Can We Eat Dog Without Dog Eating Us Commentary on Paper by Janine de Peyer

This paper examines a state of fear aroused in the analyst during a session. I suggest that the fear arose from the attempt to enter the patient's mental state—a state that was unfamiliar to the analyst. In entering what was essentially psychically foreign territory, I terrified myself with a version of the patient's experience.     

Landmark Discrimination Learning in the Dog

Allocentric spatial memory was studied in dogs of varying ages and sources using a landmark discrimination task. The primary goal of this study was to develop a protocol to test landmark discrimination learning in the dog. Using a modified version of a landmark test developed for use in monkeys, we successfully trained dogs to make a spatial discrimination on the basis of the position of a visual landmark relative to two identical discriminanda. Task performance decreased, however, as the distance between the landmark and the “discriminandum” was increased. A subgroup of these dogs was also tested on a delayed nonmatching to position spatial memory task (DNMP), which relies on egocentric spatial cues. These findings suggest that dogs can acquire both allocentric and egocentric spatial tasks. These data provide a useful tool for evaluating the ability of canines to use allocentric cues in spatial learning.     

Dog and owner characteristics predict training success

Animal Cognition - Teaching owners how to train their dogs is an important part of maintaining the health and safety of dogs and people. Yet we do not know what behavioral characteristics of dogs...     

Emergent Readers' Recognition of Irony in Good Dog,Carl

Jedediah Purdy's (2000) For common things laments the ironic mode of thought that characterizes our culture's mindset. He calls for a return to devotion, homage, and allegiance rather than what he sees as a jaundiced detachment that has overcome us. Purdy may be on to something, but Alexandra Day (1985) does not seem to adopt his call to a simpler way of seeing things. She encourages the ironic stance, even in young children. Her Good Dog, Carl may not be a thoroughly modern book; it is not a deconstructed child's text like David Weisner's (2001) The Three Pigs where the story falls apart, where we see reality and other texts invade the story world in amazing ways. But Day's Good Dog, Carl is a clever book that is filled with a basic irony that even 2- to 3-year-old children are beginning to understand and 5- to 6-year-olds are clearly recognizing. They catch the naughtiness of it, the rebellion that is always about to get underway.     

Dog owners show experience-based viewing behaviour in judging dog face approachability

Psychological Research - Our prior visual experience plays a critical role in face perception. We show superior perceptual performance for differentiating conspecific (vs non-conspecific), own-race...     

Dog rivalry impacts following behavior in a decision-making task involving food

Dogs learn a great deal from humans and other dogs. Previous studies of socially influenced learning between dogs have typically used a highly trained demonstrator dog who is unfamiliar to the observer. Because of this, it is unknown how dynamics between familiar dogs may influence their likelihood of learning from each other. In this study, we tested dogs living together in two-dog households on whether individual dogs’ rivalry scores were associated with performance on a local enhancement task. Specifically, we wanted to know whether dog rivalry impacted whether an observer dog would approach a plate from which a demonstrator dog had eaten all available food, or whether the observer dog would approach the adjacent plate that still contained food. Dog rivalry scores were calculated using the Canine Behavioral Assessment and Research Questionnaire and indicated each dog’s tendency to engage aggressively with the other household dog. Low-rivalry dogs were more likely to approach the empty plate than high-rivalry dogs when the observer dog was allowed to approach the plates immediately after the demonstrator had moved out of sight. This difference between low- and high-rivalry dogs disappeared, however, when observer dogs had to wait 5 s before approaching the plates. The same pattern was observed during a control condition when a human removed the food from a plate. Compared to low-rivalry dogs, high-rivalry dogs may pay less attention to other dogs due to a low tolerance for having other dogs in close proximity.     

How Power States Influence the Persuasiveness of Top‐Dog versus Underdog Appeals

Although both top‐dog and underdog positioning appeals are widely used in marketing and advertising, little is known about which strategy is more effective in persuading consumers. By introducing a sense of power, a social variable that is inherently relevant to the nature of the top‐dog versus underdog classification, we propose that consumers' responses to these two appeals are influenced by their psychological experience of power. Specifically, low‐power consumers will respond to top‐dog appeals more favorably because associating with top dogs facilitates power restoration. In contrast, high‐power consumers will respond to underdog appeals more favorably because supporting underdogs facilitates power expression. In four experimental studies, we provide consistent support for our main predictions as well as the underlying processes. Studies 1 and 2 demonstrate the differential effect of consumers' power states on their attitudes toward top‐dog versus underdog appeals. Providing process evidence, Studies 3 and 4 identify boundary conditions under which the basic effect was eliminated. These findings contribute to the persuasion literature and power research and provide important implications for positioning strategy and advertisement development.     

Dog is a dog is a dog: infant rule learning is not specific to language

Human infants possess powerful learning mechanisms used for the acquisition of language. To what extent are these mechanisms domain specific? One well-known infant language learning mechanism is the ability to detect and generalize rule-like similarity patterns, such as ABA or ABB [Marcus, G. F., Vijayan, S., Rao, S. B., & Vishton, P. M. (1999). Rule learning by seven-month-old infants. Science, 283, 77-80.]. The results of three experiments demonstrate that 7-month-old infants can detect and generalize these same patterns when the elements consist of pictures of animals (dogs and cats). These findings indicate that rule learning of this type is not specific to language acquisition.     

