Dogs are being celebrated all over the place these days, because they and their brains can do something smart, and the Cognitive Science of dogs continues to be popular.
As a cat lover, I have to add that cats are also showing their shrewdness for science.
Now, some cognitive scientists are asking about another relatively neglected domestic animal partner, the horse.
Japanese scientist Momo Linhof and Yamoto Shinya of Kobe University published the results of the first study online in the journal Animal Cognition, which aims to investigate how horses respond to humans.
The results were impressive.
Linhov and Yamamoto designed a study that tested eight pure stallion horses on the paddock at the Kobe University Equestrian Club.
When a research assistant put carrots into a food bucket, the horse looked.
This bucket is not available to horses, and can only be obtained by human guards.
Under an experimental condition, the human administrator witnessed the entry of food into the barrel (Knowledge status).
In the second case, the administrator did not watch when the carrot was put into the bucket (
Status not informed).
In both cases, the response of the horse was recorded and compared.
Compared to the informed guards, the horses used more visual and tactile signals without knowing.
Horses increase the number of times they watch, touch and/or gently push ignorant guards (
By contrast, in knowing the guards)
Make them realize where the food is hidden
The author acknowledges the following points
More research is needed.
However, this is an important result because it points not only to advanced cognition, but also to flexible cognition, and horses adjust their communication behavior according to the state of human knowledge.
"This study, for the first time, suggests that the ability of horses to understand the state of knowledge of others in social communication with humans has a certain cognitive basis," writes Ringhofer and Yamamoto . ". Some non-
This is the way human lingchang animals do it, but, of course, horses are our distant relatives in evolution compared to chimpanzees.
What about dogs? How do they react?
Ringhofer and Yamomoto wrote that in similar experiments conducted by other researchers, dogs did not do the same as horses --
They don't look, touch, or push the guards.
Instead, dogs gaze alternately between the uninformed human experimenter and the location of the hidden food.
In other words, dogs also direct human attention --
It's just different ways.
Perhaps, this is consistent with their different evolutionary histories in grazing, hunting, serving and saving animals.
Every species has its own way.
Adjusted skills to communicate effectively with humans.
The author of "horse: The Epic History of Our Noble Partner", Science Reporter and equestrian athlete Wendy Williams told me by email: "This break --
It has been a long time since I learned.
Williams noted that social signals are important in the Maqun: lead researcher Linhof said by email that not all horses responded in the same way during the experiment.
Animals have different behavioral tendencies and personalities, which are interesting and predictable.
"Most horses use visual and tactile signals to request [
Attention]caretakers.
However, it seems that the two horses used additional behavior.
They stood near the keeper and put their faces in front of the keeper (
Close to the guard's face).
Then the two of them finally hit the caregiver's face with their face, "said Ringhofer.
Ringhofer can't determine if this face is
The batting is accidental or purposeful for the horse and therefore is not included in her analysis.
But she does want to know if the two horses will come up with a very amazing social signal!
Cross-species intelligence directly compares poorly, as there is no single standard for the meaning of "smart" for different evolved animals.
Then it doesn't make much sense to ask whether horses and dogs are equally smart.
The bottom line here is the horse itself.
This new study, along with other recent studies, shows that horses can communicate with humans using symbols, which tells us that horses think carefully about what is happening around them. Barbara J.
Kim is an anthropology professor at William and Mary's College.
She often writes about the cognitive, emotional and welfare of animals, as well as articles on Biological Anthropology, Human evolution and gender issues.
Barbara recently published a book about animals entitled "How Animals are sad", and her upcoming book "personality on the plate: the life and thoughts of the animals we eat" will be in the third place.