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Repeatability and comparison of two maze tests to measure learning ability in horses

1986; Elsevier BV; Volume: 16; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1016/0168-1591(86)90103-6

1872-9045

J.C. Heird, C.E. Lokey, Dennis C. Cogan,

Animal Behavior and Welfare Studies

Sixteen Quarter Horses were randomly divided into two groups after sorting by age and sex. After a 10-day preconditioning period, each animal was scored for emotionality and trainability. Each group then completed a series of learning tasks in a modified T-maze for 20 consecutive days. Group PD was initially tested on a simple place-learning task, while Group DP was trained in a visual discrimination task. The groups were tested alternately on the two tasks with 10-day extinction periods between each task. Upon reaching a criterion of 11 of 12 correct responses (the last 8 responses consecutive), a horse was retired for the day. If this criterion was not attained, the horse completed 20 trials. Learning occurred at a faster rate on the discrimination tasks compared to the gradual learning curves observed on place tasks. Animals learned more rapidly and reached higher levels of performance as the series of tasks progressed. Trainability and emotionality scores tended to predict the final level of learning achieved. Correlations of performance ranks within emotionality and training groups were higher between tasks of the same type than between the different tasks. Rank correlations between odd and even days on each task indicated that the within-group rankings were more consistent on the discrimination task than on the place task.