Domestication Lab, Konrad Lorenz Institute of Ethology, University of Veterinary Medicine, Vienna, Savoyenstraße 1a, A-1160, Vienna, Austria.
Comparative Cognition, Messerli Research Institute, University of Veterinary Medicine, Vienna, Medical University of Vienna, University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria.
Sci Rep. 2019 Nov 26;9(1):17591. doi: 10.1038/s41598-019-53632-1.
In comparison to non-human animals, humans are highly flexible in cooperative tasks, which may be a result of their ability to understand a partner's role in such interactions. Here, we tested if wolves and dogs could flexibly adjust their behaviour according to whether they needed a partner to solve a cooperative loose string-pulling paradigm. First, we presented animals with a delay condition where a human partner was released after the subject so that the animal had to delay pulling the string to enable coordinated pulling with the human partner. Subsequently, we investigated whether subjects would recruit a partner depending on whether they could operate the apparatus alone, or help from a partner was required. Both wolves and dogs successfully waited in the delay condition in 88% of the trials. Experimental subjects were also successful in recruiting a partner, which occurred significantly more often in the cooperation trials than in the solo pulling condition. No species differences were found in either experiment. These results suggest that both wolves and dogs have some understanding of whether a social partner is needed to accomplish a task, which enables behavioural coordination and cooperation.
与非人类动物相比，人类在合作任务中具有高度的灵活性，这可能是因为他们能够理解合作伙伴在这些互动中的角色。在这里，我们测试了狼和狗是否能够根据是否需要合作伙伴来解决合作松散的拉绳范式，灵活地调整自己的行为。首先，我们向动物呈现了一种延迟条件，即人类伙伴在动物之后被释放，因此动物必须延迟拉绳，以便与人类伙伴进行协调拉绳。随后，我们调查了动物是否会根据它们是否能够独自操作设备，或者是否需要来自合作伙伴的帮助，来决定是否招募一个合作伙伴。狼和狗在 88%的试验中都成功地等待了延迟条件。实验对象也成功地招募了一个合作伙伴，这在合作试验中比在单独拉绳的情况下发生的频率明显更高。在这两个实验中都没有发现物种差异。这些结果表明，狼和狗都有一些理解是否需要社交伙伴来完成任务的能力，这使得它们能够进行行为协调和合作。
