Assessing the motivation to learn in cattle

Rebecca K. Meagher,Daniel M. Weary,Emma Strazhnik,Marina A. G. von Keyserlingk

doi:10.1038/s41598-020-63848-1

Rebecca K. Meagher, Daniel M. Weary + Show 2 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-63848-1

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Abstract

Cognitive challenges may provide a form of enrichment to improve the welfare of captive animals. Primates, dolphins, and goats will voluntarily participate in learning tasks suggesting that these are rewarding, but little work has been conducted on livestock species. We investigated the motivation of 10 pairs of Holstein heifers to experience learning opportunities using a yoked design. All heifers were trained to perform an operant response (nose touch) on a variable interval schedule. Learning heifers then performed this response to access a discrimination learning task in which colour and texture of feed-bin lids signified a preferred reward (grain) vs. a non-preferred reward (straw). Control heifers received the same feed without a choice of bins or association of feed with lid type. Learning heifers approached the target to begin sessions faster (p = 0.024) and tended to perform more operant responses (p = 0.08), indicating stronger motivation. Treatments did not differ in the frequency with which heifers participated in voluntary training sessions. We conclude that heifers are motivated to participate in learning tasks, but that aspects of the experience other than discrimination learning were also rewarding. Cognitive challenges and other opportunities to exert control over the environment may improve animal welfare.

Highlights

Cognitive challenges may provide a form of enrichment to improve the welfare of captive animals
We found some evidence that heifers are motivated to participate in training sessions
Latency to approach the operant target and number of operant responses could be considered the most direct evidence of motivation to participate in the discrimination learning task, and both of these measures showed differences in the predicted direction

Summary

Introduction

Cognitive challenges may provide a form of enrichment to improve the welfare of captive animals. Animals must learn how and where to obtain food and other biologically important resources in the short-term; they can acquire information about their environments that might aid in survival or acquisition of resources in the future through exploration or social learning (see e.g.1) This information-gathering function is assumed to explain the motivation to explore exhibited by many species (e.g.2,3). We predicted that cattle would be more motivated to learn how to obtain a preferred feed than to have that feed presented to them, as indicated by performance of operant responses, shorter latencies to engage in training, and increased rates of voluntary participation in the training. We predicted that play would increase in association with successful learning, and that motivation to engage in the learning task would increase as animals became more successful

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