Can we use starlings' aversion to eyespots as the basis for a novel 'cognitive bias' task?
Can we use starlings' aversion to eyespots as the basis for a novel 'cognitive bias' task?
复制标题
DOI：
10.1016/j.applanim.2009.02.015
复制
发表时间：
2009-05-01
影响因子：
2.3
通讯作者：
Bateson, Melissa
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Brilot, Ben O.;Normandale, Clare L.;Bateson, Melissa
在人类身上的实验表明，情绪(情感)状态的变化会导致信息处理过程中的适应性变化，这种变化被称为“认知偏差”。例如，焦虑和抑郁的状态已被证明与对介于积极和消极结果之间的刺激之间的模糊刺激的“悲观”判断有关。这一现象为客观评估动物的情绪状态提供了一种很有前途的方法，并已在初步研究中得到成功证明。然而，产生这些结果的实验需要广泛的培训，以建立必要的积极和消极联系。在这里，我们提出了一个实验，使用对眼点刺激的反应，这些刺激对许多鸟类来说是自然厌恶的，不需要明确的联想训练。我们通过播放四种可能的声音中的一种来操纵野生捕获的欧洲八哥(Sturnus Common Garis)的状态：八哥的“威胁叫声”(控制操纵)、雀鹰的叫声(即捕食者)、八哥的警报叫声或白噪音，假设后三种声音会引起焦虑。在听觉刺激后，我们立即记录了鸟类在三种视觉刺激下的行为：视点、模棱两可的视点或没有视点。我们假设，鸟类的状态和它们对视点的反应之间会有相互作用，鸟类在焦虑时会对模糊的视点表现出更强的厌恶。我们发现有证据表明，白噪音和警报信号会引起焦虑，而且视点是令人厌恶的。然而，状态和对眼点的反应之间没有交互作用。为了理解我们未能获得预测的认知偏差，我们讨论了眼点的厌恶性质不是由于捕食者的模仿，因此不受焦虑调节的证据。(C)2009爱思唯尔B.V.保留所有权利。
Experiments in humans have shown that changes in emotional (affective) state Cause adaptive changes in the processing of incoming information, termed "cognitive bias". For instance, the states of anxiety and depression have been shown to be associated with "pessimistic" judgements of ambiguous stimuli intermediate between stimuli associated with positive and negative outcomes. This phenomenon provides a promising method for objectively assessing animal emotional states and has been successfully demonstrated in preliminary studies. However, the experiments yielding these results required extensive training to establish the necessary positive and negative associations. Here we present an experiment using responses to eyespot stimuli that are naturally aversive to many bird species, and require no explicit associative training. We manipulated the state of wild-caught European starlings (Sturnus vulgaris) by playing one of four possible sounds: starling "threat call" (control manipulation), a sparrowhawk call (i.e. predator), starling alarm call or white noise, on the assumption that the latter three sounds would cause anxiety. Immediately following the auditory stimulus, we recorded the birds' behaviour in the presence of each of three visual stimuli: eyespots, ambiguous eyespots or no eyespots. We hypothesised that there would be an interaction between the state of the birds and their response to eyespots, with birds showing enhanced aversion to ambiguous eyespots when anxious. We found evidence that white noise and alarm calls generated anxiety, and that eyespots were aversive. However, there was no interaction between state and response to eyespots. In an attempt to understand our failure to obtain the predicted cognitive bias, we discuss evidence that the aversive nature of eyespots is not attributable to predator mimicry, and is therefore not modulated by anxiety. (c) 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.