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Author Gácsi, M.; Kara, E.; Belényi, B.; Topál, J.; Miklósi, Á. url  doi
openurl 
  Title The effect of development and individual differences in pointing comprehension of dogs Type Journal Article
  Year 2009 Publication Animal Cognition Abbreviated Journal Anim. Cogn.  
  Volume 12 Issue 3 Pages 471-479  
  Keywords Age Factors; Analysis of Variance; Animals; *Association Learning; Attention; Chi-Square Distribution; Choice Behavior; *Comprehension; *Concept Formation; Dogs/*psychology; Female; *Gestures; Humans; Male; Orientation; Statistics, Nonparametric  
  Abstract In spite of the rather different procedures actually used in comparative studies to test the ability of different species to rely on the human pointing gesture, there is no debate on the high performance of dogs in such tasks. Very little is known, however, on the course through which they acquire this ability or the probable factors influencing the process. Important developmental questions have remained unsolved and also some methodological concerns should be addressed before we can convincingly argue for one interpretation or another. In this study we tested 180 dogs of different age (from 2 months to adults) to investigate their performance in the human distal momentary pointing gesture. The results, analyzed at both the group and the individual levels, showed no difference in the performance according to age, indicating that in dogs the comprehension of the human pointing may require only very limited and rapid early learning to fully develop. Interestingly, neither the keeping conditions nor the time spent in active interaction with the owner, and not even some special (agility) training for using human visual cues, had significant effect on the success and explained individual differences. The performance of the dogs was rather stable over time: during the 20 trials within a session and even when subsamples of different age were repeatedly tested. Considering that in spite of the general success at the group level, more than half of the dogs were not successful at the individual level, we revealed alternative “decision-making rules” other than following the pointing gesture of the experimenter.  
  Address Department of Ethology, Eotvos University, Budapest, Hungary. gm.art@t-online.hu  
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  ISSN (down) 1435-9456 ISBN Medium  
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  Notes PMID:19130102 Approved no  
  Call Number Equine Behaviour @ team @ Serial 4969  
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Author Huebner, F.; Fichtel, C. url  doi
openurl 
  Title Innovation and behavioral flexibility in wild redfronted lemurs (Eulemur rufifrons) Type Journal Article
  Year 2015 Publication Animal Cognition Abbreviated Journal Anim.Cogn.  
  Volume 18 Issue 3 Pages 777-787  
  Keywords  
  Abstract Innovations and problem-solving abilities can provide animals with important ecological advantages as they allow individuals to deal with novel social and ecological challenges. Innovation is a solution to a novel problem or a novel solution to an old problem, with the latter being especially difficult. Finding a new solution to an old problem requires individuals to inhibit previously applied solutions to invent new strategies and to behave flexibly. We examined the role of experience on cognitive flexibility to innovate and to find new problem-solving solutions with an artificial feeding task in wild redfronted lemurs (Eulemur rufifrons). Four groups of lemurs were tested with feeding boxes, each offering three different techniques to extract food, with only one technique being available at a time. After the subjects learned a technique, this solution was no longer successful and subjects had to invent a new technique. For the first transition between task 1 and 2, subjects had to rely on their experience of the previous technique to solve task 2. For the second transition, subjects had to inhibit the previously learned technique to learn the new task 3. Tasks 1 and 2 were solved by most subjects, whereas task 3 was solved by only a few subjects. In this task, besides behavioral flexibility, especially persistence, i.e., constant trying, was important for individual success during innovation. Thus, wild strepsirrhine primates are able to innovate flexibly, suggesting a general ecological relevance of behavioral flexibility and persistence during innovation and problem solving across all primates.  
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  Call Number Equine Behaviour @ team @ Huebner2015 Serial 5938  
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Author Millot, S.; Nilsson, J.; Fosseidengen, J.E.; Bégout, M.-L.; Fernö, A.; Braithwaite, V.A.; Kristiansen, T.S. url  doi
openurl 
  Title Innovative behaviour in fish: Atlantic cod can learn to use an external tag to manipulate a self-feeder Type Journal Article
  Year 2013 Publication Animal Cognition Abbreviated Journal  
  Volume 17 Issue 3 Pages 779-785  
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  Abstract This study describes how three individual fish, Atlantic cod (Gadus morhua L.), developed a novel behaviour and learnt to use a dorsally attached external tag to activate a self-feeder. This behaviour was repeated up to several hundred times, and over time these fish fine-tuned the behaviour and made a series of goal-directed coordinated movements needed to attach the feeder’s pull string to the tag and stretch the string until the feeder was activated. These observations demonstrate a capacity in cod to develop a novel behaviour utilizing an attached tag as a tool to achieve a goal. This may be seen as one of the very few observed examples of innovation and tool use in fish.  
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  Call Number Equine Behaviour @ team @ Millot2013 Serial 5933  
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Author Ducatez, S.; Audet, J.N.; Lefebvre, L. url  doi
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  Title Independent appearance of an innovative feeding behaviour in Antillean bullfinches Type Journal Article
  Year 2013 Publication Animal Cognition Abbreviated Journal Anim. Cogn.  
