Abstract

Simple SummaryMost people consider the environment in which animals are kept to be an ethical matter, separate from the research that we conduct with them. Those of us who do research on the cognitive behavior of animals try to consider their welfare, but what we often fail to recognize is that the welfare of the animals we study can affect the results of experiments that we investigate. We have but scratched the surface of the question, how do enriched environments affect the cognitive behavior of animals, in our case pigeons. We have found that pigeons with experience in an enriched environment are less impulsive. The reduction in impulsivity results in a reduced tendency to make the suboptimal choice. It also has been claimed to make animals more optimistic, as assessed by their tendency to make choices of more favorable alternatives, under ambiguous conditions.The humane treatment of animals suggests that they should be housed in an environment that is rich in stimulation and allows for varied activities. However, even if one’s main concern is an accurate assessment of their learning and cognitive abilities, housing them in an enriched environment can have an important effect on the assessment of those abilities. Research has found that the development of the brain of animals is significantly affected by the environment in which they live. Not surprisingly, their ability to learn both simple and complex tasks is affected by even modest time spent in an enriched environment. In particular, animals that are housed in an enriched environment are less impulsive and make more optimal choices than animals housed in isolation. Even the way that they judge the passage of time is affected by their housing conditions. Some researchers have even suggested that exposing animals to an enriched environment can make them more “optimistic” in how they treat ambiguous stimuli. Whether that behavioral effect reflects the subtlety of differences in optimism/pessimism or something simpler, like differences in motivation, incentive, discriminability, or neophobia, it is clear that the conditions of housing can have an important effect on the learning and cognition of animals.

Highlights

  • The humane treatment of animals suggests that they should be housed in an environment that is rich in stimulation and allows for varied activities

  • Whether that behavioral effect reflects the subtlety of differences in optimism/pessimism or something simpler, like differences in motivation, incentive, discriminability, or neophobia, it is clear that the conditions of housing can have an important effect on the learning and cognition of animals

  • When environmental enrichment is studied in the laboratory, the protocols have varied, they generally involve time spent in a large cage with novel objects and several conspecifics

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Summary

The Effect of Environmental Enrichment on the Brain and Learning of Animals

There has been increasing research interest in improving the welfare of captive animals by exposing them to enriched environments. This has been done primarily for humane reasons; there is a long history of research on how environmental enrichment affects the brain and behavior of animals. Hebb [2] hypothesized that animals raised in enriched environments may demonstrate enhanced problem-solving capabilities. His conjecture was based on the finding that rats raised as pets were more adept at maze learning than laboratory rats. When environmental enrichment is studied in the laboratory, the protocols have varied, they generally involve time spent in a large cage with novel objects and several conspecifics (compared with a more typical smaller cage, with single or double animal housing)

Environmental Enrichment and the Brain
Environmental Enrichment and Drugs of Abuse
Enrichment as a Treatment for Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder
Enrichment and Social Interaction
Enrichment and Learning
Environmental Enrichment and Complex Behavior
The Suboptimal Choice Task
Time Judgements
10. Enrichment and Timing
11. Environmental Enrichment and Cognitive Bias
Findings
12. Conclusions
Full Text
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