Hostname: page-component-77f85d65b8-6bnxx Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2026-04-20T07:29:49.861Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The use of judgement bias to assess welfare in farm livestock

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2023

L Baciadonna  and
AG McElligott
L Baciadonna
Affiliation:
Queen Mary University of London, Biological and Experimental Psychology, School of Biological and Chemical Sciences, Mile End Road, London E1 4NS, UK
AG McElligott
Affiliation:
Queen Mary University of London, Biological and Experimental Psychology, School of Biological and Chemical Sciences, Mile End Road, London E1 4NS, UK
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The development of accurate measures of animal emotions is important for improving and promoting animal welfare. Cognitive bias indicates the effect of emotional states on cognitive processes, such as memory, attention, and judgement. Cognitive bias tests complement existing behavioural and physiological measures for assessing the valence of animal emotions indirectly. The judgement bias test has been used to assess emotional states in non-human animals; mainly in laboratory settings. The aim of this review is to summarise the findings on the use of the judgement bias test approach in assessing emotions in non-human animals, focusing in particular on farm livestock. The evidence suggests that it is possible to manipulate affective states and induce judgement bias effects in farm livestock. In addition, the results support the effectiveness of manipulating environmental variables for inducing negative or positive affective states. However, the evidence from farm livestock does not consistently confirm the directionality of the hypotheses. The use of specific strategies to induce positive or negative judgement bias, such as the manipulation of housing conditions, could account for the inconsistency of findings. The study of cognitive processes related to emotional states in livestock has great potential to advance and improve our understanding of animal welfare.

Keywords

affective stateanimal cognitionanimal welfareemotionsoptimistic-likepessimistic-like

Information

Type
Research Article
Information
Animal Welfare , Volume 24 , Issue 1 , February 2015 , pp. 81 - 91
Copyright
© 2015 Universities Federation for Animal Welfare

