Abstract: Developments in the scientific and philosophical study of animal cognition and mentality are of great importance to animal scientists who face continued public scrutiny of the treatment of animals in research and agriculture. Because beliefs about animal minds, animal cognition, and animal consciousness underlie many people's views about the ethical treatment of nonhuman animals, it has become increasingly difficult for animal scientists to avoid these issues. Animal scientists may learn from ethologists who study animal cognition and mentality from an evolutionary and comparative perspective and who are at the forefront of the development of naturalistic and laboratory techniques of observation and experimentation that are capable of revealing the cognitive and mental properties of nonhuman animals. Despite growing acceptance of the ethological study of animal cognition, there are critics who dispute the scientific validity of the field, especially when the topic is animal consciousness. Here, a proper understanding of developments in the philosophy of mind and the philosophy of science can help to place cognitive studies on a firm methodological and philosophical foundation. Ultimately, this is an interdisciplinary task, involving scientists and philosophers. Animal scientists are well-positioned to contribute to the study of animal cognition because they typically have access to a large pool of potential research subjects whose habitats are more controlled than in most field studies while being more natural than most laboratory psychology experiments. Despite some formidable questions remaining for analysis, the prospects for progress in assessing animal cognition are bright.

Abstract: A literature review of the equine learning research conducted in the past 20 yr revealed that the purpose of most of the studies was to determine whether horses respond to learning situations in the same way that other animals do. The results indicated that horses can discriminate many different types of stimuli, and they learn through stimulus-response- reinforcement chains. Most equine learning studies have utilized learning tasks depending on primary positive reinforcement to get the horses to work the tests. Yet, the majority of horse trainers use negative reinforcement more often than primary positive reinforcement in their training procedures. Therefore, past research often did not have a direct application to training methods commonly utilized in the horse industry. Research also demonstrated that 1) early experiences of horses can affect learning ability later, 2) equine memory is efficient and 3) concentrating learning mals in long training sessions decreases equine learning efficiency. Many factors that might affect equine learning ability and be applicable to training practices in the horse industry have not been thoroughly investigated; for example, interactions between nutrition and learning and between exercise and learning, the use of negative and secondary reinforcements in horse training, and the horse's ability to make few initial errors compared to its ability to eliminate errors as training progresses all require investigation in future equine learning studies. N1 -

Abstract: Nine yearling horses, stabled in individual stalls, were used in a trial to determine the diurnal pattern of wood chewing and the effects of exercise on this behavior. The trial was a Latin square design conducted over three 2-wk periods during which each horse was exposed to each of the three following treatments: 1) no exercise (NE), 2) exercise after the morning feeding (AM), and 3) exercise in the afternoon (PM). Horses were fed a complete pelleted feed in the morning and both pelleted feed and long-stemmed hay in the afternoon. Exercise consisted of 45 min on a mechanical walker followed by 45 min in a paddock with bare soil. Each stall was equipped with two untreated spruce boards during each period for wood chewing. Wood chewing was evaluated by videotaping each horse for 22 h during each period, determining the weight and volume of the boards before and after each period, and by visual appraisal of the boards. Intake of trace mineralized salt was also measured. Wood chewing occurred primarily between 2200 and 1200. All measures of wood chewing were correlated when totals for the entire 6 wk were analyzed. When analysis was performed on 2-wk values, videotape results were not correlated with volume or weight loss of boards. Horses chewed more when on the NE treatment (511 s/d) than when on AM or PM (57 and 136 s/d, respectively; P less than .05). Salt intake tended to be greater for NE than for the other treatments (P less than .10).(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

Abstract: The discrimination learning ability of Quarter Horses and Thoroughbreds was compared by means of visual cues in a three-choice test with food as a reward. Quarter Horses learned significantly faster than Thoroughbreds, and learning progressed more rapidly for both breeds in a second discrimination task. Significant negative correlations were observed between age and rate of learning. Quarter Horses tended to be less reactive than Thoroughbreds, but individual emotional reactivity ratings and learning scores were not correlated. No correlation was found between social dominance and learning scores. Learning studies with horses may provide a better understanding of the behavioral traits that influence trainability in this species.

Abstract: Some of the techniques that may be used to study social, reproductive, and ingestive behavior in horses are described in this paper. One of the aspects of equine social behavior is the dominance hierarchy or patterns of agonistic behavior. Paired or group feeding from a single food source may be used to determine dominance hierarchies quickly. Focal animal studies of undisturbed groups of horses may also be used; this method takes longer, but may reveal affiliative as well as agonistic relationships among the horses. Reproductive behavior includes flehmen, the functional significance of which can be determined using combinations of field observations of harem groups and laboratory studies of stallions exposed to female urine or feces in the absence of the donor mare. Ingestive behavior may include food, salt, or water intake. Direct and indirect measurements of intake can be made and used to answer questions regarding the ability of horses to control their energy intake when the diet is diluted, the effect of feral equids on the ecology of an area, and the abilities of horses to compensate for dehydration and hypovolemia.