A Framework for Training Animals to Use Touchscreen Devices for Discrimination Tasks

Recent technological advances have made touchscreen devices more widely available for animal-computer interaction, but there is little consensus about methods for discrimination task training frameworks. Here we discuss the potential enrichment and communicative uses for touchscreen-based interactions as well as benefits and limitations of automated learning systems and social learning systems. We review the literature for discrimination training methods on touchscreen devices for a variety of species and discuss what we recommend as an expanded framework for cross-species discrimination training methods. This framework includes environment and device selection and setup, orientation and habituation, touchscreen shaping skills, and discrimination training. When done ethically, human-assisted animal interaction with technology can improve psychological wellbeing and cognitive enrichment through environmental choice and control, enhance human-animal relationships, and provide data collection opportunities for research.