Groningen Institute for Evolutionary Life Sciences, University of Groningen, Groningen, 9747, AG, The Netherlands.
Department of Biological Sciences, Macquarie University, North Ryde, NSW, Australia.
Anim Cogn. 2024 Jun 4;27(1):42. doi: 10.1007/s10071-024-01876-4.
Cognitive bias is defined as the influence of emotions on cognitive processes. The concept of the cognitive judgement bias has its origins in human psychology but has been applied to animals over the past 2 decades. In this study we were interested in determining if laterality and personality traits, which are known to influence learning style, might also be correlated with a cognitive bias in the three-spined sticklebacks (Gasterosteus aculeatus). We used the judgement bias test with the go/no-go procedure where fish were first trained to discriminate between a black and white card and, after reaching a minimum learning criterion, tested their response to an ambiguous card (grey). Optimistic subjects were expected to have a high expectation of reward associated with an ambiguous stimulus, whereas pessimistic subjects a high expectation of non-reward. We used an emergence and a mirror test to quantify boldness and laterality, respectively. We hypothesised that male, bolder and more strongly lateralized fish would be more optimistic than female, shy and less strongly lateralised fish. We found that males and more strongly lateralized fish were more optimistic than females and less strongly lateralized fish. In addition, bold males were more optimistic than shy males as we predicted, but females showed the opposite pattern. Finally, fish trained on the black colour card learned the training task faster than those trained on a white card. Our results indicate that both laterality and personality traits are linked to animals' internal states (pessimistic or optimistic outlooks) which likely has broad implications for understanding animal behaviour particularly in a welfare context.
认知偏差是指情绪对认知过程的影响。认知判断偏差的概念起源于人类心理学，但在过去的 20 年里，它已经被应用于动物身上。在这项研究中，我们感兴趣的是确定侧化和个性特征（已知会影响学习风格）是否也与三刺棘鱼（Gasterosteus aculeatus）的认知偏差有关。我们使用了带有 Go/No-Go 程序的判断偏差测试，首先训练鱼区分黑色和白色卡片，然后在达到最低学习标准后，测试它们对模糊卡片（灰色）的反应。乐观的个体预计会对模糊刺激有很高的奖励预期，而悲观的个体则有很高的非奖励预期。我们使用出现测试和镜像测试分别量化了大胆性和侧化程度。我们假设雄性、更大胆和更强烈侧化的鱼会比雌性、害羞和侧化程度较低的鱼更乐观。我们发现，雄性和更强烈侧化的鱼比雌性和侧化程度较低的鱼更乐观。此外，正如我们所预测的那样，大胆的雄性比害羞的雄性更乐观，但雌性则表现出相反的模式。最后，用黑色卡片训练的鱼比用白色卡片训练的鱼更快地学会了训练任务。我们的结果表明，侧化和个性特征都与动物的内部状态（悲观或乐观的观点）有关，这可能对理解动物行为具有广泛的意义，特别是在福利方面。
