Academic Journal

Piglets Learn to Use Combined Human-Given Visual and Auditory Signals to Find a Hidden Reward in an Object Choice Task.

التفاصيل البيبلوغرافية
العنوان: Piglets Learn to Use Combined Human-Given Visual and Auditory Signals to Find a Hidden Reward in an Object Choice Task.
المؤلفون: Sandy Bensoussan, Maude Cornil, Marie-Christine Meunier-Salaün, Céline Tallet
المصدر: PLoS ONE, Vol 11, Iss 10, p e0164988 (2016)
بيانات النشر: Public Library of Science (PLoS)
سنة النشر: 2016
المجموعة: Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles
مصطلحات موضوعية: Medicine, Science
الوصف: Although animals rarely use only one sense to communicate, few studies have investigated the use of combinations of different signals between animals and humans. This study assessed for the first time the spontaneous reactions of piglets to human pointing gestures and voice in an object-choice task with a reward. Piglets (Sus scrofa domestica) mainly use auditory signals-individually or in combination with other signals-to communicate with their conspecifics. Their wide hearing range (42 Hz to 40.5 kHz) fits the range of human vocalisations (40 Hz to 1.5 kHz), which may induce sensitivity to the human voice. However, only their ability to use visual signals from humans, especially pointing gestures, has been assessed to date. The current study investigated the effects of signal type (visual, auditory and combined visual and auditory) and piglet experience on the piglets' ability to locate a hidden food reward over successive tests. Piglets did not find the hidden reward at first presentation, regardless of the signal type given. However, they subsequently learned to use a combination of auditory and visual signals (human voice and static or dynamic pointing gestures) to successfully locate the reward in later tests. This learning process may result either from repeated presentations of the combination of static gestures and auditory signals over successive tests, or from transitioning from static to dynamic pointing gestures, again over successive tests. Furthermore, piglets increased their chance of locating the reward either if they did not go straight to a bowl after entering the test area or if they stared at the experimenter before visiting it. Piglets were not able to use the voice direction alone, indicating that a combination of signals (pointing and voice direction) is necessary. Improving our communication with animals requires adapting to their individual sensitivity to human-given signals.
نوع الوثيقة: article in journal/newspaper
اللغة: English
تدمد: 1932-6203
Relation: http://europepmc.org/articles/PMC5085045?pdf=render; https://doaj.org/toc/1932-6203; https://doaj.org/article/978ebb71bb814cdabf9bae0fa74f99ea
DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0164988
الاتاحة: https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0164988
https://doaj.org/article/978ebb71bb814cdabf9bae0fa74f99ea
رقم الانضمام: edsbas.35EA9EA2
قاعدة البيانات: BASE
الوصف
تدمد:19326203
DOI:10.1371/journal.pone.0164988