Enrichment part 2

The affective state of an animal refers to…?

• Its physiological and biological functioning

• The ‘naturalness’ of the environment it lives in

• Its internal, mental experiences (positive and negative), related to emotional state/mood

• The way in which it responds to an S+ or S-

What is meant by the term ‘optimistic/optimism bias’ in animal behaviour research?

• Diminished responding to an ambiguous stimulus, following conditional discrimination training with an S+ ad S-

• Enhanced responding to an ambiguous stimulus, following conditional discrimination training with an S+ and S-

• Increased responding to an S+ after many training sessions

• A tendency to choose “smaller sooner” rewards over “larger later” rewards

In human judgement bias research, people with social anxiety disorder were more likely to interpret ambiguous faces as *what* compared to people without SAD?

• Angry

• Happy

• Neutral

• No difference between how groups interpreted faces

In judgement bias research, what does ‘ambiguous stimulus’ mean?

• A stimulus associated with a positive reinforcer

• A stimulus that has been varied along some dimension, and lies between two trained stimuli on that dimension

• A stimulus that can’t be detected by the organism

• A stimulus that has been associated with a punisher

Which of these is most likely to be the ambiguous stimulus in an experiment, if the two trained stimuli are a 5cm black circle and a 10cm black circle?

• High-frequency tone

• 10.5cm black circle

• Flashing green light

• 7cm black circle

What is a probe trial?

• A trial in which a stimulus in presented, but there is no reinforcer available. Used to measure generalisation

• A trial where a reinforcer is delivered if an organism makes a specific response

• A trial where a novel stimulus is presented, and either a punisher or reinforcer is delivered depending on the organism’s response

• A trial where an organism must discriminate between two similar stimuli

In part 2 of the online content, you learned about a judgement bias study with rats. What would occur for the researchers to record an ‘optimistic bias’ in rats?

• When a rat successfully made a conditional discrimination between two stimuli

• When a rat did not make any response to ambiguous stimuli in probe trials

• When rats boggled their eyes to show that they were enjoying the task

• When rats chose to forage in the area associated with the S+ in the presence of an ambiguous stimulus

One of the ways we can behaviourally measure the effects of enrichment on a nonhuman animal’s welfare is by running a…?

• Generalisation test

• Discrimination test

• Interview session

• Blood test

A generalisation gradient gives a measure of how much an animal generalises its responding across stimuli. What shape characterises a generalisation curve that suggests an optimistic bias in the animal’s responding?

• A steeper gradient

• A flatter/broader gradient

• A parabolic gradient

• An oscillating curve