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Li, J., & Zhou, X. (2014). Sex, Attractiveness, and Third-Party Punishment in Fairness Consideration. PLoS ONE, 9(4), e94004 EP -.
Abstract: <p>Social evaluation of others is often influenced by the physical attractiveness of the person being judged, leading to either a beauty premium or penalty depending on the circumstances. Here we asked Chinese participants to act as an interest-free third party in a dictator game and to evaluate the fairness level of monetary allocation by attractive and less attractive proposers of the same or opposite sex. We also instructed participants to express their willingness to punish the proposers by using a visual analogue scale. Results confirmed that the reasonableness evaluation was mainly affected by the reasonableness of offers. However, participants' intention to punish the proposers was affected by the level of reasonableness in the asset distribution and by both the sex and attractiveness of the proposers. Overall, male proposers were punished more severely than female proposers. Moreover, the same-sex proposers were punished more severely than opposite-sex proposers when they were physically attractive; this pattern was reversed when the proposers were less physically attractive. These results demonstrate social responses following an individual's unfair asset distribution can be affected by both social norms and the personal characteristics of the individual.</p>
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Dalla Costa, E., Minero, M., Lebelt, D., Stucke, D., Canali, E., & Leach, M. C. (2014). Development of the Horse Grimace Scale (HGS) as a Pain Assessment Tool in Horses Undergoing Routine Castration. PLoS ONE, 9(3), e92281 EP -.
Abstract: <sec><title>Background</title><p>The assessment of pain is critical for the welfare of horses, in particular when pain is induced by common management procedures such as castration. Existing pain assessment methods have several limitations, which reduce the applicability in everyday life. Assessment of facial expression changes, as a novel means of pain scoring, may offer numerous advantages and overcome some of these limitations. The objective of this study was to develop and validate a standardised pain scale based on facial expressions in horses (Horse Grimace Scale [HGS]).</p></sec><sec><title>Methodology/Principal Findings</title><p>Forty stallions were assigned to one of two treatments and all animals underwent routine surgical castration under general anaesthesia. Group A (n = 19) received a single injection of Flunixin immediately before anaesthesia. Group B (n = 21) received Flunixin immediately before anaesthesia and then again, as an oral administration, six hours after the surgery. In addition, six horses were used as anaesthesia controls (C). These animals underwent non-invasive, indolent procedures, received the same treatment as group A, but did not undergo surgical procedures that could be accompanied with surgical pain. Changes in behaviour, composite pain scale (CPS) scores and horse grimace scale (HGS) scores were assessed before and 8-hours post-procedure. Only horses undergoing castration (Groups A and B) showed significantly greater HGS and CPS scores at 8-hours post compared to pre operatively. Further, maintenance behaviours such as explorative behaviour and alertness were also reduced. No difference was observed between the two analgesic treatment groups.</p></sec><sec><title>Conclusions</title><p>The Horse Grimace Scale potentially offers an effective and reliable method of assessing pain following routine castration in horses. However, auxiliary studies are required to evaluate different painful conditions and analgesic schedules.</p></sec>
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Svobodová, I., Chaloupková, H., Koncel, R., Bartoš, L., Hradecká, L., & Jebavý, L. š. (2014). Cortisol and Secretory Immunoglobulin A Response to Stress in German Shepherd Dogs. PLoS ONE, 9(3), e90820 EP -.
Abstract: <p>The aim of the study was to determine whether cortisol and secretory Immunoglobulin A (sIgA) could be used as an indicator of acute stress in both young and adult dogs. Seventeen German shepherd puppies were exposed to the Puppy test (challenge test) at the age of seven weeks. This test has been routinely used to assess the future working ability of potential police dogs. In addition, ten adult females were subjected to 4 minutes of defense training under stressful conditions. Saliva was collected from the puppies and adult females before testing and 20 minutes after the start of testing, using a cotton swab held for 1–2 minutes in each dog's mouth. Cortisol concentrations increased after the test compared to the control sample both in puppies and the adult females. However adult females showed a significant decrease in sIgA after defense training while puppies showed a tendency of increase in sIgA. We propose that salivary cortisol could be used as an indicator of stress in puppies during early ontogeny. It is not yet clear whether sIgA could be used as a useful indicator of short-term stress in dogs.</p>
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Svobodová, I., Chaloupková, H., Kon?el, R., Barto?, L.?k, Hradecká, L., & Jebavý, L.?. (2014). Cortisol and Secretory Immunoglobulin A Response to Stress in German Shepherd Dogs. PLoS ONE, 9(3), e90820.
