Frustration effect on interspecific communication responses in dogs

BENTOSELA, M.

Berlin, Alemania

Simposio; XXIX International Congress of Psychology,; 2008

The effect of frustration on domestic dogs' communicative behavior was investigated.Instrumental successive negative contrast (SNC) was used. Initially, subjects received a preferred reward (liver) for gazing towards the experimenter´s face in a situation where food was visible but out of reach. Next, dogs unexpectedly obtained dry food (a less-preferred reward) instead of liver for the same task. ANOVA was used. Experimental subjects significantly gazed less and rejected more the devalued reward compared to controls that always received dry food.  Frustrated dogsalso increased the distance from and back position towards theexperimenter. This is the first evidence of SNC in dogs.