Problem solving in dogs: The evaluation of individual differences on social and non-social responses

BARRERA, G.; SHIMABUKURO, C.; PUTRINO, N.; FAGNANI, J. P.; HELBLING, J.; TOGNETI, S.; BENTOSELA, M.

Bogotá

Congreso; XVII Biennial Meeting of the International Society for Comparative Psychology; 2014

International Society for Comparative Psychology

Dogs are able to solve different problems by trial and error learning, but it seems that they cannot understand the means-end connection. It is known that dogs´ performance is influenced by the schedulle of reinforcement as well as individual differences like breed, temperament or previous history. The aim of this work is to compare the effect of individual differences over the acquisition, extinction and reacquisition of a problem solving task. Specifically, evaluate the effect of the level of social contact with humans in shelter and pet dogs (Study 1), the familiarity with the person (owner-stranger) present during the task (Study 2) and the breeds (Retrievers vs Shepherds) of the dogs (Study 3). The results indicate that all groups learned the task and became more efficient in the acquisition trials. Non-social responses diminished during extinction, where an increase in social responses was observed. With regard to individual differences, pet dogs were more persistent in searching the reward than shelter dogs. In addition, when the owner was present (in contrast with a stranger) animals were more persistent too. During extinction, shelter dogs remained near for a longer time and gazed more at the person than pet dogs. Also, dogs looked longer at the unfamiliar person at the beginning of the task. On the other hand, Retrievers showed greater social motivation. These findings highlight the relevance of studying the effects of learning, previous reinforcement history and individual differences in problem solving ability so as to improve selection and training techniques.