Not the presence but the timing of acoustic signals influence dogs’ behaviour toward an artificial agent

Some features of communicative signals may only direct the attention of the receiver to the signaller, and others may convey specific aspects of the message. Dogs rapidly engage in complex interactions with artificial agents allowing to test whether auditory cues of these agents can only serve as attention-getting cues or they can also convey context-specific message. Dogs encountered the agent first when it helped them to obtain an unreachable reward (Problem-solving); the agent was either (a) silent, or it emitted sound (b) at specific time intervals (Incongruent), or (c) congruently with its interactive behaviours (Congruent). Then, dogs could obtain a reward by following the agent's indication between two hiding places (Two-way choice). Dogs in all groups displayed communicative behaviour toward the agent. However, the Congruent group started to gaze at the agent later at the beginning of the Problem-solving, and their choice was at chance level in the Two-way choice. No difference was found between the Silent and Incongruent groups. Thus, not the attention-getting aspect of the sound, but the temporal synchronicity of the sound and specific behaviour influenced dogs' behaviour.