Validating attention bias as a novel measure of affect in sheep

These datasets were generated during the PhD candidature of Jessica Monk between 2016 to 2019. Data were generated across 5 experiments, each of which aimed to further develop, refine and validate a novel method for assessing emotional states in sheep as a measure of animal welfare. The attention bias test is a 3 min test which records behavioural responses of sheep to a potential predator threat. Key behaviours recorded included duration of vigilance, looking behaviours and latency to feed. The first experiment examined the impact of pharmacologically-induced stress on judgement bias and attention bias in sheep. The study found no clear indication that elevated cortisol concentrations impacted on cognitive biases in sheep. The second experiment examined the impact of pharmacologically induced anxiety-like and calm-like states on a refined attention bias test in sheep, finding that the test can be shortened, a habituation period removed and that it is sensitive to anxiety-like and calm-like states. The third experiment introduced a modified method for the assessment of attention bias, and examined the impact of pharmacologically-induced anxiety-like and depression-like states in sheep. The modified method could differentiate these states. The fourth experiment examined the influence of pharmacologically induced positive affective states on the modified attention bias test but found no clear effect on attention bias. The final experiment examined the repeatability of the attention bias test across 3 time periods using the same animals from the Sheep CRC information nucleus flock. Key measures of attention had low repeatability and are suggested to be readily influenced by emotions and moods. Measures of vigilance and zones crossed had moderate repeatability and are suggested to be more heavily influenced by temperament or personality traits.

本数据集由杰西卡·蒙克（Jessica Monk）于2016年至2019年的博士攻读阶段生成。本次数据集共包含5组实验采集的数据，每组实验均旨在进一步开发、优化并验证一种用于评估绵羊情绪状态的全新方法，以此作为动物福利的衡量指标。注意偏向测试（Attention Bias Test）为一项时长3分钟的测试，用于记录绵羊面对潜在捕食者威胁时的行为反应。核心记录的行为指标包括警戒时长、注视行为与进食潜伏期。第一项实验探究了药物诱导应激对绵羊判断偏向与注意偏向的影响，研究未发现明确证据表明皮质醇浓度升高会对绵羊的认知偏向产生作用。第二项实验探究了药物诱导的类焦虑与类平静状态对优化版绵羊注意偏向测试的影响，结果发现该测试可缩短时长、省去习惯化阶段，且对类焦虑与类平静状态具有敏感性。第三项实验提出了一种改进的注意偏向评估方法，并探究了药物诱导的类焦虑与类抑郁状态对绵羊的影响，该改进方法可有效区分这两种状态。第四项实验探究了药物诱导的积极情感状态对改进版注意偏向测试的影响，但未发现其对注意偏向存在明确作用。第五项实验以绵羊CRC（Sheep CRC）信息核心种群中的同一批绵羊为研究对象，探究了注意偏向测试在3个时间节点的重复性。结果显示，核心注意指标的重复性较低，表明其易受情绪与心境影响；警戒行为与跨区次数的重复性中等，推测其更多受气质或人格特质的影响。