Color discrimination in horses

Smith, S. L.; Goldman, Larry S.

doi:10.1016/s0168-1591(98)00206-8

Cited by 41 publications

(29 citation statements)

References 8 publications

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“…One notable difference between the early study by Grzimek (1952) and the more recent investigations (Macuda & Timney, 1999;Pick et al, 1994;Smith & Goldman, 1999) is the height at which the stimuli were presented. Successful discrimination of greens was demonstrated when the stimuli were presented at ground level both in horses (Grzimek, 1952) and deer (Birgersson et al, 2001) but not when they were presented to horses at nose height (Macuda & Timney, 1999;Pick et al, 1994).…”

mentioning

confidence: 95%

Cone excitation ratios correlate with color discrimination performance in the horse (Equus caballus).

Hall

Cassaday

Vincent

et al. 2006

Journal of Comparative Psychology

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Six horses (Equus caballus) were trained to discriminate color from grays in a counterbalanced sequence in which lightness cues were irrelevant. Subsequently, the pretrained colors were presented in a different sequence. Two sets of novel colors paired with novel grays were also tested. Performance was just as good in these transfer tests. Once the horse had learned to select the chromatic from the achromatic stimulus, regardless of the specific color, they were immediately able to apply this rule to novel stimuli. In terms of the underlying visual mechanisms, the present study showed for the first time that the spectral sensitivity of horse cone photopigments, measured as cone excitation ratios, was correlated with color discrimination performance, measured as accuracy, repeated errors, and latency of approach.

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mentioning

confidence: 95%

Cone excitation ratios correlate with color discrimination performance in the horse (Equus caballus).

Hall

Cassaday

Vincent

et al. 2006

Journal of Comparative Psychology

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show abstract

“…Grzimek (1952) found that horses were able to select a green stimulus from various shades of grey, the two more recent studies concluded that they could not. Similarly, with a presentation height of 1.22m from the ground, Smith and Goldman (1999) found individual differences in the colour discrimination ability of horses. Three horses successfully discriminated green and yellow from grey, one horse performed at chance levels for these colours.…”

Section: P O S T -P R I N Tmentioning

confidence: 82%

“…In a more recent study using a visual discrimination task to assess intelligence and learning in horses the reward was presented in the same location as the stimulus, but both at nose height (Sappington and Goldman, 1994). The results of an early study into equine colour vision where stimuli were presented at ground level (Grzimek, 1952) differ from findings of subsequent studies involving higher level stimulus presentations (Pick et al, 1994;Macuda and Timney, 1999;Smith and Goldman, 1999). Although there were inevitably other differences in methodology between these studies in addition to that of stimulus position, there is a need for further controlled investigation into the role of stimulus height in optimizing horse performance in visual tasks.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 96%

The effect of stimulus height on visual discrimination in horses1

Hall

Cassaday

Derrington

2003

Journal of Animal Science

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This study investigated the effect of stimulus height on the ability of horses to learn a simple visual discrimination task. Eight horses were trained to perform a two-choice black/white discrimination with stimuli presented at one of two heights: at ground level or at a height of 70cm from the ground. The height at which the stimuli were presented was alternated from one session to the next. All trials within a single session were presented at the same height. The criterion for learning was four consecutive sessions of 70% correct responses. Performance was found to be significantly better when stimuli were presented at ground level with respect to number of trials taken to reach the criterion, percentage of correct first choices and repeated errors made. Thus training horses to carry out tasks of visual discrimination could be enhanced by placing the stimuli on the ground. In addition, the results of the present study suggest that the visual appearance of ground surfaces is an important factor in both horse management and training.

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“…So I like getting used to a rider. Author's Note: How horses see color is well researched (Pick et al, 1994;Smith and Goldman, 1999;Carroll et al, 2001;Hanggi et al, 2007;Ahmadinejad et al, 2008;Roth et al, 2008;Jacobs 2010). Horses have two types of cones in their retinas, so have more limited color perception than humans and respond to blue and green, but not red.…”

Section: Communicator's Notementioning

confidence: 99%

A Mixed Methods Study of Telepathic Interspecies Communication with Therapeutic Riding Horses and Their Recovering Wounded Veteran Partners

Erickson¹,

Fisher²,

Woelk³

et al. 2016

Neuroquantology

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Telepathic parapsychology research is a subject of much debate. This small pilot study explored the proposition that telepathic communication between humans and therapy equines may be possible with a human utilizing contemplative/meditative techniques to shift consciousness. The human participants were 7 military veterans in retired or inactive status diagnosed with combat-related posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Each veteran was assigned to one therapy horse. The 12 equine participants all had the same guardians. The veterans signed an online consent to participate and submitted questions for their horses on the consent form. Both veterans and guardians were blind as to which of 2 telepathic animal communicators would be randomly assigned to the session by the principal researcher. Both animal communicators were physically located in another town from the horses when the sessions were conducted. The answers to the veteran's questions, allegedly received telepathically from the horses, were documented and emailed to the principal researcher. The summary document from each session was shared with the veteran for their horse by the guardians, and all summaries were shared with the guardians. During an in-person or telephone interview with the principal researcher, the veterans offered qualitative comments and used Likert scales to rate the usefulness of the information received from 1 (not at all useful) to 6 (extremely useful). The average overall usefulness rating as judged by the veterans was 4.9. The guardians also submitted Likert ratings and qualitative comments on the usefulness of the information received; the guardian ratings average was 5.75. These findings contribute to the body of equine therapy studies as well as the wealth of literature that supports the human-animal bond. Further research is needed to explore additional nuances of this category of consciousness and healing research.

show abstract

Color discrimination in horses

Cited by 41 publications

References 8 publications

Cone excitation ratios correlate with color discrimination performance in the horse (Equus caballus).

Cone excitation ratios correlate with color discrimination performance in the horse (Equus caballus).

The effect of stimulus height on visual discrimination in horses1

A Mixed Methods Study of Telepathic Interspecies Communication with Therapeutic Riding Horses and Their Recovering Wounded Veteran Partners

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