College Board Topic Code: 2.9 – Research Methods in Psychology
Summary: Researchers studied how dogs responded to emotional cues (crying vs. laughing) presented by their owners and by strangers. A within-subjects design was used with 16 dog-owner pairs. Dog behaviors were classified as person-oriented or non-person-oriented, with person-oriented behaviors including looking, approaching, making contact, and vocalizing. Dogs showed significantly more person-oriented behaviors during crying trials than laughing or talking trials, regardless of whether the actor was the owner or a stranger. Ethical considerations such as consent and minimizing distress were applied. The findings suggest stimulus discrimination and have some limits in generalizability due to sample size and diversity.