Department Equine Economics, Faculty Agriculture, Economics and Management, Nuertingen-Geislingen University, Neckarsteige 6-10, 72622, Nürtingen, Germany.
Department of Agricultural Economics and Rural Development, Faculty of Agricultural Sciences, Georg-August-University Goettingen, Platz der Goettinger Sieben 5, 37073, Goettingen, Germany.
Anim Cogn. 2020 Jan;23(1):1-9. doi: 10.1007/s10071-019-01310-0. Epub 2019 Sep 17.
A previous study demonstrated that horses can learn socially from observing humans, but could not draw any conclusions about the social learning mechanisms. Here we develop this by showing horses four different human action sequences as demonstrations of how to press a button to open a feed box. We tested 68 horses aged between 3 and 12 years. 63 horses passed the habituation phase and were assigned either to the group Hand Demo (N = 13) for which a kneeling person used a hand to press the button, Head Demo (N = 13) for which a kneeling person used the head, Mixed Demo (N = 12) for which a squatting person used both head and hand, Foot Demo (N = 12) in which a standing person used a foot, or No Demo (N = 13) in which horses did not receive a demonstration. 44 horses reached the learning criterion of opening the feeder twenty times consecutively, 40 of these were 75% of the Demo group horses and four horses were 31% of the No Demo group horses. Horses not reaching the learning criterion approached the human experimenters more often than those who did. Significantly more horses used their head to press the button no matter which demonstration they received. However, in the Foot Demo group four horses consistently preferred to use a hoof and two switched between hoof and head use. After the Mixed Demo the horses' actions were more diverse. The results indicate that only a few horses copy behaviours when learning socially from humans. A few may learn through observational conditioning, as some appeared to adapt to demonstrated actions in the course of reaching the learning criterion. Most horses learn socially through enhancement, using humans to learn where, and which aspect of a mechanism has to be manipulated, and by applying individual trial and error learning to reach their goal.
先前的研究表明，马可以通过观察人类进行社会学习，但无法得出任何关于社会学习机制的结论。在这里，我们通过展示马四种不同的人类动作序列来证明如何按下按钮打开饲料盒，从而进一步研究了这个问题。我们测试了 68 匹年龄在 3 到 12 岁之间的马。63 匹马通过了适应阶段，并被分配到以下组中：HandDemo（N=13），演示者是一个跪着的人，用手按下按钮；HeadDemo（N=13），演示者是一个跪着的人，用头按下按钮；MixedDemo（N=12），演示者是一个蹲着的人，同时使用头和手按下按钮；FootDemo（N=12），演示者是一个站着的人，用脚按下按钮；或者 NoDemo（N=13），即马没有接受演示。44 匹马达到了连续打开饲料器 20 次的学习标准，其中 40 匹马是演示组马的 75%，4 匹马是 NoDemo 组马的 31%。未达到学习标准的马比达到学习标准的马更频繁地接近人类实验者。无论它们接受了哪种演示，更多的马都会用头去按按钮。然而，在 FootDemo 组中，有四匹马始终更倾向于使用蹄子，而另外两匹马则在蹄子和头之间切换使用。在进行了混合演示后，马的行为更加多样化。结果表明，只有少数马在从人类那里进行社会学习时会模仿行为。一些马可能通过观察性条件作用学习，因为有些马在达到学习标准的过程中似乎适应了演示的动作。大多数马通过增强来进行社会学习，利用人类来学习在哪里以及机制的哪个方面需要操作，并通过应用个体试错学习来达到目标。
