Download Psy 331.03 Advanced Laboratory in Operant Conditioning

Psy 331.03 Advanced Laboratory in Operant Conditioning
Fall 2015
Study guide/Reading Summary
Week 13: 11/09/2014
Lupfer-Johnson, G. & Ross, J. (2007). Dogs acquire food preferences from interacting with recently fed
conspecifics. Behavioural Processes, 74, 104-106.
Prato-Previde, E., Marshall-Pescini, & Valsecchi, P. (2008). Is your choice my choice? The owners' effect on pet dogs'
(cais lupus familiaris0 performance in a food choice task. Animal Cognition, 11, 167-174
1. In the Prato-Previde, et al. article, why did the authors want to study “dog cognition” in general, and dog’s social
cognition more specifically?
2. Using the introductions from this week’s 2 articles, what does the literature suggest that dogs are
cognitively/behaviorally capable of doing and thinking?
3.
Can dogs follow human social signals? What is your evidence?
4.
What was the purpose of the Prato-Previde investigation?
5.
What did the Prato-Previde article do? What was their methodology (hint: you did a version of it in lab).
6.
How did they analyze their data? That is, what are the dependent measures?
7.
Were any dogs removed from the study? Why?
8. Approximately what percentage of dogs chose the larger choice when unprompted? How did this change when
the owners expressed a preference? Finally, how often did the dogs choose theowner-preferred in the 1:1 situation?
9.
What were some other interesting results (gender, training effects, location, C-BARQ questionnaire)?
10. What did the authors conclude about their results? What did they suggest as the cause for why did condition 2
(the owners preferring less) have the effect it did? Do you agree or disagree?
11. Did your dog follow the pattern? Why or why not? Did the fact that you were the trainer and not the owner make a
difference?
12. There was an interesting relationship between the CBARQ and the results, what were these and how do you
think this might apply to our rescue dogs? Do you think our shelter dogs or the deaf dogs would perform differently
than non-rescue dogs or dogs who have been with their owners for a long period of time? Why or why not?
13. In the Lupfer-Johnson & Ross study, why was snout-to-snout contact studied? How does snout-to-snout contact
tie in with social behavior and social cognition/
14. Describe the method used in the Lupfer-Johnson & Ross study.
15. How did they analyze their data? That is, what are the dependent measures?
16. What were the results?
17. Why is this paper important in understanding social behaviors in dogs?
18. We currently have data that so far suggest that deaf dogs are not as good at this type of social interaction. Can
you think of any reason why deaf dogs would not use this snout-to-snout contact as well as hearing dogs?
19. Do you think shelter dogs would react the same as the dogs in the Lupfer-Johnson & Ross study? Would your
dog use the social signals?
20. Do these social abilities of dogs surprise you or alter your view of how smart dogs are? Why and how or why not?