Dogs Show Bouba-Kiki Effect Like Humans — SkimNews
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- Dogs associate 'bouba' with rounded shapes and 'kiki' with spiky shapes, replicating the human bouba-kiki effect on a non-linguistic matching task
- The cross-species match suggests the sound-shape connection arises from brain mechanisms shared between dogs and humans rather than from language or cultural exposure
Why it matters: If dogs map sound to shape the same way humans do without needing language, the bouba-kiki effect may reflect a shared mammalian perceptual foundation rather than a quirk of human phonology — reframing it as evidence of cross-species continuity in how brains link sound to shape.
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