A promising novel judgement bias test to evaluate affective states in dogs (Canis familiaris)

2022 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carlotta Burani ◽  
Annalisa Pelosi ◽  
Paola Valsecchi
Keyword(s):  
Canis Familiaris ◽  
Affective States ◽  
Judgement Bias

scholarly journals Temperament, Plasticity, and Emotions in Defensive Behaviour of Paca (Mammalia, Hystricognatha)

Animals ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 293
Author(s):  
Selene S. C. Nogueira ◽  
Sérgio L. G. Nogueira-Filho ◽  
José M. B. Duarte ◽  
Michael Mendl
Keyword(s):  
Conservation Status ◽  
Behavioural Plasticity ◽  
Affective States ◽  
Defensive Behaviour ◽  
Rapid Adaptation ◽  
Behavioural Responses ◽  
Judgement Bias ◽  
Temperament Dimension ◽  
Ambiguous Cue

Within a species, some individuals are better able to cope with threatening environments than others. Paca (Cuniculus paca) appear resilient to over-hunting by humans, which may be related to the behavioural plasticity shown by this species. To investigate this, we submitted captive pacas to temperament tests designed to assess individual responses to short challenges and judgement bias tests (JBT) to evaluate individuals’ affective states. Results indicated across-time and context stability in closely correlated “agitated”, “fearful” and “tense” responses; this temperament dimension was labelled “restless”. Individual “restless” scores predicted responses to novelty, although not to simulated chasing and capture by humans in a separate modified defence test battery (MDTB). Restless animals were more likely to show a greater proportion of positive responses to an ambiguous cue during JBT after the MDTB. Plasticity in defensive behaviour was inferred from changes in behavioural responses and apparently rapid adaptation to challenge in the different phases of the MDTB. The results indicate that both temperament and behavioural plasticity may play a role in influencing paca responses to risky situations. Therefore, our study highlights the importance of understanding the role of individual temperament traits and behavioural plasticity in order to better interpret the animals’ conservation status and vulnerabilities.

scholarly journals Personality traits affecting judgement bias task performance in dogs (Canis familiaris)

2018 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Shanis Barnard ◽  
Deborah L. Wells ◽  
Adam D. S. Milligan ◽  
Gareth Arnott ◽  
Peter G. Hepper
Keyword(s):  
Personality Traits ◽  
Task Performance ◽  
Canis Familiaris ◽  
Judgement Bias

scholarly journals Environmental Complexity, but Not Stocking Density, Positively Impacts Affective States of Broiler Chickens

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
M.G. Anderson ◽  
A.M. Campbell ◽  
A. Crump ◽  
G. Arnott ◽  
L. Jacobs
Keyword(s):  
Broiler Chickens ◽  
Environmental Enrichment ◽  
Resource Competition ◽  
Affective State ◽  
Stocking Density ◽  
Food Motivation ◽  
Affective States ◽  
Environmental Complexity ◽  
Welfare Benefits ◽  
Judgement Bias

Abstract Affective state can bias an animal’s judgement. Animals in positive affective states can interpret ambiguous cues more positively (“optimistically”) than animals in negative affective states. Thus, judgement bias tests can determine an animal’s affective state through their responses to ambiguous cues. We tested the effects of environmental complexity and stocking density on affective states of broiler chickens through a multimodal judgement bias test. Broilers were trained to approach reinforced locations signaled by one color and not to approach unreinforced locations signaled by a different color. Trained birds were tested for latencies to approach three ambiguous cues of intermediate color and location. Broilers discriminated between cues, with shorter latencies to approach ambiguous cues closest to the reinforced cue than cues closest to the unreinforced cue, validating the use of the test in this context. Broilers housed in high-complexity pens approached ambiguous cues faster than birds in low-complexity pens­–an optimistic judgement bias, suggesting the former were in a more positive affective state. Broilers from high-density pens tended to approach all cues faster than birds from low-density pens, possibly because resource competition in their home pen increased food motivation. Overall, our study suggests that environmental complexity improves broilers’ affective states, implying animal welfare benefits of environmental enrichment.

scholarly journals Housing and personality effects on judgement and attention biases in dairy cows

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Louise Kremer ◽  
Jacinta D. Bus ◽  
Laura E. Webb ◽  
Eddie A. M. Bokkers ◽  
Bas Engel ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Principal Component Analysis ◽  
Dairy Cattle ◽  
Dairy Cows ◽  
Reference Conditions ◽  
Principal Component ◽  
Interactive Effects ◽  
Housing Conditions ◽  
Affective States ◽  
Novel Object ◽  
Judgement Bias