Abstract: <p>The aim of the study was to determine whether cortisol and secretory Immunoglobulin A (sIgA) could be used as an indicator of acute stress in both young and adult dogs. Seventeen German shepherd puppies were exposed to the Puppy test (challenge test) at the age of seven weeks. This test has been routinely used to assess the future working ability of potential police dogs. In addition, ten adult females were subjected to 4 minutes of defense training under stressful conditions. Saliva was collected from the puppies and adult females before testing and 20 minutes after the start of testing, using a cotton swab held for 1?2 minutes in each dog's mouth. Cortisol concentrations increased after the test compared to the control sample both in puppies and the adult females. However adult females showed a significant decrease in sIgA after defense training while puppies showed a tendency of increase in sIgA. We propose that salivary cortisol could be used as an indicator of stress in puppies during early ontogeny. It is not yet clear whether sIgA could be used as a useful indicator of short-term stress in dogs.</p>
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Kristjansson, T., Bjornsdottir, S., Sigurdsson, A., Andersson, L. S., Lindgren, G., Helyar, S. J., et al. (2014). The effect of the ‘Gait keeper’ mutation in the DMRT3 gene on gaiting ability in Icelandic horses. J. Anim. Breed. Genet., , n/a-n/a.
Abstract: A nonsense mutation in DMRT3 (‘Gait keeper’ mutation) has a predominant effect on gaiting ability in horses, being permissive for the ability to perform lateral gaits and having a favourable effect on speed capacity in trot. The DMRT3 mutant allele (A) has been found in high frequency in gaited breeds and breeds bred for harness racing, while other horse breeds were homozygous for the wild-type allele (C). The aim of this study was to evaluate further the effect of the DMRT3 nonsense mutation on the gait quality and speed capacity in the multigaited Icelandic horse and demonstrate how the frequencies of the A- and C- alleles have changed in the Icelandic horse population in recent decades. It was confirmed that homozygosity for the DMRT3 nonsense mutation relates to the ability to pace. It further had a favourable effect on scores in breeding field tests for the lateral gait tölt, demonstrated by better beat quality, speed capacity and suppleness. Horses with the CA genotype had on the other hand significantly higher scores for walk, trot, canter and gallop, and they performed better beat and suspension in trot and gallop. These results indicate that the AA genotype reinforces the coordination of ipsilateral legs, with the subsequent negative effect on the synchronized movement of diagonal legs compared with the CA genotype. The frequency of the A-allele has increased in recent decades with a corresponding decrease in the frequency of the C-allele. The estimated frequency of the A-allele in the Icelandic horse population in 2012 was 0.94. Selective breeding for lateral gaits in the Icelandic horse population has apparently altered the frequency of DMRT3 genotypes with a predicted loss of the C-allele in relatively few years. The results have practical implications for breeding and training of Icelandic horses and other gaited horse breeds.
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Giese,, C. Giese, Gerber,, V. Gerber, Howald,, M. Howald, et al. (2014). Stressbelastung und Verhalten von Pferden in stromführenden gegenüber nicht stromführenden Führanlagen. SAT, 156(4), 163–169.
Abstract: Um die Stressbelastung von Pferden in Führanlagen zu vergleichen, wurden 12 Pferde während 3 Wochen in einer Führanlage mit und ohne stromführenden (3.7 kV) Abtrennungen bewegt. Zur Ermittlung der Stressbelastung wurden die Cortisolwerte im Blut gemessen, die Herzschlagfrequenz mittels Polar® registriert und das Verhalten erfasst. Weder die Cortisol- noch die Herzfrequenzmessungen zeigten einen bedeutenden signifikanten Unterschied zwischen Pferden, die in einer stromführenden beziehungsweise nicht stromführenden Führanlage gingen. Die höchsten Cortisol- und Herzfrequenzwerte wurden in der ersten Woche (Angewöhnungsphase) verzeichnet. Signifikante Unterschiede wurden bei den Verhaltensparametern «Spontanes Wechseln des Abteils» und «Kontakt mit der Trennwand» beobachtet: Während solche vor allem in der ersten Woche und vor dem ersten Stromeinsatz vorkamen, zeigte kein Pferd einen Abteilwechsel während und nach dem Stromeinsatz. Die Resultate dieser Studie deuten darauf hin, dass der Einsatz von stromführenden Abtrennungen in Führanlagen für Pferde keinen bedeutenden messbaren Stress verursacht.
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Gaunet, F., & Massioui, F. E. (2014). Marked referential communicative behaviours, but no differentiation of the “knowledge state” of humans in untrained pet dogs versus 1-year-old infants. Animal Cognition, , 1–11.
