Visual Processing of Faces in Juvenile Western Lowland Gorillas without the Use of Training or Reinforcement: A Pilot Study
Cognitive research in zoos is often limited by an inability to consistently train and reinforce subjects. This feasibility study aims to address this problem by examining visual processing of faces by Western lowland gorillas (Gorilla gorilla) at a zoo in order to identify gaze patterns without any training or reward. A Tobii Pro X2-30 eye-tracker […]
Abstracts: 25th European Conference on Visual Perception
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History and future of comparative analyses in sleep research
The comparative methods of evolutionary biology are a useful tool for investigating the functions of sleep. These techniques can help determine whether experimental results, derived from a single or few species, apply broadly across a specified group of animals. In this way, comparative analysis is a powerful complement to experimentation. The variation in the time […]
“Separation/Abandonment/Isolation Trauma:” What We Can Learn From Our Nonhuman Primate Relatives
Building upon my prior work exploring the impact of childhood abandonment and isolation on chimpanzees and humans, this article discusses the relevance of nonhuman primate research to our understanding of this phenomenon in children. Both laboratory research and naturalistic studies have confirmed the strong commonalities in parenting between our 2 species and have reached similar […]
The Darwinian concept of stress: benefits of allostasis and costs of allostatic load and the trade-offs in health and disease
Why do we get the stress-related diseases we do? Why do some people have flare ups of autoimmune disease, whereas others suffer from melancholic depression during a stressful period in their life? In the present review possible explanations will be given by using different levels of analysis. First, we explain in evolutionary terms why different […]
What makes us human (Homo sapiens)? The challenge of cognitive cross-species comparison
Two major theoretical approaches have dominated the quest for uniquely human cognitive abilities: a developmentalist approach stressing the importance of environmental and social conditions, and a predominant approach in experimental and comparative psychology, the deterministic approach suggesting the effect of environmental and social conditions to be minimal. As a consequence, most claims of human cognitive […]
Relationships between pathology and pain severities: a review
The relationships between pathology severity and pain severity are reviewed using the literature available for humans. The aim is to help veterinary radiologists, physicians and pathologists recognise the disorders in which severity of a lesion is likely to be related to the severity of pain or to incipient pain. Specific features or lesions within the […]
Human Listeners Are Able to Classify Dog (Canis familiaris) Barks Recorded in Different Situations
The authors investigated whether human listeners could categorize played-back dog (Canis familiaris) barks recorded in various situations and associate them with emotional ratings. Prerecorded barks of a Hungarian herding dog breed (Mudi) provided the sample. Human listeners were asked to rate emotionality of the vocalization and to categorize the situations on the basis of alternative […]
Owner and cat features influence the quality of life of the cat
This study analysed the cathuman relationship paying attention to the quality of life (QoL) of 62 cats. QoL was assessed as being low, medium and high, using: (1) four questionnaires which investigated care, cat behaviour, cat and owner features, (2) a simple physical examination of the cat and (3) the Lexington attachment to pets scale […]
Filial attachment in sheep: Similarities and differences between ewe-lamb and human-lamb relationships
Animals develop relationships with intra- and interspecific partners, including humans. In some cases this can lead to strong emotional bonds indicating the existence of attachment. The sheep is well known to develop various forms of social attachment (mothers towards young, lambs towards siblings). The relationship they can develop with humans is much less understood. In […]