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Lovrovich, P.; Sighieri, C.; Baragli, P. |
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Title |
Following human-given cues or not? Horses (Equus caballus) get smarter and change strategy in a delayed three choice task |
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Journal Article |
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Year |
2015 |
Publication |
Applied Animal Behaviour Science |
Abbreviated Journal |
Appl. Anim. Behav. Sci. |
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166 |
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80-88 |
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Highlights
�Horses remember the location of food hidden by the experimenter after a delay.
�They understand the communicative meaning of a human positioned close to the target.
�The same horses are capable of changing their decision-making strategy.
�They are able to shift from accuracy inferred from human given cues to speed.
�Horses can use human cues or not depending on time, cost, experience and reward.
Abstract
To date, horses have seemed capable of using human local enhancement cues only when the experimenter remains close to the reward, since they fail to understand the communicative meaning of the human as momentary local enhancement cue (when the human is not present at the moment of the animal's choice). This study was designed to analyse the ability of horses to understand, remember and use human-given cues in a delayed (10 s) three-choice task. Twelve horses (experimental group) had to find a piece of carrot hidden under one of three overturned buckets after seeing the experimenter hide it. The results were then compared with those of a control group (twelve horses) that had to find the carrot using only the sense of smell or random attempts. At the beginning, the experimental horses made more correct choices at the first attempt, although they took more time to find the carrot. Later the same horses were less accurate but found the carrot in less time. This suggests that the value of the proximal momentary local enhancement cues became less critical. It seemed, in fact, that the experimental and control group had aligned their behaviour as the trials proceeded. Despite this similarity, in the second half of the trials, the experimental group tended to first approach the bucket where they had found the carrot in the immediately preceding trial. Our findings indicate that horses are capable of remembering the location of food hidden by the experimenter after a delay, by using the human positioned close to the target as valuable information. The same horses are also capable of changing their decision-making strategy by shifting from the accuracy inferred from human given cues to speed. Therefore, horses are able to decide whether or not to use human given-cues, depending on a speed-accuracy trade-off. |
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doi: 10.1016/j.applanim.2015.02.017 |
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Call Number |
Equine Behaviour @ team @ |
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5849 |
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Author |
Lovrovich, P.; Sighieri, C.; Baragli, P. |
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Title |
The human-given cues and behavioural plasticity of horses during a delayed three choice task |
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Conference Article |
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Year |
2012 |
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Proceedings of the 2. International Equine Science Meeting |
Abbreviated Journal |
Proc. 2. Int. Equine. Sci. Mtg |
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in press |
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Recent studies have tested the ability of horses to understand human gestures. But even at the moment results are rather contradictory. This study was aimed at analyzing ability of horses to understand, remember and use human-given cues in a delayed three choice task. After the training period, sixteen horses had to choose between three blue buckets. One of them hid a carrot. Eight horses (A-group) saw the person hiding the carrot and they had to choose the correct bucket only after the person had hidden carrot and gone away. Control group, eight horses (B-group) did not know where the carrot was, and could only choose the bucket through the use of smell or by random choice. Each horse carried out 10 trials in the same test session. A-group chose the correct bucket to a greater extent on the first try (4.37±1.42), compared to the second (3.00±0.53) and the third try (0.75±0.71). With significant differences between the first and the second try (t14=2.582, p=0.022), the first and the third try (t14=6.508, p=0.000), and between the second and the third try (t14=7.180, p=0.000). Also the B-group chose the correct bucket to a greater extent on the first try (3.87±0.83) compared to the second (3.37±1.51) and the third (1.75±1.49). Anyway, there was no differences between the first and the second try (t14=0.821, p=0.425). As regards the B-group, statistical differences were found between the first and the third try (t14=3.523, p=0.003) and between the second and the third try (t14=2.171, p=0.048). Moreover, A-group showed a negative correlation (r=-0.652, p=0.0409) between the number of correct answers at first trial, and seemed that they used human information during the first half of the trials. As the trials proceeded, the average time required to find carrot decreased, with a negative correlation (r=-0.779, p=0.0079) over trials while, the number of overturned bucket to find carrot increased over trials (r=0.770, p=0.0091). As the trials proceeded, the horses tended to choose at first the bucket where the carrot had been found in the previous trial (r=0.450, p=0.013). Any kind of correlation over trials was found in B-group. In the first trials, the horses we studied seemed to understand human given-cues information, store it and use it appropriately even in absence of a person. As trials proceeded they seemed to change strategy, searching carrots where it had been found in the previous trial. Therefore, horses could use human given-cues or other cognitive strategy depending on the time, energy cost and mental effort required to solve the task. KW - |
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Corporate Author |
Lovrovich, P. |
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Xenophon Publishing |
Place of Publication |
Wald |
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Krueger, K. |
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978-3-9808134-26 |
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Equine Behaviour @ team @ |
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5547 |
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