ArticlePloS one2013
Pain and pessimism: dairy calves exhibit negative judgement bias following hot-iron disbudding.
Article in PloS one, 2013. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. An erratum has been issued. Cited by 61 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
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Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
61 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 147 citations in OpenAlex.
- Cognitive tasks as measures of pig welfare: a systematic review.Frontiers in veterinary science · 2023Pooled it
- Calves disbudded with local nerve block and analgesic show conditioned place aversion two days later but not in the hours post-disbudding.Animal welfare (South Mimms, England) · 2026Article
- Balancing consistency and flexibility: exploring trait and state optimism in rats using the cognitive judgement bias test.Frontiers in veterinary science · 2026Article
- Cognition of dairy cattle: Implications for animal welfare and dairy science.JDS communications · 2025Review
- Main Husbandry Practices and Health Conditions That Affect Welfare in Calves: A Narrative Review.Animals : an open access journal from MDPI · 2025Review
- Measuring minds: Understanding the mental states of dairy cattle in different management conditions.JDS communications · 2025Article
- Pain and pessimism affect calves' play behaviours post-disbudding.Discover animals · 2025Article
- Effect of pre-session discrimination training on performance in a judgement bias test in dogs.Animal cognition · 2024Article
- Animal affect, welfare and the Bayesian brain.Animal welfare (South Mimms, England) · 2024Review
- Multi-dimensional evaluation of pain response in low day-age calves to two types of dehorning.Frontiers in veterinary science · 2024Article
- Assessing cognitive biases induced by acute formalin or hotplate treatment: an animal study using affective bias test.Frontiers in behavioral neuroscience · 2024Article
- Article
- Pain pathophysiology and pharmacology of cattle: how improved understanding can enhance pain prevention, mitigation, and welfare.Frontiers in pain research (Lausanne, Switzerland) · 2024Review
- Unexpected appetitive events promote positive affective state in juvenile European sea bass.Scientific reports · 2023Article
- Exploring the effect of pain on response to reward loss in calves.Scientific reports · 2023Article
- Understanding Animal-Plant-Parasite Interactions to Improve the Management of Gastrointestinal Nematodes in Grazing Ruminants.Pathogens (Basel, Switzerland) · 2023Review
- Evaluation of the Thermal Response of the Horns in Dairy Cattle.Animals : an open access journal from MDPI · 2023Article
- Do cows see the forest or the trees? A preliminary investigation of attentional scope as a potential indicator of emotional state in dairy cows housed with their calves.Frontiers in veterinary science · 2023Article
- Sex impacts pain behaviour but not emotional reactivity of lambs following ring tail docking.PeerJ · 2023Article
- Pessimistic cognitive bias is associated with enhanced reproductive investment in female zebrafish.Biology letters · 2022Article
1 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
- Erratum issued
Authors and funding
5 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
Pain is defined as an unpleasant sensory and emotional experience associated with actual or potential tissue damage, but emotional states are difficult to directly assess in animals. Researchers have assessed pain using behavioural and physiological measures, but these approaches are limited to understanding the arousal rather than valence of the emotional experience. Cognitive bias tasks show that depressed humans judge ambiguous events negatively and this technique has been applied to assess emotional states in animals. However, limited research has examined how pain states affect cognitive processes in animals. Here we present the first evidence of cognitive bias in response to pain in any non-human species. In two experiments, dairy calves (n = 17) were trained to respond differentially to red and white video screens and then tested with unreinforced ambiguous colours in two or three test sessions before and two sessions after the routine practice of hot-iron disbudding. After disbudding calves were more likely to judge ambiguous colours as negative. This 'pessimistic' bias indicates that post-operative pain following hot-iron disbudding results in a negative change in emotional state.
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What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.