Impulsivity as a trait in domestic dogs (Canis familiaris): A systematic review and meta-analysis

Abstract

Impulsivity is a critical component of dog (Canis familiaris) behavior that owners often want to curtail. Though studies of dog impulsivity have examined their inability to wait and to inhibit inappropriate behaviors, it is not clear whether impulsivity is a behavioral trait with consistent characteristics across contexts. For this project, we conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis to investigate whether impulsivity exists as a behavioral trait in domestic dogs. Under a pre-registered protocol, we processed over 10,000 bibliographic database records to uncover 13 articles with multiple impulsivity tasks assessed in the same subjects. Across 31 pairs of impulsivity tasks, 28 failed to detect a correlation in performance between tasks and 3 detected a correlation. For 15 correlations of impulsivity tasks with the owner's perception of their dog's impulsivity, 10 were not correlated, while 5 were correlated. A formal meta-analysis on one pair of tasks (A-not-B task and Cylinder task) tested across seven different studies showed no overall correlation between the tasks. Our systematic review and meta-analysis found little indication of consistent relationships between impulsivity levels across tasks for dogs. Therefore, at the moment, we do not have good evidence of impulsivity as a behavioral trait that transfers across contexts, suggesting that perhaps we should focus on the context-specific nature of impulsivity in dogs.

Impulsivity as a trait in domestic dogs (Canis familiaris): A systematic review and meta-analysis.

“…DIAS = Dog Impulsivity Assessment Scale. Tableusedwith permission under a CC-BY4.0 license:Barela et al (2023); available at https://doi.org/10 .31234/osf.io/ctfns.…”

“…Note. Tableusedwith permission under a CC-BY4.0 license:Barela et al (2023); available at https://doi.org/10.31234/osf.io/ctfns. a Measures scaled with higher values representing less impulsivity.…”

“…Figure built using PRISMA2020 (Haddaway et al, 2022). Figure used with permission under a CC-BY4.0 license: Barela et al(2023); available at https://doi.org/10.31234/osf.io/ctfns. PRISMA = Preferred Reporting Items of Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses.…”