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发帖数: 3641 | 1 http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/18/science/18dog.html?_r=1&partn
Chaser, a border collie who lives in Spartanburg, S.C., has the largest
vocabulary of any known dog. She knows 1,022 nouns, a record that displays
unexpected depths of the canine mind and may help explain how children
acquire language.
Chaser belongs to John W. Pilley, a psychologist who taught for 30 years at
Wofford College, a liberal arts institution in Spartanburg. In 2004, after
he had retired, he read a report in Science about Rico, a border collie
whose German owners had taught him to recognize 200 items, mostly toys and
balls. Dr. Pilley decided to repeat the experiment using a technique he had
developed for teaching dogs, and he describes his findings in the current
issue of the journal Behavioural Processes.
He bought Chaser as a puppy in 2004 from a local breeder and started to
train her for four to five hours a day. He would show her an object, say its
name up to 40 times, then hide it and ask her to find it, while repeating
the name all the time. She was taught one or two new names a day, with
monthly revisions and reinforcement for any names she had forgotten.
Border collies are working dogs. They have a reputation for smartness, and
they are highly motivated. They are bred to herd sheep indefatigably all day
long. Absent that task, they must be given something else to do or they go
stir crazy.
Chaser proved to be a diligent student. Unlike human children, she seems to
love her drills and tests and is always asking for more. “She still demands
four to five hours a day,” Dr. Pilley said. “I’m 82, and I have to go to
bed to get away from her.” |
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