Gaze Following in Ungulates: Domesticated and Non-domesticated Species Follow the Gaze of Both Humans and Conspecifics in an Experimental Context.

Ruben Holland,Alvaro L Caicoya,Federica Amici,Alina Schaffer,Conrad Ensenyat,Montserrat Colell

doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2020.604904

Abstract

Gaze following is the ability to use others’ gaze to obtain information about the environment (e.g., food location, predators, and social interactions). As such, it may be highly adaptive in a variety of socio-ecological contexts, and thus be widespread across animal taxa. To date, gaze following has been mostly studied in primates, and partially in birds, but little is known on the gaze following abilities of other taxa and, especially, on the evolutionary pressures that led to their emergence. In this study, we used an experimental approach to test gaze following skills in a still understudied taxon, ungulates. Across four species (i.e., domestic goats and lamas, and non-domestic guanacos and mouflons), we assessed the individual ability to spontaneously follow the gaze of both conspecifics and human experimenters in different conditions. In line with our predictions, species followed the model’s gaze both with human and conspecific models, but more likely with the latter. Except for guanacos, all species showed gaze following significantly more in the experimental conditions (than in the control ones). Despite the relative low number of study subjects, our study provides the first experimental evidence of gaze following skills in non-domesticated ungulates, and contributes to understanding how gaze following skills are distributed in another taxon—an essential endeavor to identify the evolutionary pressures leading to the emergence of gaze following skills across taxa.

Highlights

Gaze following is the ability of looking where others are looking (Butterworth and Jarrett, 1991; Emery et al, 1997)
High-level gaze following would imply the ability to take others’ perspective and understand what others see from their location: if the individual sees a conspecific looking in another direction, for example, it might use the conspecific’s gaze as a cue to obtain information about the environment, eventually moving around barriers to gain the conspecific’s perspective (Povinelli and Eddy, 1996)
The study subjects looked in the model’s direction more in the experimental than in the control condition in both tasks, this difference was stronger in the conspecific task

Summary

Introduction

Gaze following is the ability of looking where others are looking (Butterworth and Jarrett, 1991; Emery et al, 1997) This ability is often considered one of the most basic forms of social cognition, as it allows individuals to socially acquire relevant information about the environment (e.g., about food location, presence of predators, occurrence of social interactions among group members) (Tomasello et al, 1998, 2001) and about others’ interests and goals (Baron-Cohen, 1995). High-level gaze following would imply the ability to take others’ perspective and understand what others see from their location: if the individual sees a conspecific looking in another direction, for example, it might use the conspecific’s gaze as a cue to obtain information about the environment, eventually moving around barriers to gain the conspecific’s perspective (Povinelli and Eddy, 1996)

Objectives

Methods

Results

Conclusion