Emotion, Pain, & Sentience

Effects of access to a well-resourced environment on dairy calf cognition and affective state (2025)

Dairy calves are often raised without maternal contact and in environments of low complexity. Environments that limit natural behaviors are known to impair cognitive development and affective states. We explored the effect of environmental complexity on one measure of social...

Year Published: 2025Topics: Emotion, Pain, & Sentience, Environmental EnrichmentAnimal Type: Cattle

Citation: Suchon, M., Weary, D. M., Keyserlingk, M. A. G. von. 2025. Effects of access to a well-resourced environment on dairy calf cognition and affective state. PLOS ONE 20(5), e0323089.

Modifying the attention bias test to assess the emotional state of dogs (2025)

The attention bias test is an established cognitive method used to evaluate emotional states in farm animals by examining their response to a stimulus under varying emotional conditions. This study adapted this test for dogs, utilizing naturally induced emotional states...

Year Published: 2025Topics: Emotion, Pain, & Sentience, Welfare AssessmentAnimal Type: Dog

Citation: Molinaro, H. G., Smith, E., Crawford-Paz Soldán, E. et al. 2025. Modifying the attention bias test to assess the emotional state of dogs. Animals 15(6), 840.

By your side: How social support affects training duration, task performance and behaviour of pigs in a judgement bias task (2025)

Pigs (Sus scrofa domesticus) and most other farmed species are social animals for whom social isolation is known to cause stress. However, their social nature is commonly ignored in behavioural and cognitive tasks, on which they are trained and tested...

Year Published: 2025Topics: Emotion, Pain, & Sentience, Social Housing & CompanionshipAnimal Type: Pig

Citation: Kroell, M., Winckler, C., Hintze, S. 2025. By your side: How social support affects training duration, task performance and behaviour of pigs in a Judgement Bias Task. Animal Welfare 34, e25.

Defending and refining the Birch et al. (2021) precautionary framework for animal sentience (2025)

It is widely accepted that we ought to avoid taking excessive risks of causing gratuitous suffering. The practical implications of this truism, however, depend on how we understand what counts as an excessive risk. Precautionary frameworks help us decide when...

Year Published: 2025Topics: Emotion, Pain, & Sentience, Regulations & Ethical ReviewAnimal Type: Cephalopod, Invertebrate

Citation: Fischer, B., Gottlieb, J., Schnell, A. K. et al. 2025. Defending and refining the Birch et al. (2021) precautionary framework for animal sentience. Animal Welfare 34, e28.

A history of pain studies and changing attitudes to the welfare of crustaceans (2025)

Early discussions about possible pain in crustaceans often comprised speculation and anecdotes. Experiments to investigate pain took guidance from these early debates, and from studies on other taxa. Many experiments provided data that are consistent with the idea of pain....

Year Published: 2025Topics: Analgesia, Emotion, Pain, & SentienceAnimal Type: Crustacean, Invertebrate

Citation: Elwood, R. W. 2025. A history of pain studies and changing attitudes to the welfare of crustaceans. Animals 15(3), 445.

Rat 50 kHz calls reflect graded tickling-induced positive emotion

Positive animal emotion (affect) is a key component of good animal welfare and plays an important role in stress-coping and resilience. Methods for reliably inducing and measuring positive affect are critical, but both have been limited in availability. In rats,...

Year Published: 2020Topics: Emotion, Pain, & Sentience, Human-Animal InteractionAnimal Type: Rat, Rodent

Citation: Hinchcliffe, J. K., Mendl, M., Robinson, E. S. J. 2020. Rat 50 kHz calls reflect graded tickling-induced positive emotion. Current Biology 30(18), R1034-R1035.

Tell-tail fear behaviors in kittens: Identifying the scaredy cat

Identifying when kittens are in fearful emotional states is crucial to protecting welfare, preventing behavioral issues, and ensuring caretaker and researcher assessments are accurate. Research is needed to confirm if kittens have fully developed fear responses similar to those of...

Year Published: 2024Topics: Emotion, Pain, & SentienceAnimal Type: Cat

Citation: Graham, C., Khalife, S., Pearl, D. et al. 2024. Tell-tail fear behaviors in kittens: Identifying the scaredy cat. Animal Behavior and Cognition 11(4), 361–392.

Living the good life? A systematic review of behavioural signs of affective state in the domestic horse (Equus caballus) and factors relating to quality of life

Quality of life is dependent upon the extent to which behavioural needs are met, and the balance between pleasant and unpleasant lifetime experiences. In Part II of this systematic review, articles (n = 109) relating to horse-human interactions were reviewed...

Year Published: 2024Topics: Emotion, Pain, & Sentience, Handling, Human-Animal Interaction, Relocation & TransportAnimal Type: Equine

Citation: Hall, C., Kay, R. 2024. Living the good life? A systematic review of behavioural signs of affective state in the domestic horse (Equus caballus) and factors relating to quality of life. Part 2: Horse-human interactions. Animal Welfare 33, e41.

Living the good life? A systematic review of behavioural signs of affective state in the domestic horse (Equus caballus) and factors relating to quality of life

The welfare of horses involved in sport and leisure activities has come under increasing scrutiny, both from within the equine sector and from the public. A systematic review of scientific evidence was conducted to derive observable, evidence-based behavioural measures of...

Year Published: 2024Topics: Abnormal/Problematic Behavior, Emotion, Pain, & Sentience, Housing, Husbandry & Management, Rearing & Weaning, Social Housing & CompanionshipAnimal Type: Equine

Citation: Hall, C., Kay, R. 2024. Living the good life? A systematic review of behavioural signs of affective state in the domestic horse (Equus caballus) and factors relating to quality of life. Part I: Fulfilment of species-specific needs. Animal Welfare 33, e40.

Effect of pre-session discrimination training on performance in a judgement bias test in dogs

Spatial judgement bias tests (JBTs) can involve teaching animals that a bowl provides a reward in one location but does not in another. The animal is then presented with the bowl placed between the rewarded and the unrewarded locations (i.e.,...

Year Published: 2024Topics: Emotion, Pain, & SentienceAnimal Type: Dog

Citation: Krahn, J., Azadian, A., Cavalli, C. et al. 2024. Effect of pre-session discrimination training on performance in a judgement bias test in dogs. Animal Cognition 27(1), 66.