Do goats recognise humans cross-modally?
Recognition plays a key role in the social lives of gregarious species, enabling animals to distinguish among social partners and tailor their behaviour accordingly. As domesticated animals regularly interact with humans, as well as members of their own species, we might expect mechanisms used to di...
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PeerJ Inc.
2025-01-01
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| Online Access: | https://peerj.com/articles/18786.pdf |
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| author | Marianne A. Mason Stuart Semple Harry H. Marshall Alan G. McElligott |
| author_facet | Marianne A. Mason Stuart Semple Harry H. Marshall Alan G. McElligott |
| author_sort | Marianne A. Mason |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Recognition plays a key role in the social lives of gregarious species, enabling animals to distinguish among social partners and tailor their behaviour accordingly. As domesticated animals regularly interact with humans, as well as members of their own species, we might expect mechanisms used to discriminate between conspecifics to also apply to humans. Given that goats can combine visual and vocal cues to recognise one another, we investigated whether this cross-modal recognition extends to discriminating among familiar humans. We presented 26 goats (17 males and nine females) with facial photographs of familiar people and two repeated playbacks of a voice, either congruent (from the same person) or incongruent with that photograph (from a different person). When cues were incongruent, violating their expectations, we expected goats to show changes in physiological parameters and moreover, respond faster and for longer after playbacks. Accordingly, heart rate decreased as the playback sequence progressed, but only when the face and voice presented were incongruent. Heart rate variability was also affected by congruency, but we were unable to determine precisely where differences lay. However, goats showed no changes in time taken to respond, or how long they responded for (our primary variables of interest). We also found evidence to suggest that shifts in cardiac responses may not have been robust. Although our findings could imply that goats had successfully perceived differences in congruency between the visual and vocal identity information presented, further evidence is needed to determine whether they are capable of cross-modal recognition of humans. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-218b8ec199ca4e24b2f1094e56df4fec |
| institution | Kabale University |
| issn | 2167-8359 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2025-01-01 |
| publisher | PeerJ Inc. |
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| spelling | doaj-art-218b8ec199ca4e24b2f1094e56df4fec2025-01-16T15:05:16ZengPeerJ Inc.PeerJ2167-83592025-01-0113e1878610.7717/peerj.18786Do goats recognise humans cross-modally?Marianne A. Mason0Stuart Semple1Harry H. Marshall2Alan G. McElligott3School of Life and Health Sciences, University of Roehampton, London, United KingdomSchool of Life and Health Sciences, University of Roehampton, London, United KingdomSchool of Life and Health Sciences, University of Roehampton, London, United KingdomDepartment of Infectious Diseases and Public Health, Jockey Club College of Veterinary Medicine and Life Sciences, City University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR, ChinaRecognition plays a key role in the social lives of gregarious species, enabling animals to distinguish among social partners and tailor their behaviour accordingly. As domesticated animals regularly interact with humans, as well as members of their own species, we might expect mechanisms used to discriminate between conspecifics to also apply to humans. Given that goats can combine visual and vocal cues to recognise one another, we investigated whether this cross-modal recognition extends to discriminating among familiar humans. We presented 26 goats (17 males and nine females) with facial photographs of familiar people and two repeated playbacks of a voice, either congruent (from the same person) or incongruent with that photograph (from a different person). When cues were incongruent, violating their expectations, we expected goats to show changes in physiological parameters and moreover, respond faster and for longer after playbacks. Accordingly, heart rate decreased as the playback sequence progressed, but only when the face and voice presented were incongruent. Heart rate variability was also affected by congruency, but we were unable to determine precisely where differences lay. However, goats showed no changes in time taken to respond, or how long they responded for (our primary variables of interest). We also found evidence to suggest that shifts in cardiac responses may not have been robust. Although our findings could imply that goats had successfully perceived differences in congruency between the visual and vocal identity information presented, further evidence is needed to determine whether they are capable of cross-modal recognition of humans.https://peerj.com/articles/18786.pdfAnimal welfareHuman–animal relationshipInterspecific communicationMultimodal recognitionSocial cognitionUngulates |
| spellingShingle | Marianne A. Mason Stuart Semple Harry H. Marshall Alan G. McElligott Do goats recognise humans cross-modally? PeerJ Animal welfare Human–animal relationship Interspecific communication Multimodal recognition Social cognition Ungulates |
| title | Do goats recognise humans cross-modally? |
| title_full | Do goats recognise humans cross-modally? |
| title_fullStr | Do goats recognise humans cross-modally? |
| title_full_unstemmed | Do goats recognise humans cross-modally? |
| title_short | Do goats recognise humans cross-modally? |
| title_sort | do goats recognise humans cross modally |
| topic | Animal welfare Human–animal relationship Interspecific communication Multimodal recognition Social cognition Ungulates |
| url | https://peerj.com/articles/18786.pdf |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT marianneamason dogoatsrecognisehumanscrossmodally AT stuartsemple dogoatsrecognisehumanscrossmodally AT harryhmarshall dogoatsrecognisehumanscrossmodally AT alangmcelligott dogoatsrecognisehumanscrossmodally |