did this study set out to answer?

The aim was to test if dogs understand human knowledge by observing a human's visual access to food.

December 12, 2025Animal CognitionOpen Access

Do dogs know what humans know? A study into pet dogs’ (Canis familiaris) ability to attribute knowledge to an unfamiliar person

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Experiments show dogs did not infer human knowledge in food choices, suggesting limitations in knowledge attribution.

The aim was to test if dogs understand human knowledge by observing a human's visual access to food.
Observed dogs in a 3-choice food competition task
Tested whether dogs would choose based on human competitor's visual access
Included 22 pet dogs in the experiment
Dogs chose randomly between the two baited cups regardless of human first choice
Preferred the cup they saw baited only when the competitor chose first
No clear evidence that dogs infer knowledge from human's past visual access

Noordenbos et al. (2025) studied this question.

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