Investigating attentional scope as a novel indicator of emotional state in animals

Hamlaoui, Anne; Keeling, Linda; Burman, Ohp; Verbeek, Else

doi:10.1038/s41598-022-21151-1

Cited by 3 publications

(10 citation statements)

References 70 publications

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“…Cows were considered trained and ready for testing when they averaged >80% correct responses (out of 20 images) over 2 consecutive training days. This criterion is intermediate to other attentional scope studies [70% correct for splitfin fish ( 24 ); 80% correct for dogs ( 29 ); 85% correct for domestic chicks ( 25 )] and is similar to criterion reported for discrimination training in other livestock ( 34 ). Three cows required corrective training [following Hintze et al, ( 35 )] which was applied if approach responses to the positive were extinguished for two consecutive training days.…”

Section: Methodssupporting

confidence: 61%

“…For example, participants experiencing a high versus low intensity positive mood state (desire versus amusement) were more likely to choose the local over the global image ( 52 ). However, the attentional scope study in dogs observed no difference in local image choices between the high and low arousal positive affect conditions which were verified using heart rate as a measure of arousal ( 29 ). We attempted to control for possible arousal affecting image choices in the test by measuring salivary cortisol concentration in the cows before and after the test; indeed, we found no relationship between cortisol concentration and whether cows approached the images, suggesting attentional scope was not affected by cortisol (and thus arousal).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 80%

“…The influence of emotional state on attentional scope has been debated extensively in the human literature, with divergent conclusions including the role of arousal or motivational intensity in driving biases (reviewed by Vanlessen et al ( 46 ) and Lacey et al ( 21 )). Only recently has this relationship been explored in animals ( 29 ). Those authors reported mixed results, where dogs receiving food rewards showed a narrowed attentional scope when in an induced positive state, regardless of arousal intensity, but the opposite was observed when dogs received social rewards.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The go/no-go task design permitted a no-go response, allowing the cow to avoid both global and local images (i.e., only one image was presented at a time and the cow could decide to approach it or not). In contrast, previous attentional scope studies in animals used an active choice (go/go) design, where the contrasting images were presented simultaneously and the animal had to make an active choice between the two [e.g., ( 23–25 , 29 )]. We used a go/no-go task because it was used in previous studies in dairy cattle involving discrimination training ( 64 ), including visual tasks ( 65 , 66 ); active choice discrimination method can take longer to train ( 34 , 35 ), possibly because it is more cognitively demanding to learn ( 2 ).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…However, large interspecies individual variation in bias was reported in dogs ( 23 ), suggesting that individual factors, such as emotional state of the animal, may contribute to a global or local attention bias. Only one recent study has examined if attentional scope is affected by emotional state in a non-human species ( 29 ). Using either food or social rewards, the authors induced four emotional states differing in arousal and valence in dogs; irrespective of arousal, dogs showed a narrowing of attentional scope in the positive food-reward-based treatments, but the opposite trend (narrowed attentional scope in the negative treatment) was observed in the social-reward-based treatment.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Do cows see the forest or the trees? A preliminary investigation of attentional scope as a potential indicator of emotional state in dairy cows housed with their calves

Neave,

Rault,

Bateson

et al. 2023

Front. Vet. Sci.

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A positive mood in humans tends to broaden attentional scope while negative mood narrows it. A similar effect may be present in non-human animals; therefore, attentional scope may be a novel method to assess emotional states in livestock. In this proof-of-concept exploratory study, we examined the attentional scope of dairy cows housed with their calves either full-time, part-time (during daytime only), or with no calf contact (enrolled n = 10 each). Housing conditions were previously verified to induce differences in positive and negative emotional state, where part-time was considered more negative. Cows were trained to approach or avoid hierarchical images on a screen that were consistent in local and global elements (i.e., 13 small circles or crosses arranged in an overall circle or cross). After discrimination learning (>80% correct, over two consecutive days), 14 cows proceeded to test (n = 6 each full-and part-time; n = 2 no-contact, not analyzed). Test images showed inconsistent combinations of global and local elements (i.e., the overall global shape differs from the smaller local elements, such as a global circle composed of smaller local crosses and vice versa). Over two test days, approach responses to global and local images (each presented four times) were recorded. All cows were more likely to approach the local than the global image, especially part-time cows who never approached the global image; this may reflect a narrowed attentional scope in these cows. Full-time cows approached images more often than part-time cows, but overall response rates to global and local images were low, making specific conclusions regarding attentional scope difficult. Different housing conditions have potential to affect attentional scope, and possibly emotional state, of dairy cows, but statistical comparison to no-contact treatment was not possible. Cortisol concentration did not affect responses to images; thus arousal due to treatment or test conditions could not explain test performance. Further work with refined methodology and a larger sample size is required to validate the reliability of attentional scope as an assessment method of emotional state in cattle. Beyond this, the attentional scope test revealed how cattle may process, learn and respond to different visual hierarchical images, which further our understanding of cognitive and visual processes in cattle.

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