Marr Isabell, Farmer Kate, Krüger Konstanze
Department Equine Economics, Faculty Agriculture, Economics and Management, Nuertingen-Geislingen University, Neckarsteige 6-10, 72622 Nuertingen, Germany.
Behavioural Physiology of Farm Animals, University of Hohenheim, Garbenstr. 17, 70599 Stuttgart, Germany.
Animals (Basel). 2018 Nov 22;8(12):219. doi: 10.3390/ani8120219.
An individual's positive or negative perspective when judging an ambiguous stimulus (cognitive bias) can be helpful when assessing animal welfare. Emotionality, as expressed in approach or withdrawal behaviour, is linked to brain asymmetry. The predisposition to process information in the left or right brain hemisphere is displayed in motor laterality. The quality of the information being processed is indicated by the sensory laterality. Consequently, it would be quicker and more repeatable to use motor or sensory laterality to evaluate cognitive bias than to perform the conventional judgment bias test. Therefore, the relationship between cognitive bias and motor or sensory laterality was tested. The horses ( = 17) were trained in a discrimination task involving a box that was placed in either a "positive" or "negative" location. To test for cognitive bias, the box was then placed in the middle, between the trained positive and negative location, in an ambiguous location, and the latency to approach the box was evaluated. Results indicated that horses that were more likely to use the right forelimb when moving off from a standing position were more likely to approach the ambiguous box with a shorter latency (generalized linear mixed model, < 0.01), and therefore displayed a positive cognitive bias (optimistic).
在评估动物福利时，个体在判断模糊刺激时的积极或消极观点（认知偏差）可能会有所帮助。以接近或回避行为表现出的情绪与大脑不对称有关。在运动偏侧性中表现出在左或右脑半球处理信息的倾向。正在处理的信息的质量由感觉偏侧性表示。因此，使用运动或感觉偏侧性来评估认知偏差比进行传统的判断偏差测试更快且更具可重复性。因此，对认知偏差与运动或感觉偏侧性之间的关系进行了测试。17匹马接受了一项辨别任务训练，该任务涉及一个放置在“积极”或“消极”位置的盒子。为了测试认知偏差，然后将盒子放置在中间，即在训练过的积极和消极位置之间的模糊位置，并评估接近盒子的潜伏期。结果表明，从站立位置开始移动时更倾向于使用右前肢的马更有可能以较短的潜伏期接近模糊盒子（广义线性混合模型，P<0.01），因此表现出积极的认知偏差（乐观）。