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Article purchase

Temporarily unavailable

References

Barrett, LF, Mesquita, B, Ochsner, KN and Gross, JJ 2007 The experience of emotion. Annual Review of Psychology 58: 373–403. http://dx.doi.org/10.1146/annurev.psych.58.110405.085709CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Bateson, M and Matheson, SM 2007 Performance on a cate-gorisation task suggests that removal of environmental enrich-ment induces ‘pessimism’ in captive European starlings (Sturnus vulgaris). Animal Welfare 16: 33–36Google Scholar
Bateson, M, Desiré, S, Gartside, SE and Wright, GA 2011 Agitated honeybees exhibit pessimistic cognitive biases. Current Biology 21: 1070–1073. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2011.05.017CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Boissy, A and Erhard, HW 2014 How studying interaction between animal emotion, cognition, and personality can con-tribute to improve farm animal welfare. In: Grandin, T and Deesing, JM (ed) Genetics and the Behavior of Domestic Animals pp 81–113. Academic Press: CA, USA. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-394586-0.00003-2CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Boissy, A, Manteuffel, G, Jensen, MB, Moe, RO, Spruijt, B, Keeling, LJ, Winckler, C, Forkman, B, Dimitrov, I, Langbein, J, Bakken, M, Veissier, I and Aubert, A 2007 Assessment of positive emotions in animals to improve their welfare. Physiology & Behavior 92: 375–397. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.phys-beh.2007.02.003CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Boleij, H, van't Klooster, J, Lavrijsen, M, Kirchhoff, S, Arndt, SS and Ohl, F 2012 A test to identify judgement bias in mice. Behavioural Brain Research 233: 45–54. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.bbr.2012.04.039CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Briefer, EF 2012 Vocal expression of emotions in mammals: mechanisms of production and evidence. Journal of Zoology 288: 1–20. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1469-7998.2012.00920.xCrossRefGoogle Scholar
Briefer, EF and McElligott, AG 2013 Rescued goats at a sanctuary display positive mood after former neglect. Applied Animal Behaviour Science 145: 45–55. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.applanim.2013.03.007CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Briefer, EF, Tettamanti, F and McElligott, AG 2015 Emotions in goats: mapping physiological, behavioural and vocal profiles. Animal Behaviour 99: 131–143. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.anbe-hav.2014.11.002CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brilot, BO, Asher, L and Bateson, M 2010 Stereotyping star-lings are more “pessimistic”. Animal Cognition 13: 721–731. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10071-010-0323-zCrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Brilot, BO, Normandale, CL, Parkin, A and Bateson, M 2009 Can we use starlings’ aversion to eyespots as the basis for a novel ‘cognitive bias’ task? Applied Animal Behaviour Science 118: 182–190. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.applanim.2009.02.015CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brydges, NM, Hall, H, Nicolson, R, Holmes, MC and Hall, J 2012 The effects of juvenile stress on anxiety, cognitive bias and decision making in adulthood: a rat model. PLoS One 7: e48143. http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0048143CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Burgdorf, J and Panksepp, J 2006 The neurobiology of positive emotions. Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews 30: 173–187. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.neubiorev.2005.06.001CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Burman, O, McGowan, R, Mendl, M, Norling, Y, Paul, E, Rehn, T and Keeling, L 2011 Using judgement bias to measure positive affective state in dogs. Applied Animal Behaviour Science 132: 160–168. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.applanim.2011.04.001CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Burman, OHP, Parker, RMA, Paul, ES and Mendl, MT 2008a A spatial judgement task to determine background emotional state in laboratory rats, Rattus norvegicus. Animal Behaviour 76:801–809. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.anbehav.2008.02.014CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Burman, OHP, Parker, RMA, Paul, ES and Mendl, MT 2008b Sensitivity to reward loss as an indicator of animal emotion and welfare. Biology Letters 4: 330–333. http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rsbl.2008.0113CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Burman, OHP, Parker, RMA, Paul, ES and Mendl, MT 2009 Anxiety-induced cognitive bias in non-human animals. Physiology & Behavior 98: 345–350. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.phys-beh.2009.06.012CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Clore, GL and Ortony, A 2000 Cognition in emotion: always, sometimes or never? In: Lane, RD and Nadel, L (eds) Cognitive Neuroscience of Emotion pp. 24–61. Oxford University Press: Oxford, UKGoogle Scholar
Dantzer, R 2002 Can farm animal welfare be understood with-out taking into account the issues of emotion and cognition? Journal of Animal Science 80: E1–E9Google Scholar
Daros, RR, Costa, JHC, von Keyserlingk, MAG, Hötzel, MJ and Weary, DM 2014 Separation from the dam causes negative judgement bias in dairy calves. PLoS One 9: e98429. http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0098429CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Dawkins, MS 2006 A user's guide to animal welfare science. Trends in Ecology and Evolution 25: 77–82. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.tree.2005.10.017CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dawkins, MS 2008 The science of animal suffering. Ethology 114:937–945. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1439-0310.2008.01557.xCrossRefGoogle Scholar
Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs 1989 Animal Welfare: Codes of Recommendations for the Welfare of Livestock – Goats. http://archive.defra.gov.uk/foodfarm/farmani-mal/welfare/onfarm/othersps/goatcode.htmGoogle Scholar
Desiré, L, Boissy, A and Veissier, I 2002 Emotions in farm ani-mals: a new approach to animal welfare in applied ethology. Behavioural Processes 60: 165–180Google Scholar