AbstractAffective states can be inferred from responses to ambiguous and threatening stimuli, using Judgement Bias Tasks (JBTs) and Attention Bias Tasks (ABTs). We investigated the separate and interactive effects of personality and housing conditions on dairy cattle affective states. We assessed personality in 48 heifers using Open-Field, Novel-Object and Runway tests. Personality effects on responses to the JBT and to the ABT were examined when heifers were housed under reference conditions. Heifers were subsequently housed under positive or negative conditions, and housing effects on animal responses in both tasks were investigated while controlling for personality. A Principal Component Analysis revealed three personality traits labelled Activity, Fearfulness and Sociability. Under reference conditions, personality influenced heifers’ responses to the JBT and to the ABT, therefore questioning the tasks’ generalizability across individuals. Against expectations, housing did not influence responses to the  JBT and heifers in the negative conditions looked at the threat later than heifers in the positive or reference conditions. More research is warranted to confirm the validity and the repeatability of the JBT and of the ABT as appropriate measures of affective states in dairy cows.

scholarly journals Pair housing makes calves more optimistic

2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Katarína Bučková ◽  
Marek Špinka ◽  
Sara Hintze
Keyword(s):  
Discrimination Task ◽  
Dairy Calves ◽  
Affective States ◽  
Negative Effects ◽  
Individual Housing ◽  
Learning Speed ◽  
Judgement Bias ◽  
Operant Task ◽  
Subsequent Discrimination ◽  
Learning Performances

AbstractIndividual housing of dairy calves is common farm practice, but has negative effects on calf welfare. A compromise between practice and welfare may be housing calves in pairs. We compared learning performances and affective states as assessed in a judgement bias task of individually housed and pair-housed calves. Twenty-two calves from each housing treatment were trained on a spatial Go/No-go task with active trial initiation to discriminate between the location of a teat-bucket signalling either reward (positive location) or non-reward (negative location). We compared the number of trials to learn the operant task (OT) for the trial initiation and to finish the subsequent discrimination task (DT). Ten pair-housed and ten individually housed calves were then tested for their responses to ambiguous stimuli positioned in-between the positive and negative locations. Housing did not affect learning speed (OT: F1,35 = 0.39, P = 0.54; DT: F1,19  = 0.15, P = 0.70), but pair-housed calves responded more positively to ambiguous cues than individually housed calves (χ21 = 6.79, P = 0.009), indicating more positive affective states. This is the first study to demonstrate that pair housing improves the affective aspect of calf welfare when compared to individual housing.

scholarly journals Pair-bonding influences affective state in a monogamous fish species

2019 ◽  
Vol 286 (1904) ◽  
pp. 20190760 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chloé Laubu ◽  
Philippe Louâpre ◽  
François-Xavier Dechaume-Moncharmont
Keyword(s):  
Reproductive Success ◽  
Fish Species ◽  
Early Stage ◽  
Affective State ◽  
Pair Bonding ◽  
Affective States ◽  
Monogamous Species ◽  
Judgement Bias ◽  
Negative Affective State ◽  
Human Specific

In humans, affective states are a key component in pair-bonding, particularly in the early stage of a relationship. Pairing with a high-quality partner elicits positive affective states which, in turn, validate and reinforce the mate choice. Affective states thus strongly affect pair stability and future reproductive success. We propose generalizing the link between affective states and pair-bonding to encompass other monogamous species exhibiting biparental care, chiefly where the reproductive success of the pair critically depends on the coordination between partners. The convict cichlid Amatitlania siquia is a monogamous fish species that forms long-lasting pairs with strong cooperation between parents for parental care. In this species, we showed that females paired with their non-preferred male had lower reproductive success than those paired with their preferred male. We then transposed the judgement bias paradigm, previously used in other animal species, to assess objectively affective states in fishes. Females that were assigned their non-preferred partner exhibited pessimistic bias, which indicates a negative affective state. By contrast, females that were assigned their preferred partner did not exhibit changes in their affective state. Our results highlight that the influence of pair-bonding on affective states is not human-specific and can also be observed in non-human species.

scholarly journals Pharmacological manipulations of judgement bias: a systematic review and meta-analysis

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vikki Neville ◽  
Shinichi Nakagawa ◽  
Josefina Zidar ◽  
Elizabeth S. Paul ◽  
Malgorzata Lagisz ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Systematic Review ◽  
Adverse Effects ◽  
Meta Analysis ◽  
Affective State ◽  
Affective States ◽  
Moderating Factors ◽  
Judgement Bias ◽  
Animal Welfare Science ◽  
Using Data ◽  
Pharmacological Manipulations

AbstractValidated measures of animal affect are crucial to research spanning a number of disciplines including neuroscience, psychopharmacology, and animal welfare science. Judgement bias, which assesses decision-making under ambiguity, is a promising measure of animal affect. One way of validating this measure is to induce affective states using pharmacological manipulations and determine whether the predicted judgement biases are observed. Here, we conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis using data from 19 published research articles that use this approach from which 440 effect sizes were extracted. The results of the meta-analysis suggest that pharmacological manipulations overall altered judgement bias as predicted. However, there were several moderating factors including the neurobiological target of the drug, whether the drug was hypothesised to induce a relatively positive or negative affective state, dosage, and the presented cue. This may partially reflect interference from adverse effects of the drug, such as sedation. Thus, while judgement bias can be used to measure pharmacologically-induced affective states, potential adverse effects of the drug should be considered when interpreting results.

