Do cows see the forest or the trees? A preliminary investigation of attentional scope as a potential indicator of emotional state in dairy cows housed with their calves.

ABSTRACT: A positive mood in humans tends to broaden attentional scope while negative mood narrows it. A similar effect may be present in non-human animals; therefore, attentional scope may be a novel method to assess emotional states in livestock. In this proof-of-concept exploratory study, we examined the attentional scope of dairy cows housed with their calves either full-time, part-time (during daytime only), or with no calf contact (enrolled n = 10 each). Housing conditions were previously verified to induce differences in positive and negative emotional state, where part-time was considered more negative. Cows were trained to approach or avoid hierarchical images on a screen that were consistent in local and global elements (i.e., 13 small circles or crosses arranged in an overall circl

SUBMITTER: Neave HW 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10568025 | biostudies-literature | 2023

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature