The effect of repeated testing on judgement biases in sheep |
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Authors: | Rebecca E Doyle Stephanie Vidal Andrew D Fisher Caroline Lee |
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Institution: | a CSIRO Livestock Industries, Locked Bag 1, Armidale, NSW 2350, Australia b School of Environment and Rural Science, University of New England, Armidale, NSW 2351, Australia c Faculty of Veterinary Science and Animal Welfare Science Centre, University of Melbourne, Victoria 3010, Australia d INRA, UR1213 Herbivores, F-63122 St-Genès-Champanelle, France |
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Abstract: | Testing judgement biases of animals may provide insight into their affective states; however important questions about methodologies need to be answered. This experiment investigated the effect of repeated testing using unreinforced, ambiguous cues on the response of sheep to a go/no-go judgement bias test. Fifteen sheep were trained to differentiate between two locations, reinforced respectively with feed (positive) or with the presentation of a dog (negative). The responses to nine ambiguous locations, positioned between the positively and negatively reinforced locations, were tested repeatedly over 3 weeks. Sheep exhibited a symmetrical gradation in response to ambiguous locations between the positive and negative reinforcers. There was a significant decline (P = 0.001) in the total number of approaches to the ambiguous positions over time (weeks). This effect of time suggests that sheep learnt that the ambiguous locations were unrewarded. This result supplies evidence of a limitation identified in current judgement bias methodology, due to repeated testing, which has the potential to provide misleading results. |
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Keywords: | Affective state Cognition Cognitive bias Emotion Judgement bias Sheep |
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