Sensitivity to reward change: a novel cognitive approach to understanding and measuring affective state in animals
Lead Research Organisation:
University of Lincoln
Department Name: School of Life Sciences
Abstract
The question as to what feelings animals might or might not experience underlies not just the assessment of animal welfare, but public concern for how captive animals are treated. As the number of animals used in agriculture, research and kept as pets continues to increase, for example over 700million chickens are farmed and killed annually in the UK for meat production alone, the belief that many animal species have the capacity to suffer drives our desire to improve the housing conditions and husbandry procedures of those animals. Yet, because such experiences are private, they cannot be accessed directly. Instead, welfare scientists use indirect measures thought to reflect animals' emotional states. These indicators are often behavioural (e.g. approaching food) or physiological (e.g. a change in heart rate). However, despite the benefits of these measures, they have critical limitations. For example, an animal's heart rate will increase in the presence of something fearful (e.g. a predator), but will also increase during the experience of something pleasurable (e.g. food), such that reliable interpretation of this measure becomes impossible. For this reason, research into developing new approaches to measuring animal emotion and mood is urgently required to allow a more accurate and targeted assessment of animal welfare. Research that underpins and advances in animal welfare science in this way will have a major impact on a captive animal population that consists of large numbers of individuals. For example, there are an estimated 10 million owned dogs in the UK (2006).
The aim of this proposed research programme is therefore to develop a completely new approach to understanding and measuring emotions and moods in animals that will significantly advance our assessment of animal welfare, and this approach is based on reward evaluation.
How we feel about a reward that we have been given depends not just upon its absolute value, but its value compared to what was expected. So, although you might normally be happy to receive a pay rise, you will be disappointed if you were expecting to be offered a promotion as well. This sensitivity to the contrast between what you expected and what you actually received is common to many animal species and is thought to help individuals to make appropriate decisions. It has recently been demonstrated for the first time that the mood an individual is currently experiencing can influence its sensitivity to a change in reward, with those animals in a positive mood recovering sooner from an unexpected loss of reward. This therefore provides an exciting opportunity to use sensitivity to reward change as a novel measure of animal emotion and mood. Initial research indicates that sensitivity to reward change is a quick, effective and non-invasive way of measuring moods in animals. However, this approach needs to be studied in more detail in order to determine the full extent of its potential.
In this project we will be studying emotions and moods in domestic dogs, both owned (pet) dogs and those housed at rescue centres. In contrast to laboratory and farm animals, the study of emotions, moods and associated behaviour in dogs, because they share a close relationship and environment with people, can reveal valuable insights into the interaction between cognition (e.g. decision-making) and emotion that applies not just to dogs and other animal species, but also to humans themselves. Whilst the outcomes of the study will clearly have a direct impact upon the welfare assessment of dogs, resulting in ways to improve the welfare of dogs housed in rescue centres and rehoming success, it will have a far wider impact, delivering techniques that can be applied across captive animal species.
The aim of this proposed research programme is therefore to develop a completely new approach to understanding and measuring emotions and moods in animals that will significantly advance our assessment of animal welfare, and this approach is based on reward evaluation.
How we feel about a reward that we have been given depends not just upon its absolute value, but its value compared to what was expected. So, although you might normally be happy to receive a pay rise, you will be disappointed if you were expecting to be offered a promotion as well. This sensitivity to the contrast between what you expected and what you actually received is common to many animal species and is thought to help individuals to make appropriate decisions. It has recently been demonstrated for the first time that the mood an individual is currently experiencing can influence its sensitivity to a change in reward, with those animals in a positive mood recovering sooner from an unexpected loss of reward. This therefore provides an exciting opportunity to use sensitivity to reward change as a novel measure of animal emotion and mood. Initial research indicates that sensitivity to reward change is a quick, effective and non-invasive way of measuring moods in animals. However, this approach needs to be studied in more detail in order to determine the full extent of its potential.
In this project we will be studying emotions and moods in domestic dogs, both owned (pet) dogs and those housed at rescue centres. In contrast to laboratory and farm animals, the study of emotions, moods and associated behaviour in dogs, because they share a close relationship and environment with people, can reveal valuable insights into the interaction between cognition (e.g. decision-making) and emotion that applies not just to dogs and other animal species, but also to humans themselves. Whilst the outcomes of the study will clearly have a direct impact upon the welfare assessment of dogs, resulting in ways to improve the welfare of dogs housed in rescue centres and rehoming success, it will have a far wider impact, delivering techniques that can be applied across captive animal species.
