Data from: Cross-modal recognition of familiar conspecifics in goats

When identifying other individuals, animals may match current cues with stored information about that individual from the same sensory modality. Animals may also be able to combine current information with previously acquired information from other sensory modalities, indicating that they possess complex cognitive templates of individuals that are independent of modality. We investigated whether goats (Capra hircus) possess cross-modal representations (auditory-visual) of conspecifics. We presented subjects with a recorded conspecific call broadcast equidistant between two individuals, one of which was the caller. We found that, when presented with a stablemate and another herd member, goats looked towards the caller sooner and for longer than the non-caller, regardless of caller identity. By contrast, when choosing between two herd members, other than their stablemate, goats did not show a preference to look towards the caller. Goats show cross-modal recognition of close social partners, but not of less familiar herd members. Goats may employ inferential reasoning when identifying conspecifics, potentially facilitating individual identification based on incomplete information. Understanding the prevalence of cross-modal recognition and the degree to which different sensory modalities are integrated provides insight into how animals learn about other individuals, and the evolution of animal communication.在识别其他个体时，动物可将当前感官线索与来自同一感官模态的、关于该个体的存储信息进行匹配。动物还能够将当前信息与此前通过其他感官模态获取的信息相结合，这表明它们拥有不依赖于感官模态的个体复杂认知模板。我们探究了山羊（Capra hircus）是否拥有同种个体的视听跨模态表征（cross-modal representations）。我们向受试山羊播放一段同种个体（conspecifics）的叫声，并将播放设备置于两只个体的等距位置，其中一只个体即为该叫声的发出者。我们发现，当受试山羊面对一只同群伴侣与另一名牧群成员时，无论叫声发出者的身份如何，它们朝向发出者的注视潜伏期更短、注视时长也更长。与之相对，当受试山羊需要在两只非同群伴侣的牧群成员之间进行选择时，山羊并未表现出朝向叫声发出者注视的偏好。山羊能够对亲密的社会伙伴实现跨模态识别，但无法对熟悉程度较低的牧群成员完成此类识别。山羊在识别同种个体时或会运用推理能力，这使其有可能基于不完整的信息完成个体识别。明晰跨模态识别的普遍性以及不同感官模态的整合程度，可为理解动物如何认知其他个体以及动物交流的演化历程提供重要视角。