Available online 12 December 2015
Highlights
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- Cognitive bias gives information about an individual’s affective state
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- Horses could be trained on a spatial discrimination task
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- Pasturing and contact to conspecifics induced a positive cognitive bias
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- Horses have positive cognitive bias once they satisfy their requirements
Abstract
Horses
are kept in various housing systems, for example, with conspecifics in
horse pens or singly in horseboxes, with or without pasturing. To
provide appropriate living conditions for horses, it is necessary to
know in which conditions they feel well or unwell. Here, a cognitive
bias assessment provides information about an individual’s affective
state and its well-being. When a positive affective state prevails,
animals tend to judge optimistically in ambiguous situations. When a
negative affective state prevails, animals judge pessimistically in
unclear situations. In the present study, we trained horses on a spatial
discrimination task and evaluated their judgment of ambiguous locations
when they had access to pastures and contact to conspecifics versus
when they were kept singly in horseboxes. Ten days of pasturing and
contact with conspecifics after being kept singly in horseboxes for 6
months induced a positive cognitive bias in the horses. We suggest that
horses need to act out certain behaviors like exploration, social
interaction, play or grooming to fulfill their needs. After a time in
which they were individually in horseboxes without pasturing and access
to the herd, they seem to have a positive cognitive bias once they have
access to pastures and conspecifics. This positive cognitive bias effect
seems to disappear over time, as horses appear to adapt to the
circumstances.
Keywords
- judgment bias;
- affect;
- environmental enrichment;
- well-being;
- discrimination task;
- horse
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