Horses with sustained attention follow the pointing of a human who knows where food is hidden

AbstractWhen interacting with humans, domesticated species may respond to communicative gestures, such as pointing. However, it is currently unknown, except for in dogs, if species comprehend the communicative nature of such cues. Here, we investigated whether horses could follow the pointing of a human informant by evaluating the credibility of the information about the food-hiding place provided by the pointing of two informants. Using an object-choice task, we manipulated the attentional state of the two informants during food-hiding events and differentiated their knowledge about the location of the hidden food. Furthermore, we investigated the horses’ visual attention levels towards human behaviour to evaluate the relationship between their motivation and their performance of the task. The result showed that horses that sustained high attention levels could evaluate the credibility of the information and followed the pointing of an informant who knew where food was hidden (Z = − 2.281, P = 0.002, n = 36). This suggests that horses are highly sensitive to the attentional state and pointing gestures of humans, and that they perceive pointing as a communicative cue. This study also indicates that the motivation for the task should be investigated to determine the socio-cognitive abilities of animals.

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Ovariectomy Impairs Socio-Cognitive Functions in Dogs

Animals ◽

10.3390/ani9020058 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 9 (2) ◽

pp. 58 ◽

Cited By ~ 6

Author(s):

Anna Scandurra ◽

Alessandra Alterisio ◽

Anna Di Cosmo ◽

Antonio D’Ambrosio ◽

Biagio D’Aniello

Keyword(s):

Cognitive Abilities ◽

Cognitive Skills ◽

Learning Task ◽

Choice Task ◽

Canis Lupus Familiaris ◽

Object Choice ◽

Navigation Strategy ◽

Pointing Gestures ◽

Object Choice Task ◽

Choice Frequency

Recent studies have underlined the effect of ovariectomy on the spatial cognition of female dogs, with ovariectomized dogs showing a clear preference for an egocentric rather than an allocentric navigation strategy whereas intact females did not show preferences. Intact females had better performances than gonadectomized females in solving a learning task in a maze. Ovariectomy also affects socio-cognitive abilities, reducing the dog’s level of attention on the owner. We tested dogs (Canis lupus familiaris) in the object choice task paradigm to assess whether an ovariectomy could impair females’ ability to follow human signals. Forty pet dogs (18 intact females (IF) and 22 gonadectomized females (GF)) were tested in the object choice task paradigm using the human proximal pointing gesture. For the analysis, the frequency of correct, wrong and no-choices was collected; moreover, the latency of the correct choices was also considered. The IF group followed the pointing gestures more often than the GF group and with a lower latency, whereas a significantly higher no-choice frequency was recorded for the GF group. These results show a detrimental effect of ovariectomy on dogs’ socio-cognitive skills related to the responsiveness to human pointing gestures.

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Goats Follow Human Pointing Gestures in an Object Choice Task

Frontiers in Psychology ◽

10.3389/fpsyg.2020.00915 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 11 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Christian Nawroth ◽

Zoe M. Martin ◽

Alan G. McElligott

Keyword(s):

Choice Task ◽

Object Choice ◽

Pointing Gestures ◽

Object Choice Task ◽

Human Pointing

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Goats follow human pointing gestures in an object choice task

10.31219/osf.io/uwd6x ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Christian Nawroth ◽

Zoe Martin ◽

Alan G. McElligott

Keyword(s):