  Volume 16 Issue 3 Pages 525-529  
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  Abstract Behavioural innovations have been largely documented in birds and are thought to provide advantages in changing environments. However, the mechanisms by which behavioural innovations spread remain poorly known. Two major mechanisms are supposed to play a fundamental role: innovation diffusion by social learning and independent appearance of the same innovation in different individuals. Direct evidence for the independent emergence of the same innovation in different individuals is, however, lacking. Here, we show that a highly localized behavioural innovation previously observed in 2000 in Barbados, the opening of sugar packets by Loxigilla barbadensis bullfinches, persisted more than a decade later and had spread to a limited area around the initial site. More importantly, we found that the same innovation appeared independently in other, more distant, locations on the same island. On the island of St-Lucia, 145 km from Barbados, we also found that the sister species of the Barbados bullfinch, the Lesser Antillean bullfinch Loxigilla noctis developed the same innovation independently. Finally, we found that a third species, the Bananaquit Coereba flaveola, exploited the bullfinches’ technical innovation to benefit from this new food source. Overall, our observations provide the first direct evidence of the independent emergence of the same behavioural innovation in different individuals of the same species, but also in different species subjected to similar anthropogenic food availability.  
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  Call Number Equine Behaviour @ team @ Ducatez2013 Serial 5934  
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Author Biondi, L.M.; Bó, M.S.; Vassallo, A.I. doi  openurl
  Title Inter-individual and age differences in exploration, neophobia and problem-solving ability in a Neotropical raptor (Milvago chimango) Type Journal Article
  Year 2010 Publication Animal Cognition Abbreviated Journal Anim. Cogn.  
  Volume 13 Issue 5 Pages 701-710  
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  Abstract Animal innovations have far-reaching ecological and evolutionary consequences. The occurrence and persistence of an innovation require several processes, including exploration, social and asocial learning, and low neophobia. In addition, the identity of the innovator may determine how these new behaviours are socially transmitted. Taking into account inter-individual and age differences, we investigated three correlates of animal innovation: object exploration, neophobia level and novel problem-solving ability in an opportunistic generalist raptor, the Chimango Caracara (Milvago chimango). Eighteen individuals (7 adults and 11 juveniles) were caught during the non-breeding period and housed in individual cages in outdoor aviaries. Each bird was given three tests: exploration, neophobia and problem-solving. Individuals differed in their response to novel situations both within and between age groups. Most of the juveniles were more explorative and had a lower neophobic response to a strange object than adult birds, but both age groups were able to solve a novel problem when given a food reward. In juveniles, neophobia level and problem-solving performance were inversely related; however, we found no relationship between these behaviours in adults. Exploration did not correlate with neophobia or problem-solving ability for either age group. This research is one of the few studies exploring the inter-individual and age differences in behavioural innovation and their correlates in a bird of prey. The explorative tendency, low neophobia and ability to innovate showed by M. chimango may be advantageous for this generalist and opportunistic raptor and might be some of the factors underlying its ecological success.  
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  Call Number Equine Behaviour @ team @ Biondi2010 Serial 5939  
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Author Schuetz, A.; Farmer, K.; Krueger, K. url  doi
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  Title Social learning across species: horses (Equus caballus) learn from humans by observation Type Journal Article
  Year 2017 Publication Animal Cognition Abbreviated Journal Anim. Cogn.  
  Volume 20 Issue 3 Pages 567-573  
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  Abstract This study examines whether horses can learn by observing humans, given that they identify individual humans and orientate on the focus of human attention. We tested 24 horses aged between 3 and 12. Twelve horses were tested on whether they would learn to open a feeding apparatus by observing a familiar person. The other 12 were controls and received exactly the same experimental procedure, but without a demonstration of how to operate the apparatus. More horses from the group with demonstration (8/12) reached the learning criterion of opening the feeder twenty times consecutively than horses from the control group (2/12), and younger horses seemed to reach the criterion more quickly. Horses not reaching the learning criteria approached the human experimenters more often than those that did. The results demonstrate that horses learn socially across species, in this case from humans.  
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  Call Number Equine Behaviour @ team @ Schuetz2016 Serial 6028  
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Author Malavasi, R.; Huber, L. url  doi
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  Title Evidence of heterospecific referential communication from domestic horses (Equus caballus) to humans Type Journal Article
  Year 2016 Publication Animal Cognition Abbreviated Journal Anim. Cogn.  
  Volume 19 Issue 5 Pages 899-909  
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  Abstract Referential communication occurs when a sender elaborates its gestures to direct the attention of a recipient to its role in pursuit of the desired goal, e.g. by pointing or showing an object, thereby informing the recipient what it wants. If the gesture is successful, the sender and the recipient focus their attention simultaneously on a third entity, the target. Here we investigated the ability of domestic horses (Equus caballus) to communicate referentially with a human observer about the location of a desired target, a bucket of food out of reach. In order to test six operational criteria of referential communication, we manipulated the recipient’s (experimenter) attentional state in four experimental conditions: frontally oriented, backward oriented, walking away from the arena and frontally oriented with other helpers present in the arena. The rate of gaze alternation was higher in the frontally oriented condition than in all the others. The horses appeared to use both indicative (pointing) and non-indicative (nods and shakes) head gestures in the relevant test conditions. Horses also elaborated their communication by switching from a visual to a tactile signal and demonstrated perseverance in their communication. The results of the tests revealed that horses used referential gestures to manipulate the attention of a human recipient so to obtain an unreachable resource. These are the first such findings in an ungulate species.  
