Morris Jessica E, Fisher Andrew D, Doyle Rebecca E, Bush Russell D
CSIRO Livestock Industries, Armidale, Australia.
J Appl Anim Welf Sci. 2010;13(4):347-60. doi: 10.1080/10888705.2010.507126.
There are scientific opinions that a nonhuman animal cannot feel emotions, and, hence, positive experiences, without being cognitive. Therefore, determining an animal's cognitive capacity can be useful in supporting the existence of emotions. Research shows that sheep can perform tasks based on olfactory and visual stimuli; however, little research exists on determining the ability of sheep to perform such tasks based on auditory cues. This study demonstrates that sheep can perform a discriminant, operant task based on a visual cue (p < .001); however, sheep could not exhibit the desired response to a directional audio cue in 2 subsequent studies (p = .346; p = .031). Nonetheless, the study provides further evidence on the complex cognitive abilities of sheep and indicates the potential for sheep to use audio cues in their learning.
有科学观点认为，非人类动物如果没有认知能力，就无法感受情感以及积极体验。因此，确定动物的认知能力有助于支持情感的存在。研究表明，绵羊能够根据嗅觉和视觉刺激执行任务；然而，关于确定绵羊基于听觉线索执行此类任务的能力的研究却很少。本研究表明，绵羊能够根据视觉线索执行辨别性操作任务（p <.001）；然而，在随后的两项研究中，绵羊对定向音频线索未能表现出预期反应（p =.346；p =.031）。尽管如此，该研究为绵羊复杂的认知能力提供了进一步证据，并表明绵羊在学习中使用音频线索的潜力。
