The effect of ostensive cues on dogs' performance in a manipulative social learning task
The effect of ostensive cues on dogs' performance in a manipulative social learning task
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DOI：
10.1016/j.applanim.2009.05.012
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发表时间：
2009-09-01
影响因子：
2.3
通讯作者：
Viranyi, Zsofia
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Range, Friederike;Heucke, Silke L.;Viranyi, Zsofia
与动物的社会学习（例如狗通过观察另一只狗来学习）相反，人类通常通过吸引学习者的注意力来进行教学。同样在狗的训练过程中，人类也倾向于以类似的方式吸引它们的注意力。在这里，我们研究了狗在操纵任务中向狗和人类演示者学习的能力，其中模型演示了操纵盒子的哪一部分以获得食物奖励。我们在狗和人类演示期间改变了交流环境：第二个实验者将受试者的注意力引导到模型上（狗/人的明示演示）或保持沉默（狗/人的非明示演示）。此外，我们还调查了狗的训练水平（训练有素与未训练）是否会影响狗在不同演示后在操作任务中的表现。我们发现，训练有素的狗表现出明显更好的解决问题的能力。他们更关注人类示范而不是狗模型，而训练较少的狗在注意力方面没有发现这种差异。尽管对不同示威者的关注略有不同，但人类或狗示威者的存在对狗的测试表现产生了同等的影响。然而，如果第二位实验者在演示过程中给出明示提示，演示的有效性就会显着降低。对演示期间观察犬的注意力和活动的分析表明，造成这种负面影响的原因是对演示的注意力分散以及明示演示中比非明示演示中更高水平的兴奋。这项研究表明，演示期间的第三方交流将狗的注意力吸引到交流者身上，而不是密切关注模型。我们建议，为了避免这种分散注意力的效果，需要精确计时并同步引起注意和演示。 (C) 2009 Elsevier B.V. 保留所有权利。
In contrast to animal social learning (e.g. dogs learning from observing another dog), humans typically teach by attracting the attention of the learner. Also during the training of dogs, humans tend to attract their attention in a similar way. Here, we investigated dogs' ability to learn both from a dog and a human demonstrator in a manipulative task, where the models demonstrated which part of a box to manipulate in order to get a food reward. We varied the communicative context both during the dog and during the human demonstration comparably: a second experimenter directed the attention of the subjects to the model (dog/human ostensive demonstration) or remained silent (dog/human non-ostensive demonstration). Moreover, we investigated whether the training level of the dogs (well-trained vs. untrained) affected how the dogs performed in the manipulative tasks after the different demonstrations.We found that better trained dogs showed significantly better problem solving abilities. They paid more attention to the human demonstration than to the dog model, whereas such a difference in attentiveness of the less trained dogs was not found. Despite slight differences in paying attention to the different demonstrators, the presence of human or the dog demonstrators exerted equally effectiveness on the test performance of the dogs. However, the effectiveness of the demonstrations was significantly reduced if ostensive cues were given during the demonstrations by a second experimenter. Analysis of attentiveness and activity of the observer dogs during the demonstrations indicates that the reason for this negative effect was a combination of distracted attention paid to the demonstration and a higher level of excitement in the ostensive than in the non-ostensive demonstrations.This study suggests that third party communication during demonstration attracts dogs' attention to the communicator instead of paying close attention to the model. We suggest that precise timing and synchronization of attention-calling and demonstration is necessary to avoid this distracting effect. (C) 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.