ArticleScientific reports2017
Consistency and flexibility in solving spatial tasks: different horses show different cognitive styles.
Article in Scientific reports, 2017. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 11 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
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Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
11 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 19 citations in OpenAlex.
- A systematic review on the effect of individual characteristics and management practices on equine cognition.Animal cognition · 2025Pooled it
- Effect of horse sleep behavior on performance in a field-side spatial reversal learning test.Scientific reports · 2026Article
- Detour test performance of cloned minipigs from three different clone populations.Veterinary research communications · 2023Article
- A Pilot Study on Behavioural and Physiological Indicators of Emotions in Donkeys.Animals : an open access journal from MDPI · 2023Article
- Heart and brain: Change in cardiac entropy is related to lateralised visual inspection in horses.PloS one · 2023Article
- Interspecific two-dimensional visual discrimination of faces in horses (Equus caballus).PloS one · 2021Article
- Effects of size and personality on social learning and human-directed behaviour in horses (Equus caballus).Animal cognition · 2019Article
- Individual variation in cognitive style reflects foraging and anti-predator strategies in a small mammal.Scientific reports · 2019Article
- Physiological outcomes of calming behaviors support the resilience hypothesis in horses.Scientific reports · 2018Article
- Heritabilities and co-variation among cognitive traits in red junglefowl.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2018Article
- Human Demonstration Does Not Facilitate the Performance of Horses (Animals : an open access journal from MDPI · 2018Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
6 authors at 3 institutions in 4 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Individual animals vary in their behaviour and reactions to novel situations. These differences may extend to differences in cognition among individuals. We tested twenty-six horses for their ability to detour around symmetric and asymmetric obstacles. All of the animals were able to get around the barrier to reach a food target, but varied in their approach. Some horses moved slowly but were more accurate in choosing the shortest way. Other horses acted quickly, consistently detoured in the same direction, and did not reliably choose the shortest way. The remaining horses shifted from a faster, directionally consistent response with the symmetric barrier, to a slower but more accurate response with the asymmetric barrier. The asymmetric barrier induced a reduction in heart rate variability, suggesting that this is a more demanding task. The different approaches used to solve the asymmetric task may reflect distinct cognitive styles in horses, which vary among individuals, and could be linked to different personality traits. Understanding equine behaviour and cognition can inform horse welfare and management.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.