| Title |
Mule cognition: a case of hybrid vigour?
|
|---|---|
| Published in |
Animal Cognition, July 2008
|
| DOI | 10.1007/s10071-008-0172-1 |
| Pubmed ID | |
| Authors |
Leanne Proops, Faith Burden, Britta Osthaus |
| Abstract |
This study compares the behaviour of the mule (Equus asinus x Equus caballus) with that of its parent species to assess the effects of hybridization on cognition. Six mules, six ponies (E. caballus) and six donkeys (E. asinus) were given a two choice visual discrimination learning task. Each session consisted of 12 trials and pass level was reached when subjects chose the correct stimulus for at least 9 out of the 12 trials in three consecutive sessions. A record was made of how many pairs each subject learnt over 25 sessions. The mules' performance was significantly better than that of either of the parent species (Kruskal-Wallis: H(x) = 8.11, P = 0.017). They were also the only group to learn enough pairs to be able to show a successive reduction in the number of sessions required to reach criterion level. This study provides the first empirical evidence that the improved characteristics of mules may be extended from physical attributes to cognitive function. |
X Demographics
The data shown below were collected from the profiles of 5 X users who shared this research output. Click here to find out more about how the information was compiled.
Geographical breakdown
| Country | Count | As % |
|---|---|---|
| Curaçao | 1 | 20% |
| United States | 1 | 20% |
| Dominican Republic | 1 | 20% |
| Unknown | 2 | 40% |
Demographic breakdown
| Type | Count | As % |
|---|---|---|
| Members of the public | 3 | 60% |
| Scientists | 2 | 40% |
Mendeley readers
The data shown below were compiled from readership statistics for 81 Mendeley readers of this research output. Click here to see the associated Mendeley record.
Geographical breakdown
| Country | Count | As % |
|---|---|---|
| United States | 4 | 5% |
| Hungary | 2 | 2% |
| Germany | 1 | 1% |
| Austria | 1 | 1% |
| Unknown | 73 | 90% |
Demographic breakdown
| Readers by professional status | Count | As % |
|---|---|---|
| Researcher | 15 | 19% |
| Student > Ph. D. Student | 12 | 15% |
| Student > Bachelor | 10 | 12% |
| Other | 10 | 12% |
| Student > Master | 8 | 10% |
| Other | 11 | 14% |
| Unknown | 15 | 19% |
| Readers by discipline | Count | As % |
|---|---|---|
| Agricultural and Biological Sciences | 35 | 43% |
| Veterinary Science and Veterinary Medicine | 10 | 12% |
| Psychology | 7 | 9% |
| Medicine and Dentistry | 3 | 4% |
| Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology | 2 | 2% |
| Other | 4 | 5% |
| Unknown | 20 | 25% |
Attention Score in Context
This research output has an Altmetric Attention Score of 6. This is our high-level measure of the quality and quantity of online attention that it has received. This Attention Score, as well as the ranking and number of research outputs shown below, was calculated when the research output was last mentioned on 10 January 2019.
All research outputs
#6,192,470
of 25,286,324 outputs
Outputs from Animal Cognition
#811
of 1,552 outputs
Outputs of similar age
#26,599
of 94,872 outputs
Outputs of similar age from Animal Cognition
#6
of 10 outputs
Altmetric has tracked 25,286,324 research outputs across all sources so far. Compared to these this one has done well and is in the 75th percentile: it's in the top 25% of all research outputs ever tracked by Altmetric.
So far Altmetric has tracked 1,552 research outputs from this source. They typically receive a lot more attention than average, with a mean Attention Score of 36.2. This one is in the 47th percentile – i.e., 47% of its peers scored the same or lower than it.
Older research outputs will score higher simply because they've had more time to accumulate mentions. To account for age we can compare this Altmetric Attention Score to the 94,872 tracked outputs that were published within six weeks on either side of this one in any source. This one has gotten more attention than average, scoring higher than 71% of its contemporaries.
We're also able to compare this research output to 10 others from the same source and published within six weeks on either side of this one. This one has scored higher than 4 of them.