Technical Summary
The aim of this proposed research programme is to develop a completely novel, theoretically driven, approach to understanding and measuring affective state (i.e. emotions and moods) in animals that will significantly advance our ability to assess animal welfare. There is an urgent requirement for the development and refinement of additional indicators of affective state that may be less susceptible to the limitations identified in many existing measures. Physiological measures (e.g. heart rate) reveal affective arousal, but may not reflect valence (i.e. positive or negative), and behavioural measures can be hard to interpret. Affective states in both humans and animals incorporate cognitive, behavioural and physiological components in addition to the associated conscious subjective experience, and it is the cognitive component that is the focus of this research programme - specifically, how animals respond to unexpected changes in the quality/quantity of rewards. It has recently been demonstrated that the way in which animals respond to unexpected changes in reward (i.e. their reward sensitivity) can be influenced by their affective state, with animals in a positive affective state being faster to recover from surprising decreases in reward quantity. The objectives of this programme are therefore to further validate the use of sensitivity to reward change as a novel measure of affective state, by investigating the impact of differently induced affective states on this measure and by revealing the links between sensitivity to reward change and other more established cognitive, behavioural and physiological indicators. We will also extend current understanding of this paradigm to encompass different reward categories, by investigating whether animals show sensitivity to an unexpected change of social reward, opening up an entirely new way of assessing what an animal wants, likes and needs.
Planned Impact
The impact of this research concerns the development of a more accurate and targeted assessment of animal welfare, an output likely to have wide ranging benefits. There will be immediate and direct benefits with regard to the welfare of companion animals, but also longer-term benefits as a result of the development of a general theoretical framework and approach that can be applied to all captive animals. This will have significant benefits: contributing to the debate about the use of animals in agriculture, research and as companion animals, and the way that they are treated; and informing policy makers, charitable organisations, owners and carers about animal welfare requirements. These benefits are likely to impact both nationally and globally as animal welfare is a topic of worldwide relevance, not just in the developed world, but in the developing world where the relationship between animal and human welfare is often inter-dependent.
The development of a more accurate and targeted assessment of welfare in dogs in particular, will directly and rapidly benefit those associated with companion animals, including: the pet industry sector - who focus on improving the health and welfare of companion animals and make a significant contribution to the global economy; pet owners - educating the general public as to how to best care for their pets will enhance quality of life and have a significant impact (e.g. there were an estimated 10million owned dogs in the UK (2006), an increase from 6.7million in 4.8million households in 2002); charitable organisations - they will benefit from the refinement of housing of kennelled dogs at rescue shelters (the Humane Society of the United States estimates that c.15 million dogs are relinquished to animal welfare charities each year). A topic of considerable public interest is the effect of artificial selection and domestication on dog welfare, with major health and welfare problems associated with pedigree dogs. Refinement of the welfare assessment of dogs will therefore have an input into the process of addressing this problem by investigating the link between genotypic and phenotypic abnormalities in dogs and their relation to affective state.
The development of a more accurate and targeted approach to assessing animal welfare and greater understanding of animal effect in general, will have a longer term benefit for all those associated with the management of captive animals, including: the agricultural sector - improving animal welfare assessment will make a significant contribution to the interface between food production and public concern for animal welfare with a potentially massive impact (e.g. over 700million chickens are farmed and killed annually in the UK for meat production alone, and livestock product consumption results in an estimated UK farm-gate value of livestock products of £7.6billion), as well as contributing scientific evidence to the debate about intensive farming and the impact on animal welfare (a topic that is increasingly back on the public agenda with, for example, recent proposals for the creation of 'super-dairies'). The outputs of the proposed research programme will also directly address the stated interest in promoting positive affective states to improve welfare (e.g. FAWC, Defra). Research animals - improved welfare assessment will allow a valuable evidence-based contribution to the debate on the use of animals in research (numbers of which have increased in recent years) and to the cost-benefit ethical consideration of invasive scientific procedures. Government and NGO bodies concerned with the policy advancement and the formation of recommendations/guidelines for the regulation of laboratory and farm animal welfare (e.g. EU, NC3Rs, HO, Defra, UFAW, RSPCA) will benefit from improved animal welfare assessment and a better understanding of animal affective state, using this knowledge to inform refinements of animal welfare, and to monitor effectiveness.
