Inter-species interaction between humans and horses

Abstract

Animals, including humans, communicate by transmitting various kinds of information to each other. Although individuals of the same animal species share a channel of communication, it is sometimes difficult to explore the nature of communication between different animal species. In this study, the transmission of information between humans and horses was examined regarding the three-term contingency in behavior analysis. We introduced studies in which signals from humans are discriminative stimuli for horses, and in which signals from humans are reinforcing stimuli for horses. Possibility and difficulty of information transmission between humans and horses were discussed.