Try a little test: if you had to give the name “bouba” to either a round shape or a shape full of points, which one would you choose? Most humans choose the round shape. And what about “kiki”? This name is generally associated with the pointed shape.
This phenomenon is known as the “bouba-kiki effect.” It intrigues scientists because the two words were invented for the experiment. Yet their sounds seem to make us think of particular shapes. An Italian team wanted to find out whether dogs experienced something similar.
A dog photographed facing the camera. In the study on the bouba-kiki effect, researchers measured the dogs’ gaze as they looked at two different shapes.
Photo: Raviarts, Wikimedia Commons.
Researchers from the University of Parma tested 70 adult dogs. They showed them two images at a time: one with rounded contours and the other with points. Meanwhile, a speaker alternately played the sounds “bouba” and “kiki.” The team observed where the animals directed their gaze and how long they looked at each shape.
The results point in the same direction as those observed in humans. When they heard “bouba,” the dogs looked more at the round shape. With “kiki,” their attention was directed more toward the pointed shape.
One question remained: were the dogs reacting to the sounds or to small gestures from their owners? To find out, the researchers carried out part of the trials with 19 dogs whose owners wore headphones and could not hear the word being played. The results support the idea of a genuine association between sound and shape.
A similar effect had already been observed in humans and young chicks. This new study suggests that certain associations between what we hear and what we see may be shared by several species, even without language.
It remains to be understood whether dogs possess this sensitivity from birth or acquire it as they grow up in contact with humans. The researchers particularly hope to replicate the experiment with puppies to distinguish between these possibilities.