An improved design for the spatial judgement task in domestic pigs
An improved design for the spatial judgement task in domestic pigs
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DOI：
10.1016/j.applanim.2016.11.012
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发表时间：
2017-02-01
影响因子：
2.3
通讯作者：
Puppe, Birger
中科院分区：
文献类型：
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作者：
Duepjan, Sandra;Stracke, Jenny;Puppe, Birger
公众对农场动物福利的关注需要可靠的科学工具来衡量。测量认知偏差，即，近年来，情感状态对认知过程的影响越来越重要。一个最常用于测试非人类动物认知偏差的实验设计是空间判断任务，其中动物必须根据其位置判断目标框/锅。首先，他们学会区分正强化位置和负强化位置，然后他们就会面临模棱两可的中间位置。对这些所谓的探测线索的反应被认为是受动物的情感状态的影响。家猪是欧洲最密集饲养的农场动物物种之一，目前用于评估家猪认知偏差的方法仍需改进和验证。因此，我们开发了一种改进的，可靠的设计，反复测试猪，并诱导分级反应分级探针线索。为此，我们使用了一个空间判断任务，在去/不去的范式与部分强化和轻度厌恶的负面干扰。总共有16只雌性幼年德国长白猪接受了奖励与惩罚目标框位置的辨别学习;然后在其间的三个探针位置上重复测试（四周内8次）。受试者学会区分两个参考位置，并对探针位置表现出分级反应（打开目标框的延迟）。对受试者一般行为的分析意味着可以获得关于动物状态的额外信息。受试者没有表现出学习的迹象，就探测线索的结果，但表现出稳定的反应水平在测试周2至4。总之，本文提出的设计是适合于空间判断任务的家猪。成功验证后，它可能会被用来测试情感价的判断偏差的基础上，因此可以有助于我们了解这种集约养殖物种的福利。(C)2016爱思唯尔B. V.保留所有权利。
Public concern for farm animal welfare calls for reliable scientific tools to measure it. Measuring cognitive bias, i.e., the influence of affective states on cognitive processing, has gained importance during recent years. The one most often adapted experimental design to test cognitive bias in non-human animals is the spatial judgement task, where animals must judge a goal box/pot based on its location. First, they learn to discriminate between a positively reinforced and a negatively reinforced location, and then they are confronted with ambiguous, intermediate locations. The responses to these so-called probe cues are assumed to be influenced by the animal's affective state. Current methods for the assessment of cognitive bias in domestic pigs, one of the most intensively housed farm animal species in Europe, still need to be refined and validated. Hence, we developed an improved, reliable design to test pigs repeatedly and induce graded responses to graded probe cues. For this, we used a spatial judgement task in a go/no-go paradigm with partial reinforcement and a mildly aversive negative reinforcer. A total of 16 female juvenile German Landrace pigs underwent discrimination learning of the rewarded vs. punished goal box location; this was then repeatedly tested on three probe locations in between (eight times in four weeks). The subjects learned to discriminate between the two reference locations and showed graded responses (latency to open the goal box) to the probe locations. Analyses of the subjects' general behaviour implied that additional information on the animals' state can be derived. The subjects showed no signs of learning with respect to the outcome of probe cues but exhibited stable response levels during test weeks two to four. In conclusion, the design presented in this paper is suitable for spatial judgement tasks in domestic pigs. After successful validation it might be used for testing affective valence based on judgement bias and hence can contribute to our understanding of the welfare of this intensively farmed species. (C) 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.