The Doubting Dog

Most people tend to think dogs are just naturally happy creatures, always ready for a good time. But an Australian study suggests that some dogs are actually pessimists based on the theory that animals who show heightened expectation of positive outcomes are optimistic, while those who are more inclined to expect negative outcomes are pessimistic. Optimistic Dogs Expect Good Things to Happen to Them For the study, which was conducted at the University of Sydney and involved 40 dogs of various breeds and ages, researchers played two tones for the dogs that were two octaves apart. The dogs were taught that if they touched a target when one of the tones played, they would get milk (which they preferred) as a reward. Touching the target when the other tone sounded produced only water. Once the dogs learned to discriminate between the two tones, the researchers played tones that fell between the two octaves. Some dogs touched the target repeatedly when they heard the ambiguous tones. They were considered optimists, because they continued to be hopeful that the ambiguous tones would result in a reward. But some of the dogs grew anxious when the ambiguous tones didn't produce a milk reward, and they quickly gave up. Dr. Melissa Starling of the Faculty of Veterinary Science at the University of Sydney, and lead author of the study told ScienceDaily: "Pessimistic dogs appeared to be much more stressed by failing a task than optimistic dogs. They would whine and pace and avoid rep...
Source: Science - The Huffington Post - Category: Science Source Type: news