Saying “who’s a good boy?” in a singsong voice has been the demand of dog trainers for years – but now scientists have explored why it is so effective.
Researchers studying humans and dogs have found that certain patterns of speech does help our canine companions understand our verbal commands.
A team of Swiss and French scientists published their findings in PLOS Biology.
The way animals make and perceive sound has evolved together. This leads to species-specific calls and patterns of sound processing in the brain.
Despite millions of years of evolution separating humans and our proverbial best friends, dogs respond remarkably well to human speech.
The research team investigated this cross-species communication by measuring the rate of speech in humans, dogs, and humans talking to dogs. They also measured brain activity in response to speech using electroencephalography (EEG).
While humans speaking to other humans utter around four syllables per second, dogs were limited to two vocalisations per second. The EEG results also showed that dogs’ brains are more attuned to slower speech rhythms.
This could explain why humans slowed their speech down to three syllables per second when talking to dogs.
The researchers argue that the slower cadence of our “dog voice” is a better match for a dog’s sound processing system and leads to better comprehension.
The researchers also suggest that dogs don’t perceive syllables the way humans do. Instead, they appear to track word-level differences.
To study the components of dog voice that support comprehension, the researchers measured the effect of commands without intelligible words and/or the original intonation (voice pitch and intensity).
They found that both words and intonation were needed for dogs to understand the commands.
There you have it, a practical explanation for using slightly slower singsong speech with your favourite canines.
