Dog Learning French

Mr Smith of Morningside has taught his dog spider to understand French. Mr Smith spy that e real evening, after dinner, when he went to the door with his coat on and said Walkies, Rover immediately understood and came running. Mr Smith was discharge to France for the summer, and, as an experiment in international understanding, decided to teach Rover French. He started to say Allons instead of Walkies. To his delight, Rover in truth quickly understood and came running.

Analysis

? What is the observation here?

The dog obviously acts to the recollect of allons.

? What is Mr Smiths hypothesis?

The dog understands the word as message walkies.

? Is this the only explanation?

No. The dog may respond to a total situation (after dinner, going to the door, coat on, call) of which what is in reality called is only a small part. A change in the call may not matter much to the dog.

? sight we devise a test to discriminate between these possibilities?

at that place ar several. For example:

(a) Call Allons to the dog in a different situation: for example, in the morning when he does not usually go for a walk.





(b) Go to the door, in the conventionality way (coat on, after dinner) without calling anything.

(c) Do likewise and call something silly like Rhubarb.

The results of these and similar tests should indicate whether Rover is specifically responding to the word allons, or (more likely) to an overall situation he is well used to.

Notice that these tests do not order us anything of a dogs ability to learn French words. They are only concerned with the specific case of responding to one French word. We will see later that extrapolating from the specific to the general is very important in scientific methodology.If you want to get a full essay, order it on our website: Orderessay



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