Lazaro Xenabeth A, Winter John M, Fernand Jonathan K, Cox David J, Dorey Nicole R
Department of Psychology, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL 32611, USA.
Florida Institute of Technology, School of Behavior Analysis, Melbourne, FL 32901, USA.
Animals (Basel). 2023 Sep 30;13(19):3073. doi: 10.3390/ani13193073.
Preference assessments are often used to identify stimuli that function as potential reinforcers for training or intervention purposes. Specifically, various preference assessment formats have been used to identify preferred stimuli for humans, cockroaches, cotton-top tamarins, tortoises, and wolves, to name a few. However, to date, no study has evaluated the differential efficacy between food and leisure stimuli within domestic dogs. The current study aimed to compare the reinforcing value and efficacy between food and leisure stimuli for domestic dogs by comparing rates of behavior when receiving access to either their top-preferred food or leisure items. Overall results suggest (1) domestic dogs prefer food over leisure items, and (2) food is more likely to function as a reinforcer than leisure items for domestic dog's behavior. These results suggest that dog owners and trainers should consider using food reinforcers over leisure items as reinforcers when attempting to train dogs.
偏好评估通常用于识别作为训练或干预目的潜在强化物的刺激物。具体而言，各种偏好评估形式已被用于识别人类、蟑螂、棉顶狨猴、乌龟和狼等的偏好刺激物，仅举几例。然而，迄今为止，尚无研究评估家犬对食物和休闲刺激物的不同效力。本研究旨在通过比较家犬在获得其最偏好的食物或休闲物品时的行为发生率，来比较食物和休闲刺激物对家犬的强化价值和效力。总体结果表明：（1）家犬更喜欢食物而非休闲物品；（2）对于家犬的行为，食物比休闲物品更有可能起到强化物的作用。这些结果表明，狗主人和训练师在试图训练狗时，应考虑使用食物强化物而非休闲物品作为强化物。