The development of a more accurate and targeted assessment of welfare in dogs in particular, will directly and rapidly benefit those associated with companion animals, including: the pet industry sector - who focus on improving the health and welfare of companion animals and make a significant contribution to the global economy; pet owners - educating the general public as to how to best care for their pets will enhance quality of life and have a significant impact (e.g. there were an estimated 10million owned dogs in the UK (2006), an increase from 6.7million in 4.8million households in 2002); charitable organisations - they will benefit from the refinement of housing of kennelled dogs at rescue shelters (the Humane Society of the United States estimates that c.15 million dogs are relinquished to animal welfare charities each year). A topic of considerable public interest is the effect of artificial selection and domestication on dog welfare, with major health and welfare problems associated with pedigree dogs. Refinement of the welfare assessment of dogs will therefore have an input into the process of addressing this problem by investigating the link between genotypic and phenotypic abnormalities in dogs and their relation to affective state.
The development of a more accurate and targeted approach to assessing animal welfare and greater understanding of animal effect in general, will have a longer term benefit for all those associated with the management of captive animals, including: the agricultural sector - improving animal welfare assessment will make a significant contribution to the interface between food production and public concern for animal welfare with a potentially massive impact (e.g. over 700million chickens are farmed and killed annually in the UK for meat production alone, and livestock product consumption results in an estimated UK farm-gate value of livestock products of £7.6billion), as well as contributing scientific evidence to the debate about intensive farming and the impact on animal welfare (a topic that is increasingly back on the public agenda with, for example, recent proposals for the creation of 'super-dairies'). The outputs of the proposed research programme will also directly address the stated interest in promoting positive affective states to improve welfare (e.g. FAWC, Defra). Research animals - improved welfare assessment will allow a valuable evidence-based contribution to the debate on the use of animals in research (numbers of which have increased in recent years) and to the cost-benefit ethical consideration of invasive scientific procedures. Government and NGO bodies concerned with the policy advancement and the formation of recommendations/guidelines for the regulation of laboratory and farm animal welfare (e.g. EU, NC3Rs, HO, Defra, UFAW, RSPCA) will benefit from improved animal welfare assessment and a better understanding of animal affective state, using this knowledge to inform refinements of animal welfare, and to monitor effectiveness.
People |
ORCID iD |
Oliver Burman (Principal Investigator) |
Publications
Ellis SLH
(2020)
Assessing the External Validity of Successive Negative Contrast - Implications for Animal Welfare.
in Journal of applied animal welfare science : JAAWS
Karagiannis CI
(2015)
Dogs with separation-related problems show a "less pessimistic" cognitive bias during treatment with fluoxetine (Reconcileā¢) and a behaviour modification plan.
in BMC veterinary research
Marshall-Pescini Sarah Kaminski Juliane
(2014)
The Social Dog: Behavior and Cognition
Notari L
(2015)
Behavioural changes in dogs treated with corticosteroids.
in Physiology & behavior
Owczarczak-Garstecka SC
(2016)
Can Sleep and Resting Behaviours Be Used as Indicators of Welfare in Shelter Dogs (Canis lupus familiaris)?
in PloS one
Parker RM
(2014)
Housing conditions affect rat responses to two types of ambiguity in a reward-reward discrimination cognitive bias task.
in Behavioural brain research
Riemer S
(2018)
Behavioural responses to unexpected changes in reward quality.
