.2022 Dec 12;12(24):3514.

doi: 10.3390/ani12243514.

Garrano Horses Perceive Letters of the Alphabet on a Touchscreen System: A Pilot Study

Clara-Lynn Schubert¹, Barbara Ryckewaert², Carlos Pereira³, Tetsuro Matsuzawa^{4 5 6}

Affiliations

¹ Department of Cognitive and Behavioral Neurosciences, Faculty of Science and Engineering of Sorbonne University, CEDEX 05, 75005 Paris, France.
² Laboratory «Scenes of the World, Creation, Critical Knowledge», Doctoral School of Aesthetics, Sciences and Technology of the Arts, University of Paris 8 Vincennes, CEDEX 02, 93526 Saint-Denis, France.
³ Department of LEA (Applied Foreign Languages), University of Paris 3 Sorbonne Nouvelle, CEDEX 05, 75230 Paris, France.
⁴ Division of Humanities and Social Sciences, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91125, USA.
⁵ Department of Pedagogy, Chubu Gakuin University, Gifu 504-8037, Japan.
⁶ College of Life Sciences, Northwest University, Xi'an 710069, China.

PMID:36552434
PMCID: PMC9774258
DOI: 10.3390/ani12243514

Garrano Horses Perceive Letters of the Alphabet on a Touchscreen System: A Pilot Study

Clara-Lynn Schubert et al. Animals (Basel).2022.

.2022 Dec 12;12(24):3514.

doi: 10.3390/ani12243514.

Authors

Clara-Lynn Schubert¹, Barbara Ryckewaert², Carlos Pereira³, Tetsuro Matsuzawa^{4 5 6}

Affiliations

¹ Department of Cognitive and Behavioral Neurosciences, Faculty of Science and Engineering of Sorbonne University, CEDEX 05, 75005 Paris, France.
² Laboratory «Scenes of the World, Creation, Critical Knowledge», Doctoral School of Aesthetics, Sciences and Technology of the Arts, University of Paris 8 Vincennes, CEDEX 02, 93526 Saint-Denis, France.
³ Department of LEA (Applied Foreign Languages), University of Paris 3 Sorbonne Nouvelle, CEDEX 05, 75230 Paris, France.
⁴ Division of Humanities and Social Sciences, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91125, USA.
⁵ Department of Pedagogy, Chubu Gakuin University, Gifu 504-8037, Japan.
⁶ College of Life Sciences, Northwest University, Xi'an 710069, China.

PMID:36552434
PMCID: PMC9774258
DOI: 10.3390/ani12243514

Abstract

This study aimed to use a computer-controlled touchscreen system to examine visual discrimination in Garrano horses (Equus caballus), an endangered breed of pony belonging to the Iberian horse family. This pilot study focused on the perceptual similarity among letters of the alphabet. We tested five horses in a one-male unit (OMU) living permanently in a semi-free enclosure near their natural habitat in Serra d'Arga, northern Portugal. Horses were trained to nose-touch black circles that appeared on the screen. Then, they were tested for discrimination of five letters of the Latin alphabet in Arial font, namely O, B, V, Z, and X, using a two-choice discrimination task. The confusion matrix of letter pairs was used to show the MDS and to identify the relative contribution of shape features. The results showed perceptual similarities among letters with curvatures pitted against those of straight lines. Shape perception in horses seems to share features with that of humans and other animals living in different niches. The touchscreen system proved to be an objective and innovative way of studying cognition in the socially organized group of horses. The automated system can promote the welfare of captive horses by maximizing their freedom of movement.

Keywords: animal welfare; horse cognition; letters of the alphabet; one-male unit; operant conditioning: shaping; shape perception; touchscreen system.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

**Figure 1**
(**Left**): Garrano horses in the wild in Serra d’Arga. The feral horses live in a family group called the one-male unit (OMU), consisting of one adult male and multiple females and their dependents. (**Right**): A group of five captive participant horses simulating a natural family group (OMU). Their enclosure is located within walking distance (about 9 km) of their natural habitat, in Lanheses, Viana do Castelo. (Photos by Barbara Ryckewaert).

**Figure 2**
Experimental setup. A touchscreen (touch panel and display) displays the stimuli and automatically detects the nose/mouth touch by the horses. The touchscreen was divided into two halves. The left-right sides of the screen were separated by a 4-cm thick wooden barrier fixed 8 cm in front of the screen. Thus, the horse was allowed to touch either the left or right stimulus, but not both. Here, the horse is about to touch the letter “X” (S-) on the right half of the touch panel; the letter “V” (S+) is on the left half of the screen. Therefore, this is an example of an error trial. Horses were free to participate or quit the experiment at any time: the lead rope was disconnected from the halter once in the testing area. However, entering the stall was prevented by a 70-cm high wooden barrier (see above); the horse responded by extending his/her neck over the barrier and his/her head toward the screen. The reward was delivered manually through a tube and landed in a bowl below the touch panel in front of the horse (see Supplementary Videos S1 and S2).

**Figure 3**
Targeting training with the horse Boneko. (**Left**): Presentation of a black circle target on a telescopic probe in the field. (**Center**): Presentation of the black circle target on a magnetic board. (**Right**): Targeting training performed on the computer-controlled touchscreen with the black circle target. During the preliminary training, the horses gradually habituated to individual testing, away from the rest of the OMU. Without the lead rope connected to the halter, the horse was free to approach the apparatus (Photos by Barbara Ryckewaert).

