A network perspective on animal welfare
The scientific study of animal welfare involves measuring physiological, behavioural, and/or cognitive variables to infer the welfare state of animals. Such an approach implies these measures are indicators, or reflect, an unmeasured latent variable of welfare state. Drawing inspiration from recent developments in human psychology and psychiatry, in this paper we propose an alternative perspective […]
A Comparative Perspective on Three Primate Species’ Responses to a Pictorial Emotional Stroop Task
The Stroop effect describes interference in cognitive processing due to competing cognitive demands. Presenting emotionally laden stimuli creates similar Stroop-like effects that result from participants’ attention being drawn to distractor stimuli. Here, we adapted the methods of a pictorial Stroop study for use with chimpanzees (N = 6), gorillas (N = 7), and Japanese macaques […]
Assessing Animal Welfare with Behavior: Onward with Caution
An emphasis on ensuring animal welfare is growing in zoo and aquarium associations around the globe. This has led to a focus on measures of welfare outcomes for individual animals. Observations and interpretations of behavior are the most widely used outcome-based measures of animal welfare. They commonly serve as a diagnostic tool from which practitioners […]
In or out: Response slowing across housing conditions as a measure of affect in three Western lowland gorillas (Gorilla gorilla gorilla)
Individuals experiencing negative affect have shown response slowing, a longer latency to respond in relation to baseline, when presented with aversive stimuli. We assessed response slowing in three male gorillas housed in a bachelor group as a function of daytime and nighttime housing arrangements.
Mechanisms underlying cognitive bias in nonhuman primates
Recent research in nonhuman animals highlights the exciting possibility that performance on cognitive bias tasks might indirectly measure an individual’s subjective, affective state. Subjects first learn to perform a conditional discrimination task with two differentially reinforced responses, and then intermediate, unreinforced stimuli are introduced. Differences in affective state have been related to changes in the […]
Gorillas (Gorilla gorilla gorilla) Fail to Learn Abstract Cues of Differential Outcomes in a Novel Cognitive Bias Test
In order to assess mood state in three male western lowland gorillas housed in a bachelor group, we developed a novel version of a cognitive bias task. The background color of a touchscreen presented a conditional ‘if, then…” rule relating to outcomes involving differential amounts of food rewards. The gorillas struggled to reach a criterion […]
Evaluating mood changes in response to anthropogenic noise with a response-slowing task in three species of zoo-housed primates
In the zoo environment, anthropogenic noise is common as sound levels fluctuate due to visitors, construction, habitat design, and special events. In this study, changes in the mood of three species of zoo-housed primates in response to a loud annual event were evaluated with the response-slowing paradigm. In this paradigm, animals experiencing anxiety slow responses […]
The neurobiology of positive emotions
Compared to the study of negative emotions such as fear, the neurobiology of positive emotional processes and the associated positive affect (PA) states has only recently received scientific attention. Biological theories conceptualize PA as being related to (i) signals indicating that bodies are returning to equilibrium among those studying homeostasis, (ii) utility estimation among those […]
Assessment of positive welfare: A review
As a complement to the concentration on negative states in welfare science, scientists are increasingly considering the desirability of measuring positive outcomes. Since evaluation of an animal’s mental state is a critical goal for welfare assessment, considerations of both positive feelings (what an animal ‘‘likes’’) and resources that an animal is motivated to obtain (what […]
Assessing animal welfare: different philosophies, different scientific approaches
Abstract 10.1002/zoo.20253.abs Attempts to improve animal welfare have commonly centered around three broad objectives: (1) to ensure good physical health and functioning of animals, (2) to minimize unpleasant “affective states” (pain, fear, etc.) and to allow animals normal pleasures, and (3) to allow animals to develop and live in ways that are natural for the […]