The Way to a Man's Heart Is through His Stomach: What about Horses?

Sankey, Carol; Henry, Séverine; Górecka-Bruzda, Aleksandra; Richard‐Yris, Marie‐Annick; Hausberger, Martine

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0015446

Cited by 27 publications

(39 citation statements)

References 29 publications

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“…These results confirm those obtained in terms of learning performance on these same horses by Sankey et al (2010c): FR horses were the only ones to showed an increase of performance over sessions. Grooming reward was associated with more inattentive visual responses (i.e., head orientation towards the environment) and no decrease of “agitated” behavior (i.e., moving forward or backward).…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 92%

Visual attention, an indicator of human-animal relationships? A study of domestic horses (Equus caballus)

et al. 2014

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As visual attention is an intrinsic part of social relationships, and because relationships are built on a succession of interactions, their establishment involves learning and attention. The emotional, rewarding or punishing, content can modulate selective attention. In horses, the use of positive/negative reinforcement during training determines short and long-term human-horse relationships. In a recent study in horses, where either food or withers' grooming were used as a reward, it appeared that only the food-rewarded horses learned the task and show better relationship with humans. In the present study, we hypothesized that this differential effect of grooming/food rewards on learning performances could be due to attentional processes. Monitoring, gazes and behaviors directed towards the trainer revealed that the use of a food reward (FR) as positive reinforcement increased horses' selective attention towards their trainer. Conversely, horses trained with grooming reward (GR) expressed more inattentive responses and did not show a decrease of “agitated” behavior. However, individual plotting of attention vs. rate of learning performances revealed a complex pattern. Thus, while all FR horses showed a “window” of attention related to faster learning performances, GR horses' pattern followed an almost normal curve where the extreme animals (i.e., highest and lowest attention) had the slowest learning performances. On the other hand, learning was influenced by attention: at the end of training, the more attentive horses had also better learning performances. This study, based on horses, contributes to the general debate on the place of attentional processes at the interface of emotion and cognition and opens new lines of thought about individual sensitivities (only individuals can tell what an appropriate reward is), attentional processes and learning.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 92%

Visual attention, an indicator of human-animal relationships? A study of domestic horses (Equus caballus)

et al. 2014

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“…The existence of reciprocal bonds between humans and pets has been firmly established (Prato-Previde et al, 2006; Parthasarathy & Crowell-Davis, 2006; Nagasawa et al, 2009a,b), but the role of tactile stimulation is unclear. In fact, a study in horses showed that grooming was not sufficient for the establishment of a bond, while feeding was (Sankey et al, 2010). Perhaps tactile stimulation in horses is not rewarding, whereas eating certainly is.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Behavioral characteristics of pair bonding in the black tufted-ear marmoset (Callithrix penicillata)

Ågmo¹,

Smith²,

Birnie³

et al. 2012

Behav

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The present study describes how the development of a pair bond modifies social, sexual and aggressive behavior. Five heterosexual pairs of marmosets, previously unknown to each other, were formed at the beginning of the study. At the onset of pairing, social, sexual, exploratory and aggressive behaviors were recorded for 40 min. The animals were then observed for 20 min, both in the morning and afternoon for 21 days. The frequency and/or duration of behaviors recorded on Day 1 were compared to those recorded at later observations. The behavior displayed shortly after pairing should be completely unaffected by the pair bond, while such a bond should be present at later observations. Thus, it was possible to determine how the behavior between the pair was modified by the development of a pair bond. Social behaviors increased from Day 1 to Days 2–6 and all subsequent days observed. Conversely, other behaviors, such as open mouth displays (usually considered to be an invitation to sexual activity), had a high frequency during the early part of cohabitation but declined towards the end. Consequently, pair bonding manifests itself in an increased intensity of social behaviors. It is suggested that the intrinsically rewarding properties of grooming and perhaps other social behaviors turn the pair mate into a positive incentive, activating approach and further interactions when possible. Thus, the pair bond may be a motivational state activated by the conditioned incentive properties of the partner. This notion can explain all forms of pair bonds, including those occurring between individuals of the same sex and in promiscuous species.

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“…This was only found when the horses were subject to complex training systems that required a horse to learn and process multiple pieces of information at once, and seemed to not be true for simple avoidance or association tasks (Kusunose and Yamanobe, 2002). Horses rehabilitated or trained using positive reinforcement (as opposed to negative reinforcement) techniques tend to have lower training times, higher motivation to participate in training, engage in more exploratory behaviour, appear to perceive training and humans (both familiar and unfamiliar) more positively, have increased memory, and display less problem behaviours during training sessions (McCall, 2007;Warren-Smith and McGreevy, 2007;Innes and McBride, 2008;Sankey et al, 2010a;Sankey et al, 2010b;Slater and Dymond, 2011). The type of reinforcement used and the training environment appear to play a role in a horse's perception of humans (Sankey et al, 2010c;Baragli et al, 2011) This is consistent with findings in other animals (Desmond and Laule, 1994;Hiby et al, 2004;Laule and Whittaker, 2007).…”

Section: The Relationship Between Horse Cognition Training and Welfarementioning

confidence: 99%

“…When combined with the evidence that positive reinforcement appears to be beneficial for training and the human-horse relationship (Sankey et al, 2010a), this suggests that some of the popular cultural beliefs surrounding horse trainability may be incorrect and in need of further investigation.…”

Section: The Relationship Between Horse Cognition Training and Welfarementioning

confidence: 99%

Cognition and learning in horses (Equus caballus): What we know and why we should ask more

Brubaker

Udell

2016

Behavioural Processes

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The Way to a Man's Heart Is through His Stomach: What about Horses?

Cited by 27 publications

References 29 publications

Visual attention, an indicator of human-animal relationships? A study of domestic horses (Equus caballus)

Visual attention, an indicator of human-animal relationships? A study of domestic horses (Equus caballus)

Behavioral characteristics of pair bonding in the black tufted-ear marmoset (Callithrix penicillata)

Cognition and learning in horses (Equus caballus): What we know and why we should ask more

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