Visual attention and cognitive performance in sheep

•Evidence suggests that negative affective state can modulate attentional mechanisms (and thus cognition).•Measuring attention alongside other current tests of cognitive bias may provide greater resolution in the measurement of animal welfare.•The data link visual atttention and cogntiive performance warranting further exploration in realtion to animal welfare. Cognitive probes are increasingly being used as an inferred measure of the emotional (and thus welfare) status of the animal. This reflects the bidirectional and interactive nature of emotional and cognitive systems. To date, cognitive paradigms have focused on how the emotional system biases expected outcome of prospective actions within goal-orientated scenarios. Evidence, however, suggests that negative affective state can also modulate attentional mechanisms. Measuring attention alongside other current tests of cognitive bias may provide greater resolution in the measurement of animal welfare. As a starting point for developing cognitive tasks of attentional control, we decided to assess the basic relationship between visual attention and cognitive performance in a farm animal species (sheep). Variation in visual attention and cognitive performance was sought through testing of four different breeds of upland and lowland sheep (Beulah, Bluefaced Leicester, Texel and Suffolk; n = 15/breed) on a visual attention task and a two-choice visual discrimination task (to measure cognitive performance). Cognitive performance and visual attention differed significantly between breeds (F 3,46 = 4.70, p = 0.006 and F3,5o = 6.05, p