Index Finger ◽

Choice Task ◽

Capra Hircus ◽

Middle Position ◽

Object Choice ◽

Pointing Gestures ◽

The Subject ◽

Object Choice Task ◽

Pointing Gesture ◽

Human Pointing

Dogs (Canis lupus familiaris) are extremely adept in interpreting human-given cues, such as the pointing gesture. However, the underlying mechanisms on how domestic non-companion species use these cues are not well understood. We investigated the use of human-given pointing gestures by goats (Capra hircus) in an object-choice task, where an experimenter surreptitiously hid food in one of two buckets. Subjects first had to pass a pre-test where the experimenter indicated the location of the food to the subject by a proximal pointing gesture. Subjects that succeeded in the use of this gesture were transferred to the actual test. In these subsequent test trials, the experimenter indicated the location of the food to the subject by using three different pointing gestures: proximal pointing from a middle position (distance between target and index finger: 30 cm), crossed pointing from the middle position (distance between target and index finger: 40 cm), asymmetric pointing from the position of the non-baited bucket (distance between target and index finger: 90 cm). Goats succeeded in the pointing gestures that presented an element of proximity (proximal and crossed) compared to when the experimenter was further away from the rewarded location (asymmetric). This indicates that goats can generalise their use of the human pointing gesture but might rely on stimulus/local enhancement rather than referential information. In addition, goats did not improve their responses over time, indicating that no learning took place. The results provide a greater understanding of human-animal interactions and social-cognitive abilities of livestock, which allows for the provision of enhanced management practices and welfare conditions.

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Elephants have a nose for quantity

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences ◽

10.1073/pnas.1818284116 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 116 (25) ◽

pp. 12566-12571 ◽

Cited By ~ 10

Author(s):

Joshua M. Plotnik ◽

Daniel L. Brubaker ◽

Rachel Dale ◽

Lydia N. Tiller ◽

Hannah S. Mumby ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Social Relationships ◽

Relative Difference ◽

Choice Task ◽

Sunflower Seeds ◽

Object Choice ◽

Olfactory Sense ◽

Impact On Survival ◽

Object Choice Task ◽

Visual Domain ◽

The Relationship

Animals often face situations that require making decisions based on quantity. Many species, including humans, rely on an ability to differentiate between more and less to make judgments about social relationships, territories, and food. Habitat-related choices require animals to decide between areas with greater and lesser quantities of food while also weighing relative risk of danger based on group size and predation risk. Such decisions can have a significant impact on survival for an animal and its social group. Many species have demonstrated a capacity for differentiating between two quantities of food and choosing the greater of the two, but they have done so based on information provided primarily in the visual domain. Using an object-choice task, we demonstrate that elephants are able to discriminate between two distinct quantities using their olfactory sense alone. We presented the elephants with choices between two containers of sunflower seeds. The relationship between the amount of seeds within the two containers was represented by 11 different ratios. Overall, the elephants chose the larger quantity of food by smelling for it. The elephants’ performance was better when the relative difference between the quantities increased and worse when the ratio between the quantities of food increased, but was not affected by the overall quantity of food presented. These results are consistent with the performance of animals tested in the visual domain. This work has implications for the design of future, cross-phylogenetic cognitive comparisons that ought to account for differences in how animals sense their world.

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Young children’s developing ability to integrate gestural and emotional cues.

10.31234/osf.io/jubeq ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Gregor Kachel ◽

David Johannes Kaspar Hardecker ◽

Manuel Bohn

Keyword(s):

Facial Expressions ◽

Choice Task ◽

Group Level ◽

Emotional Cues ◽

Object Choice ◽

Positive Expression ◽

Communicative Development ◽

Pointing Gestures ◽

Object Choice Task ◽

Gaze Cues

In three studies, children between 22 and 46 months of age (N=180) had to integrate pointing gestures or gaze cues with positive and negative facial expressions to succeed in an object-choice-task. In a between-subjects-design, finding the toy required children to either choose (positive expression) or avoid (negative expression) the indicated target. Study 1 showed that 22-month-olds are better at integrating positive compared to negative facial expressions with pointing gestures. Study 2 tracked the integration of negative expressions and pointing across development, finding an unexpected, u-shaped trajectory with group-level success only at 46 months. Study 3 showed that already 34-month-olds succeeded when pointing was replaced with communicative gaze. Findings show that communicative cues need to be studied in conjunction to draw an ecologically valid picture of communicative development, and that pointing – beyond indexing - has an affirmative meaning for young children.

