Dogs may be self-aware
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What do animals think about? Scientists in Hungary explored this question by investigating if dogs have self-awareness. Researchers tried to find out whether canines have a sense of body awareness. A researcher explained: "Self-awareness is a rather poorly investigated area of dog cognition." He added: "Body awareness is a mental capacity to organize someone's action by taking in consideration their own body exists." His test put dogs in situations that would make them aware of their body position. His research is published in the journal "Scientific Reports".
The scientists conducted tests on 54 dogs. A toy was attached to a mat and each dog had to give the toy to its owner. The dog had to understand it would not be able to take the toy to its owner unless it got off the mat first. Many of the dogs understood this and completed the task. The researchers said this showed a sense of body awareness. They wrote that body awareness is, "the ability to hold information about one's own body in mind, as an explicit object, in relation to other objects in the world". They called it a fundamental building block of "self-representation".
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