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Author Rørvang, M.V.; Christensen, J.W.; Ladewig, J.; McLean, A.
Title (down) Social Learning in Horses--Fact or Fiction? Type Journal Article
Year 2018 Publication Frontiers in Veterinary Science Abbreviated Journal Front. Vet. Sci.
Volume 5 Issue Pages 212
Keywords
Abstract Prima facie, the acquisition of novel behaviors in animals through observation of conspecifics seems straightforward. There are, however, various mechanisms through which the behavior of animals can be altered from observing others. These mechanisms range from simple hard-wired contagious processes to genuine learning by observation, which differ fundamentally in cognitive complexity. They range from social facilitation and local enhancement to true social learning. The different learning mechanisms are the subject of this review, largely because research on learning by observation can be confounded by difficulties in interpretation owing to the looming possibility of associative learning infecting experimental results. While it is often assumed that horses are capable of acquiring new behavior through intra-species observation, research on social learning in horses includes a variety of studies some of which may overestimate the possession of higher mental abilities. Assuming such abilities in their absence can have welfare implications, e.g. isolating stereotypical horses on the assumption that these behaviors can be learned though observation by neighboring horses. This review summarizes the definitions and criteria for the various types of social transmission and social learning and reviews the current documentation for each type in horses with the aim of clarifying whether horses possess the ability to learn through true social learning. As social ungulates, horses evolved in open landscapes, exposed to predators and grazing most of the day. Being in close proximity to conspecifics may theoretically offer an opportunity to learn socially, however anti-predator vigilance and locating forage may not require the neural complexity of social learning. Given the significant energetic expense of brain tissue, it is likely that social facilitation and local enhancement may have been sufficient in the adaptation of equids to their niche. As a consequence, social learning abilities may be maladaptive in horses. Collectively, the review proposes a novel differentiation between social transmission (social facilitation, local and stimulus enhancement) and social learning (goal emulation, imitation). Horses are undoubtedly sensitive to intra-species transfer of information but this transfer does not appear to satisfy the criteria for social learning, and thus there is no solid evidence for true social learning in horses.
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ISSN 2297-1769 ISBN Medium
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Notes Approved no
Call Number Equine Behaviour @ team @ Serial 6558
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Author Pongrácz, P.; Miklósi, Á.; Kubinyi, E.; Gurobi, K.; Topál, J.; Csányi, V.
Title (down) Social learning in dogs: the effect of a human demonstrator on the performance of dogs in a detour task Type Journal Article
Year 2001 Publication Animal Behaviour. Abbreviated Journal Anim. Behav.
Volume 62 Issue 6 Pages 1109-1117
Keywords
Abstract We recorded the behaviour of dogs in detour tests, in which an object (a favourite toy) or food was placed behind a V-shaped fence. Dogs were able to master this task; however, they did it more easily when they started from within the fence with the object placed outside it. Repeated detours starting from within the fence did not help the dogs to obtain the object more quickly if in a subsequent trial they started outside the fence with the object placed inside it. While six trials were not enough for the dogs to show significant improvement on their own in detouring the fence from outside, demonstration of this action by humans significantly improved the dogs' performance within two-three trials. Owners and strangers were equally effective as demonstrators. Our experiments show that dogs are able to rely on information provided by human action when confronted with a new task. While they did not copy the exact path of the human demonstrator, they easily adopted the detour behaviour shown by humans to reach their goal.
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Call Number refbase @ user @ Serial 847
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Author Galef, B.G.; Laland, K.N.
Title (down) Social Learning in Animals: Empirical Studies and Theoretical Models Type Journal Article
Year 2005 Publication BioScience Abbreviated Journal
Volume 55 Issue 6 Pages 489-499
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Abstract AbstractThe last two decades have seen a virtual explosion in empirical research on the role of social interactions in the development of animals' behavioral repertoires, and a similar increase in attention to formal models of social learning. Here we first review recent empirical evidence of social influences on food choice, tool use, patterns of movement, predator avoidance, mate choice, and courtship, and then consider formal models of when animals choose to copy behavior, and which other animals' behavior they copy, together with empirical tests of predictions from those models.
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Series Editor Series Title Abbreviated Series Title
Series Volume Series Issue Edition
ISSN 0006-3568 ISBN Medium
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Notes 10.1641/0006-3568(2005)055[0489:Sliaes]2.0.Co;2 Approved no
Call Number Equine Behaviour @ team @ Serial 6398
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Author Heyes, C.M.
