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Animal cognition2022; 26(2); 369-377; doi: 10.1007/s10071-022-01667-9

Horses form cross-modal representations of adults and children.

Abstract: Recently, research on domestic mammals' sociocognitive skills toward humans has been prolific, allowing us to better understand the human-animal relationship. For example, horses have been shown to distinguish human beings on the basis of photographs and voices and to have cross-modal mental representations of individual humans and human emotions. This leads to questions such as the extent to which horses can differentiate human attributes such as age. Here, we tested whether horses discriminate human adults from children. In a cross-modal paradigm, we presented 31 female horses with two simultaneous muted videos of a child and an adult saying the same neutral sentence, accompanied by the sound of an adult's or child's voice speaking the sentence. The horses looked significantly longer at the videos that were incongruent with the heard voice than at the congruent videos. We conclude that horses can match adults' and children's faces and voices cross-modally. Moreover, their heart rates increased during children's vocalizations but not during adults'. This suggests that in addition to having mental representations of adults and children, horses have a stronger emotional response to children's voices than adults' voices.
© 2022. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.
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Publication Date: 2022-08-13 PubMed ID: 35962844PubMed Central: 4785927DOI: 10.1007/s10071-022-01667-9Google Scholar: Lookup
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Summary

This research summary has been generated with artificial intelligence and may contain errors and omissions. Refer to the original study to confirm details provided. Submit correction.

This research studied whether horses can identify and distinguish between adults and children using both visual and auditory cues. The findings indicate that horses can indeed differentiate between human adults and children based on their faces and voices, and they react more strongly to children’s voices.

Understanding the Experiment

In this study, the researchers used cross-modal testing to see whether horses can differentiate between adults and children. This involved:

  • Showing 31 female horses two muted videos at the same time – one featuring a child and the other an adult speaking the same neutral sentence.
  • Playing the voice of an adult or child saying the sentence. This voice did not always match the person shown in the video, creating congruent (matching voice and video) and incongruent (non-matching voice and video) scenarios.

Observations Made

Based on the horses’ reactions to these stimuli, the researchers made several observations:

  • Horses spent significantly more time looking at the videos that were incongruent with the heard voice than the congruent ones. This suggests that horses can pair human faces and voices by age group (adult versus child).
  • Horses’ heart rates increased during the playback of children’s voices but not during adults’. This finding suggests that horses may have a stronger emotional response to children’s voices compared to adults’.

    • Research Conclusions

    From these observations, the researchers concluded that horses have the ability to form cross-modal representations of human adults and children. In other words, they can mentally link what a human looks like (an adult or a child) with what they sound like. The differential heart rate response also suggests that horses may be more emotionally attuned to or affected by children’s voices.

    In overall, this study has contributed to the increasing body of research in understanding domestic mammals’ sociocognitive abilities towards humans. It provides valuable insights into how animals, such as horses, perceive and react to different human attributes like age, potentially influencing the human-animal interaction strategies.

Cite This Article

APA
Jardat P, Ringhofer M, Yamamoto S, Gouyet C, Degrande R, Parias C, Reigner F, Calandreau L, Lansade L. (2022). Horses form cross-modal representations of adults and children. Anim Cogn, 26(2), 369-377. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10071-022-01667-9

Publication

Animal cognition
ISSN: 1435-9456
NlmUniqueID: 9814573
Country: Germany
Language: English
Volume: 26
Issue: 2
Pages: 369-377

Researcher Affiliations

Jardat, Plotine
  • CNRS, IFCE, INRAE, Université de Tours, PRC, 37380, Nouzilly, France. plotine.jardat@gmail.com.
Ringhofer, Monamie
  • Department of Animal Science, Teikyo University of Science, Tokyo, Japan.
Yamamoto, Shinya
  • Institute for Advanced Study, Kyoto University, Kyoto, Japan.
  • Wildlife Research Center, Kyoto University, Kyoto, Japan.
Gouyet, Chloé
  • CNRS, IFCE, INRAE, Université de Tours, PRC, 37380, Nouzilly, France.
Degrande, Rachel
  • CNRS, IFCE, INRAE, Université de Tours, PRC, 37380, Nouzilly, France.
Parias, Céline
  • CNRS, IFCE, INRAE, Université de Tours, PRC, 37380, Nouzilly, France.
Reigner, Fabrice
  • UEPAO, INRAE, 37380, Nouzilly, France.
Calandreau, Ludovic
  • CNRS, IFCE, INRAE, Université de Tours, PRC, 37380, Nouzilly, France.
Lansade, Léa
  • CNRS, IFCE, INRAE, Université de Tours, PRC, 37380, Nouzilly, France. lea.lansade@inrae.fr.

MeSH Terms

  • Humans
  • Female
  • Horses
  • Animals
  • Emotions
  • Voice
  • Hearing
  • Sound
  • Human-Animal Interaction
  • Mammals

Grant Funding

  • 32 000809-Cognition Equine / IFCE

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Citations

This article has been cited 6 times.
  1. Jardat P, Liehrmann O, Reigner F, Parias C, Calandreau L, Lansade L. Horses discriminate between human facial and vocal expressions of sadness and joy. Anim Cogn 2023 Sep;26(5):1733-1742.
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  2. Gouyet C, Ringhofer M, Yamamoto S, Jardat P, Parias C, Reigner F, Calandreau L, Lansade L. Horses cross-modally recognize women and men. Sci Rep 2023 Mar 8;13(1):3864.
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