The effect of repeated testing on judgement biases in sheep

Title
The effect of repeated testing on judgement biases in sheep
Publication Date
2010
Author(s)
Doyle, Rebecca Elise
Vidal, Stephanie
Hinch, Geoffrey
( author )
OrcID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4731-865X
Email: ghinch@une.edu.au
UNE Id une-id:ghinch
Fisher, Andrew D
Boissy, Alain
Lee, Caroline
Type of document
Journal Article
Language
en
Entity Type
Publication
Publisher
Elsevier BV
Place of publication
Netherlands
DOI
10.1016/j.beproc.2010.01.019
UNE publication id
une:7375
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.
Link
Citation
Behavioural Processes, 83(3), p. 349-352
ISSN
1872-8308
0376-6357
Start page
349
End page
352

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