Understanding and assessing boredom in farm animals

圈养的动物，包括全世界农场饲养的数十亿只动物，通常被安置在人类可能认为“无聊”的条件下。无聊是一种不愉快的体验，可能对人类的身心健康产生负面影响。然而，我们对动物是否会经历这种情况以及如何减轻这种情况知之甚少。我以前发现，使用我开发的无聊的科学测量方法，与那些在资源越来越多的“丰富”笼子里的貂相比，标准农场笼子里的貂表现出无聊样状态的迹象。具体来说，标准饲养的水貂对刺激表现出更高的兴趣，即使是那些通常令人不快或令人恐惧的刺激。这项研究将以三种方式为基础。首先，它将通过测试这种测量是否与其他迹象相对应来确定动物是否经历了所有的无聊症状，包括在人类无聊中看到的生理唤醒和认知变化的变化。其中一种认知变化是时间“拖”的感觉，通过要求动物在设定的时间段后做出反应来测试，看看它们是否在无聊时高估了时间的流逝。第二，我将第一次在奶牛身上测试无聊的核心症状，即刺激的动机增加。这将通过比较加富和未加富的小牛以及牧场牛与限制在刺激性较低的室内环境中的牛来完成。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，这将是更实际的用于农场福利评估。最后，我将检验人类心理学中关于无聊可能原因的假设：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。这些变量可以通过实验控制，并且在动物中比在人类中更容易区分。如果一切都是真的，简单地添加任何玩具不会防止无聊。因此，这项研究计划将增加我们对跨物种无聊的基本理解，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体可能会在何时以及何时遭受无聊，并继续测试减少无聊的方法的有效性，例如本文提出的水貂和牛的丰富和管理变化。这有助于我的长期愿景，即确定动物需要良好生活的刺激形式。这种研究可以为加拿大农场动物管理政策提供信息，也可能应用于实验室动物。它还将提供有效的无聊措施，用于农场福利评估，这对消费者越来越重要。

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.