title: Incentive contrast in domestic dogs (Canis familiaris).
abstract: Dogs (Canis familiaris) trained to receive a preferred food (dry beef liver) from an experimenter learned to maintain a longer gaze on the experimenter than dogs receiving a less preferred food (dog pellets). Dogs downshifted from dry liver to pellets rejected food more frequently than nonshifted controls. Gaze duration also decreased in downshifted dogs below the level of a group always reinforced with pellets. In addition, downshifted dogs tended to move away from the experimenter, adopting a lying down posture. This phenomenon, called successive negative contrast, has been described in analogous experiments with a variety of mammalian species, but has failed to occur in similar experiments with nonmammalian vertebrates. Unlike similar previous observations, the present data were obtained in an environment involving interspecific communication.
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Experimental and Applied Psychology, Lanari Institute of Medical Research, Argentina.
authors.forename: Mariana
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Bentosela
authors.forename: Adriana
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Jakovcevic
authors.forename: Angel M
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: Elgier
authors.forename: Alba E
authors.initials: AE
authors.lastname: Mustaca
authors.forename: Mauricio R
authors.initials: MR
authors.lastname: Papini
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D000829:Animals, Domestic / Q000502:physiology; D001288:Attention / Q000502:physiology*; D001522:Behavior, Animal / Q000502:physiology*; D003216:Conditioning, Operant / Q000502:physiology*; D004193:Discrimination Learning / Q000502:physiology; D004285:Dogs / Q000502:physiology*; D005108:Extinction, Psychological / Q000502:physiology; D005247:Feeding Behavior / Q000502:physiology; D005260:Female; D005403:Fixation, Ocular / Q000502:physiology; D005518:Food Preferences / Q000502:physiology*; D005639:Frustration; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009042:Motivation; D009633:Nonverbal Communication; D011187:Posture / Q000502:physiology; D012919:Social Behavior; D013045:Species Specificity; D014796:Visual Perception / Q000502:physiology*