Increasing farm animal welfare by positively motivated instrumental behaviour

Manteuffel, Gerhard; Langbein, Jan; Puppe, Birger

doi:10.1016/j.applanim.2009.02.014

Cited by 36 publications

(24 citation statements)

References 68 publications

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“…This, Hagen and Broom argue, provides some evidence that cows can recognize when they have learned something new, and moreover-since heart rate is taken to be an indicator of affective arousal-some evidence that this experience alleviates boredom. Similar studies have been carried out on pigs and goats, with similar results (Puppe et al 2007;Langbein et al 2009;Zebunke et al 2011). This indicates that operant conditioning tasks may constitute a valuable form of cognitive enrichment for farm animals (Manteuffel et al 2009).…”

Section: Risks Of Over-attribution: the Case Of Cognitive Enrichmentsupporting

confidence: 70%

Animal Cognition and Human Values

Birch¹

2018

Philos. of Sci.

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Animal welfare scientists face an acute version of the problem of inductive risk, since they must choose whether or not to affirm attributions of mental states to animals in advisory contexts, knowing that their decisions hold significant consequences for animal welfare. In such contexts, the burden of proof should be sensitive to the moral consequences of error, but a framework for setting appropriate burdens of proof is lacking. Through reflection on two cases-the case of pain, and the case of cognitive enrichment-I arrive at a tentative general framework based on the principle of expected welfare maximization. I then discuss the limitations of this framework and the important questions it leaves open.

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Section: Risks Of Over-attribution: the Case Of Cognitive Enrichmentsupporting

confidence: 70%

Animal Cognition and Human Values

Birch¹

2018

Philos. of Sci.

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“…Beyond giving a choice to interact with the feeder, the rhino feeder also gave the rhino a degree of control in obtaining preferred food items throughout the day, rather than requiring him to wait for a training session or meal. The puzzle feeder was thus successful at meeting the goals of cognitive enrichment (signal an opportunity, require action by the animal to achieve opportunity, positive outcome or reward for engaging in or perhaps even refusing to engage in the opportunity, (Manteuffel et al, 2009a;Manteuffel, Langbein, & Puppe, 2009b), while simultaneously providing elements of choice and control into the rhino's day-to-day life.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Simple but temporally unpredictable puzzles are cognitive enrichment

Krebs¹,

Watters²

2017

AB&C

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-Provision of problem solving opportunities as enrichment for animals considered highly intelligent has increased over the last twenty years, but this emphasis on animals considered intelligent may overlook the need for cognitive challenge in species not typified as problem solving animals. Commonly used foraging challenges, such as puzzle feeders, may occupy more of an animal's day with food gathering, but interest in the feeder may wane as animals learn to extract food more efficiently. We tested the hypothesis that making a simple puzzle available at variable intervals can maintain an animal's motivation and be cognitively enriching for species not typically considered "thinking animals." We built and tested a time-delay puzzle feeder with a black rhinoceros (hereafter "rhino") at the San Francisco Zoo. The feeder required the rhino to push a ball to get treats, however food was not always available. An audio cue signaled the availability of food. We assessed the rhino's behavior before and after he learned to use the feeder. The rhino's interest in all enrichment items increased with the feeder, and we found no evidence for habituation to the feeder over time. We also found evidence that the positive behavioral impacts of the puzzle feeder carried over into weeks during which the feeder was not available. Our results highlight the positive impact of providing problem solving opportunities as enrichment for captive animals, and suggest a method for maintaining animal interest in simple puzzle devices by varying reward schedules.

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“…Furthermore, cognitive tasks can lead to positive emotions, because of a controllability and predictability of the environment. Especially the successful coping with challenges induces positive experience and can improve animal welfare [11, 12, 14–17]. In addition, cognitive enrichment methods could be useful tools for an improved behavioural management having the potential to reduce unwanted behaviours and to reinforce desired behaviours [11, 12, 14].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Especially the successful coping with challenges induces positive experience and can improve animal welfare [11, 12, 14–17]. In addition, cognitive enrichment methods could be useful tools for an improved behavioural management having the potential to reduce unwanted behaviours and to reinforce desired behaviours [11, 12, 14]. The mentioned methods are already applied for a long time in zoos to train animals for a better handling and to bring variety in animals' daily life [18, 19].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Moreover, there are already simple forms of learning in farm animal housing systems where animals have to differentiate between the functions of various areas of their environment or to remember the location of food [26]. These specific behaviours can be quickly internalized, and the animals perform the required reaction automatically [12, 27]. Concerning the cognitive abilities and learning behaviour of pigs, it was shown that the foraging behaviour is a very useful issue to study links between sensory abilities, cognitive challenges, and motivational processes [14, 16, 28–31].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Cognitive Enrichment in Piglet Rearing: An Approach to Enhance Animal Welfare and to Reduce Aggressive Behaviour

Sonoda

Rauterberg

Viazzi

et al. 2013

ISRN Veterinary Science

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It is known that pigs raised in enriched environments express less aggressive behaviour. For this reason, a new method of cognitive environmental enrichment was experimented at the University of Veterinary Medicine Hannover, Germany. In the first phase, 78 suckling piglets were trained to learn the link between a sound given by an electronic feeder and a feed reward in the form of chocolate candies during a period of 8 days. In the second phase, the same piglets were used in resident-intruder tests to verify the potential of the feeding system to interrupt aggressive behaviour. The analysis of all training rounds revealed that piglets learned the commands during 8 days of training and the interest of the piglets increased within training days (P < 0.05). In the resident-intruder test, 79.5% of aggressive interactions were broken by feeder activation. In interactions where either the aggressor or the receiver reacted, a high number of fights were stopped (96.7% versus 93.1%) indicating that it was not relevant if the aggressor or the receiver responded to the feeder activation. We conclude that the electronic feeding system has the potential to be used as cognitive enrichment for piglets, being suitable for reducing aggressive behaviour in resident-intruder situations.

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Increasing farm animal welfare by positively motivated instrumental behaviour

Cited by 36 publications

References 68 publications

Animal Cognition and Human Values

Animal Cognition and Human Values

Simple but temporally unpredictable puzzles are cognitive enrichment

Cognitive Enrichment in Piglet Rearing: An Approach to Enhance Animal Welfare and to Reduce Aggressive Behaviour

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