by The study involved 20 horses who were initially rewarded with a treat when they touched a piece of cardboard with their nose.
In the second phase, a “traffic light” was introduced and the rule was changed so that the reward was only awarded if the card was touched when the traffic light was off.
However, this did not change the horses’ behavior, as they were observed to touch the card regardless of the status of the light. That is, until the rules were changed for the third time.
In the final phase, the researchers introduced a penalty of 10 seconds of downtime for touching the card when the traffic light was on.
The team observed a rapid adaptation of the horses’ behavior, as mistakes now had a price and they all quickly learned to follow the rules to avoid a time-out, the researchers say.
“We expected that the horses’ performance would improve when we introduced the time-out, but were surprised at how quickly and significantly the improvement occurred,” said lead researcher Louise Evans.
The fact that the horses adapted so quickly suggests, according to the researchers, that they understood the traffic light rule all along, but had no reason to follow the rule because there were no consequences if they behaved incorrectly.
The study was published in the journal Applied Animal Behaviour Science., external shows that horses are more cognitively developed than previously thought, said Dr Carrie Ijichi, a senior equine researcher at NTU.
“This teaches us that we should not make assumptions about the intelligence or sentience of animals based on whether they are ‘built the same way’ as us,” she said.
