Animal Behaviour and Management
Online ISSN : 2424-1776
Print ISSN : 1880-2133
ISSN-L : 1880-2133
Original article
Discrimination of smiling human face images from neutral expression in the jungle crow, Corvus macrorhynchos
Bezawork A. BOGALEMasato AOYAMAShoei SUGITA
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JOURNAL FREE ACCESS

2018 Volume 54 Issue 2 Pages 75-83

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Abstract

We investigated whether jungle crows can discriminate facial expressions using photographs of human faces in a two-alternative discrimination task. Crows were first trained to discriminate between two sets of photographs of different individuals, one smiling and the other with neutral expression. Then, crows were tested with two sets of novel photographs one smiling and the other with neutral expression. Our result showed that four out of the six crows selected the novel smiling faces significantly more often than expected by chance. In the subsequent tests, where training stimuli were presented to the crows showing same facial expression, both smiling and both neutral, all crows significantly discriminated the previously rewarded identity. However, all crows failed to discriminate the smiling face when an individual face used in training varied only in its emotional expression. These results suggest that crows can be trained to discriminate different individuals smiling faces from neutral expressions and transfer smiling expression to novel identities. In addition, although discrimination of identity was not affected by variation in emotional expression, discrimination of emotional expression was poor when using same identity; supporting the shared ability of asymmetrical pattern of identity and emotion processing in human and non-human animals.

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© 2018 Japanese Society of Livestock Managemment
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