human-animal-interaction
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Dogs seem to agree with humans that 'bouba' is round and 'kiki' is spiky
research
3 min read
A study in Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences found that domestic dogs appeared to associate the invented sound “Bouba” with rounded shapes and “Kiki” with spiky shapes, mirroring a well-known human tendency. The bouba–kiki effect, first proposed in the 1920s, has been observed across human languages and writing systems. Animal behaviorist Eleonora Biffi of the University of Parma and colleagues tested 70 dogs in two experiments. In the first, 51 dogs watched rounded and spiky shapes on screens while speakers played recordings of a human saying “Bouba” or “Kiki.” Video from a GoPro was analyzed with AI head-tracking software to measure the direction of each dog’s head as an indicator of attention. A second experiment tested 19 dogs under the same conditions, except their owners wore headphones playing rock music to prevent them from hearing the sounds and unintentionally cueing the animals. Dogs looked significantly more at rounded shapes during “Bouba” and looked at and explored spiky shapes during “Kiki,” the researchers reported. Dogs in the first experiment also showed an overall preference for looking at spiky shapes, but that bias disappeared when owners wore headphones. The researchers said more work is needed before concluding that dogs reliably make these sound–shape associations.