Self-controlled visual discrimination learning of group-housed dwarf goats (Capra hircus): behavioral strategies and effects of relocation on learning and memory

In most studies on animal learning, individual animals are tested separately in a specific learning environment and with a limited number of trials per day. An alternative approach is to test animals in a familiar environment in their social group. In this study, the authors--applying a fully automated learning device--investigated voluntary, self-controlled visual shape discrimination learning of group-housed dwarf goats (Capra hircus). The majority of the tested goats showed successful shape discrimination, which indicates the adaptive value of an effective learning strategy. However, in each group, a few individual goats developed behavioral strategies different from shape discrimination to get reward. Relocation impairs memory retrieval (probably by attention shifting) only temporarily for previously learnt shapes. The results demonstrate the usefulness of a self-controlled learning paradigm to assess learning abilities of social species in their normal social settings. This may be especially relevant for captive animals to improve their welfare.