Dogs show the Bouba–Kiki effect, study finds
abenitezburraco · x · 2026-10-17
A new study shows dogs exhibit the Bouba–Kiki effect — the cross-modal mapping where humans associate rounded shapes with "Bouba" sounds and spiky shapes with "Kiki" sounds. The violin plots show dogs looking more toward Bouba sounds with rounded stimuli and more toward Kiki sounds with spiky stimuli, suggesting this cross-modal mapping may be evolutionarily older than assumed and not unique to human language.
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