Now you see me, now you don't: evidence that chimpanzees understand the role of the eyes in attention

Hostetter, Autumn B.; Russell, Jamie L.; Freeman, Hani D.; Hopkins, William D.

doi:10.1007/s10071-006-0031-x

Cited by 93 publications

(91 citation statements)

References 25 publications

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“…Recent studies revealed large differences between species in recognising the focus of human attention, with dogs (Canis lupus familiaris) out-performing other species, including chimpanzees Hare et al 2002). The partially contradictory studies by Hostetter et al 2007, Gácsi et al 2005, Theall and Povinelli 1999, and Virányi et al 2004 provoked lively discussion over whether the studies should be assessed on a behavioural or a cognitive representational level. While behavioural explanations (Povinelli and Vonk 2003) emphasise the animal's ability to learn to use the focus of attention as a cue, cognitive explanations highlight the animal's understanding of the signaller's intentions .…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Horses (Equus caballus) use human local enhancement cues and adjust to human attention

et al. 2010

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This study evaluates the horse (Equus caballus) use of human local enhancement cues and reaction to human attention when making feeding decisions. The superior performance of dogs in observing human states of attention suggests this ability evolved with domestication. However, some species show an improved ability to read human cues through socialization and training. We observed 60 horses approach a bucket with feed in a three-way object choice task when confronted with a) an unfamiliar or b) a familiar person in 4 different situations: 1) squatting behind the bucket, facing the horse (2) standing behind the bucket, facing the horse (3) standing behind the bucket in a back-turned position, gazing away from the horse and (4) standing a few meters from the bucket in a distant, back-turned position, again gazing away from the horse. Additionally, postures 1 and 2 were tested both with the person looking permanently at the horse, and with the person alternating their gaze between the horse and the bucket. When the person remained behind the correct bucket it was chosen significantly above chance. However, when the test person was turned and distant from the buckets, the horses' performance deteriorated. In the turned person situations the horses approached a familiar person and walked towards their focus of attention significantly more often than with an unfamiliar person. Additionally, in the squatting and standing person situations, some horses approached the person before approaching the correct bucket. This happened more with a familiar person. We therefore conclude that horses can use humans as a local enhancement cue independently of their body posture or gaze consistency when the persons remain close to the food source, and that horses seem to orientate on the attention of familiar more than of unfamiliar persons. We suggest that socialization and training improve the ability of horses to read human cues.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Horses (Equus caballus) use human local enhancement cues and adjust to human attention

et al. 2010

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“…This highlights the difficulty in elucidating cognitive mechanisms, particularly when experiments use flawed sampling procedures or have little control over subject variables, (e.g. Bulloch et al 2008;Hostetter et al 2007;Leavens et al 2008;Thomas et al 2008). There is little question that future cross-species studies are of tremendous importance in further delineating the evolution of human cognition.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Apes Communicate about Absent and Displaced Objects: Methodology Matters

Lyn¹,

Russell²,

Leavens³

et al. 2011

PsycEXTRA Dataset

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Displaced reference is the ability to refer to an item that has been moved (displaced) in space and/ or time, and has been called one of the true hallmarks of referential communication. Several studies suggest that nonhuman primates have this capability, but a recent experiment concluded that in a specific situation (absent entities) human infants display displaced reference but chimpanzees do not. Here we show that chimpanzees and bonobos of diverse rearing histories are capable of displaced reference to absent and displaced objects. It is likely that some of the conflicting findings from animal cognition studies are due to relatively minor methodological differences, but are compounded by interpretation errors. Comparative studies are of great importance in elucidating the evolution of human cognition, however, greater care must be taken with methodology and interpretation for these studies to accurately reflect species differences.

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“…We used a slightly modified version of the Hostetter et al (2007) test paradigm that previously yielded support for chimpanzees' understanding of human attention. A participant horse was tied loosely between two poles at the hoof wash place.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In particular, we tested whether they would understand the role of eyes as a cue to human attentional states, using the paradigm that successfully demonstrated chimpanzees' understanding of human attention (Hostetter et al, 2007), with slight modification. If horses are sensitive to subtle human attentional states, horses would discriminate the situation in which a human experimenter can see them from the situation in which she cannot and selectively produce more effective begging behaviors as a function of these different attentional states.…”

Section: Horses (Equus Caballus) Adaptively Change the Modality Of Thmentioning

confidence: 99%

HORSES (<i>EQUUS CABALLUS</i>) ADAPTIVELY CHANGE THE MODALITY OF THEIR BEGGING BEHAVIOR AS A FUNCTION OF HUMAN ATTENTIONAL STATES

Takimoto

Hori

Fujita

2016

PSYCHOLOGIA -An International Journal of Psychological Sciences

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We tested whether horses (Equus caballus) are sensitive to human attentional states and modify the modality of begging behaviors as a function of human attentional states in a naturalistic food-requesting situation. In Experiment 1, horses tended to produce more auditory or tactile begging behaviors when the human experimenter (E1)'s eyes were covered by her hand than when they were not covered. However, there was no difference in visual begging behaviors between conditions. In Experiment 2, horses produced significantly more auditory or tactile begging behaviors when E1's eyes were closed than when they were open. In contrast, horses produced significantly more visual begging behaviors when E1's eyes were open than when they were closed. These results suggest that horses understand the role of eyes as an indicator of human attentional states and show effective and flexible begging behaviors proactively as a function of human attentional states. ey oodss: K horses, human attentional states, begging behaviors

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Now you see me, now you don't: evidence that chimpanzees understand the role of the eyes in attention

Cited by 93 publications

References 25 publications

Horses (Equus caballus) use human local enhancement cues and adjust to human attention

Horses (Equus caballus) use human local enhancement cues and adjust to human attention

Apes Communicate about Absent and Displaced Objects: Methodology Matters

HORSES (<i>EQUUS CABALLUS</i>) ADAPTIVELY CHANGE THE MODALITY OF THEIR BEGGING BEHAVIOR AS A FUNCTION OF HUMAN ATTENTIONAL STATES

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