Cognitive bias testing offers a window into the emotional states of farm animals, providing more nuanced welfare assessment beyond traditional health and production indicators.
Cognitive bias testing moves welfare science beyond measuring what animals cannot do - escape, move, express behavior - toward measuring how they feel about their situation. This represents a conceptual advance aligned with the positive welfare movement's focus on mental state quality. If validated and scaled, cognitive bias screening could identify farms with systematic emotional welfare deficits that traditional assessments miss.