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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Online Access: | https://pure.roehampton.ac.uk/portal/en/publications/98a29ddd-c61e-4096-baa5-79ce79885829 https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2020.00915 https://pure.roehampton.ac.uk/ws/files/3073911/fpsyg_11_00915.pdf |
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ftroehamptonuncr:oai:pure.atira.dk:publications/98a29ddd-c61e-4096-baa5-79ce79885829 2023-05-15T15:51:07+02:00 Goats Follow Human Pointing Gestures in an Object Choice Task Nawroth, Christian Martin, Zoe M McElligott, Alan G 2020-05-19 application/pdf https://pure.roehampton.ac.uk/portal/en/publications/98a29ddd-c61e-4096-baa5-79ce79885829 https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2020.00915 https://pure.roehampton.ac.uk/ws/files/3073911/fpsyg_11_00915.pdf eng eng info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess Nawroth , C , Martin , Z M & McElligott , A G 2020 , ' Goats Follow Human Pointing Gestures in an Object Choice Task ' , Frontiers in Psychology , vol. 11 , pp. 915 . https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2020.00915 article 2020 ftroehamptonuncr https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2020.00915 2022-02-16T17:54:28Z 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 generalize 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 farm animals, which allows for the provision of enhanced management practices and welfare conditions. © 2020, The Author(s). This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC-BY 4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. See ... Article in Journal/Newspaper Canis lupus University of Roehampton Research Explorer Frontiers in Psychology 11 |
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University of Roehampton Research Explorer |
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ftroehamptonuncr |
language |
English |
description |
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 generalize 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 farm animals, which allows for the provision of enhanced management practices and welfare conditions. © 2020, The Author(s). This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC-BY 4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. See ... |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Nawroth, Christian Martin, Zoe M McElligott, Alan G |
spellingShingle |
Nawroth, Christian Martin, Zoe M McElligott, Alan G Goats Follow Human Pointing Gestures in an Object Choice Task |
author_facet |
Nawroth, Christian Martin, Zoe M 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 |
publishDate |
2020 |
url |
https://pure.roehampton.ac.uk/portal/en/publications/98a29ddd-c61e-4096-baa5-79ce79885829 https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2020.00915 https://pure.roehampton.ac.uk/ws/files/3073911/fpsyg_11_00915.pdf |
genre |
Canis lupus |
genre_facet |
Canis lupus |
op_source |
Nawroth , C , Martin , Z M & McElligott , A G 2020 , ' Goats Follow Human Pointing Gestures in an Object Choice Task ' , Frontiers in Psychology , vol. 11 , pp. 915 . https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2020.00915 |
op_rights |
info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2020.00915 |
container_title |
Frontiers in Psychology |
container_volume |
11 |
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1766386171633467392 |