Do cattle (Bos taurus) retain an association of a visual cue with a food reward for a year?
Do cattle (Bos taurus) retain an association of a visual cue with a food reward for a year?
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牛（Bos taurus）是否会在一年内保留视觉提示与食物奖励的关联？
DOI：
10.1111/asj.12210
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发表时间：
2014
影响因子：
2
通讯作者：
Nozomi Takeno
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Masahiko Hirata;Nozomi Takeno
利用视觉线索从远处定位特定的食物资源是动物在空间异质环境中觅食的关键能力。然而，对于动物在没有强化的情况下能够保留习得的提示-奖励关联多长时间，人们知之甚少。我们比较了经验丰富的日本黑牛和天真的日本黑牛（Bos taurus）在牧场中寻找食物位置时的摄食行为。有经验的动物在实验前一年就已经接受过训练，能够对视觉提示（塑料洗衣盆）做出反应，以选择首选食物（谷物浓缩物），而天真的动物则没有接触过该提示。连续三天（第 1-3 天）在测试场（包括装满浓缩物的桶）中对奶牛进行单独测试。经验丰富的奶牛在第一天比新手奶牛更快地找到第一个料盆，访问的料盆也更多（通常 P< 0.05），但这些差异在第 2 天和第 3 天消失。有经验的奶牛的表现往往从第 1 天到第 2 天有所提高，然后趋于平稳。我们的结果表明，日本黑牛可以在一天之内将视觉提示与食物奖励联系起来，并且尽管略有衰退，但仍能保持这种联系一年。
Use of visual cues to locate specific food resources from a distance is a critical ability of animals foraging in a spatially heterogeneous environment. However, relatively little is known about how long animals can retain the learned cue–reward association without reinforcement. We compared feeding behavior of experienced and naive Japanese Black cows (Bos taurus) in discovering food locations in a pasture. Experienced animals had been trained to respond to a visual cue (plastic washtub) for a preferred food (grain‐based concentrate) 1 year prior to the experiment, while naive animals had no exposure to the cue. Cows were tested individually in a test arena including tubs filled with the concentrate on three successive days (Days 1–3). Experienced cows located the first tub more quickly and visited more tubs than naive cows on Day 1 (usuallyP< 0.05), but these differences disappeared on Days 2 and 3. The performance of experienced cows tended to increase from Day 1 to Day 2 and level off thereafter. Our results suggest that Japanese Black cows can associate a visual cue with a food reward within a day and retain the association for 1 year despite a slight decay.