Goats follow human pointing gestures in an object choice task
Dogs (Canis lupus familiaris) are extremely adept in interpreting human-given cues, such as the pointing gesture. However, the underlying mechanisms on how domestic non-companion species use these cues are not well understood. We investigated the use of human-given pointing gestures by goats (Capra...
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crcenteros:10.31219/osf.io/uwd6x 2023-05-15T15:50:54+02:00 Goats follow human pointing gestures in an object choice task Nawroth, Christian Martin, Zoe McElligott, Alan G. 2020 http://dx.doi.org/10.31219/osf.io/uwd6x unknown Center for Open Science https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode CC-BY posted-content 2020 crcenteros https://doi.org/10.31219/osf.io/uwd6x 2022-12-20T10:09:46Z Dogs (Canis lupus familiaris) are extremely adept in interpreting human-given cues, such as the pointing gesture. However, the underlying mechanisms on how domestic non-companion species use these cues are not well understood. We investigated the use of human-given pointing gestures by goats (Capra hircus) in an object-choice task, where an experimenter surreptitiously hid food in one of two buckets. Subjects first had to pass a pre-test where the experimenter indicated the location of the food to the subject by a proximal pointing gesture. Subjects that succeeded in the use of this gesture were transferred to the actual test. In these subsequent test trials, the experimenter indicated the location of the food to the subject by using three different pointing gestures: proximal pointing from a middle position (distance between target and index finger: 30 cm), crossed pointing from the middle position (distance between target and index finger: 40 cm), asymmetric pointing from the position of the non-baited bucket (distance between target and index finger: 90 cm). Goats succeeded in the pointing gestures that presented an element of proximity (proximal and crossed) compared to when the experimenter was further away from the rewarded location (asymmetric). This indicates that goats can generalise their use of the human pointing gesture but might rely on stimulus/local enhancement rather than referential information. In addition, goats did not improve their responses over time, indicating that no learning took place. The results provide a greater understanding of human-animal interactions and social-cognitive abilities of livestock, which allows for the provision of enhanced management practices and welfare conditions. Other/Unknown Material Canis lupus COS Center for Open Science (via Crossref) |
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Dogs (Canis lupus familiaris) are extremely adept in interpreting human-given cues, such as the pointing gesture. However, the underlying mechanisms on how domestic non-companion species use these cues are not well understood. We investigated the use of human-given pointing gestures by goats (Capra hircus) in an object-choice task, where an experimenter surreptitiously hid food in one of two buckets. Subjects first had to pass a pre-test where the experimenter indicated the location of the food to the subject by a proximal pointing gesture. Subjects that succeeded in the use of this gesture were transferred to the actual test. In these subsequent test trials, the experimenter indicated the location of the food to the subject by using three different pointing gestures: proximal pointing from a middle position (distance between target and index finger: 30 cm), crossed pointing from the middle position (distance between target and index finger: 40 cm), asymmetric pointing from the position of the non-baited bucket (distance between target and index finger: 90 cm). Goats succeeded in the pointing gestures that presented an element of proximity (proximal and crossed) compared to when the experimenter was further away from the rewarded location (asymmetric). This indicates that goats can generalise their use of the human pointing gesture but might rely on stimulus/local enhancement rather than referential information. In addition, goats did not improve their responses over time, indicating that no learning took place. The results provide a greater understanding of human-animal interactions and social-cognitive abilities of livestock, which allows for the provision of enhanced management practices and welfare conditions. |
format |
Other/Unknown Material |
author |
Nawroth, Christian Martin, Zoe McElligott, Alan G. |
spellingShingle |
Nawroth, Christian Martin, Zoe McElligott, Alan G. Goats follow human pointing gestures in an object choice task |
author_facet |
Nawroth, Christian Martin, Zoe McElligott, Alan G. |
author_sort |
Nawroth, Christian |
title |
Goats follow human pointing gestures in an object choice task |
title_short |
Goats follow human pointing gestures in an object choice task |
title_full |
Goats follow human pointing gestures in an object choice task |
title_fullStr |
Goats follow human pointing gestures in an object choice task |
title_full_unstemmed |
Goats follow human pointing gestures in an object choice task |
title_sort |
goats follow human pointing gestures in an object choice task |
publisher |
Center for Open Science |
publishDate |
2020 |
url |
http://dx.doi.org/10.31219/osf.io/uwd6x |
genre |
Canis lupus |
genre_facet |
Canis lupus |
op_rights |
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode |
op_rightsnorm |
CC-BY |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.31219/osf.io/uwd6x |
_version_ |
1766385921064697856 |