2024.12.27 研究の現場から GAO Jie （ガオ・ジエ）

How do we study the evolution of the mind:The evolving methods （GAO Jie／2024）

　All these reasons made me decide to continue the touchscreen methods in my new projects with domestic goats. I started this project because land mammals are important in evolution, but their cognition is rarely studied. Studying a domestic species could also help understand the effect of domestication on the animal minds. I have trained several goats to use the touchscreen, by step-by-step conditioning. First, I used a stick and a plastic plate and trained them to touch the plate to get a piece of carrot（ Fig. 2）. Then, I used a white board and a magnet shape and trained them to touch the shape on the board. And finally, we transferred to the touchscreen （Fig. 3）. They just completed a pilot test in shape discrimination.

Fig. 2 Training goat Ryu to touch the plastic plate using his mouth.
Fig. 3 Goat Yoshino doing a task on a touchscreen.

　Many other methods are rising, too, apart from touchscreen tasks. I used an eye-tracker, which tracks eye gazes, to complete an experiment to know if chimpanzees look at the strange body parts in search for their body perception. Self-assembled machines could be adopted, too. For example, in a study finding the strategy pigeons use in flying, researchers let pigeons wear light backpacks containing sensors. If this is ever needed, I will plan to adopt new technology for the goats, too. How cool it is for goats to have backpacks collecting research data.

References

  1. Kellogg, W. N., & Kellogg, L. A.（ 1933）. The Ape and The Child: A Comparative Study of the Environmental Influence Upon Early Behavior. Hafner Publishing Co., New York and London
  2. Chen, T., Gao, J., Tan, J., Tao, R., & Su, Y.（ 2017）. Variation in gaze-following between two Asian colobine monkeys. Primates, 58, 525-534.
  3. Tan, J., Ariely, D., & Hare, B. （2017）. Bonobos respond prosocially toward members of other groups. Scientific reports , 7（1）, 14733.
  4. Gao, J., Su, Y., Tomonaga, M., & Matsuzawa, T. （2018）. Learning the rules of the rock–paper–scissors game: chimpanzees versus children. Primates , 59, 7-17.
  5. Gao, J., Adachi, I., & Tomonaga, M. （2022）. Chimpanzees （Pan troglodytes） detect strange body parts: an eye-tracking study. Animal Cognition, 25 （4）, 807-819.
  6. Kano, F., Naik, H., Keskin, G., Couzin, I. D., & Nagy, M. （2022）. Head-tracking of freely-behaving pigeons in a motion-capture system reveals the selective use of visual field regions. Scientific Reports , 12 （1）, 19113.

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