The Ultimate Dogs' Time Perception Quiz

Estimated Completion Time
2 min
The Ultimate Dogs' Time Perception Quiz
Image: Takahiro Yamamoto/Moment/Getty Images

About This Quiz

Have you ever come home to find your dog waiting patiently for you at the front door? How did he know when to expect you? Do dogs have an understanding of time? Take our quiz to learn about how dogs perceive time.
Who once said, "When a man sits with a pretty girl for an hour, it seems like a minute. But let him sit on a hot stove for a minute -- and it's longer than any hour. That's relativity"?
Albert Einstein
Karl Marx
Sigmund Freud
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

Albert Einstein once explained the principle of relativity with the above quote, which expresses the concept that each individual experiences the passing of time in different ways at different times. However, all humans think about time in similar ways.

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Our _____ are inevitably tied to how we understand the passing of time.
personalities
self-concept
memories
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

Our memories are inevitably tied to how we understand the passing of time. We remember events in a certain order, which plays a large part in our perception of time.

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Memory and the ability to predict things gives us a sense of:
continuity
personal history
both of the above
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

Memory and the ability to predict things that may happen in the future gives us a sense of continuity, personal history and self-awareness.

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Which of the following is a specific tool used by humans to keep track of time?
a clock
a television
a computer
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

Time-keeping devices including sundials, clocks and wristwatches revolutionized how human beings perceive time; animals don't have the advantage of these tools.

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Which animals did animal cognition researcher William Roberts study to learn about how animals perceive time?
cats
rodents
snakes
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

Roberts made some fascinating discoveries regarding animal memories by studying rodents, birds and primates.

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According to William Roberts, animals cannot:
think back to specific memories
anticipate future events
both of the above
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

Being able to deliberately think back to specific memories and to anticipate future events is a human ability that animals do not share. As a result, they live only in the present.

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Episodic memory is the ability to remember particular events in the past. Which of the following have episodic memory?
dogs
small children
adults
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

Dogs and young kids can learn things like following simple commands or crawling, but without the mental ability to remember where or how they learned them.

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Circadian oscillators are daily fluctuations of hormones, body temperature and neural activity. These fluctuations allow dogs to know when it's:
time to eat
time to play
time to run
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

In order to know when it's mealtime, dogs respond to a biological state they reach at a certain time of day and they respond the same way at the same time every day.

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Which of the following abilities allows humans to understand time?
They can remember their name.
They can remember where they were born.
They can remember a sequence of events.
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

Humans are able to remember a sequence of events and are able to anticipate future needs or events, which help them understand the concept of time. Studies indicate that animals may have these abilities, but to a lesser extent than us humans.

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Short-term memory is also known as:
working memory
quick memory
fast memory
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

Short-term memory is also known as working memory. In animal tests of working memory, pigeons and primates did fairly well, but their memory didn't last.

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Long-term memory is also known as:
permanent memory
perpetual memory
reference memory
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

Long-term memory is also known as reference memory. In tests conducted by animal cognition researcher William Roberts, it took extensive training for pigeons and monkeys to remember sequences, suggesting to Roberts that their long-term memory falls far short of that of humans.

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_____ have a reliable and well-developed memory of sequences of events.
humans
snakes
turtles
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

Humans can easily remember a sequence of events and re-create it; it seems that animals perceive time differently.

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Animals don't seem to anticipate rewards very well, probably because they don't have a concept of the:
past
present
future
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

Because animals don't seem to anticipate future needs and rewards very well, researchers believe they don't have a concept of the future.

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Squirrels and other animals that hoard food for winter probably do so out of:
instinct
hunger
anticipation
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

Though the behavior of squirrels and other animals that hoard food for winter seems to imply that animals can anticipate future needs, they are probably acting out of instinct only.

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Animals that have no concept of future rewards will choose a smaller immediate reward over a:
smaller future reward
larger future reward
both of the above
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

Because animals don't seem to have a concept of the future, they will always choose an immediate reward over a future one.

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You Got:
/15
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