The link above is a free gift link so that anyone can read about the study.
The study had some pretty interesting results
scientists found that dogs use the same strategy to pick out words in streams of speech that human infants do: They listen for consonants to figure out when one word ends and another begins.
What I am taking from this is that our puppers are just our little babies after all!
My understanding is that dogs use a combination of sounds, observations and smell to figure us out. For example, anytime I got near the fridge, my dog would be there in a heartbeat even if I said nothing and he was dead asleep at the time. Noise, motion and body behavior calculated in his head the possibility of food. Same for close comfort. Anytime I was on the couch, he repositioned right near. No words, no mention, just smell and body behavior observed. He was always listening, just not responding unless he wanted something. Kind of reminded me of some people.