白绒山羊和美利奴羊对颜色和左右空间的认知识别能力的差异性研究

The Difference between White Cashmere Goats and Merino Sheep in Cognitive Abilities for Visual and Spatial Discriminations

旨在探索白绒山羊对颜色和左右空间的认知识别能力,并与中国美利奴羊(军垦型)进行比较。本研究选取年龄(约8月龄)、体重相近的白绒山羊和中国美利奴羊各6只作为测试对象,采用羊认知功能行为学测试方法-"视觉认知识别及颠倒测试"和"空间认知识别及颠倒测试"比较了两者对颜色以及对左右空间的识别认知和记忆能力。研究发现,两组羊在本研究的48次颜色的简单认知识别测试中都没有达到75%的正确率,因此两组羊在本试验中均没有学会对颜色的简单认知识别,但都学会了左右空间的认知识别以及颠倒转换识别,且两组差异显著(P<0.05),尤其是在颠倒转换识别中,山羊学得更快且犯错误次数更少。结果表明,与中国美利奴羊相比,白绒山羊在更复杂的压力环境中能更迅速建立正确的左右空间认知识别。本研究探索了羊的认知识别行为,并为品种与羊认知学习能力的相关性研究提供重要的参考价值。

The present study aimed to assess the cognitive capacity for color and space of White Cashmere goats as well as their comparison with Chinese Merino sheep. The cognitive function of 6 White Cashmere goats and 6 Chinese Merino sheep with similar age （about 8 months old） and body weight were tested by the visual discriminations and reversal test and spatial maze Y test and reversal test methods in this study. The results showed that the animals in the two groups did not reach the correct rate of 75% in the 48 tests of color simple cognitive recognition in this study, therefore, the animals in the two groups did not learn to recognize the color easily in this experiment, but they all learned the cognitive recognition for the left and right space and the re versal recognition, and there was significant difference between the two groups （P〈0.05）. The group of White Cashmere goats performed better in reverse spatial discrimination, the faster learning and fewer mistakes made. These results suggested that, compared with sheep, under the more complex environment, goats could establish the correct left and right spatial cognition recognition more quickly. This study explored the cognitive recognition behavior of sheep and goat, and provided important reference for the study of the correlation between the sheep and goats and their cognitive learning ability.