Understanding and assessing boredom in farm animals

圈养的动物，包括世界各地农场饲养的数十亿只动物，通常被关在人类可能会认为“无聊”的条件下。无聊是一种令人不快的体验，可能会对人类的身心健康产生负面影响。然而，我们对动物是否经历过这种情况，或者当它们经历这种情况时如何缓解这种情况知之甚少。我之前发现，使用我开发的一种无聊的科学测量方法，标准农场笼子里的水貂显示出类似无聊状态的迹象，与那些拥有越来越多可变资源的“丰富”笼子里的水貂相比。具体地说，标准饲养的水貂对刺激表现出更高的兴趣，即使是通常令人不快或可怕的刺激。这项研究将在三个方面建立在此基础上。首先，它将通过测试这一指标是否与其他迹象一致来确定动物是否经历了全方位的无聊症状，包括生理唤醒的变化和人类无聊时的认知变化。一种这样的认知变化是，人们认为时间在“拖拉”，通过让动物在一段设定的时间后做出反应来测试，并观察它们是否高估了无聊时流逝的时间。第二，我将第一次测试奶牛无聊的核心症状，即刺激的动力增加。这将通过比较肥沃和不肥沃的牛犊，以及牧场上的牛群和被关在室内刺激较少的环境中的牛群来实现。在这两个物种中，其他行为差异将被评估，以寻找无聊的指标，这些指标将更实用地用于农场福利评估。最后，我将测试人类心理学关于无聊的可能原因的假设：缺乏被认为有意义的活动(朝着有价值的目标努力)，缺乏对自己生活的控制，以及普遍缺乏刺激或注意力需求。这些变量在动物身上比在人类身上更容易在实验中加以控制和区分。如果这一切都是真的，那么简单地添加任何玩具都不能防止无聊。因此，这项研究计划将增加我们对不同物种的无聊的基本理解，以及评估无聊的方法范围，与其他负面状态，如恐惧和痛苦相比，这是严重缺乏的。这将为未来的研究提供基础，以确定哪些物种和个人可能在何时遭受无聊，并继续测试减少无聊的方法的有效性，例如这里为水貂和牛提出的丰富和管理变化。这有助于我的长期愿景，即确定动物拥有美好生活所需的刺激形式。这样的研究可以为加拿大管理农场动物的政策提供参考，也可能应用于实验室动物。它还将提供经过验证的无聊衡量标准，用于农场福利评估，这对消费者来说越来越重要。

Captive animals, including the billions kept on farms worldwide, are often housed in conditions humans might consider `boring'. Boredom is experienced as unpleasant and can have negative physical and mental health consequences in humans. However, we know very little about whether animals experience this, or how to alleviate it when they do. I previously found, using a scientific measure of boredom I developed, that mink in standard farm cages showed signs of boredom-like states compared to those in "enriched" cages with more and more variable resources. Specifically, standard-housed mink displayed elevated interest in stimuli, even ones that would typically be unpleasant or frightening. This research will build on that in three ways. First, it will determine whether animals experience the full range of boredom symptoms by testing whether this measure corresponds with other signs, including changes in physiological arousal and cognitive changes seen in human boredom. One such cognitive change is the perception that time is `dragging', to be tested by asking animals to perform a response after a set time period and seeing if they overestimate the time passing when bored. Second, for the first time, I will test for the core symptom of boredom, increased motivation for stimuli, in dairy cattle. This will be done by comparing calves with and without enrichment, and cattle while at pasture versus when they are confined indoors in a less stimulating environment. In both species, other behavioural differences will be assessed to look for indicators of boredom that would be more practical for use in on-farm welfare assessment. Finally, I will test hypotheses from human psychology about possible causes of boredom: lack of activities perceived as meaningful (working towards valued goals), lack of control over their own lives, and general lack of stimulation or attentional demands. These variables can be experimentally controlled and distinguished from one another in animals more easily than in humans. If all are true, simply adding any toys will not prevent boredom. This research programme will thus increase our fundamental understanding of boredom across species and the range of methods for assessing it, which is severely lacking compared to other negative states such as fear and pain. This will provide a basis for future research to determine which species and individuals are likely to suffer from boredom and when, and to continue testing the effectiveness of ways of reducing boredom such as the enrichments and management changes proposed here for mink and cattle. This contributes to my long-term vision of identifying forms of stimulation that animals need to have good lives. Such research can inform Canadian policy for management of farm animals, with possible applications to laboratory animals as well. It will also provide validated measures of boredom to use in on-farm welfare assessments, which are increasingly important to consumers.