Why dogs prefer zoomies to zoom and what it tells us about the importance of in-person meetings for learning and memory

TL;DR

The paper explores how dogs and humans use smell for learning and communication, and why in-person interactions are better for memory than virtual meetings.

Contribution

It highlights the role of smell in learning and memory, contrasting in-person and virtual interactions.

Findings

Dogs and humans both use smell for learning and communication.

In-person meetings are more effective for memory than virtual ones.

Smell plays a significant role in information exchange.

Abstract

As people commonly observe dog behaviors like the sudden bursts of physical movement colloquially known as “zoomies,” and the canine penchant for sticking their nose out of car windows and for sniffing intently in dog parks, it is not surprising that people generally believe dogs learn and communicate by smell. While people generally discount their own olfactory sensitivity and the importance of smell overall, humans also learn and communicate by smell, in some cases even better than dogs. In this article, we discuss why this information exchange matters for learning and memory and why virtual meetings don’t pass the sniff test.