Data underlying the publication Developing a feasible and sensitive judgement bias task in dairy cows

Judgement bias tasks (JBTs) are used to assess the influence of farm practices on livestock affective states. The tasks must be adjusted to the species and age group of focus. In cattle, most JBTs were designed for calves instead of adult cows. This study aimed to develop a JBT suitable for adult dairy cows, combining feasibility, validity, sensitivity and repeatability. Three JBTs were developed in which cows were trained to reach or avoid reaching a feeder, the location of which signalled a reward or punisher. The tasks differed in terms of punisher - cows being allocated either to “no-reward”, an air puff or an electric shock. Cows were then exposed twice to three ambiguous positions of the feeder, on two separate occasions. Speed of learning and proportions of correct responses to the conditioned locations were used to assess the feasibility of the task. Adjusted latencies to reach the ambiguous feeder positions were used to examine whether response patterns matched the linear and monotonic graded pattern expected in a valid and sensitive JBT at baseline. Latencies to reach the feeders in the two repeated testing sessions were compared to assess ambiguity loss over tasks’ repetitions. The validity of using spatial JBTs for dairy cows was demonstrated. While the effect on JBT feasibility was nuanced, the punisher did influence JBT sensitivity. None of the three JBTs were repeatable. We conclude that using an air-puff as punisher led to the most sensitive – yet non-repeatable – JBT for dairy cows. <br>

判断偏差任务（Judgement bias tasks, JBTs）用于评估养殖实践对家畜情感状态的影响。此类任务需根据目标物种与年龄组进行适配调整。在牛类研究中，现有多数判断偏差任务均针对犊牛设计，而非成年奶牛。本研究旨在开发一款兼具可行性、有效性、敏感性与可重复性的适配成年奶牛的判断偏差任务。本研究共开发三款判断偏差任务：训练奶牛趋近或远离某饲喂器，饲喂器的位置分别对应奖励或惩罚刺激。三款任务的惩罚刺激存在差异：奶牛分别被分配至“无奖励”组、喷气刺激组或电击刺激组。随后，奶牛于两次独立实验中各接受三次饲喂器处于模糊位置时的测试。研究以学习速度及条件化位置下的正确应答占比，评估任务的可行性。通过校正后到达模糊位置饲喂器的潜伏期，检测基线状态下的应答模式是否符合有效且敏感的判断偏差任务所预期的线性单调分级模式。对比两次重复测试中到达饲喂器的潜伏期，以评估任务重复过程中模糊性的衰减情况。本研究证实了空间型判断偏差任务应用于成年奶牛的有效性。尽管惩罚刺激对任务可行性的影响较为细微，但确实会显著影响任务的敏感性。三款判断偏差任务均不具备可重复性。综上，以喷气刺激作为惩罚刺激时，所构建的判断偏差任务对成年奶牛的敏感性最高，但仍不具备可重复性。