Title (down) Social learning in animals: categories and mechanisms Type Journal Article
Year 1994 Publication Biological reviews of the Cambridge Philosophical Society Abbreviated Journal Biol. Rev.
Volume 69 Issue 2 Pages 207-231
Keywords Animals; *Behavior, Animal; Conditioning (Psychology); *Learning; Reinforcement (Psychology); *Social Behavior
Abstract There has been relatively little research on the psychological mechanisms of social learning. This may be due, in part, to the practice of distinguishing categories of social learning in relation to ill-defined mechanisms (Davis, 1973; Galef, 1988). This practice both makes it difficult to identify empirically examples of different types of social learning, and gives the false impression that the mechanisms responsible for social learning are clearly understood. It has been proposed that social learning phenomena be subsumed within the categorization scheme currently used by investigators of asocial learning. This scheme distinguishes categories of learning according to observable conditions, namely, the type of experience that gives rise to a change in an animal (single stimulus vs. stimulus-stimulus relationship vs. response-reinforcer relationship), and the type of behaviour in which this change is detected (response evocation vs. learnability) (Rescorla, 1988). Specifically, three alignments have been proposed: (i) stimulus enhancement with single stimulus learning, (ii) observational conditioning with stimulus-stimulus learning, or Pavlovian conditioning, and (iii) observational learning with response-reinforcer learning, or instrumental conditioning. If, as the proposed alignments suggest, the conditions of social and asocial learning are the same, there is some reason to believe that the mechanisms underlying the two sets of phenomena are also the same. This is so if one makes the relatively uncontroversial assumption that phenomena which occur under similar conditions tend to be controlled by similar mechanisms. However, the proposed alignments are intended to be a set of hypotheses, rather than conclusions, about the mechanisms of social learning; as a basis for further research in which animal learning theory is applied to social learning. A concerted attempt to apply animal learning theory to social learning, to find out whether the same mechanisms are responsible for social and asocial learning, could lead both to refinements of the general theory, and to a better understanding of the mechanisms of social learning. There are precedents for these positive developments in research applying animal learning theory to food aversion learning (e.g. Domjan, 1983; Rozin & Schull, 1988) and imprinting (e.g. Bolhuis, de Vox & Kruit, 1990; Hollis, ten Cate & Bateson, 1991). Like social learning, these phenomena almost certainly play distinctive roles in the antogeny of adaptive behaviour, and they are customarily regarded as 'special kinds' of learning (Shettleworth, 1993).(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)
Address Department of Psychology, University College London
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Language English Summary Language Original Title
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Series Volume Series Issue Edition
ISSN 1464-7931 ISBN Medium
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Notes PMID:8054445 Approved no
Call Number refbase @ user @ Serial 708
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Author Kis, A.; Huber, L.; Wilkinson, A.
Title (down) Social learning by imitation in a reptile (Pogona vitticeps) Type Journal Article
Year 2015 Publication Animal Cognition Abbreviated Journal Anim.Cogn.
Volume 18 Issue 1 Pages 325-331
Keywords
Abstract The ability to learn through imitation is thought to be the basis of cultural transmission and was long considered a distinctive characteristic of humans. There is now evidence that both mammals and birds are capable of imitation. However, nothing is known about these abilities in the third amniotic class--reptiles. Here, we use a bidirectional control procedure to show that a reptile species, the bearded dragon (Pogona vitticeps), is capable of social learning that cannot be explained by simple mechanisms such as local enhancement or goal emulation. Subjects in the experimental group opened a trap door to the side that had been demonstrated, while subjects in the ghost control group, who observed the door move without the intervention of a conspecific, were unsuccessful. This, together with differences in behaviour between experimental and control groups, provides compelling evidence that reptiles possess cognitive abilities that are comparable to those observed in mammals and birds and suggests that learning by imitation is likely to be based on ancient mechanisms.
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ISSN 1435-9456 ISBN Medium
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Notes Approved no
Call Number Equine Behaviour @ team @ Kis2015 Serial 6193
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Author Van Schaik, C.P.; Burkart, J.M.
Title (down) Social learning and evolution: the cultural intelligence hypothesis Type Journal Article
Year 2011 Publication Philos Trans R Soc B Abbreviated Journal
Volume 366 Issue Pages
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Call Number Equine Behaviour @ team @ Van Schaik2011 Serial 6227
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Author Schuetz, A.; Farmer, K.; Krueger, K.
Title (down) 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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ISSN 1435-9456 ISBN Medium
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Notes Approved no
Call Number Equine Behaviour @ team @ Schuetz2016 Serial 6028
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Author Zajonc, R.B.
