Pets include a wide variety of species, from carnivores with carnivores like cats to herbivores with peaches like horses. But they all have one thing in common: they have adapted to the people around them. As a result, we are dependent on our survival to provide us with food, habitat, or protection from predators.
This proximity to humans over thousands of years may have helped us develop certain cognitive abilities. Are they able to recognize us individually? Why human emotions? Do we know when we are paying attention? How do they communicate with us? These are the main questions that the scientific community is addressing. The sequel details some of the more interesting experiments with domestic mammals.
Things I Learn from Emma Watson
In recent years, numerous studies have been conducted to ensure that they are able to recognize us individually, be it by voice, skin color or face. There is evidence that dogs can be identified by color, including identifying twins living in the same house. Horses and cats recognize the voices of prominent people, and both dogs and cats, like horses and eggs, are well known to us as our own.
During an experiment at the University of Cambridge, they learned to recognize the loved ones of Emma Watson and Barack Obama. They show two black and white photographs: one of a celebrity, the other of an anonymous person. If they go for the right price, they will receive a reward. With a little practice, the following words will help you identify both.
We might think that animals remember images and do not recognize their loved ones. However, we followed Emma Watson’s walk even when her hair was different and the photo was taken from different angles. This suggests that dear people of holistic form like us recognize us. In real life, it’s unlikely they’re both fans of actress Hermione, but her dear shepherd is making sure he doesn’t forget them.
Things that color our emotions
Recent research suggests that some animals can influence human emotions. When we sweat, we release various chemicals, such as adrenaline, that vary depending on our emotional state. Some animals that have a very sensitive sense of smell, such as horses and horses, can detect these differences.
For example, in a study they sampled the sweat of various human volunteers while they watched horror films and other animated stories. They subsequently gave these sweats to twenty horses and told them their reactions. To my music, they raise their heads warily and address a familiar person, and when they extol happiness, the horses lower their heads and seem relaxed.
Various species have also been shown to perceive human emotions through facial expressions such as hair, horse and perro. The most common explanation is that pets experience emotional contagion, which is considered a primitive form of empathy.
Please note that by paying attention
In general, pets depend on humans to access courses that interest them. Therefore, it may be important for them to be able to identify the person who is most likely to give them what they need. Various studies show that they use eye contact as a determining factor.
Scientists at Martin-Luther University in Germany wondered whether some people are able to tell when a person is paying attention. During the experiment, they found that these animals preferred to approach the experimenter, who was holding his head and looking at him, before the other, who was holding him. Yes, this is a preference only if the animals’ movements were stopped and not carried out impulsively.
For those who attach greater importance to our gestures
Anyone who has spent enough time with a friend knows that they are capable of understanding our words and gestures. We can talk to them about how they feel, how they fall, or how they look when we think about it. But where do we use conflicting signals? It’s clear that we made the “come” gesture, but tenths were heard. The University of Naples demonstrated that most people prefer to obey gestures, which suggests that for them visual information is more important than auditory information.
In particular, science has studied in detail whether pets can interpret our signal gesture. If you have tried feeding cats, pears, hurons, goats and turkeys, with varying results. Perrault understands the gesture better than anyone, but their arms and legs are worse.
Cables that communicate with Mirada
Pets use different signals to communicate with the people they depend on. Cats sang in a special way when they wanted to call the mimes of their dueño; pears change their facial expression when they notice that we are paying attention to them; and horses, pears and goats use their purpose to achieve what they want.
At Queen Mary University in London, a couple of people were sent on an impossible task: food was placed under a transparent plastic box tied to the ground, which turned out to be inaccessible. At first, the cables try to lift the kakha without bringing it to the end. Next, if the experimenter was watching, they alternately look at the camera and then at the experimenter, as if to say: “Sorry, I need help with this.” On the other hand, such behavior did not occur to the researcher, so it is likely that the animals were actually trying to communicate.
The science that studies the relationship between pets and people is also very recent and is in the early stages of its development. There are animals, such as donkeys and cones, about which only information is needed. Nowadays, it is possible that there are many rescued animals that are also capable of recognizing our loved ones, emotions and gestures that spend time with people, but we have not studied them due to their little interaction with us.
And yet you have a question that remains unresolved: is domestication what endowed these animals with cognitive abilities that are related to or endowed with the saving species of those who set about breeding them?
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