Alexis Devine from Tacoma, Washington started sharing videos of her dog Bunny this spring. It shows how the woman communicates with him. After Alexis asks Bunny a question, he pushes a button as an answer, which then gives an answer like ‘beach’ or ‘walk’.
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Alexis doesn’t just do this, she was inspired by a speech researcher from San Diego. She taught her dog Stella to ‘speak’ in a similar way, using a sign normally used for people who can no longer speak. Alexis started with a few buttons and gradually expanded to seventy. “My theory is that she remembers the places of words and phrases like a keyboard,” said Alexis.
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The big question is of course whether Bunny actually understands the words of the buttons, or whether it is mainly a reaction to Alexis’s behavior. Professor Federico Rossano of the University of California also wondered this and so he decided to research it. Together with colleagues he is now running the study ‘They Can Talk’, in which the researchers look at how animals use button technology. In this way they hope to find an answer to the question whether animals also know something like language.
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“We have to be very careful about what we think how it works,” Rossano said The Verge. “The risk of being overconfident to see what we want to see is very high.” Only when he has collected enough data does the professor want to venture to a conclusion.
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