{"id":2283,"date":"2026-04-16T16:43:07","date_gmt":"2026-04-16T20:43:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.well-e.org\/publication\/investigating-cognitive-enrichment-for-dairy-calves-through-behavioral-measures-of-participation-and-engagement-a-pilot-study-2\/"},"modified":"2026-04-28T22:45:57","modified_gmt":"2026-04-29T02:45:57","slug":"investigating-cognitive-enrichment-for-dairy-calves-through-behavioral-measures-of-participation-and-engagement-a-pilot-study-2","status":"publish","type":"publication","link":"https:\/\/wp.well-e.org\/en\/publication\/investigating-cognitive-enrichment-for-dairy-calves-through-behavioral-measures-of-participation-and-engagement-a-pilot-study-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Investigating cognitive enrichment for dairy calves through behavioral measures of participation and engagement: a pilot study"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Authors:<\/strong> Georgiana Amarioarei and Marjorie Cellier and Nad\u00e8ge Aigueperse and Tania Wolfe and Elise Shepley and Abdoulaye Banir\u00e9 Diallo and Elsa Vasseur<\/p>\n<p><strong>Date:<\/strong> 2026-04-01<\/p>\n<p><strong>Journal:<\/strong> BioRxive<\/p>\n<p><strong>Status:<\/strong> Published<\/p>\n<p><strong>DOI:<\/strong> https:\/\/doi.org\/10.64898\/2026.04.01.715895<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.biorxiv.org\/content\/10.64898\/2026.04.01.715895v1\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">View External Publication<\/a><\/p>\n<hr>\n<p>Introducing cognitive enrichment from an early age has the potential to enhance an animal\u2019s capacity to learn both simple and complex tasks, promote neural plasticity, and support cognitive development. This is applicable for young cattle who are at a critical stage in their development and could benefit from the influence cognitive enrichment has on their behavioral expression. This study aims to explore the effects cognitive enrichment has on weaned dairy calves through analyzing behavioral measures of voluntary participation and short-term behavioral reactions to enrichment exposure. Our study involved a total of five pairs of weaned calves (n=8 treatment; n=2 control). The treatment groups were presented with three variations of a puzzle box, each equipped with unique challenges that offer different solutions (push, slide, pull). These boxes were provided to the calves twice daily over the span of nine days in an isolated corridor located behind their pen. We hypothesized that motivated calves would consistently engage with cognitive enrichment voluntarily over time and express directed natural behaviors, reflecting sustained participation across repeated trials. Results demonstrated that calves consistently visited the cognitive enrichment area across trials, with an average latency of 75.7 \u00b1 47.0s from the pen to the enrichment. Secondly, the calves spent a significant proportion of trial time within the enrichment area at 65% (870.1 \u00b1 21s). Lastly, all calves expressed a broad range of behaviors in line with their natural exploration within the enrichment area, while the puzzle box treatment groups expressed higher durations of behavioral expressions when compared to the control (F=11.7, p&lt;0.0001). Combined, these results indicate the calves\u2019 motivations to voluntarily participate in a cognitive challenge. While these are promising findings for cognitive enrichment and its applicability to dairy calves, further work is needed to understand broader parameters. Specifically, how can social dynamics influence enrichment interaction in groups, how can this type of enrichment be implemented on farms, and what are the long-term effects to providing cognitive enrichment in the early stages of development.<\/p>","protected":false},"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_crdt_document":""},"class_list":["post-2283","publication","type-publication","status-publish","hentry"],"blocksy_meta":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Investigating cognitive enrichment for dairy calves through behavioral measures of participation and engagement: a pilot study - WELL-E<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/wp.well-e.org\/en\/publication\/investigating-cognitive-enrichment-for-dairy-calves-through-behavioral-measures-of-participation-and-engagement-a-pilot-study-2\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Investigating cognitive enrichment for dairy calves through behavioral measures of participation and engagement: a pilot study - WELL-E\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Authors: Georgiana Amarioarei and Marjorie Cellier and Nad\u00e8ge Aigueperse and Tania Wolfe and Elise Shepley and Abdoulaye Banir\u00e9 Diallo and Elsa Vasseur Date: 2026-04-01 Journal: BioRxive Status: Published DOI: https:\/\/doi.org\/10.64898\/2026.04.01.715895 View External Publication Introducing cognitive enrichment from an early age has the potential to enhance an animal\u2019s capacity to learn both simple and complex tasks, [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/wp.well-e.org\/en\/publication\/investigating-cognitive-enrichment-for-dairy-calves-through-behavioral-measures-of-participation-and-engagement-a-pilot-study-2\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"WELL-E\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-04-29T02:45:57+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/wp.well-e.org\\\/publication\\\/investigating-cognitive-enrichment-for-dairy-calves-through-behavioral-measures-of-participation-and-engagement-a-pilot-study-2\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/wp.well-e.org\\\/publication\\\/investigating-cognitive-enrichment-for-dairy-calves-through-behavioral-measures-of-participation-and-engagement-a-pilot-study-2\\\/\",\"name\":\"Investigating cognitive enrichment for dairy calves through behavioral measures of participation and engagement: a pilot study - 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