Recognition of rotated objects and cognitive offloading in dogs

Effect of Attentional Bias on the 3D Rotated Objects Recognition Ability of Dogs

The ability to recognize rotated objects has been widely reported in the animal kingdom. Studies on animal and human spatial cognition highlighted the importance of visuo-spatial cognitive capability for surviving in a dynamic world. Although domestic animals are frequently involved in activities requiring a high level of visuo-spatial ability, currently, little is known about their visuo-spatial skills. To investigate this issue, we trained six dogs to discriminate between 3D objects (using a modified version of the Shepard-Metzler task) that were then reproduced digitally on a computer. We found that the dogs recognized three-dimensional objects and their rotated versions (45° and 180°) more easily when presented on the left side of the screen, suggesting right hemisphere superiority in the control of visuo-spatial functions. Moreover, we report inter-individual variability in their performance in the visuo-spatial task. Our preliminary results suggest that dogs could use a rotational invariance process for the discrimination of 3D rotated shapes that deserves further investigation.

Chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) navigate to find hidden fruit in a virtual environment

Almost all animals navigate their environment to find food, shelter, and mates. Spatial cognition of nonhuman primates in large-scale environments is notoriously difficult to study. Field research is ecologically valid, but controlling confounding variables can be difficult. Captive research enables experimental control, but space restrictions can limit generalizability. Virtual reality technology combines the best of both worlds by creating large-scale, controllable environments. We presented six chimpanzees with a seminaturalistic virtual environment, using a custom touch screen application. The chimpanzees exhibited signature behaviors reminiscent of real-life navigation: They learned to approach a landmark associated with the presence of fruit, improving efficiency over time; they located this landmark from novel starting locations and approached a different landmark when necessary. We conclude that virtual environments can allow for standardized testing with higher ecological validity than traditional tests in captivity and harbor great potential to contribute to longstanding questions in primate navigation, e.g., the use of landmarks, Euclidean maps, or spatial frames of reference.