The effect of third-party joint attention on object encoding in dogs

Dogs are sensitive to ostensive cues, especially when directed at them. However, it remains unclear whether dogs also use observed third-party communicative interactions between humans to influence how they process object-related information. In human infants, simply observing two people establishing joint attention to an object improves the encoding of identity-specific object features. Here, we aim to investigate whether dogs exhibit a similar effect. To do this, we will test whether observing two humans engage in joint attention, compared to no joint attention, affects how dogs encode and remember the identity and location of objects.