Food quantity discrimination in puppies (Canis lupus familiaris)

被引:16
作者
Petrazzini, Maria Elena Miletto [1 ]
Mantese, Fabio [2 ]
Prato-Previde, Emanuela [3 ]
机构
[1] Queen Mary Univ London, Sch Biol & Chem Sci, London, England
[2] Univ Turin, Dept Anim & Human Biol, Turin, Italy
[3] Univ Milan, Dept Pathophysiol & Transplantat, Milan, Italy
关键词
Quantity discrimination; Dog; Puppies; Food choice task; Development; NUMBER SENSE; DOMESTIC DOG; JUDGMENTS; ONTOGENY; COUNTS; CHOICE; BREEDS;
D O I
10.1007/s10071-020-01378-z
中图分类号
B84 [心理学]; C [社会科学总论]; Q98 [人类学];
学科分类号
03 ; 0303 ; 030303 ; 04 ; 0402 ;
摘要
There is considerable evidence that animals are able to discriminate between quantities. Despite the fact that quantitative skills have been extensively studied in adult individuals, research on their development in early life is restricted to a limited number of species. We, therefore, investigated whether 2-month-old puppies could spontaneously discriminate between different quantities of food items. We used a simultaneous two-choice task in which puppies were presented with three numerical combinations of pieces of food (1 vs. 8, 1 vs. 6 and 1 vs. 4), and they were allowed to select only one option. The subjects chose the larger of the two quantities in the 1 vs. 8 and the 1 vs. 6 combinations but not in the 1 vs. 4 combination. Furthermore, the last quantity the puppies looked at before making their choice and the time spent looking at the larger/smaller amounts of food were predictive of the choices they made. Since adult dogs are capable of discriminating between more difficult numerical contrasts when tested with similar tasks, our findings suggest that the capacity to discriminate between quantities is already present at an early age, but that it is limited to very easy discriminations.
引用
收藏
页码:703 / 710
页数:8
相关论文
共 57 条
[1]   Relative quantity judgments in South American sea lions (Otaria flavescens) [J].
Abramson, Jose Z. ;
Hernandez-Lloreda, Victoria ;
Call, Josep ;
Colmenares, Fernando .
ANIMAL COGNITION, 2011, 14 (05) :695-706
[2]   Understanding the origin of number sense: a review of fish studies [J].
Agrillo, Christian ;
Bisazza, Angelo .
PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY B-BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES, 2018, 373 (1740)
[3]  
[Anonymous], 2007, Perception, cognition and decision training: The quiet eye in action
[4]   Tracking of food quantity by coyotes (Canis latrans) [J].
Baker, Joseph M. ;
Shivik, John ;
Jordan, Kerry E. .
BEHAVIOURAL PROCESSES, 2011, 88 (02) :72-75
[5]   Discrimination of group numerousness under predation risk in anuran tadpoles [J].
Balestrieri, Alessandro ;
Gazzola, Andrea ;
Pellitteri-Rosa, Daniele ;
Vallortigara, Giorgio .
ANIMAL COGNITION, 2019, 22 (02) :223-230
[6]   The more the merrier: dogs can assess quantities in food-choice tasks [J].
Banerjee, Arunita ;
Bhadra, Anindita .
CURRENT SCIENCE, 2019, 117 (06) :1095-1100
[7]   More or less: spontaneous quantity discrimination in the domestic cat [J].
Banszegi, Oxana ;
Urrutia, Andrea ;
Szenczi, Peter ;
Hudson, Robyn .
ANIMAL COGNITION, 2016, 19 (05) :879-888
[8]   Inherently analog quantity representations in olive baboons (Papio anubis) [J].
Barnard, Allison M. ;
Hughes, Kelly D. ;
Gerhardt, Regina R. ;
DiVincenti, Louis, Jr. ;
Bovee, Jenna M. ;
Cantlon, Jessica F. .
FRONTIERS IN PSYCHOLOGY, 2013, 4
[9]   Effects of breed group and development on dogs' willingness to follow a human misleading advice [J].
Barnard, Shanis ;
Passalacqua, Chiara ;
Pelosi, Annalisa ;
Valsecchi, Paola ;
Prato-Previde, Emanuela .
ANIMAL COGNITION, 2019, 22 (05) :757-768
[10]   Abstract number and arithmetic in preschool children [J].
Barth, H ;
La Mont, K ;
Lipton, J ;
Spelke, ES .
PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, 2005, 102 (39) :14116-14121