Understanding and assessing boredom in farm animals

圈养动物，包括全世界农场里的数十亿只动物，通常被关在人类可能认为“无聊”的环境中。无聊是一种不愉快的体验，会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，或者当它们经历这种情况时如何缓解，知之甚少。我之前发现，使用我开发的一种科学的无聊测量方法，与那些在“丰富”的笼子里有越来越多可变资源的水貂相比，标准农场笼子里的水貂表现出无聊状态的迹象。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恐惧的刺激。这项研究将以三个方面为基础。首先，它将通过测试这一测量是否与其他迹象相对应，包括生理唤醒的变化和人类无聊的认知变化，来确定动物是否经历了所有的无聊症状。其中一种认知变化是对时间“拖”的感知，通过要求动物在一段时间后做出反应来测试，看看它们在无聊时是否高估了时间的流逝。其次，我将首次在奶牛身上测试无聊的核心症状，即对刺激的动机增加。这将通过比较有营养物和没有营养物的小牛，以及在牧场和在不太刺激的环境中被限制在室内的牛来完成。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加以控制，并且在动物身上比在人类身上更容易加以区分。如果这一切都是真的，简单地添加任何玩具并不能防止无聊。因此，这个研究项目将增加我们对物种间无聊的基本理解，以及评估它的方法范围，与其他消极状态（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什么时候感到无聊，并继续测试减少无聊的方法的有效性，比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，即确定动物需要的刺激形式，以过上美好的生活。这样的研究可以为加拿大的农场动物管理政策提供信息，也可能应用于实验动物。它还将为农场福利评估提供有效的无聊衡量标准，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.