scholarly journals Developing a feasible and sensitive judgement bias task in dairy cows

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Louise Kremer ◽  
Cornelius G. van Reenen ◽  
Bas Engel ◽  
Eddie A. M. Bokkers ◽  
Sabine K. Schnabel ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Dairy Cows ◽  
Electric Shock ◽  
Response Patterns ◽  
Age Group ◽  
Affective States ◽  
Repeated Testing ◽  
Judgement Bias

AbstractJudgement bias tasks (JBTs) are used to assess the influence of farm practices on livestock affective states. The tasks must be adjusted to the species and age group of focus. In cattle, most JBTs were designed for calves instead of adult cows. This study aimed to develop a JBT suitable for adult dairy cows, combining feasibility, validity, sensitivity and repeatability. Three JBTs were developed in which cows were trained to reach or avoid reaching a feeder, the location of which signalled a reward or punisher. The tasks differed in terms of punisher—cows being allocated either to “no-reward”, an air puff or an electric shock. Cows were then exposed twice to three ambiguous positions of the feeder, on two separate occasions. Speed of learning and proportions of correct responses to the conditioned locations were used to assess the feasibility of the task. Adjusted latencies to reach the ambiguous feeder positions were used to examine whether response patterns matched the linear and monotonic graded pattern expected in a valid and sensitive JBT at baseline. Latencies to reach the feeders in the two repeated testing sessions were compared to assess ambiguity loss over tasks’ repetitions. The validity of using spatial JBTs for dairy cows was demonstrated. While the effect on JBT feasibility was nuanced, the punisher did influence JBT sensitivity. None of the JBTs’ repeatability could be supported. We conclude that using an air puff as punisher led to the most sensitive, yet non-repeatable—BT for dairy cows.

scholarly journals Pair housing makes calves more optimistic

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Katarína Bučková ◽  
Marek Špinka ◽  
Sara Hintze
Keyword(s):  
Discrimination Task ◽  
Dairy Calves ◽  
Affective States ◽  
Negative Effects ◽  
Individual Housing ◽  
Learning Speed ◽  
Judgement Bias ◽  
Operant Task ◽  
Subsequent Discrimination ◽  
Learning Performances

AbstractIndividual housing of dairy calves is common farm practice, but has negative effects on calf welfare. A compromise between practice and welfare may be housing calves in pairs. We compared learning performances and affective states as assessed in a judgement bias task of individually housed and pair-housed calves. Twenty-two calves from each housing treatment were trained on a spatial Go/No-go task with active trial initiation to discriminate between the location of a teat-bucket signalling either reward (positive location) or non-reward (negative location). We compared the number of trials to learn the operant task (OT) for the trial initiation and to finish the subsequent discrimination task (DT). Ten pair-housed and ten individually housed calves were then tested for their responses to ambiguous stimuli positioned in-between the positive and negative locations. Housing did not affect learning speed (OT: F1,34 = 0.42, P = 0.52; DT: F1,34 = 0.25, P = 0.62), but pair-housed calves responded more positively to ambiguous cues than individually housed calves (χ21 = 6.76, P = 0.009), indicating more positive affective states. This is the first study to demonstrate that pair housing improves the affective aspect of calf welfare when compared to individual housing.

scholarly journals Assessing and Enhancing the Welfare of Animals with Equivocal and Reliable Cues

Animals ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (9) ◽  
pp. 680
Author(s):  
Jason V. Watters ◽  
Bethany L. Krebs
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Cognitive Bias ◽  
Affective State ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Reward Sensitivity ◽  
Affective States ◽  
Judgement Bias ◽  
Anticipatory Behavior ◽  
Human Care ◽  
Decision Making Behavior

The actions of human caretakers strongly influence animals living under human care. Here, we consider how intentional and unintentional signals provided by caretakers can inform our assessment of animals’ well-being as well as help to support it. Our aim is to assist in further developing techniques to learn animals’ affective state from their behavior and to provide simple suggestions for how animal caretakers’ behavior can support animal welfare. We suggest that anticipatory behavior towards expected rewards is related to decision-making behavior as viewed through the cognitive bias lens. By considering the predictions of the theories associated with anticipatory behavior and cognitive bias, we propose to use specific cues to probe the cumulative affective state of animals. Additionally, our commentary draws on the logic of reward sensitivity and judgement bias theories to develop a framework that suggests how reliable and equivocal signals may influence animals’ affective states. Application of this framework may be useful in supporting the welfare of animals in human care.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document