Neurobiologists Laura Cuaya, Raúl Hernández-Pérez, and colleagues investigated the
language detection abilities of eighteen dogs. The researchers monitored the brain activity
of Kun-kun (a border collie), Bingo (a mixed breed), and other dogs while the animals
listened to three recordings: one of The Little Prince being read in Spanish, the second in
Hungarian, and a third made up of short, randomly selected fragments of the first two,
scrambled so that they didn't resemble human speech. Each dog was familiar with either
Spanish or Hungarian, but not both. The team concluded that differences in dogs
anatomical features may affect their ability to distinguish speech from nonspeech.
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10 Mark for Review
Which finding from the study, if true, would most directly support the team's conclusion?
Compared with longer headed dogs, shorter headed dogs showed less
difference in brain activity when hearing either Spanish or Hungarian than
when hearing the scrambled recording
Compared with longer-headed dogs, shorter headed dogs showed a greater
difference in brain activity when hearing the language they were accustomed to
than when hearing the other language.
The pattern of brain activity that long-headed dogs showed when hearing the
scrambled recording was different from the pattern of brain activity that short
headed dogs showed when hearing the language they were accustomed to.
Long-headed dogs accustomed to hearing Spanish tended to show more brain
activity when hearing Spanish than long-headed dogs accustomed to hearing
Hungarian showed when hearing Hungarian.
Question 10 of 27^
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