Browsing by Author "Alterisio, Alessandra"
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- Effectiveness of verbal and gestural signals and familiarity with signal-senders on the performance of working dogsPublication . Scandurra, Anna; Alterisio, Alessandra; Marinelli, Lieta; Mongillo, Paolo; Semin, Gün R.; D’Aniello, BiagioWe assessed how highly trained dogs respond to gestural versus verbal signals when their handlers oran unfamiliar person asked them to perform an obedience task. Dogs were requested to perform fourdifferent actions (“Sit”, “Down”, “Stay” and “Come”) upon receiving congruent (only gestural or onlyverbal) or incongruent signals (gestural and verbal signals contradict each other).The dogs’ performance measures were the frequency of correct responses and their response latency.Generalized Estimation Equation models were used to determine whether the type of signal, the coher-ence of the signals and familiarity with the signaler influenced dogs’ responses.Our results show that the probability of dogs expressing the requested behaviour was lower when thestranger gave verbal signals, than in any of the other conditions. In the incongruent condition, the prob-ability that dogs expressed the behaviour indicated by the verbal signal was lower for signals providedby the stranger than for signals provided by the owner. The reverse was observed for gestural signals. Ingeneral, longer latencies to perform the “Come”, “Down” and “Sit” behaviours were observed in responseto the stranger’s verbal signals than when the stranger gave gestural or incongruent signals. Additionally,the response latency to the stranger’s verbal stimuli took longer than verbal stimuli were provided bythe owner in the case of “Come” (P = 0.002) and “Sit” (P < 0.001) actions.Our data support the argument that for highly trained dogs, gestural signals are less dependent uponsignal-giver familiarity, whereas verbal signals are less effective when they are given by an unfamiliarperson.
- Interspecies transmission of emotional information via chemosignals: From humans to dogs (canis lupus familiaris)Publication . D’Aniello, Biagio; Semin, Gün R.; Alterisio, Alessandra; Aria, Massimo; Scandurra, AnnaWe report a study examining interspecies emotion transfer via body odors (chemosignals). Do human body odors (chemosignals) produced under emotional conditions of happiness and fear provide information that is detectable by pet dogs (Labrador and Golden retrievers)? The odor samples were collected from the axilla of male donors not involved in the main experiment. The experimental setup involved the co-presence of the dog's owner, a stranger and the odor dispenser in a space where the dogs could move freely. There were three odor conditions [fear, happiness, and control (no sweat)] to which the dogs were assigned randomly. The dependent variables were the relevant behaviors of the dogs (e.g., approaching, interacting and gazing) directed to the three targets (owner, stranger, sweat dispenser) aside from the dogs' stress and heart rate indicators. The results indicated with high accuracy that the dogs manifested the predicted behaviors in the three conditions. There were fewer and shorter owner directed behaviors and more stranger directed behaviors when they were in the "happy odor condition" compared to the fear odor and control conditions. In the fear odor condition, they displayed more stressful behaviors. The heart rate data in the control and happy conditions were significantly lower than in the fear condition. Our findings suggest that interspecies emotional communication is facilitated by chemosignals.