FEATURE
Fig 1 : Fig 2 :
This is something we can easily observe in the real world by paying attention to which people a dog is most likely to beg from ( spoiler alert : It ’ s probably the person who sneaks them tidbits under the table , not the one who never shares their food ).
The study used 21 dogs recruited via social media and word of mouth . All the dogs were adults from a variety of pure and mixed breeds . The dogs were trained in a multi-step training process to push a button to dispense food . Once the dogs learned the procedure , they took part in two sessions — one with a helpful human and one with an unhelpful human . In both cases , the human was a person who the dog did not know . Helpful humans pressed a button on a mechanism that released food to the dog . Unhelpful humans also pushed a button , but the button they pressed did not dispense any food . The dog ’ s participation in the sessions was counterbalanced , which means that some dogs were paired with a helpful human first and others were paired with an unhelpful human first . Counterbalancing allows researchers to account for and ( hopefully ) rule out the possibility that the results were influenced by the order of conditions .
ALL OF THE FIGURES COME FROM THE MENTIONED STUDY Fig 1 : Layout of test room . Two circles ( each approx . 1 m in radius ) were marked on the floor of the room , for the free interaction session . A red water bowl was also present in the room . A food dispenser and button are depicted in the middle of the room ( note : the dispenser and button were only in this position for the first stage of training ). Black curtains surrounding some of the fences are represented by thick black lines .
Fig 2 : In stage 1 , the owner and experimenter trained the subject to press the button to release food from the dispenser in the middle of the room . In stage 2 , the subject was trained to press the button inside the permanently opened box in the enclosure to release food from the dispenser . In stage 3 , opening and closing of the box
was introduced ( this was controlled by the experimenter pulling or releasing the rope , respectively ). The subject could press the button each time the box was open to activate the dispenser . In stage 4 , the dispenser was placed in the adjacent enclosure and a sliding door between enclosures was open . The subject could press the button each time the box was opened and then retrieve food from the dispenser in the adjacent enclosure . In stage 5 , the sliding door between the enclosures was closed . The subject could press the button each time the box opened and food would be released from the dispenser ; however , the subject could not access this food . In stage 6 , the dispenser and a human were present in the adjacent enclosure . If the subject pressed the button when the box was opened , the human ate the food that was released from the dispenser . Note : in stage 6 , typically a second person was not available ; therefore , the experimenter played the role of the human and controlled the opening of the box while kneeling in the human enclosure .
Fig 3 : Experience phase session with the helpful human ( A ) and with the unhelpful human ( B ). With the exception of the first two trials of the experience phase , the helpful human knelt in front of the functional button , which was adjacent to the food dispenser , and pressed this button on each trial , thereby releasing food for the subject . With the exception of the first two trials , the unhelpful human knelt in front of the non-functional button and pressed this on each trial resulting in no food being released for the subject .
Fig 4 : Experimental conditions . A , test condition ; B , social facilitation control ; C , asocial control . In the test condition , each time the subject pressed the button , food was released from the dispenser and the human ate this . In the social facilitation control , each time the subject pressed the button , food was released from the dispenser but the human could not access it . In the asocial control condition the human was not present . Each time the button was pressed in this condition , food was released but no human ate it .
40 Building Better Trainers Through Education