CNRS, IFCE, INRAE, Université de Tours, PRC (Physiologie de la Reproduction et des Comportements), F-37380 Nouzilly, Indre-et-Loire, France.
CNRS, IFCE, INRAE, Université de Tours, PRC (Physiologie de la Reproduction et des Comportements), F-37380 Nouzilly, Indre-et-Loire, France.
Animal. 2022 Aug;16(8):100607. doi: 10.1016/j.animal.2022.100607. Epub 2022 Aug 10.
Improving the welfare of farm animals depends on our knowledge on how they perceive and interpret their environment; the latter depends on their cognitive abilities. Hence, limited knowledge of the range of cognitive abilities of farm animals is a major concern. An effective approach to explore the cognitive range of a species is to apply automated testing devices, which are still underdeveloped in farm animals. In screen-like studies, the uses of automated devices are few in domestic hens. We developed an original fully automated touchscreen device using digital computer-drawn colour pictures and independent sensible cells adapted for cognitive testing in domestic hens, enabling a wide range of test types from low to high complexity. This study aimed to test the efficiency of our device using two cognitive tests. We focused on tasks related to adaptive capacities to environmental variability, such as flexibility and generalisation capacities as this is a good start to approach more complex cognitive capacities. We implemented a serial reversal learning task, categorised as a simple cognitive test, and a delayed matching-to-sample (dMTS) task on an identity concept, followed by a generalisation test, categorised as more complex. In the serial reversal learning task, the hens performed equally for the two changing reward contingencies in only three reversal stages. In the dMTS task, the hens increased their performance rapidly throughout the training sessions. Moreover, to the best of our knowledge, we present the first positive result of identity concept generalisation in a dMTS task in domestic hens. Our results provide additional information on the behavioural flexibility and concept understanding of domestic hens. They also support the idea that fully automated devices would improve knowledge of farm animals' cognition.
提高农场动物的福利取决于我们对动物如何感知和解释其环境的了解；而后者则取决于动物的认知能力。因此，我们对农场动物认知能力的范围知之甚少，这是一个主要的关注点。探索物种认知范围的有效方法是应用自动化测试设备，但这些设备在农场动物中还不够发达。在类似屏幕的研究中，自动化设备在鸡中应用较少。我们开发了一种原创的全自动触摸屏设备，使用数字计算机绘制的彩色图片和独立的感应单元，适用于鸡的认知测试，能够进行从低到高复杂度的各种测试类型。本研究旨在使用两种认知测试来测试我们设备的效率。我们专注于与环境变异性适应能力相关的任务，例如灵活性和泛化能力，因为这是接近更复杂认知能力的良好开端。我们实施了一个序列反转学习任务，归类为简单认知测试，以及一个基于身份概念的延迟匹配样本（dMTS）任务，然后是一个泛化测试，归类为更复杂的测试。在序列反转学习任务中，母鸡在仅三个反转阶段中对两种变化的奖励条件表现相同。在 dMTS 任务中，母鸡在整个训练过程中迅速提高了表现。此外，据我们所知，我们在鸡中首次呈现了 dMTS 任务中身份概念泛化的积极结果。我们的结果提供了关于鸡的行为灵活性和概念理解的额外信息。它们还支持了这样的观点，即全自动设备将提高我们对农场动物认知的了解。