Riemer S
(2018)
Behavioural responses to unexpected changes in reward quality.
in Scientific reports
Riemer S
(2016)
A reappraisal of successive negative contrast in two populations of domestic dogs.
in Animal cognition
Description | Through the research funded on this grant, we have discovered: (1) a new way to test food preferences in dogs that avoids commonly experienced issues to do with over-eating; (2) that dogs, unlike many other animal species, are relatively insensitive to reward change when that reward is food-based when the task studied involves a human influence in the instrumental task. But, in tasks independent of human influence, dogs can show sensitivity to reward change; (3) that animals are sensitive to changes in the quality of social rewards; (4) that animals can be sensitive to reward change, even when they have experienced heterogeneous, non-laboratory, environments; and (5) that sensitivity to reward in dogs correlates with other indicators of welfare. |
Exploitation Route | There are potential commercial implications for our new test of food preference that avoids issues with over-eating and satiation - a particular issue with dogs. Our finding that, for the first time, animals can be sensitive to changes in a social reward may have considerable implications for studies that have, until now, been limited by their reliance on food as a reinforcer. Our development of a reliable test of sensitivity to reward change that appears to be associated with other measures of affective state, contributes to the portfolio of already established techniques that allow us to assess how the affective state of animals may be impacted by the environments in which they live. |
Sectors | Agriculture, Food and Drink,Other |
Description | Our findings have been used to inform and educate the public via their direct involvement in our research (as volunteers), through social media informing the public of research progress (twitter, website, blog), and public engagement talks. We have also informed and educated members of NGOs via working directly with, and giving presentations too, staff associated with animal charities - particularly dog rescue shelters. |
First Year Of Impact | 2014 |
Sector | Other |
Impact Types | Cultural,Societal |
Description | Swedish Research Collaboration |
Organisation | Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences |
Country | Sweden |
Sector | Academic/University |
PI Contribution | Building on insight from my BBSRC funded research, I am a Co-Investigator on a collaborative grant with researchers from SLU, Sweden, funded by the Swedish Research Council (FORMAS) that is investigating cognitive measures of welfare in dogs. My role is principally advisory during both grant preparation and current progress. |
Collaborator Contribution | The collaboration was initiated, and is being lead by, my research partners in Sweden, with regular team meetings to discuss progress. The research is currently underway, but is investigating the use of 'global/local' (visual) appraisal cues as a means to determine animal affective state. It may provide further insight into our understanding of the affective state of non-human animals and how this can be assessed, in order to help us make informed decisions about how animals are managed to maximise their welfare. |
Impact | None as yet due to delays. |
Start Year | 2019 |
Description | AWRN (RVC Companion Animal Research Workshop) |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Other audiences |
Results and Impact | Invited Speaker at BBSRC-funded Animal Welfare Research Network (AWRN) workshop on Companion Animal Welfare Research. An audience of researchers, industry and NGOs. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
Description | Canine Science Forum |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Other academic audiences (collaborators, peers etc.) |
Results and Impact | Talk sparked questions and discussion afterwards Allowed networking and the creation of new opportunities for collaboration. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2014 |
Description | Cognition Conference (Sicily) |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | Conference presentation to academics and professional practitioners about human-animal relationships that generated discussion, established potential new collaborations and networks. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2015 |
Description | Conference |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | Talk sparked questions and discussion afterwards Stimulated debate between behaviourists from around Europe with different backgrounds and experiences |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2013 |
Description | Lincoln Show (public) |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | Regional |
Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
Results and Impact | Talk sparked dialogue with members of the public (all ages and backgrounds) about animal welfare research. It resulted in us recruiting members of the public to help us with our research. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2012 |
Description | NTU |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | Regional |
Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
Results and Impact | Invited Seminar (NTU) |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
Description | Public Lecture |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
Results and Impact | Talk sparked questions and discussion afterwards people were interested in hearing more about our research and about opportunities for getting involved |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2013 |
Description | RVC |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Other audiences |
Results and Impact | An invited presentation to the RVC (Royal Veterinary College) to an audience of (mainly) academics that also included external attendees from Charities (e.g. UFAW) and overseas (e.g. University of Bern, Switzerland). The presentation included discussion of the BBSRC funded research, as well as research funded by the NC3Rs. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
Description | Rescue Shelter Conference |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | Regional |
Primary Audience | Participants in your research and patient groups |
Results and Impact | Talk sparked questions and discussion afterwards Staff at the rescue shelters made changes to management of animals in their care. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2012 |
Description | Research Seminar |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | Regional |
Primary Audience | Other audiences |
Results and Impact | Discussed research with postgraduates and post-doctoral researchers, including identifying a potential collaboration towards future research funding bid (BBSRC). |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2016 |