Judgement bias in goats (Capra hircus): investigating the effects of human grooming.

ABSTRACT: Animal emotional states can be investigated by evaluating their impact on cognitive processes. In this study, we used a judgement bias paradigm to determine if short-term positive human-animal interaction (grooming) induced a positive affective state in goats. We tested two groups of goats and trained them to discriminate between a rewarded and a non-rewarded location over nine training days. During training, the experimental group (n = 9) was gently groomed by brushing their heads and backs for five min over 11 days (nine training days, plus two testing days, total time 55 min). During training, the control group (n = 10) did not experience any direct interaction with the experimenter, but was kept unconstrained next to him for the same period of time. After successful compl

SUBMITTER: Baciadonna L 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5068416 | biostudies-literature | 2016

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature