Jul 27, 2026 07:13 PM
https://www.mcgill.ca/oss/article/techno...r-illusion
EXCERPT: On social media, dogs press buttons that talk for them. But can they even make out the words coming out of these speakers?
[...] This is why studying dog talking buttons requires rigour. One research group, based at the University of California, San Diego, certainly mentions rigour in its media interviews, and the team’s papers, I think, bear out its members’ desire to avoid getting fooled. These researchers are methodically studying every aspect of this phenomenon, like they are disassembling an engine and examining each one of its parts to make sure it is functioning as it should. The problem with this sort of rigorous, incremental science is that it’s not sexy. Yet, very basic questions need to be answered first before we can show that dogs can use language to express abstract concepts, future needs, even the content of their dreams—which is something claimed by at least one dog owner.
The team’s first study was humble. It showed that many dogs do indeed recognize the meaning behind pressing the “PLAY” and “OUTSIDE” buttons... but strangely enough not the “FOOD” button. Maybe the dogs were already full, the researchers wondered, or did not expect to receive food outside of their usual feeding times. Additionally, this study provided evidence that asking dog owners to perform this experiment in their home and report the results to the team led to similar findings as sending research staff to the dog owner’s home and performing the test, which convinced these scientists that a “citizen science” component—where participants received instructions and collected the data themselves—was viable moving forward, thus allowing more dogs to be tested at little cost.
Their second study had a similarly basic goal and seemed to show that dogs are not merely repeating the button presses of their owners or spamming their soundboard, hoping for a treat. But when the dogs tapped two buttons in quick succession, did they really understand what they were doing? We still do not know.
This preliminary work is encouraging. Yet, news coverage of these talking buttons is scarily comparable to how most journalists cover unsubstantiated claims of a fringe practice healing cancer. Here, we start with a dog owner and their wonderfully talkative pet before giving voice to the scientists, who are careful but hopeful and explain the work they are doing. Two thirds of the way down, we get a cursory line or paragraph about skeptics before being told how to try these devices for ourselves. Despite the presence of skeptics, we must, after all, end on a hopeful note.
The problem here is that all of this hope gets quickly deflated when we realize that the speakers on the most popular brand of talking buttons may not be up to par... (MORE - missing details)
EXCERPT: On social media, dogs press buttons that talk for them. But can they even make out the words coming out of these speakers?
[...] This is why studying dog talking buttons requires rigour. One research group, based at the University of California, San Diego, certainly mentions rigour in its media interviews, and the team’s papers, I think, bear out its members’ desire to avoid getting fooled. These researchers are methodically studying every aspect of this phenomenon, like they are disassembling an engine and examining each one of its parts to make sure it is functioning as it should. The problem with this sort of rigorous, incremental science is that it’s not sexy. Yet, very basic questions need to be answered first before we can show that dogs can use language to express abstract concepts, future needs, even the content of their dreams—which is something claimed by at least one dog owner.
The team’s first study was humble. It showed that many dogs do indeed recognize the meaning behind pressing the “PLAY” and “OUTSIDE” buttons... but strangely enough not the “FOOD” button. Maybe the dogs were already full, the researchers wondered, or did not expect to receive food outside of their usual feeding times. Additionally, this study provided evidence that asking dog owners to perform this experiment in their home and report the results to the team led to similar findings as sending research staff to the dog owner’s home and performing the test, which convinced these scientists that a “citizen science” component—where participants received instructions and collected the data themselves—was viable moving forward, thus allowing more dogs to be tested at little cost.
Their second study had a similarly basic goal and seemed to show that dogs are not merely repeating the button presses of their owners or spamming their soundboard, hoping for a treat. But when the dogs tapped two buttons in quick succession, did they really understand what they were doing? We still do not know.
This preliminary work is encouraging. Yet, news coverage of these talking buttons is scarily comparable to how most journalists cover unsubstantiated claims of a fringe practice healing cancer. Here, we start with a dog owner and their wonderfully talkative pet before giving voice to the scientists, who are careful but hopeful and explain the work they are doing. Two thirds of the way down, we get a cursory line or paragraph about skeptics before being told how to try these devices for ourselves. Despite the presence of skeptics, we must, after all, end on a hopeful note.
The problem here is that all of this hope gets quickly deflated when we realize that the speakers on the most popular brand of talking buttons may not be up to par... (MORE - missing details)
