Department of Psychology, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, 2441 E. Hartford Ave. Milwaukee, WI, 53211, United States of America.
Department of Life Sciences, Animal Behavior program, Carroll University, 130 W. College Ave. Waukesha, WI, 53186, USA.
J Exp Anal Behav. 2023 Jul;120(1):62-77. doi: 10.1002/jeab.846. Epub 2023 Mar 28.
Behavioral interventions for animals typically require the inclusion of programmed reinforcers. Although pet owners and human caregivers can often identify items that the animal will consume, preference assessments can more accurately determine relative preference rankings between various stimuli, which is important given that higher preferred items tend to function as more effective reinforcers than lower preferred items. Preference assessments have been developed to identify rankings for a variety of stimuli across species, including the domesticated dog (Canis lupus familiaris). However, previous preference assessments for dogs were developed for laboratory use and could be challenging for dog owners to perform alone. The purpose of this study was to modify existing dog preference assessment methods to produce a valid and feasible preference assessment for dog owners. Results suggest that the preference assessment identified preference rankings for individual dogs. Owners were able to implement the protocol with high integrity and found the protocol acceptable.
行为干预通常需要包含有计划的强化物。尽管宠物主人和人类护理人员通常可以识别出动物会吃的东西，但偏好评估可以更准确地确定各种刺激之间的相对偏好等级，因为较高的偏好项目往往比较低的偏好项目更有效地起到强化物的作用。偏好评估已经被开发出来，以确定各种物种的刺激物的排名，包括家养犬（Canis lupus familiaris）。然而，以前对狗的偏好评估是为实验室使用而开发的，对于狗主人来说独自完成可能具有挑战性。本研究的目的是修改现有的狗偏好评估方法，为狗主人生成一个有效且可行的偏好评估。结果表明，该偏好评估确定了个体狗的偏好等级。主人能够高度完整地执行该方案，并认为该方案可以接受。
