Dogs do not use their own experience with novel barriers to infer others’ visual access

Despite extensive research into the Theory of Mind abilities in nonhuman animals, it remains controversial whether they can attribute mental states to other individuals or whether they merely predict future behaviour based on previous behavioural cues. In the present study, we tested pet dogs (in total, N=92) on adaptations of the “goggles test” previously used with human infants and great apes. In both a cooperative and a competitive task, dogs were given direct experience with the properties of novel screens (one opaque, the other transparent) inserted into identical, but differently coloured, tunnels. Dogs learned and remembered the properties of the screens even when, later on, these were no longer directly visible to them. Nevertheless, they were not more likely to follow the experimenter’s gaze to a target object when the experimenter could see it through the transparent screen. Further, they did not prefer to steal a forbidden treat first in a location obstructed from the experim..., , , # Dogs do not use their own experience with novel barriers to infer others’ visual access

[https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.9cnp5hqsh](https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.9cnp5hqsh)

This study reports two implementations of the \"goggles task\" with dogs.

## Description of the data and file structure

All information needed to reproduce the analyses is in the folder \"Data_and_code_for_Lonardo_et_al_2024_PRSB.zip\".

The dogs' age is always reported in months. In all data files, missing data are indicated with NAs.

### Experiment 1 - gaze following in a cooperative, foraging context.

The data are in the folder \"data\".

The script containing the statistical analyses is in the file called \"goggles_analysis.rmd\".

The R project and workspace are called \"dog_goggles_exp.Rproj\" and \"goggles_workspace.RData\", respectively.

The R functions kindly provided by Roger Mundry are in the folder \"functions\", the plots are in the folder \"graphics\".

The model outputs are in the folder \"saves\".

The script to...