Biology subjects

Nawroth, C.

Publications and source records attributed to Nawroth, C..

3 recordsLinked to original sources

bioRxiv2026

Japanese quail (Coturnix japonica) selected for high social motivation rely on conspecifics for buffering but not learning in sociocognitive tasks

Social living is widely considered a key driver of cognitive evolution, yet individuals within a species and even within the same group can differ substantially in their sociability (i.e., an individuals propensity to form and maintain social bonds), which can ultimately shape the social environment they experience by influencing how they interact with, respond to, and engage in it. How such individual variation in this personality trait affects social cognition, however, remains poorly understood. To address this question, we used two selectively bred lines of Japanese quail (Coturnix japonica) that consistently differ in social motivation, a key component of sociability, which we used as a proxy for this broader trait. In these lines, S+ individuals show high social motivation, whereas S- individuals show low social motivation. We compared their sociocognitive performance across three tasks: a gaze following task, a social buffering task, and a social discrimination learning task. Our findings revealed that Japanese quail reliably followed the gaze of conspecifics, providing the first evidence of this ability in this species. However, there was no difference between lines, suggesting that basic gaze following into the distance is independent of social motivation. In contrast, line differences emerged in the other tasks. S+ quail were more sensitive and less adaptable in response to environmental changes, particularly under social isolation, although the presence of a conspecific strongly buffered these effects. S- quail, on the other hand, outperformed S+ individuals in the social discrimination learning task, rapidly exploiting available social cues to guide foraging decisions. Overall, this study demonstrates that social motivation modulates sociocognitive performance in a context-dependent manner. Rather than conferring a general cognitive advantage, divergent selection on social motivation leads to different strategies of social information use across tasks and contexts, highlighting the complex interplay between personality, social environment, and cognition.

animal behavior and cognition↗

bioRxiv2025

Domestic goats can follow the direction of human voices to solve a hidden-object task

The capacity for animals to produce and comprehend vocalisations that provide referential acoustic cues to their eliciting cause (e.g. predator-specific alarm calls and food calls) is a highly adaptive means of maximising the benefits of group living, and has been widely studied in diverse species. However, an underexplored dimension of referentiality is the ability to process the direction in which a vocalisation is emitted as a cue towards its referent. Here, we replicated an experimental design previously applied to dogs, chimpanzees and human infants to investigate whether domestic goats (Capra hircus) can use human voices as a directional cue in a hidden-object task. Twenty-nine goats from a UK sanctuary participated in three experimental conditions. In each condition, goats were individually presented with a human experimenter obscured by a barrier, and two identical containers, one of which was baited with food. In the reward directed speech condition, the experimenter vocalised excitedly towards the baited container while sitting closer to the un-baited container, and then the goat was able to select which container to explore. While substantial inter-individual variation existed, on average, subjects chose the baited container at above chance level across the four trials. Two control conditions explored alternative explanations for this result: a "no speech" condition, in which the experimenter was silent but remained in the same location as in the test condition, and a "non-reward directed speech" condition, in which the experimenter directed their voice away from both containers. Subjects showed no evidence of choosing the baited container at above chance level in either of these control conditions. We conclude that goats, like dogs, but not chimpanzees, are capable of attending to the directional cues provided by human voices, and discuss the possible role of domestication in the taxonomic distribution of this ability.

animal behavior and cognition↗

bioRxiv2025

Goats who stare at wolves - identifying natural response stimuli for an affect-driven attention bias test in small ruminants

Reliable and non-invasive assessment of affective states is crucial in animal welfare research. Linking affective states to cognitive processes, such as cognitive biases, provides a promising approach. An affect-driven attention bias - the tendency to focus more on threatening than on neutral or positive stimuli when in a negative affective state - has been observed in humans and non-human animal species. However, implementation is often hampered because ecologically relevant test setups need to be adapted to species-specific differences in the perception and processing of information from different modalities. As an initial step towards developing and validating an affect-driven attention bias test for goats, we aimed to identify visual stimuli perceived as potentially threatening using a looking-time paradigm. In a within-subject design, 30 adult female dwarf goats (Capra hircus) were presented with photographs of 12 animal species (six natural predators and six non-predators) from three taxa (mammals, reptiles, birds). Each image was shown for 10 seconds on one of two video screens, while the opposite screen remained white. Each goat completed four sessions (one per day) of six trials each: two sessions showing full-body and two sessions showing face/head-only images, resulting in 24 trials per subject. Analysis of relative looking duration revealed a significant interaction between animal taxon and predator category. Goats looked longer at predatory than non-predatory reptiles, while the opposite pattern was found for mammals. No difference was observed for birds. The presented body part (full body vs. face/head only) did not influence looking behaviour. These results suggest that photographs of predatory reptiles, particularly snakes, might be perceived as potentially threatening by goats, indicating their suitability as negative stimuli in future affect-driven attention bias tests. Further validation is needed to confirm their negative valence.

animal behavior and cognition↗