Destrez, A, Deiss, V, Belzung, C, Lee, C and Boissy, A 2012 Does reduction of fearfulness tend to reduce pessimistic-like jud-gement in lambs. Applied Animal Behavioural Science 139: 233–241. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.applanim.2012.04.006CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Destrez, A, Deiss, V, Levy, F, Calandreau, L, Lee, C, Chaillou-Sagon, E and Boissy, A 2013 Chronic stress induces pessimistic-like judgment and learning deficits in sheep. Applied Animal Behaviour Science 148: 28–36. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.applanim.2013.07.016CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Douglas, C, Bateson, M, Walsh, C, Bédué, A and Edwards, SA 2012 Environmental enrichment induces optimistic cognitive biases in pigs. Applied Animal Behaviour Science 139: 65–73. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.applanim.2012.02.018CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Doyle, RE, Fisher, AD, Hinch, GN, Boissy, A and Lee, C 2010 Release from restraint generates a positive judgement bias in sheep. Applied Animal Behaviour Science 122: 28–34. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.applanim.2009.11.003CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Doyle, RE, Lee, C, Deiss, V, Fisher, AD, Hinch, GN and Boissy, A 2011a Measuring judgement bias and emotional reactiv-ity in sheep following long-term exposure to unpredictable and aversive events. Physiology & Behavior 102: 503–510. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.physbeh.2011.01.001CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Doyle, RE, Hinch, GN, Fisher, AD, Boissy, A, Henshall, JM and Lee, C 2011b Administration of serotonin inhibitor p-Chlorophrnylalanine induces pessimistic-like judgment bias in sheep. Psychoneuroendocrinology 36: 279–288. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.psyneuen.2010.07.018CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Duncan, IJH 1996 Animal welfare in terms of feelings. Acta Agriculturae Scandinavica 27: 29–35Google Scholar
Eysenck, MW, Mogg, K, May, J, Richards, A and Mathews, A 1991 Bias in interpretation of ambiguous sentences related to threat and anxiety. Journal of Abnormal Psychology 100: 144–150. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0021-843X.100.2.144CrossRefGoogle Scholar
FAWC 2013 Annual review 2012-2013. www.defra.gov.uk/fawc/files/Annual-Review-2012-2013.pdfGoogle Scholar
Gotlib, IH and Krasnoperova, E 1998 Biased information pro-cessing as a vulnerability factor in depression. Behavior Therapy 29:603–617. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S0005-7894(98)80020-8CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Harding, EJ, Paul, ES and Mendl, M 2004 Animal behaviour: cognitive bias and affective state. Nature 427: 312. http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/427312aCrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Haselton, MG and Nettle, D 2006 The paranoid optimist: an integrative evolutionary model of cognitive biases. Personality and Social Psychology Review 10: 47–66. http://dx.doi.org/10.1207/s 15327957pspr1001_3CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Johnson, E and Tversky, A 1983 Affect, generalization, and the perception of risk. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 45:20–31. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.45.1.20CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Keen, HA, Nelson, OL, Robbins, CT, Evans, M, Shepherdson, DJ and Newberry, RC 2013 Validation of a novel cognitive bias task based on difference in quantity of reinforcement for assessing environmental enrichment. Animal Cognition 17: 529–541. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10071-013-0684-1CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Lerner, JS and Keltner, D 2000 Beyond valence: toward a model of emotion-specific influences on judgement and choice. Cognition & Emotion 14: 473–493. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/026999300402763CrossRefGoogle Scholar
MacLeod, C, Mathews, A and Tata, P 1986 Attentional bias in emotional disorders. Journal of Abnormal Psychology 95: 15–20. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0021-843X.95.1.15CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Matheson, SM, Asher, L and Bateson, M 2008 Larger enriched cages are associated with “optimistic” response biases in captive European starlings (Sturnus vulgaris). Applied Animal Behaviour Science 109: 374–383. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.applan-im.2007.03.007CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mathews, A and MacLeod, C 1985 Selective processing of threat cues in anxiety states. Behaviour Research and Therapy 23:563–569. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/0005-7967(85)90104-4CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Mathews, A and MacLeod, C 1994 Cognitive approaches to emotion and emotional disorders. Annual Review of Psychology 45:25–50. http://dx.doi.org/10.1146/annurev.ps.45.020194.000325CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Mendl, M, Brooks, J, Basse, C, Burman, O, Paul, E, Blackwell, E and Casey, R 2010b Dogs showing separation-related behav-iour exhibit a pessimistic cognitive bias. Current Biology 20: R839–R840. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2010.08.030CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Mendl, M, Burman, OHP, Parker, R and Paul, E 2009 Cognitive bias as an indicator of animal emotion and welfare: emerging evidence and underlying mechanisms. Applied Animal Behaviour Science 118: 161–181. