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Cited by 4Marine animal studies overviewPrimate Behavior and EcologyChild and Animal Learning Development

Bottlenose dolphins are sensitive to human attentional features, including eye functionality

Open access
Davies, James R., Garcia-Pelegrin, Elias·2023·Scientific Reports
DOI 10.1038/s41598-023-39031-7PMC PMC10397197
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Abstract

The ability to attribute attentional states to other individuals is a highly adaptive socio-cognitive skill and thus may have evolved in many social species. However, whilst humans excel in this ability, even chimpanzees appear to not accurately understand how visual attention works, particularly in regard to the function of eyes. The complex socio-ecological background and socio-cognitive skill-set of bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops sp.), alongside the specialised training that captive dolphins typically undergo, make them an especially relevant candidate for an investigation into their sensitivity to human attentional states. Therefore, we tested 8 bottlenose dolphins on an object retrieval task. The dolphins were instructed to fetch an object by a trainer under various attentional state conditions involving the trainer’s eyes and face orientation: ‘not looking’, ‘half looking’, ‘eyes open’, and ‘eyes closed’. As the dolphins showed an increased latency to retrieve the object in conditions where the trainer’s head and eyes cued a lack of attention to the dolphin, particularly when comparing ‘eyes open’ vs ‘eyes closed’ conditions, we demonstrate that dolphins can be sensitive to human attentional features, namely the functionality of eyes. This study supports growing evidence that dolphins possess highly complex cognitive abilities, particularly those in the social domain.

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  • It could be argued that dolphins were able to generalize social information across species, demonstrating some level of episodic-like memory flexibility, although intensive training over their lifetime likely facilitated this flexibility.

    “Subsequently, it could be argued that they were able to generalize social information across species, demonstrating some level of episodic-like memory flexibility, although it is likely that the intensive training they received over their lifetime facilitated this flexibility [176].”

    From Is episodic-like memory <i>like</i> episodic memory? (2024) · cites this paper as [176]

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Research works printed but not linked: 4

  1. [21]Herman, L. M. Imitation in animals and artifacts (eds. Dautenhahn, K. & Nehaniv, C. L.) 63–108 (Boston Review, 2002).
  2. [23]Marino, L. Whales and Dolphins (eds. Brakes, P. & Simmonds, M. P.) 143–156 (Routledge, 2013).
  3. [26]Connor, R. C., Wells, R. S., Mann, J. & Read, A. J. Cetacean Societies: Field Studies of Dolphins and Whales (eds. Janet, M. et al.) 91–126 (University of Chicago Press, 2000).
  4. [55]Connor, R. C., Smolker, R. A. & Richards, A. F. Coalitions and Alliances in Humans and Other Animals (eds. Alexander, H. H. & Frans de, W.) 415–443 (Oxford University Press, 1992).

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Authors
Davies, J. R., & Garcia-Pelegrin, E.
Affiliations
University of Cambridge (GB)
Corresponding author
Davies, James R.
ORCID
Davies, James R.
Venue
Scientific Reports
Publisher
Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Published
2023-08-02
Volume
13
Issue
1
Pages
12565-12565
ISSN
2045-2322 (ISSN-L)
DOI
10.1038/s41598-023-39031-7
PMC
PMC10397197
OpenAlex
W4385480875
Cited by
4
References
59
Citations by year
2025: 1 · 2024: 3
FWCI
0.65
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Licence
Locations
  • Scientific Reports (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • Apollo (University of Cambridge) (submittedVersion, cc-by)
  • DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
Topics
  • Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Ecology › Marine animal studies overview
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Primate Behavior and Ecology
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Developmental and Educational Psychology › Child and Animal Learning Development
Keywords
Tursiops truncatus, Tursiops, human attention, gaze, visual attention, interspecies communication, dolphin cognition, social cognition
MeSH terms
Animals, Eye, Humans, Bottle-Nosed Dolphin

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