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Working Smarter Not Harder: Oxytocin Increases Domestic Dogs’ (Canis familiaris) Accuracy, but Not Attempts, on an Object Choice Task

Frontiers in Psychology ◽

10.3389/fpsyg.2019.02141 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 10 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Jessica Lee Oliva ◽

Manuel Mengoli ◽

Tiago Mendonça ◽

Alessandro Cozzi ◽

Patrick Pageat ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Canis Familiaris ◽

Choice Task ◽

Domestic Dogs ◽

Object Choice ◽

Object Choice Task

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Conspecific discrimination in an object-choice task in African grey parrots (Psittacus erithacus)

Behavioural Processes ◽

10.1016/j.beproc.2009.02.016 ◽

2009 ◽

Vol 82 (1) ◽

pp. 75-77 ◽

Cited By ~ 7

Author(s):

Nicolas Giret ◽

Marie Monbureau ◽

Michel Kreutzer ◽

Dalila Bovet

Keyword(s):

Choice Task ◽

Psittacus Erithacus ◽

Object Choice ◽

Object Choice Task

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Capuchin monkeys’ use of human and conspecific cues to solve a hidden object-choice task

Animal Cognition ◽

10.1007/s10071-017-1118-2 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 20 (5) ◽

pp. 985-998 ◽

Cited By ~ 5

Author(s):

Jennifer L. Essler ◽

Lindsay P. Schwartz ◽

Mattea S. Rossettie ◽

Peter G. Judge

Keyword(s):

Choice Task ◽

Capuchin Monkeys ◽

Object Choice ◽

Object Choice Task ◽

Conspecific Cues

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Juvenile domestic pigs (Sus scrofa domestica) use human-given cues in an object choice task

Animal Cognition ◽

10.1007/s10071-013-0702-3 ◽

2013 ◽

Vol 17 (3) ◽

pp. 701-713 ◽

Cited By ~ 29

Author(s):

Christian Nawroth ◽

Mirjam Ebersbach ◽

Eberhard von Borell

Keyword(s):

Sus Scrofa ◽

Choice Task ◽

Domestic Pigs ◽

Object Choice ◽

Object Choice Task ◽

Sus Scrofa Domestica

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Do pet dogs ( Canis familiaris ) follow ostensive and non-ostensive human gaze to distant space and to objects?

Royal Society Open Science ◽

10.1098/rsos.170349 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 4 (7) ◽

pp. 170349 ◽

Cited By ~ 8

Author(s):

Charlotte Duranton ◽

Friederike Range ◽

Zsófia Virányi

Keyword(s):

Canis Familiaris ◽

Choice Task ◽

Chance Level ◽

Gaze Following ◽

Food Location ◽

Object Choice ◽

Growing Body ◽

Object Choice Task ◽

Better Than ◽

Gaze Cues

Dogs are renowned for being skilful at using human-given communicative cues such as pointing. Results are contradictory, however, when it comes to dogs' following human gaze, probably due to methodological discrepancies. Here we investigated whether dogs follow human gaze to one of two food locations better than into distant space even after comparable pre-training. In Experiments 1 and 2, the gazing direction of dogs was recorded in a gaze-following into distant space and in an object-choice task where no choice was allowed, in order to allow a direct comparison between tasks, varying the ostensive nature of the gazes. We found that dogs only followed repeated ostensive human gaze into distant space, whereas they followed all gaze cues in the object-choice task. Dogs followed human gaze better in the object-choice task than when there was no obvious target to look at. In Experiment 3, dogs were tested in another object-choice task and were allowed to approach a container. Ostensive cues facilitated the dogs’ following gaze with gaze as well as their choices: we found that dogs in the ostensive group chose the indicated container at chance level, whereas they avoided this container in the non-ostensive group. We propose that dogs may perceive the object-choice task as a competition over food and may interpret non-ostensive gaze as an intentional cue that indicates the experimenter's interest in the food location she has looked at. Whether ostensive cues simply mitigate the competitive perception of this situation or they alter how dogs interpret communicative gaze needs further investigation. Our findings also show that following gaze with one's gaze and actually choosing one of the two containers in an object-choice task need to be considered as different variables. The present study clarifies a number of questions related to gaze-following in dogs and adds to a growing body of evidence showing that human ostensive cues can strongly modify dog behaviour.

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