NDA@SZTAKI

The effect of age on visuo-spatial short-term memory in family dogs

Piotti, Patrizia

SzabĂł, DĂłra

Wallis, Lisa

Bognár, Zsófia

Stiegmann, Bianka

Egerer, Anna

Marty, Pauline

Kubinyi, Enikő

University of Cordoba

2017

QL750-QL782.5 Animal behavior / etológia, állat-viselkedéstan

Decline in the visuo-spatial memory domain may be an early marker for cognitive decline and has a relevant
impact on animal welfare. Current research on visuo-spatial memory in family dogs is often limited by
factors such as the need of extensive pre-training, limited attention to co-occurring medical conditions, a
focus on laboratory dogs, or low sample size. Therefore, we aimed to develop a test that relies on visuospatial
short-term memory, may be performed in a short time, and does not require explicit training. We
tested a large sample of young and old dogs, finding that young dogs were more likely to perform correctly,
although performance decreased with consecutive trials in both age groups. However, groups did not vary in
the severity of mistakes. This task represents the first measure of dogs’ age-related decline of short-term
spatial memory that does not require explicit training. The test could potentially be used in veterinary
behaviour contexts to monitor cognitive changes in ageing dogs, utilizing a simple binary measure of
success.

angol

Article

PeerReviewed

info:eu-repo/semantics/article

text

http://real.mtak.hu/73541/1/Piotti_2017_10130-11785-5-PB.pdf

Piotti, Patrizia and Szabó, Dóra and Wallis, Lisa and Bognár, Zsófia and Stiegmann, Bianka and Egerer, Anna and Marty, Pauline and Kubinyi, Enikő (2017) The effect of age on visuo-spatial short-term memory in family dogs. Pet Behaviour Science, 4. pp. 17-19. ISSN 2445-2874

http://real.mtak.hu/73541/