Horses form cross-modal representations of adults and children

Jardat, Plotine; Ringhofer, Monamie; Yamamoto, Shinya; Gouyet, Chloé; Degrande, Rachel; Parias, Céline; Reigner, Fabrice; Calandreau, Ludovic; Lansade, Léa

doi:10.1007/s10071-022-01667-9

Cited by 6 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 47 publications

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“…The signi cant number of horses whose rst look toward the incongruent video was longer than their rst look toward the congruent video is consistent with the ndings of previous cross-modal experiments in horses (Nakamura et al 2018;Trösch et al 2019a;Jardat et al 2023). In other words, horses' rst look toward the videos was preferentially directed toward the video that did not correspond to the sound heard.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 89%

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Horses discriminate between human facial and vocal expressions of sadness and joy

et al. 2023

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Communication of emotions plays a key role in intraspeci c social interactions and likely in interspeci c interactions. Several studies have shown that animals perceive human joy and anger, but few studies have examined other human emotions, such as sadness. In this study, we conducted a cross-modal experiment, in which we showed 28 horses two simultaneous soundless videos featuring a sad and a joyful face, which were accompanied by either a sad or joyful voice. The number of horses who initially looked more at the video that was incongruent with the voice was higher than chance, suggesting that horses could form cross-modal representations of human joy and sadness. Moreover, horses were more attentive to the videos of joy and looked at them for longer, more frequently, and more rapidly than the videos of sadness. Their heart rates tended to increase when they heard joy and to decrease when they heard sadness. These results show that horses are able to discriminate facial and vocal expressions of joy and sadness and may form cross-modal representations of these emotions; they also are more attracted to joyful faces than to sad faces and seem to be more aroused by a joyful voice than a sad voice. Further studies are needed to better understand how horses perceive the range of human emotions, and we propose that future experiments include neutral stimuli as well as emotions with different arousal levels but a same valence.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 89%

“…The experimental setup was similar to that used to investigate cross-modal recognition of human anger and joy by horses as well as cross-modal recognition of adults and children (Trösch et al 2019a;Jardat et al 2023). A horse was placed in the middle of the stall and attached with two loose ropes.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Horses discriminate between human facial and vocal expressions of sadness and joy

et al. 2023

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“…African bush elephants (Loxodonta africana) use auditory cues to differentiate men, who pose a significant hunting threat, from boys, who do not and show more defensive bunching and investigative sniffing after playbacks of men's voices [59]. Domestic horses (Equus ferus caballus) use both auditory and visual cues to differentiate adults from children and show increased heart rates during children's vocalizations [60]. However, Koda and Shimoju [33] found that dogs behaved in a similar way toward unfamiliar women (from 20 to 40 years old) and unfamiliar girls (from 8 to 13 years old); they did not include a comparison of unfamiliar men and unfamiliar boys in their study.…”

Section: Limitationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Influence of Walker Sex and Familiarity on Scent-Marking Behavior of Juvenile and Mature Shelter Dogs

McGuire,

Kok,

Garland

et al. 2023

Animals

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Many mammals living on farms, in zoos, and in research settings behave differently with familiar people versus strangers, and the sex of the person can also influence interactions. We conducted two studies to examine the influence of a dog’s sex and maturity and a walker’s sex and familiarity on the behavior of shelter dogs during leash walks. In Study 1 with unfamiliar walkers (n = 113 dogs), we found that mature males urinated at higher rates when walked by a woman than by a man, whereas mature females urinated at similar rates. Mature males and mature females were less likely to defecate when walked by a man than by a woman. Juvenile dogs were generally less affected than mature dogs by a walker’s sex, suggesting a role for experience in mature dogs’ responses. In Study 2, when dogs were walked more than once by a man and a woman (n = 81 dogs), we found patterns of urination and defecation like those in Study 1. Importantly, the effects of the dog’s sex and maturity and the walker’s sex on dogs’ patterns of urination and defecation did not change over walks as dogs became familiar with walkers. Dogs in shelters are directly exposed to so many people that they may be less responsive to differing degrees of familiarity than mammals living in other settings. Our data indicate that dog maturity and sex and human sex influence dog–human interactions.

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“…See the recent review by Brubaker and Udell [ 22 ]. For example, there have been studies of animal models of depression [ 23 ], emotion [ 24 ], sensory sensitivity and temperament [ 25 ], cross-modal representation [ 26 , 27 ], auditory and other sensory processing [ 28 ], exploratory behavior [ 29 ], and social cognition [ 30 , 31 , 32 , 33 ]. Focusing on visual cognition, the topics cover face recognition [ 34 ], long-term memory [ 35 ], visual laterality and possible hemispheric asymmetry [ 36 , 37 ], and interocular transfer [ 38 ].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Garrano Horses Perceive Letters of the Alphabet on a Touchscreen System: A Pilot Study

Schubert¹,

Ryckewaert

Pereira

et al. 2022

Animals

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This study aimed to use a computer-controlled touchscreen system to examine visual discrimination in Garrano horses (Equus caballus), an endangered breed of pony belonging to the Iberian horse family. This pilot study focused on the perceptual similarity among letters of the alphabet. We tested five horses in a one-male unit (OMU) living permanently in a semi-free enclosure near their natural habitat in Serra d’Arga, northern Portugal. Horses were trained to nose-touch black circles that appeared on the screen. Then, they were tested for discrimination of five letters of the Latin alphabet in Arial font, namely O, B, V, Z, and X, using a two-choice discrimination task. The confusion matrix of letter pairs was used to show the MDS and to identify the relative contribution of shape features. The results showed perceptual similarities among letters with curvatures pitted against those of straight lines. Shape perception in horses seems to share features with that of humans and other animals living in different niches. The touchscreen system proved to be an objective and innovative way of studying cognition in the socially organized group of horses. The automated system can promote the welfare of captive horses by maximizing their freedom of movement.

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Horses form cross-modal representations of adults and children

Cited by 6 publications

References 47 publications

Horses discriminate between human facial and vocal expressions of sadness and joy

Horses discriminate between human facial and vocal expressions of sadness and joy

Influence of Walker Sex and Familiarity on Scent-Marking Behavior of Juvenile and Mature Shelter Dogs

Garrano Horses Perceive Letters of the Alphabet on a Touchscreen System: A Pilot Study

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