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Schuetz, Aurelia ; Farmer, Kate ; Krueger, Konstanze

Social learning across species - horses (Equus caballus) learn from humans by observation

Schuetz, Aurelia, Farmer, Kate and Krueger, Konstanze (2016) Social learning across species - horses (Equus caballus) learn from humans by observation. Animal Cognition 20 (3), pp. 567-573.

Date of publication of this fulltext: 20 Apr 2017 07:27
Article
DOI to cite this document: 10.5283/epub.35564


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 ...

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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Details

Item typeArticle
Journal or Publication TitleAnimal Cognition
Publisher:SPRINGER HEIDELBERG
Place of Publication:HEIDELBERG
Volume:20
Number of Issue or Book Chapter:3
Page Range:pp. 567-573
DateNovember 2016
InstitutionsBiology, Preclinical Medicine > Institut für Zoologie
Identification Number
ValueType
10.1007/s10071-016-1060-8DOI
27866286PubMed ID
KeywordsDOG CANIS-FAMILIARIS; HUMAN DEMONSTRATOR; RANK; ENHANCEMENT; PERFORMANCE; ATTENTION; BEHAVIOR; TASK; Social enhancement; Equus caballus; Human demonstrator; Interspecies-specific learning; Social learning
Dewey Decimal Classification500 Science > 590 Zoological sciences
StatusPublished
RefereedYes, this version has been refereed
Created at the University of RegensburgYes
URN of the UB Regensburgurn:nbn:de:bvb:355-epub-355644
Item ID35564

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