**Figure 4**
The number of discrimination learning sessions for each horse. Training proceeded in three stages of changing the size of the S- (X1: 5 cm, X2: 8 cm, and X3: 15 cm, see Methods 2-4-3). The two sessions with 100% accuracy were included in the total number of sessions. TheX-axis shows the horses in order of age (13, 8, 5, 4, and 2 years old). Special aid was given to the disabled horse, Flore, in this preliminary training (see Figure S4 for the raw data).

**Figure 5**
The number of baseline pair discrimination sessions for each horse (see Methods 2-4-4). The male, Boneko (in orange), did not reach the criterion so received no further training. TheX-axis shows the horses in decreasing order of age (13, 8, 5, 4, and 2 years old).

**Figure 6**
Accuracy (% correct) of discrimination between each pair of letters in the transfer test (See Methods 2-4-5). Discrimination was difficult for pairs O and B, B and Z, and V and X. Only the four mares completed this phase.

**Figure 7**
Perceived similarity among five letters. A two-dimensional MDS solution was applied to the dissimilarity matrix (see Table 2) calculated from the combined data of the four mares. (Figure S5 displays the individual two-dimension solution MDS for each mare. They showed the same perceived similarity).

**Figure 8**
Response times of each horse participant in each task. Some baseline and test phase data are missing because of a technical problem. Only the baseline learning data of the letter O vs. X is indicated for Boneko because he did not achieve the success criterion in this phase to move on to the next phases. The baseline learning data of response time for O is missing for Petala and Kiki because of a technical problem with the computer, as is the test data of the Z letter for Flore and Kiki. However, the consistency of response time within each individual across the phases appears clear. Boneko’s response time was considerably longer than the other horses. The long response time might reflect the difficulty of discrimination learning.

See this image and copyright information in PMC

Cited by

Sequence Order in the Range 1 to 19 by Chimpanzees on a Touchscreen Task: Processing Two-Digit Arabic Numerals.
Muramatsu A, Matsuzawa T.Muramatsu A, et al.Animals (Basel). 2023 Feb 21;13(5):774. doi: 10.3390/ani13050774.Animals (Basel). 2023.PMID:36899632Free PMC article.
Editorial: Recent Advances in Animal Cognition and Ethology.
Sueur C, Pelé M.Sueur C, et al.Animals (Basel). 2023 Sep 12;13(18):2890. doi: 10.3390/ani13182890.Animals (Basel). 2023.PMID:37760290Free PMC article.

References

1. Outram A.K., Stear N.A., Bendrey R., Olsen S., Kasparov A., Zaibert V., Thorpe N., Evershed R.P. The earliest horse harnessing and milking. Science. 2009;323:1332–1335. doi: 10.1126/science.1168594. - DOI - PubMed
1. Matsuzawa T. Horse cognition and behavior from the perspective of primatology. Primates. 2017;58:473–477. doi: 10.1007/s10329-017-0632-9. - DOI - PubMed
1. Pereira C. Le poney Garrano, une race autochtone valorisée dans les courses de pays et les pratiques equestres (Attelage, equitation de tradition, dressage…) Ethnozootechnie Société d’ethnozootechnie (Publisher), 2017, 82, 123–128. [(accessed on 4 July 2022)]. Available online:https://equitationportugaise.com/wp-content/uploads/Poney-Garrano.pdf.
1. Pereira C. Percurso do Garrano, Leituras Interdisciplinares do Projecto, Viana do Castelo. Éditions de la Municipalité de Viana do Castelo; Viana do Castelo, Portugal: 2020. Le Garrano, le Passo Travado et l’équitation de Tradition Portugaise, Patrimoines Culturels et Naturels de l’humanité; pp. 149–169.
1. Ringhofer M., Inoue S., Mendonça R.S., Pereira C., Matsuzawa T., Hirata S., Yamamoto S. Comparison of the social systems of primates and feral horses: Data from a newly established horse research site on Serra D’Arga, northern Portugal. Primates. 2017;58:479–484. doi: 10.1007/s10329-017-0614-y. - DOI - PubMed

Grants and funding

The touchscreen study at the Garrano Horse Center (GHC) was financially supported by the Camara Municipal de Viana do Castelo. The five participant horses belong to the association named “O caminho do Garrano (The way of Garrano)” which was founded and led by Mr. Lourenço Almada. With these funds, B.R. prepared the touchscreen apparatus to emulate the touchscreen study by Tomonaga et al. (2015). C.-L.S. received partial support from Sorbonne University for travel.

LinkOut - more resources

Full Text Sources
Research Materials
- NCI CPTC Antibody Characterization Program
Miscellaneous
- NCI CPTAC Assay Portal

Movatterモバイル変換

Account

Save citation to file

Email citation

Add to Collections

Add to My Bibliography

Your saved search

Create a file for external citation management software

Your RSS Feed

Full text links

Actions

Share

Garrano Horses Perceive Letters of the Alphabet on a Touchscreen System: A Pilot Study

Affiliations

Garrano Horses Perceive Letters of the Alphabet on a Touchscreen System: A Pilot Study

Authors

Affiliations

Abstract

Conflict of interest statement

Figures

Similar articles

Cited by

References

Grants and funding

LinkOut - more resources

Full Text Sources

Research Materials

Miscellaneous