Humans tend to speak more slowly when communicating with their dogs, and this change in pace aligns with the dogs’ ability to comprehend, making it easier for them to understand commands, as suggested by a recent study.
The way we talk to dogs goes beyond their adorable expressions. A study published on October 1st in the open-access journal PLOS Biology, conducted by Eloïse Déaux and her team from the University of Geneva in Switzerland, reveals that humans naturally reduce their speech tempo when addressing their furry friends. This slower pace corresponds to the dogs’ capacity to grasp commands better.
Even though dogs can’t mimic human speech, they do respond to it. To explore how the interactions between people and dogs work, researchers examined the vocalizations of 30 dogs. They also studied the speech patterns of 27 humans from five different languages while interacting with other people, as well as 22 humans speaking to dogs in those same languages. Additionally, they utilized electroencephalography (EEG) to investigate how both humans and dogs’ brains react to speech.
The findings revealed that humans tend to have a quicker speech rate at about four syllables per second, while dogs make their vocalizations, such as barking and whining, at approximately two sounds per second. When speaking to dogs, however, humans reduce their speech pace to about three syllables per second. EEG results indicated that dogs’ brain responses to speech focus on slower delta rhythms, while humans respond using faster theta rhythms. This suggests that humans and dogs process vocalizations differently, and altering our speech tempo may enhance our communication with them.
The researchers noted an interesting point: while dogs indeed process speech at a slower rhythm, contrary to common belief, they require both the content and the tonal quality to fully understand the speech.