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  Call Number Equine Behaviour @ team @ Malavasi2016 Serial 6029  
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Author Taubert, J.; Weldon, K.B.; Parr, L.A. url  doi
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  Title Robust representations of individual faces in chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) but not monkeys (Macaca mulatta) Type Journal Article
  Year 2016 Publication Animal Cognition Abbreviated Journal Anim. Cogn.  
  Volume Issue Pages 1-9  
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  Abstract Being able to recognize the faces of our friends and family members no matter where we see them represents a substantial challenge for the visual system because the retinal image of a face can be degraded by both changes in the person (age, expression, pose, hairstyle, etc.) and changes in the viewing conditions (direction and degree of illumination). Yet most of us are able to recognize familiar people effortlessly. A popular theory for how face recognition is achieved has argued that the brain stabilizes facial appearance by building average representations that enhance diagnostic features that reliably vary between people while diluting features that vary between instances of the same person. This explains why people find it easier to recognize average images of people, created by averaging multiple images of the same person together, than single instances (i.e. photographs). Although this theory is gathering momentum in the psychological and computer sciences, there is no evidence of whether this mechanism represents a unique specialization for individual recognition in humans. Here we tested two species, chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) and rhesus monkeys (Macaca mulatta), to determine whether average images of different familiar individuals were easier to discriminate than photographs of familiar individuals. Using a two-alternative forced-choice, match-to-sample procedure, we report a behaviour response profile that suggests chimpanzees encode the faces of conspecifics differently than rhesus monkeys and in a manner similar to humans.  
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  Call Number Equine Behaviour @ team @ Taubert2016 Serial 6030  
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Author Ringhofer, M.; Yamamoto, S. url  doi
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  Title Domestic horses send signals to humans when they face with an unsolvable task Type Journal Article
  Year 2016 Publication Animal Cognition Abbreviated Journal Anim. Cogn.  
  Volume Issue Pages 1-9  
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  Abstract Some domestic animals are thought to be skilled at social communication with humans due to the process of domestication. Horses, being in close relationship with humans, similar to dogs, might be skilled at communication with humans. Previous studies have indicated that they are sensitive to bodily signals and the attentional state of humans; however, there are few studies that investigate communication with humans and responses to the knowledge state of humans. Our first question was whether and how horses send signals to their potentially helpful but ignorant caretakers in a problem-solving situation where a food item was hidden in a bucket that was accessible only to the caretakers. We then examined whether horses alter their behaviours on the basis of the caretakers’ knowledge of where the food was hidden. We found that horses communicated to their caretakers using visual and tactile signals. The signalling behaviour of the horses significantly increased in conditions where the caretakers had not seen the hiding of the food. These results suggest that horses alter their communicative behaviour towards humans in accordance with humans’ knowledge state.  
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  Call Number Equine Behaviour @ team @ Ringhofer2016 Serial 6037  
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Author Heberlein, M.T.E.; Manser, M.B.; Turner, D.C. url  doi
openurl 
  Title Deceptive-like behaviour in dogs (Canis familiaris) Type Journal Article
  Year 2017 Publication Animal Cognition Abbreviated Journal Anim. Cogn.  
  Volume 20 Issue 3 Pages 511-520  
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  Abstract Deception, the use of false signals to modify the behaviour of the receiver, occurs in low frequencies even in stable signalling systems. For example, it can be advantageous for subordinate individuals to deceive in competitive situations. We investigated in a three-way choice task whether dogs are able to mislead a human competitor, i.e. if they are capable of tactical deception. During training, dogs experienced the role of their owner, as always being cooperative, and two unfamiliar humans, one acting ‘cooperatively’ by giving food and the other being ‘competitive’ and keeping the food for themselves. During the test, the dog had the options to lead one of these partners to one of the three potential food locations: one contained a favoured food item, the other a non-preferred food item and the third remained empty. After having led one of the partners, the dog always had the possibility of leading its cooperative owner to one of the food locations. Therefore, a dog would have a direct benefit from misleading the competitive partner since it would then get another chance to receive the preferred food from the owner. On the first test day, the dogs led the cooperative partner to the preferred food box more often than expected by chance and more often than the competitive partner. On the second day, they even led the competitive partner less often to the preferred food than expected by chance and more often to the empty box than the cooperative partner. These results show that dogs distinguished between the cooperative and the competitive partner, and indicate the flexibility of dogs to adjust their behaviour and that they are able to use tactical deception.  
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  Call Number Equine Behaviour @ team @ Heberlein2017 Serial 6136  
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