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| title | chunk | source | category | tags | date_saved | instance |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cooperative pulling paradigm | 7/10 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cooperative_pulling_paradigm | reference | science, encyclopedia | 2026-05-05T09:49:48.882099+00:00 | kb-cron |
Ostojić and Clayton administered the loose-string cooperation task to domestic dogs (Canis familiaris). Pet dogs first were given a solo task in which the string ends were close enough for one dog to pull at both. Then they were given a transfer test to assess if they could generalize their newly learned rule to novel situations. Finally, the joint task was administered. Dog pairs always came from the same household. In half of the joint tasks one of the pair of dogs was shortly delayed by an obstacle course. All dogs that learned to master the solo task solved the joint task within 60 trials. In the delayed condition, the not-delayed dog waited before pulling most of the time, but only for a few seconds. The researchers also tested dog–human pairs, again in delayed and not-delayed conditions. Dogs were equally successful when working with humans in the non-delayed condition, but far less successful when they had to wait for the human, who on average arrived with a 13-seconds longer delay than the delayed dog in the dog–dog trials. Ostojić and Clayton concluded that inhibiting the necessary action was not easy for dogs. They ruled out that dogs simply went for any moving string, as in the dog–human trials the humans did not pull hard enough to make the other end move. They attributed success to the dogs' ability to read the social cue of their partner's behavior, but could not rule out that visual feedback of seeing rewards incrementally move closer also played a role. These results with pet dogs stand in stark contrast to the results with pack dogs, which in a study by Marshall-Pescini, Schwarz, Kostelnik, Virányi, and Range rarely succeeded in obtaining food. The researchers theorized that pet dogs are trained not to engage in conflicts over resources, promoting a level of tolerance, which may facilitate cooperation. The pack dogs were used to competition over resources and thus were likely to have conflict avoidance strategies, which constrain cooperation.
==== Wolves ====
Marshall-Pescini, Schwarz, Kostelnik, Virányi, and Range set out to test two competing hypotheses regarding cooperation in wolves (Canis lupus) and dogs. On the one hand, it could be theorized that dogs have been selected, during domestication, for tame temperaments and an inclination to cooperate and therefore should outperform wolves on a cooperative pulling task. On the other hand, it could be argued that dogs have evolved to become less able to work jointly with other dogs because of their reliance on humans. Wolves rely on each other for hunting, raising young and defending their territory; dogs rarely rely on other dogs. The researchers set up a cooperative pulling task for captive wolves and pack dogs. Without any training on this task, five of the seven wolf pairs were successful at least once, but only one dog pair out of eight managed to obtain food, and only once. After solo training, again the wolves far outperformed the dogs on the joint task. The researchers concluded that the difference does not stem from a difference in understanding of the task (their cognitive capabilities are largely the same), nor from a difference in social aspects (for both species, aggressive behavior by dominant animals was rare, as was submissive behavior by lower ranked ones). More likely is that dogs avoid potential conflict over a resource more than wolves do, something which has been observed in other studies as well. The wolves, but not the dogs, were then tested in pairs in a set-up with two identical apparatus 10 meters (39 ft) apart, requiring them to coordinate in time and space. In 74% of the trials they succeeded. The stronger the bond between the partners and the smaller the distance in rank, the better they performed. In a subsequent delay condition, with the second wolf released 10 seconds after the first, most wolves did well, one being successful in 94% of trials.
==== Elephants ====