Sv: Kan hästar jävlas?
KL
Från Andrew McLean, PhD i etologi, har jobbat mer än 25 år med hästar och inlärning:
The horse also has an excellent memory although in some respects theirs is much better than ours. While our memory is affected by our recall and reasoning abilities, the memory of the horse is more stable, probably because it is unclouded by reflection.
.... the horse only retrieves memories of events and places when it is confronted with the original or similar stimuli. This makes for a much clearer and more accurate memory. Every horse person is aware of the fact that the horse knows if there is something slightly different in its environment. You could say the horse has a photographic memory.
... On the downside, the horse remembers tension and fear better than anything else.
Horses are mammals and so their learning mechanisms are similar to those of humans. Like us they are swift at trial and error learning (learning the right reaction through reward), excellent at classical conditioning (i.e. learning associations, cues or aids) and masters at habituation (getting used to things). They can also learn to generalise to stimuli, (alterations in aids) and they can even learn categories of things (based on similar physical characteristics). However according to one of the most respected researchers in this field, Professor Christine Nicol of Bristol University, experiments indicate that while horses are capable of forming categories of simular characteristics of things "there is no evidence that they can develop abstract concepts". So while there are some mental similarities that horses share with humans, there are also some important differences. Understanding these differences is central to achieving a high level of success with all horses rather than just a few.
What people erroneously consider to be examples of reasoning in their horse generally turn out to be excellent examples of trial and error learning. The pony that fiddles with the gate latch and learns to open it is a typical example. It's clever, but it isn't reasoning. It's the same process by which horses learn equitation. Horses learn to avoid pressure form the reins and legs by giving a correct response that was initially learned by trial and error. Then they learn associated cues such as seat and weight aids.