caa a22 4500 605541973 CHVBK 20210128100919.0 cr unu---uuuuu 210128e20151101xx s 000 0 eng 10.1007/s10071-015-0901-1 doi (NATIONALLICENCE)springer-10.1007/s10071-015-0901-1 Increasing arousal enhances inhibitory control in calm but not excitable dogs [Elektronische Daten] [Emily Bray, Evan MacLean, Brian Hare] The emotional-reactivity hypothesis proposes that problem-solving abilities can be constrained by temperament, within and across species. One way to test this hypothesis is with the predictions of the Yerkes-Dodson law. The law posits that arousal level, a component of temperament, affects problem solving in an inverted U-shaped relationship: Optimal performance is reached at intermediate levels of arousal and impeded by high and low levels. Thus, a powerful test of the emotional-reactivity hypothesis is to compare cognitive performance in dog populations that have been bred and trained based in part on their arousal levels. We therefore compared a group of pet dogs to a group of assistance dogs bred and trained for low arousal (N=106) on a task of inhibitory control involving a detour response. Consistent with the Yerkes-Dodson law, assistance dogs, which began the test with lower levels of baseline arousal, showed improvements when arousal was artificially increased. In contrast, pet dogs, which began the test with higher levels of baseline arousal, were negatively affected when their arousal was increased. Furthermore, the dogs' baseline levels of arousal, as measured in their rate of tail wagging, differed by population in the expected directions. Low-arousal assistance dogs showed the most inhibition in a detour task when humans eagerly encouraged them, while more highly aroused pet dogs performed worst on the same task with strong encouragement. Our findings support the hypothesis that selection on temperament can have important implications for cognitive performance. Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg, 2015 Inhibitory control nationallicence Arousal nationallicence Canine nationallicence Cognition nationallicence Assistance dogs nationallicence Bray Emily Department of Psychology, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA aut MacLean Evan Department of Evolutionary Anthropology, Duke University, Durham, NC, USA aut Hare Brian Department of Evolutionary Anthropology, Duke University, Durham, NC, USA aut Animal Cognition Springer Berlin Heidelberg 18/6(2015-11-01), 1317-1329 1435-9448 18:6<1317 2015 18 10071 https://doi.org/10.1007/s10071-015-0901-1 text/html Onlinezugriff via DOI BK010053 XK010053 XK010000 Metadata rights reserved Springer special CC-BY-NC licence nationallicence 1 research-article jats NATIONALLICENCE NATIONALLICENCE NL-springer NATIONALLICENCE 856 40 https://doi.org/10.1007/s10071-015-0901-1 text/html Onlinezugriff via DOI NATIONALLICENCE 700 1- Bray Emily Department of Psychology, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA aut NATIONALLICENCE 700 1- MacLean Evan Department of Evolutionary Anthropology, Duke University, Durham, NC, USA aut NATIONALLICENCE 700 1- Hare Brian Department of Evolutionary Anthropology, Duke University, Durham, NC, USA aut NATIONALLICENCE 773 0- Animal Cognition Springer Berlin Heidelberg 18/6(2015-11-01), 1317-1329 1435-9448 18:6<1317 2015 18 10071