Disentangling Factors Affecting Dogs’ Performance in Object Permanence Visual Tasks

This thesis investigates what guides dogs’ choices in object permanence tasks, with the aim of disentangling the relative influence of motion, spatial bias, and proximity. Eight dogs participated in a series of three tasks, a transposition task and two control conditions, one testing the role of motion and the other examining the effect of distance from the dog. The findings indicate that motion significantly impaired the dogs' performance, suggesting it acts as a limiting factor in their ability to track the hidden object. When motion was removed and the setup made stationary, the dogs' performance improved; however, a strong spatial bias emerged. Further testing revealed that this bias was related to proximity: when the influence of distance was controlled for the spatial bias disappeared. This suggests that dogs tend to approach the location closest to them, even when they had visually tracked the object being hidden elsewhere.