Insecure Attachments in Dogs and Interpreting Human Social Signals
Date
2018-12-17
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Abstract
Dogs have been shown to understand the human communicative behaviors of gazing and pointing, and understand these human social signals more than any other non-human species. Domestic dogs are shown to have similar attachments to their owners as human infants. I used a modified version of the Ainsworth Strange Situation to determine if a dog had an insecure or secure attachment to its owner/caretaker. Blind observers observed the dog-human interactions and recorded the duration of a number of operationally defined behaviors and rated the intensity of the dog-owner greeting. The dogs were put through trials with their owner to find hidden food. The owners were only allowed to use pointing and gazing signals to guide their dog to the hidden food. We timed the dogs to see how fast they could find the food. The predicted outcome was that the insecurely attached dogs would perform poorly compared to the securely attached dogs. The results of a 2(attachment) by 2 (social signal) Mixed ANOVA showed that there was a significant main effect of social signal F (1,15)= 6.7, p<.05, Partial Eta squared= .224. Dogs during the pointing condition (M= 86.1, SD= 71.9) found the food significantly faster than during the gazing condition (M= 119.9, SD= 71.9). The Mixed ANOVA also showed that there was a significant interaction between the type of attachment and type of social signals on the dogs ability to find food, F(1,15)=4.322, p= .055, Partial Eta Squared= .224. Dogs that had a insecure attachment (M=45.0, SD=41.2) were significantly faster at finding food using pointing signals than using gazing signals (M=136, SD=61.9). Dogs that had a secure attachment (M=103.17, SD=81.92) were significantly faster at finding food using pointing signals than dogs with an insecure attachment (M=45.04, SD=41.29).
Description
Thesis completed in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Alfred University Honors Program.
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Thesis
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Keywords
Honors thesis, Dogs, Animals, Psychology, Attachment, Dog-human interaction, Social cues