Duration of dogs' (Canis familiaris) working memory in search for disappearing objects.
Two experiments explored the duration of dogs' working memory in an object permanence task: a delay was introduced between the disappearance of a moving object behind a box and the beginning of the search by the animal. In experiment 1, the dogs were tested with retention intervals of 0, 10, 30, and 60 s. Results revealed that the dogs' accuracy declined as a function of the length of the retention interval but remained above chance for each retention interval. In experiment 2, with new subjects, longer retention intervals (0, 30, 60, 120, and 240 s) were presented to the dogs. Results replicated findings from experiment 1 and revealed that the dogs' accuracy remained higher than chance level with delays up to 240 s. In both experiments, the analysis of errors also showed that the dogs searched as a function of the proximity of the target box and were not subject to intertrial proactive interference. In the discussion, we explore different alternatives to explain why dogs' search behaviour for hidden objects decreased as a function of the retention intervals.
Fiset
Sylvain
S
Secteur Sciences Humaines, Université de Moncton, Campus d'Edmundston, E3V 2S8, Edmundston, New Brunswick, Canada. sfiset@umce.ca
Beaulieu
Claude
C
Landry
France
F
D000818:Animals; D004285:Dogs / Q000523:psychology*; D005106:Exploratory Behavior; D005260:Female; D008297:Male; D008568:Memory; D014796:Visual Perception