Preschoolers Categorize Animate Objects Better in the Presence of a Dog

Abstract

The current study was designed to examine whether preschool children categorize picture stimuli differentially in the presence of a real dog compared with a stuffed dog or a human. Seventeen preschool children (age in months; M = 51.67, SD = 8.06), both Typical and those with a developmental delay ("Identified"), were asked to categorize Animate and Inanimate objects into two environments (Farm and Ocean) in each of three Collaborator conditions (Real Dog, Stuffed Dog, and Human). As predicted, there was a main effect of animation: the children more accurately categorized Animate (e.g., cow) exemplars than Inanimate ones (e.g., tractor). Additionally, the Animation variable interacted with Collaborator, such that in the presence of the real dog the impact of animation was significant, but this effect was not significant in the presence of the stuffed dog or human. This result indicates that the presence of the real dog served as a highly salient stimulus which encouraged the children to focus more of their attention on other animate objects in the list. This result provides additional evidence that the presence of a dog helps preschool children to restrict their attention to the demands of the task. This is a new and interesting finding that indicates that the presence of a real dog does have an impact on cognitive task performance.

Animal-Assisted Interventions for Children with Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder

“…However, other reported effects should also be explored in relation to ADHD in the future, as they can possibly support the treatment of ADHD and its associated deficits. For instance, it was shown that petting an animal improved both fine and gross motor movements (Nathanson et al, 1997;Chandler, 2012;Gee et al, 2012), skills that are often impaired in children with ADHD (Harvey & Reid, 2003). Similarly, the presence of, or the interactions with, animals were demonstrated to reduce depression and loneliness in the elderly (Holcomb et al, 1997;Banks & Banks, 2002), as well as to increase parental ratings of mood and the display of positive affect in a sample of hospitalized children (Kaminski et al, 2002).…”

“…Another series of experiments also provided evidence that in the presence of a dog, children were better able to focus their attention on cognitive tasks, improving object categorization and recognition (Gee, Church et al, 2010;Gee, Crist et al, 2010;Gee et al, 2012). For example, children were shown objects along with a distractor and were then instructed to identify those objects that they had previously been shown either in the presence of a live dog, a stuffed dog, or a human confederate.…”

“…Moreover, the limitations of the positive effect of the presence of a dog on cognitive task performance should be established. For example, it is possible that the presence of a dog will become a distraction to children as the task difficulty or complexity increases (Gee, Church et al, 2010;Gee, Crist et al, 2010;Gee, Gould, Swanson, & Wagner, 2012).…”

“…Thus, one may assume that people are equally responsive to interactions with other humans and that these interactions have the same positive effects compared to those with animals. Nevertheless, various studies provide evidence in support of the unique effects of animals on human behavior that go beyond those of interactions with other humans (Allen, Blascovich, Tomaka, & Kelsey, 1991;Nagengast, Baun, Megel, & Leibowitz, 1997;Gee, Church, & Altobelli, 2010;Gee, Crist, & Carr, 2010;Gee, Gould, Swanson, & Wagner, 2012;Schuck et al, 2015).…”

Dogs motivate obese children for physical activity: key elements of a motivational theory of animal-assisted interventions

“…Dogs in particular seem to offer benefits in a variety of settings: therapeutic settings (Prothmann et al, 2006; Beetz et al, 2011), classrooms (Kotrschal and Ortbauer, 2003; Jalongo, 2005), and special needs environments (Anderson and Olson, 2006; Virués-Ortega et al, 2012). And research has demonstrated the considerable positive effects of interacting with animals: physiological (Beetz et al, 2011) such as reduction of stress-related parameters and release of oxytocin (Beetz et al, 2012), emotional and social (Souter and Miller, 2007) such as improvement of mood and positive social interaction, behavioral (Nimer and Lundahl, 2007), physical (Gee et al, 2007) such as better motor skills, and performance-related (Gee et al, 2012) such as better concentration on a task.…”