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.applan-im.2009.02.023CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mendl, M, Burman, OHP and Paul, ES 2010a An integrative and functional framework for the study of animal emotion and mood. Proceedings of the Royal Society B277: 2895-2904. http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2010.0303CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mineka, S, Watson, D and Clark, LA 1998 Comorbidity of anx-iety and unipolar mood disorders. Annual Review of Psychology 49:377–412. http://dx.doi.org/10.1146/annurev.psych.49.1.377CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Moher D, Liberati A, Tetzlaff J, Altman DG and The PRIS-MA Group 2009 Preferred reporting items for systematic reviews and meta-analyses: The PRISMA Statement. PLoS Medicine 6: e1000097. http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1000097CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Neave, HW, Daros, RR, Costa, JHC, von Keyserlingk, MAG and Weary, DM 2013 Pain and pessimism: dairy calves exhibit negative judgement bias following hot-iron disbudding. PLoS One 8:e80556. http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0080556CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nettle, D and Bateson, M 2012 The evolutionary origins of mood and its disorders. Current Biology 22: R712–R721. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2012.06.020CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Nygren, TE, Isen, AM, Taylor, PJ and Dulin, J 1996 The influ-ence of positive affect on the decision rule in risky situations. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes 66: 59–72. http://dx.doi.org/10.1006/obhd.1996.0038CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Panksepp, J 2005 Affective consciousness: core emotional feelings in animals and humans. Consciousness and Cognition 14: 30–80. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.concog.2004.10.004CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Papciak, J, Popik, P, Fuchs, E and Rygula, R 2013 Chronic psy-chosocial stress makes rats more ‘pessimistic’ in the ambiguous-cue interpretation paradigm. Behavioural Brain Research 256: 305–310. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.bbr.2013.08.036CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Paul, ES, Harding, EJ and Mendl, M 2005 Measuring emotional processes in animals: the utility of a cognitive approach. Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews 29: 469–491. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.neubiorev.2005.01.002CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Pomerantz, O, Terkel, J, Suomi, SJ and Paukner, A 2012 Stereotypic head twirls, but not pacing, are related to a ‘pes-simistic’-like judgment bias among captive tufted capuchins (Cebus apella). Animal Cognition 15: 689–698. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s 10071-012-0497-7CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Richter, S, Schick, A, Hoyer, C, Lankisch, K, Gass, P and Vollmayr, B 2012 A glass full of optimism: enrichment effects on cognitive bias in a rat model of depression. Cognitive, Affective & Behavioral Neuroscience 12: 527–542. http://dx.doi.org/10.3758/s13415-012-0101-2CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rolls, ET 2005 Emotion Explained. Oxford University Press: Oxford, UK. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198570035.001.0001CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Russell, JA 2003 Core affect and the psychological construction of emotion. Psychological Review 110: 145–172. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0033-295X.110.1.145CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Rygula, R, Pluta, H and Popik, P 2012 Laughing rats are optimistic. PLoS One 7: e51959. http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0051959CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Salmeto, AL, Hymel, KA, Carpenter, EC, Brilot, BO, Bateson, M and Sufka, KJ 2011 Cognitive bias in the chick anx-iety-depression model. Brain Research 1373: 124–130. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.brainres.2010.12.007CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Sandem, AI, Janczak, AM, Salte, R and Braastad, BO 2006 The use of diazepam as a pharmacological validation of eye white as an indicator of emotional state in dairy cows. Applied Animal Behaviour Science 96: 177–183. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.applan-im.2005.06.008CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sanger, ME, Doyle, RE, Hinch, GN and Lee, C 2011 Sheep exhibit a positive judgement bias and stress-induced hyperthermia following shearing. Applied Animal Behaviour Science 131: 94–103. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.applanim.2011.02.001CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Spruijt, BM, van den Bos, R and Pijlman, FTA 2001 A con-cept of welfare based on reward evaluating mechanisms in the brain: anticipatory behaviour as an indicator for the state of reward systems. Applied Animal Behaviour Science 72: 145–171. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S0168-1591(00)00204-5CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Trimmer, PC, Paul, ES, Mendl, MT, McNamara, JM and Houston, AI 2013 On the evolution and optimality of mood states. Behavioural Sciences 3: 501–521. http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/bs3030501CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Verbeek, E, Ferguson, D and Lee, C 2014a Are hungry sheep more pessimistic? The effects of food restriction on cognitive bias and the involvement of ghrelin in its regulation. Physiology & Behaviour 123: 67–75. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.physbeh.2013.09.017CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Verbeek, E, Ferguson, D, de Monjour, PQ and Lee, C 2014b Generating positive affective state in sheep: the influence of food rewards and opioid administration. Applied Animal Behavior Science 154: 39–47. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.applanim.2014.02.011CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wathes, C 2010 Lives worth living? Veterinary Record 166: 468–469. http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/vr.c849CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Wichman, A, Keeling, LJ and Forkman, B 2012 Cognitive bias and anticipatory behaviour of laying hens housed in basic and enriched pens. Applied Animal Behaviour Science 140: 62–69. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.applanim.2012.05.006CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wright, WF and Bower, GH 1992 Mood effects on subjective probability assessment. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes 52: 27. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/0749-5978(92)90039-ACrossRefGoogle Scholar
Supplementary material: File

Baciadonna and McElligott supplementary material
Download undefined(File)
File 216.9 KB