Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Deutscher Platz 6, 04103, Leipzig, Germany.
Anim Cogn. 2013 Mar;16(2):273-85. doi: 10.1007/s10071-012-0571-1. Epub 2012 Oct 23.
Cooperative hunting is a cognitively challenging activity since individuals have to coordinate movements with a partner and at the same time react to the prey. Domestic dogs evolved from wolves, who engage in cooperative hunting regularly, but it is not clear whether dogs have kept their cooperative hunting skills. We presented pairs of dogs with a reward behind a fence with two openings in it. A sliding door operated by the experimenter could block one opening but not both simultaneously. The dogs needed to coordinate their actions, so that each was in front of a different opening, if one of them was to cross through and get food. All 24 dog pairs solved the problem. In study 1, we demonstrated that dogs understood how the apparatus worked. In study 2, we found that, although the performance of the pairs did not depend on the divisibility of the reward, pairs were quicker at coordinating their actions when both anticipated rewards. However, the dogs did not monitor one another, suggesting that their solutions were achieved by each individual attempting to maximize for itself.
合作狩猎是一项具有挑战性的认知活动，因为个体必须与同伴协调动作，同时对猎物做出反应。家犬是由经常进行合作狩猎的狼进化而来的，但目前还不清楚狗是否保留了它们的合作狩猎技能。我们给成对的狗提供了一个奖励，奖励被放在一个有两个开口的围栏后面。实验员操作的一扇滑动门可以挡住一个开口，但不能同时挡住两个开口。如果其中一只狗要穿过并获得食物，那么它们需要协调行动，让每只狗都站在不同的开口前。24 对狗都成功解决了这个问题。在研究 1 中，我们证明了狗理解了设备的工作原理。在研究 2 中，我们发现，尽管狗对奖励的分配并不依赖于奖励的可分割性，但当双方都预期到奖励时，它们协调行动的速度会更快。然而，狗并没有互相监视，这表明它们的解决方案是由每只狗试图最大化自身利益来实现的。
