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Cognitive bias and affective state

2004; Nature Portfolio; Volume: 427; Issue: 6972 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1038/427312a

1476-4687

Emma J. Harding, Elizabeth S. Paul, Michael Mendl,

Receptor Mechanisms and Signaling

Information processing by humans can be biased by their emotions — for example, anxious and depressed people tend to make negative judgements about events and to interpret ambiguous stimuli unfavourably1,2,3,4. Here we show that such a 'pessimistic' response bias can also be measured in rats that are housed in unpredictable conditions5,6. Our findings indicate that cognitive bias can be used as an indicator of affective state in animals, which should facilitate progress in animal-welfare studies.