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Within the framework of her PhD Miléna has studied the cognition of domestic horses (Equus caballus). Horses have shared our lives for almost 5,500 years but we still know very little about how they perceive and understand the world that surrounds them. Her PhD studies have also investigated physical cognition in horses, and in particular whether horses are capable of object permanence (i.e., the notion that objects are independent entities that continue to exist even when the subject can no longer see them), and also their social cognition in particular in the context of the horse-human relationship. Indeed, horses share a very close relationship with humans; hence, it is likely that their social abilities and their sensitivity to the behaviour of others have been extended to humans, as has already been shown in dogs. To date Miléna has studied horses’ ability to recognize and to react appropriately to human emotions; their ability to attribute a reputation to an unknown person simply from observing a video of an interaction between that person and another horse; their ability to infer human mental states, such as a person’s knowledge or intentions.

Contact:

Miléna Trösch

Phone: 06 87 70 11 19

Mail: milena.trosch@gmail.com