Increasing arousal enhances inhibitory control in calm but not excitable dogs

Loading...
Thumbnail Image

Date

2015-11-01

Journal Title

Journal ISSN

Volume Title

Repository Usage Stats

2132
views
576
downloads

Citation Stats

Abstract

© 2015, Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.The emotional-reactivity hypothesis proposes that problem-solving abilities can be constrained by temperament, within and across species. One way to test this hypothesis is with the predictions of the Yerkes–Dodson law. The law posits that arousal level, a component of temperament, affects problem solving in an inverted U-shaped relationship: Optimal performance is reached at intermediate levels of arousal and impeded by high and low levels. Thus, a powerful test of the emotional-reactivity hypothesis is to compare cognitive performance in dog populations that have been bred and trained based in part on their arousal levels. We therefore compared a group of pet dogs to a group of assistance dogs bred and trained for low arousal (N = 106) on a task of inhibitory control involving a detour response. Consistent with the Yerkes–Dodson law, assistance dogs, which began the test with lower levels of baseline arousal, showed improvements when arousal was artificially increased. In contrast, pet dogs, which began the test with higher levels of baseline arousal, were negatively affected when their arousal was increased. Furthermore, the dogs’ baseline levels of arousal, as measured in their rate of tail wagging, differed by population in the expected directions. Low-arousal assistance dogs showed the most inhibition in a detour task when humans eagerly encouraged them, while more highly aroused pet dogs performed worst on the same task with strong encouragement. Our findings support the hypothesis that selection on temperament can have important implications for cognitive performance.

Department

Description

Provenance

Subjects

Citation

Published Version (Please cite this version)

10.1007/s10071-015-0901-1

Publication Info

Bray, E, E MacLean and B Hare (2015). Increasing arousal enhances inhibitory control in calm but not excitable dogs. Animal Cognition, 18(6). pp. 1317–1329. 10.1007/s10071-015-0901-1 Retrieved from https://hdl.handle.net/10161/10608.

This is constructed from limited available data and may be imprecise. To cite this article, please review & use the official citation provided by the journal.

Scholars@Duke

Hare

Brian Hare

Professor of Evolutionary Anthropology

Unless otherwise indicated, scholarly articles published by Duke faculty members are made available here with a CC-BY-NC (Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial) license, as enabled by the Duke Open Access Policy. If you wish to use the materials in ways not already permitted under CC-BY-NC, please consult the copyright owner. Other materials are made available here through the author’s grant of a non-exclusive license to make their work openly accessible.