Abstract: The study examines whether untrained dogs and infants take their caregiver’s visual experience into account when communicating with them. Fifteen adult dogs and 15 one-year-old infants were brought into play with their caregivers with one of their own toys. The caregiver gave the toy to the experimenter, who, in different conditions, placed it either above or under one of two containers, with both the infant or dog and the caregiver witnessing the positioning; in a third condition, the caregiver left the room before the toy was placed under one of the two containers and later returned. Afterwards, for each condition, the caregiver asked the participant to indicate the location of the toy. Neither dogs nor infants—untrained to the use of the partner’s knowledge state—showed much difference of behaviour between the three conditions. However, dogs showed more persistence for most behaviours (gaze at the owner, gaze at the toy and gaze alternation) and conditions, suggesting that the situation made more demands on dogs’ communicative behaviours than on those of infants. When all deictic behaviours of infants (arm points towards the toy and gaze at the toy) were taken into account, dogs and infants did not differ. Phylogeny, early experience and ontogeny may all play a role in the ways that both species communicate with adult humans.
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Méary, D., Li, Z., Li, W., Guo, K., & Pascalis, O. (2014). Seeing two faces together: preference formation in humans and rhesus macaques. Animal Cognition, , 1–13.
Abstract: Humans, great apes and old world monkeys show selective attention to faces depending on conspecificity, familiarity, and social status supporting the view that primates share similar face processing mechanisms. Although many studies have been done on face scanning strategy in monkeys and humans, the mechanisms influencing viewing preference have received little attention. To determine how face categories influence viewing preference in humans and rhesus macaques (Macaca mulatta), we performed two eye-tracking experiments using a visual preference task whereby pairs of faces from different species were presented simultaneously. The results indicated that viewing time was significantly influenced by the pairing of the face categories. Humans showed a strong bias towards an own-race face in an Asian–Caucasian condition. Rhesus macaques directed more attention towards non-human primate faces when they were paired with human faces, regardless of the species. When rhesus faces were paired with faces from Barbary macaques (Macaca sylvanus) or chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes), the novel species’ faces attracted more attention. These results indicate that monkeys’ viewing preferences, as assessed by a visual preference task, are modulated by several factors, species and dominance being the most influential.
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Kundey, S. M. A., Delise, J., Los Reyes, A., Ford, K., Starnes, B., & Dennen, W. (2014). Domestic dogs’ (Canis familiaris) choices in reference to information provided by human and artificial hands. Anim. Cogn., 17(2), 259–266.
Abstract: ven young humans show sensitivity to the accuracy and reliability of informants’ reports. Children are selective in soliciting information and in accepting claims. Recent research has also investigated domestic dogs’ (Canis familiaris) sensitivity to agreement among human informants. Such research utilizing a common human pointing gesture to which dogs are sensitive in a food retrieval paradigm suggests that dogs might choose among informants according to the number of points exhibited, rather than the number of individuals indicating a particular location. Here, we further investigated dogs’ use of information from human informants using a stationary pointing gesture, as well as the conditions under which dogs would utilize a stationary point. First, we explored whether the number of points or the number of individuals more strongly influenced dogs’ choices. To this end, dogs encountered a choice situation in which the number of points exhibited toward a particular location and the number of individuals exhibiting those points conflicted. Results indicated that dogs chose in accordance with the number of points exhibited toward a particular location. In a second experiment, we explored the possibility that previously learned associations drove dogs’ responses to the stationary pointing gesture. In this experiment, dogs encountered a choice situation in which artificial hands exhibited a stationary pointing gesture toward or away from choice locations in the absence of humans. Dogs chose the location to which the artificial hand pointed. These results are consistent with the notion that dogs may respond to a human pointing gesture due to their past-learning history.
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Siniscalchi, M., Padalino, B., Lusito, R., & Quaranta, A. (2014). Is the left forelimb preference indicative of a stressful situation in horses? Behav. Process., 107, 61–67.
Abstract: Abstract Evidence for behavioural and brain lateralisation is now widespread among the animal kingdom; lateralisation of limb use (pawedness) occurs in several mammals including both feral and domestic horses. We investigated limb preferences in 14 Quarter Horse during different motor tasks (walking, stepping on and off a step, truck loading and unloading). Population lateralisation was observed in two tasks: horses preferentially used their left forelimb during truck loading and stepping off a step. The results also revealed that horses showed higher scores for anxious behaviours during truck loading suggesting that the use of the left forelimb in this task may reflect the main role of the right hemisphere in control of behaviour during stressful situation.
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