Title (down) Social Facilitation Type Journal Article
Year 1965 Publication Science Abbreviated Journal Science
Volume 149 Issue 3681 Pages 269-274
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Abstract 300 Multiple ChoicesThis is a pdf-only article and there is no markup to show you.full-text.pdf
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Call Number Equine Behaviour @ team @ Serial 6565
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Author Quaresmini, C.; Forrester, G.S.; Spiezio, C.; Vallortigara, G.
Title (down) Social environment elicits lateralized behaviors in gorillas (Gorilla gorilla gorilla) and chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) Type Journal Article
Year 2014 Publication Journal of Comparative Psychology Abbreviated Journal
Volume 128 Issue 3 Pages 276-284
Keywords *Animal Ethology; *Animal Social Behavior; *Chimpanzees; *Gorillas; *Social Influences; Cerebral Dominance; Lateral Dominance; Social Environments
Abstract The influence of the social environment on lateralized behaviors has now been investigated across a wide variety of animal species. New evidence suggests that the social environment can modulate behavior. Currently, there is a paucity of data relating to how primates navigate their environmental space, and investigations that consider the naturalistic context of the individual are few and fragmented. Moreover, there are competing theories about whether only the right or rather both cerebral hemispheres are involved in the processing of social stimuli, especially in emotion processing. Here we provide the first report of lateralized social behaviors elicited by great apes. We employed a continuous focal animal sampling method to record the spontaneous interactions of a captive zoo-living colony of chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) and a biological family group of peer-reared western lowland gorillas (Gorilla gorilla gorilla). We specifically focused on which side of the body (i.e., front, rear, left, right) the focal individual preferred to keep conspecifics. Utilizing a newly developed quantitative corpus-coding scheme, analysis revealed both chimpanzees and gorillas demonstrated a significant group-level preference for focal individuals to keep conspecifics positioned to the front of them compared with behind them. More interestingly, both groups also manifested a population-level bias to keep conspecifics on their left side compared with their right side. Our findings suggest a social processing dominance of the right hemisphere for context-specific social environments. Results are discussed in light of the evolutionary adaptive value of social stimulus as a triggering factor for the manifestation of group-level lateralized behaviors. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved)
Address Quaresmini, Caterina: Department of Psychology and Cognitive Sciences, University of Trento, Corso Bettini 31, Rovereto, Italy, 38068, caterina.quaresmini@gmail.com
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Publisher American Psychological Association Place of Publication Us Editor
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Series Volume Series Issue Edition
ISSN 1939-2087(Electronic),0735-7036(Print) ISBN Medium
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Notes Approved no
Call Number Equine Behaviour @ team @ 2014-13828-001 Serial 6396
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Author Janczarek, I.; Wisniewska, A.; Chruszczewski, M.H.; Tkaczyk, E.; Górecka-Bruzda, A.
Title (down) Social Behaviour of Horses in Response to Vocalisations of Predators Type Journal Article
Year 2020 Publication Animals Abbreviated Journal Animals
Volume 10 Issue 2331 Pages
Keywords horse; predator; vocalisation; social defensive behaviour; grey wolf; Arabian leopard; golden jackal
Abstract We tested the hypothesis that social defensive responses to the vocalisation of a predator still exist in horses. The recordings of a grey wolf, an Arabian leopard and a golden jackal were played to 20 Konik polski and Arabian mares. Durations of grazing, standing still, standing alert and the number of steps in walk and trot/canter were measured. In one-minute scans, the distances of the focal horse from the reference horse (DIST-RH) and from the nearest loudspeaker (DIST-LS) were approximated. The vocalisation of a leopard aroused the Arabians more than the Koniks (less grazing, stand-still and walk, more stand-alert and trotting/cantering). Koniks showed more relaxed behaviours to the leopard vocalisation (more grazing, stand-still and walk), but high alertness to the wolf playback (stand-alert, trotting/cantering). Spatial formation of the herd of Koniks showed tight grouping (lower DIST-RH) and maintaining distance from the potential threat (DIST-LS) in response to the wolf howling, while the Arabians approached the loudspeakers in linear herd formation when the leopard growls were played. Adult horses responded to potential predation by changing spatial group formations. This ability to apply a social strategy may be one of the explanations for the least number of horses among all hunted farm animal species.
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Language Summary Language Original Title
Series Editor Series Title Abbreviated Series Title Animals
Series Volume 10 Series Issue 12 Edition
ISSN 2076-2615 ISBN Medium
Area Expedition Conference
Notes Approved no
Call Number Equine Behaviour @ team @ Serial 6675
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