Does direct human eye contact function as a warning cue for domestic sheep (Ovis aries)?

Cognition and the human-animal relationship: a review of the sociocognitive skills of domestic mammals toward humans

In the past 20 years, research focusing on interspecific sociocognitive abilities of animals toward humans has been growing, allowing a better understanding of the interactions between humans and animals. This review focuses on five sociocognitive abilities of domestic mammals in relation to humans as follows: discriminating and recognizing individual humans; perceiving human emotions; interpreting our attentional states and goals; using referential communication (perceiving human signals or sending signals to humans); and engaging in social learning with humans (e.g., local enhancement, demonstration and social referencing). We focused on different species of domestic mammals for which literature on the subject is available, namely, cats, cattle, dogs, ferrets, goats, horses, pigs, and sheep. The results show that some species have remarkable abilities to recognize us or to detect and interpret the emotions or signals sent by humans. For example, sheep and horses can recognize the face of their keeper in photographs, dogs can react to our smells of fear, and pigs can follow our pointing gestures. Nevertheless, the studies are unequally distributed across species: there are many studies in animals that live closely with humans, such as dogs, but little is known about livestock animals, such as cattle and pigs. However, on the basis of existing data, no obvious links have emerged between the cognitive abilities of animals toward humans and their ecological characteristics or the history and reasons for their domestication. This review encourages continuing and expanding this type of research to more abilities and species.

Comparison of efficiency of direct observations by scuba diver and indirect observations via video camera for measuring reef-fish behaviour

The present study investigates how the humbug damselfish Dascyllus aruanus, subject of a large number of ecological, evolutionary and behavioural studies, responds to the presence of human observers (effect of scuba diver presence-absence) and how the method of data collection (directly by a scuba diver v. indirectly via video camera) may affect the quality of behavioural data. Scuba diver presence had only subtle effects on fish behaviour. The efficiency of the method of scoring fish behaviour depended on the behaviour under consideration: those behaviours that occur in close proximity to the corals were scored more effectively directly by a scuba diver while those that are performed in a more rapid or repetitive fashion were scored more effectively indirectly via video camera. These results provide a foundation for future behavioural research on D. aruanus and other fishes where scuba divers or video cameras are the prevalent means of data collection.

Farm Animal Cognition-Linking Behavior, Welfare and Ethics

Farm animal welfare is a major concern for society and food production. To more accurately evaluate animal farming in general and to avoid exposing farm animals to poor welfare situations, it is necessary to understand not only their behavioral but also their cognitive needs and capacities. Thus, general knowledge of how farm animals perceive and interact with their environment is of major importance for a range of stakeholders, from citizens to politicians to cognitive ethologists to philosophers. This review aims to outline the current state of farm animal cognition research and focuses on ungulate livestock species, such as cattle, horses, pigs and small ruminants, and reflects upon a defined set of cognitive capacities (physical cognition: categorization, numerical ability, object permanence, reasoning, tool use; social cognition: individual discrimination and recognition, communication with humans, social learning, attribution of attention, prosociality, fairness). We identify a lack of information on certain aspects of physico-cognitive capacities in most farm animal species, such as numerosity discrimination and object permanence. This leads to further questions on how livestock comprehend their physical environment and understand causal relationships. Increasing our knowledge in this area will facilitate efforts to adjust husbandry systems and enrichment items to meet the needs and preferences of farm animals. Research in the socio-cognitive domain indicates that ungulate livestock possess sophisticated mental capacities, such as the discrimination between, and recognition of, conspecifics as well as human handlers using multiple modalities. Livestock also react to very subtle behavioral cues of conspecifics and humans. These socio-cognitive capacities can impact human-animal interactions during management practices and introduce ethical considerations on how to treat livestock in general. We emphasize the importance of gaining a better understanding of how livestock species interact with their physical and social environments, as this information can improve housing and management conditions and can be used to evaluate the use and treatment of animals during production.

Human head orientation and eye visibility as indicators of attention for goats (Capra hircus)

Animals domesticated for working closely with humans (e.g. dogs) have been shown to be remarkable in adjusting their behaviour to human attentional stance. However, there is little evidence for this form of information perception in species domesticated for production rather than companionship. We tested domestic ungulates (goats) for their ability to differentiate attentional states of humans. In the first experiment, we investigated the effect of body and head orientation of one human experimenter on approach behaviour by goats. Test subjects (N = 24) significantly changed their behaviour when the experimenter turned its back to the subjects, but did not take into account head orientation alone. In the second experiment, goats (N = 24) could choose to approach one of two experimenters, while only one was paying attention to them. Goats preferred to approach humans that oriented their body and head towards the subject, whereas head orientation alone had no effect on choice behaviour. In the third experiment, goats (N = 32) were transferred to a separate test arena and were rewarded for approaching two experimenters providing a food reward during training trials. In subsequent probe test trials, goats had to choose between the two experimenters differing in their attentional states. Like in Experiments 1 and 2, goats did not show a preference for the attentive person when the inattentive person turned her head away from the subject. In this last experiment, goats preferred to approach the attentive person compared to a person who closed their eyes or covered the whole face with a blind. However, goats showed no preference when one person covered only the eyes. Our results show that animals bred for production rather than companionship show differences in their approach and choice behaviour depending on human attentive state. However, our results contrast with previous findings regarding the use of the head orientation to attribute attention and show the importance of cross-validating results.

Direct gaze of photographs of female nudes influences startle in men

Foreground presentation of photographs of opposite sex nudes lowers startle elicited by sudden acoustic stimuli. However, the impact of gaze direction of the presented nudes on this startle modulation has not been investigated. Theoretically, direct gaze of photographs of female nudes could either lead to a larger inhibition of the startle reaction due to a summating valence and arousal effect of direct eye contact, or lead to a smaller inhibition due to an attention capturing effect of the eyes. Two subsets of erotic photographs of female nudes (women looking directly at the observer vs. gazing away) and standard IAPS neutral pictures were viewed by 26 male volunteers, while startle eye blink responses to binaural bursts of white noise (50 ms, 105 dB) were recorded by EMG. Erotic pictures reduced startle eyeblink magnitude as compared to neutral pictures. Furthermore, erotic stimuli without direct gaze at the observer showed a greater startle eyeblink inhibition than erotic stimuli with direct gaze at the observer. Our data suggest that direct gaze of opposite sex nudes may direct attention to the face, thereby reducing the appetitive impact of an attractive body.

Gaze cueing of attention: visual attention, social cognition, and individual differences

During social interactions, people's eyes convey a wealth of information about their direction of attention and their emotional and mental states. This review aims to provide a comprehensive overview of past and current research into the perception of gaze behavior and its effect on the observer. This encompasses the perception of gaze direction and its influence on perception of the other person, as well as gaze-following behavior such as joint attention, in infant, adult, and clinical populations. Particular focus is given to the gaze-cueing paradigm that has been used to investigate the mechanisms of joint attention. The contribution of this paradigm has been significant and will likely continue to advance knowledge across diverse fields within psychology and neuroscience.