Why Keep a Dog and Bark Yourself? Making Choices for Non‐Human Animals

Animals are usually considered to lack the status of autonomous agents. Nevertheless, they do appear to make ostensible choices. This article considers whether, and how, I should respect animals' choices. I propose a concept of volitionality which can be respected if, and insofar as, doing so is in the best interests of the animal. Applying that concept, I (we) will argue that an animals' choices be respected when the relevant human decision maker's capacities to decide are potentially challenged or compromised. For example, it will be best to respect the animals' choice when the human decision maker: (1) lacks accurate knowledge of the animal's subjective experiences; (2) does not know what will lead to desirable experiences or allow for the avoidance of undesirable ones; (3) is biased; (4) is less aware of the animal's specific situation; (5) cannot appreciate all elements comprehensively, including considering any (content‐neutral) value to the animal being allowed to make and implement a choice, such as where a lack of control or liberty would be unpleasant or where an animal would usefully learn from the process of choice‐making; and (6) when the animal's choice is achievable. This additionally suggests that we may often beneficially choose to set up situations that empower animals to make better choices.     

When a Dog Has a Pen for a Tail: the Time Course of Creative Object Processing

Creative objects differ from ordinary objects in that they are created by human beings to contain novel, creative information. Previous research has demonstrated that ordinary object processing involves both a perceptual process for analyzing different features of the visual input and a higher-order process for evaluating the relevance of this visual information. However, it is unclear how and when these processes are influenced by the creative information of the object. This study utilized event-related potentials (ERPs) to investigate the time course of creative object processing. Behavioral results revealed that participants spent more time processing creative objects than they did ordinary objects. Analysis of scalp ERPs further revealed that creative objects elicited a more negative ERP deflection between 190 and 340 ms (N190–340) with an anterior scalp distribution. Additionally, creative objects elicited more positive ERP deflection than did ordinary objects between 400 and 700 ms (P400–700) with a right centro–parietal scalp distribution and between 700 and 1000 ms (late positive component) with a right anterior–central scalp distribution. Such results suggest that the processing of creative objects is composed of two distinct stages. The early perceptual stage involves the detection of visual differences exhibited by the creative objects, while the late stage involves the right-lateralized processes of understanding and encoding the creative information.     

Blood-Injection-Injury Phobia and Dog Phobia in Youth: Psychological Characteristics and Associated Features in a Clinical Sample

Blood-Injection-Injury (BII) phobia is a particularly debilitating condition that has been largely ignored in the child literature. The present study examined the clinical phenomenology of BII phobia in 27 youths, relative to 25 youths with dog phobia—one of the most common and well-studied phobia subtypes in youth. Children were compared on measures of phobia severity, functional impairment, comorbidity, threat appraisals (danger expectancies and coping), focus of fear, and physiological responding, as well as vulnerability factors including disgust sensitivity and family history. Children and adolescents with BII phobia had greater diagnostic severity. In addition, they were more likely to have a comorbid diagnosis of a physical health condition, to report more exaggerated danger expectancies, and to report fears that focused more on physical symptoms (e.g., faintness and nausea) in comparison to youth with dog phobia. The present study advances knowledge relating to this poorly understood condition in youth.     

Effect of Age and Level of Cognitive Function on Spontaneous and Exploratory Behaviors in the Beagle Dog

Cognitively characterized young and aged beagle dogs were administered six different spontaneous behavior tests, which provided measures of locomotion, exploration, and social interaction. Consistent with our previous findings, we obtained no overall effect of age on locomotion. We did find, however, that for the aged dogs locomotion correlated with level of cognitive function, being lowest in age-unimpaired dogs and highest in impaired dogs. Exploratory behavior, as measured by response to novelty, varied with age, with young dogs scoring the highest. Young dogs spent more time with novel toys and a person, responded more to a silhouette of a dog, and interacted more with a model dog compared to aged dogs. Among the aged dogs, age-unimpaired dogs spent the greatest amount of time sitting or standing beside a person whereas age-impaired dogs spent the most time reacting to a reflection in a mirror. The age-impaired dogs show undirected, stereotypical types of behavioral patterns. These differences in activity patterns may be linked to underlying age-associated neuropathology.     

Evaluating the Benefits and Challenges of Owning a Pet Dog at a Residential Psychiatric Rehabilitation Facility From the Perspective of Staff and Clients

This qualitative study evaluated benefits and challenges of the occupation of owning a communal pet dog living permanently at an adult psychiatric rehabilitation facility. Twenty-three participants (12 staff, 11 clients) completed surveys, interviews, and focus groups. Data were analyzed through multiple coding, member checking, and triangulation. Three major themes emerged: (a) positive emotional experiences, (b) challenges of dog ownership, and (c) supporting engagement in meaningful occupation. While experiences of participant’s were broadly positive, challenges with adopting a dog in its puppy stage of development were acknowledged. A novel finding recognizing positive impacts on the well-being of staff was found.