Browsing by Author "Hare, B"

Now showing 1 - 7 of 7
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    Citizen Science as a New Tool in Dog Cognition Research.
    (PLoS One, 2015) Stewart, L; MacLean, EL; Ivy, D; Woods, V; Cohen, E; Rodriguez, K; McIntyre, M; Mukherjee, S; Call, J; Kaminski, J; Miklósi, Á; Wrangham, RW; Hare, B
    Family dogs and dog owners offer a potentially powerful way to conduct citizen science to answer questions about animal behavior that are difficult to answer with more conventional approaches. Here we evaluate the quality of the first data on dog cognition collected by citizen scientists using the Dognition.com website. We conducted analyses to understand if data generated by over 500 citizen scientists replicates internally and in comparison to previously published findings. Half of participants participated for free while the other half paid for access. The website provided each participant a temperament questionnaire and instructions on how to conduct a series of ten cognitive tests. Participation required internet access, a dog and some common household items. Participants could record their responses on any PC, tablet or smartphone from anywhere in the world and data were retained on servers. Results from citizen scientists and their dogs replicated a number of previously described phenomena from conventional lab-based research. There was little evidence that citizen scientists manipulated their results. To illustrate the potential uses of relatively large samples of citizen science data, we then used factor analysis to examine individual differences across the cognitive tasks. The data were best explained by multiple factors in support of the hypothesis that nonhumans, including dogs, can evolve multiple cognitive domains that vary independently. This analysis suggests that in the future, citizen scientists will generate useful datasets that test hypotheses and answer questions as a complement to conventional laboratory techniques used to study dog psychology.
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    Decision making across social contexts: Competition increases preferences for risk in chimpanzees and bonobos
    (Animal Behaviour, 2012-10-01) Rosati, AG; Hare, B
    Context can have a powerful influence on decision-making strategies in humans. In particular, people sometimes shift their economic preferences depending on the broader social context, such as the presence of potential competitors or mating partners. Despite the important role of competition in primate conspecific interactions, as well as evidence that competitive social contexts impact primates' social cognitive skills, there has been little study of how social context influences the strategies that nonhumans show when making decisions about the value of resources. Here we investigate the impact of social context on preferences for risk (variability in payoffs) in our two closest phylogenetic relatives, chimpanzees, Pan troglodytes, and bonobos, Pan paniscus. In a first study, we examine the impact of competition on patterns of risky choice. In a second study, we examine whether a positive play context affects risky choices. We find that (1) apes are more likely to choose the risky option when making decisions in a competitive context; and (2) the play context did not influence their risk preferences. Overall these results suggest that some types of social contexts can shift patterns of decision making in nonhuman apes, much like in humans. Comparative studies of chimpanzees and bonobos can therefore help illuminate the evolutionary processes shaping human economic behaviour. © 2012 The Association for the Study of Animal Behaviour.
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    Humanizing animals does not reduce blatant dehumanization by children or adults
    (Current Research in Ecological and Social Psychology, 2024-01-01) Zhou, W; Bowie, A; Tan, J; Hare, B
    Blatantly likening humans to animals is associated with discrimination and hostility. The power of dehumanizing animal metaphors is thought to lie in the belief that animals are inferior to humans and do not deserve full moral concern. Previous work suggests that perceiving a narrower divide between humans and animals encourages the expansion of moral concern and reduces subtle dehumanization. Here we described animals as possessing human-like mental states, and tested if this manipulation would extend to the reduction of blatant dehumanization of an outgroup. Results demonstrate both children (5–12 years of age) and adults perceived animals as more similar to humans when animals were attributed feelings, intentions and beliefs. However, this manipulation did not reduce blatant dehumanization in either age group. These results suggest that subtle and blatant dehumanization may require distinct intervention strategies, and imply potential differences in their psychological mechanisms.
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    Increasing arousal enhances inhibitory control in calm but not excitable dogs
    (Animal Cognition, 2015-11-01) Bray, E; MacLean, E; Hare, B
    © 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.
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    Primate Neuroethology
    (Primate Neuroethology, 2012-08-16) Rosati, Alexandra G.; Santos, Laurie R.; Hare, B
    This edited volume is the first of its kind to bridge the epistemological gap between primate ethologists and primate neurobiologists.
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    Social Cognition: From Behavior-Reading to Mind-Reading
    (Encyclopedia of Behavioral Neuroscience, 2010-05-26) Rosati, A G; Hare, B
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    The domestication hypothesis for dogs' skills with human communication: a response to Udell et al. (2008) and Wynne et al. (2008)
    (Animal Behaviour, 2010-02-01) Hare, B; Rosati, AG; Kaminski, J; Braeuer, J; Call, J; Tomasello, M