University of Liège, Liège, Belgium.
Physiologie de la Reproduction et des Comportements, CNRS, IFCE, INRAE, Université de Tours, PRC, 37380, Nouzilly, France.
Anim Cogn. 2022 Dec;25(6):1631-1644. doi: 10.1007/s10071-022-01656-y. Epub 2022 Aug 3.
Despite the domestication of sheep and goats by humans for several millennia, we still lack comparative data on their cognitive capacity. Comparing the cognitive skills of farm animals can help understand the evolution of cognition. In this study, we compared the performances of sheep and goats in inference by exclusion tasks. We implemented two tasks, namely a cup task and a tube task, to identify whether success in solving the task could be attributed to either low-level mechanisms (avoiding the empty location strategy) or to deductive reasoning (if two possibilities A and B, but not A, then it must be B). In contrast to a previous study comparing goats and sheep in a cup task, we showed that both species solved the inferential condition with high success rates. In the tube task, performances could not be explained by alternative strategies such as avoiding the empty tube or preferring the bent tube. When applying a strict set of criteria concerning responses in all conditions and controlling for the potential effects of experience, we demonstrate that two individuals, a goat and a sheep, fulfil these criteria. This suggests that sheep and goats are able to make inferences based on deductive reasoning.
尽管绵羊和山羊在数千年中被人类驯化，但我们仍然缺乏有关它们认知能力的比较数据。比较农场动物的认知技能可以帮助我们理解认知的进化。在这项研究中，我们比较了绵羊和山羊在排除推理任务中的表现。我们实施了两项任务，即杯子任务和管子任务，以确定成功解决任务是否归因于低级机制（避免空位置策略）或演绎推理（如果有两种可能性 A 和 B，但不是 A，那么一定是 B）。与之前一项比较山羊和绵羊在杯子任务中的表现的研究不同，我们发现这两个物种都以高成功率解决了推理条件。在管子任务中，无法用替代策略（例如避免空管子或更喜欢弯曲的管子）来解释表现。当应用一套有关所有条件下反应的严格标准，并控制经验的潜在影响时，我们证明了两只个体，一只山羊和一只绵羊，符合这些标准。这表明绵羊和山羊能够基于演绎推理进行推理。
