Department of Cognitive, Linguistic, & Psychological Sciences, Brown University, 190 Thayer St. , Providence, RI, 02912, USA.
Department of Psychology and Neuroscience, Boston College, Chestnut Hill, MA, USA.
Anim Cogn. 2024 Jul 6;27(1):46. doi: 10.1007/s10071-024-01882-6.
Citizen science approaches have grown in popularity over the years, partly due to their ability to reach a wider audience and produce more generalizable samples. In dogs, these studies, though, have been limited in their controls over materials or experimental protocols, with guardians typically reporting results without researcher supervision. Over two studies, we explored and validated a synchronous citizen science approach. We had dog guardians act as experimenters while being supervised by a researcher over Zoom. In study 1, we demonstrated that synchronous citizen science produced equivalent levels of performance to in-lab designs in a choice task. Consistent with past in-lab research, dogs selected a treat (vs. an empty plate) in a two-alternative forced-choice task. In study 2, we showed that Zoom methods are also appropriate for studies utilizing looking time measures. We explored dogs' looking behaviors when a bag of treats was placed in an unreachable location, and dogs' guardians were either attentive or inattentive while dogs attempted to retrieve the treats. Consistent with past work, dogs in the attentive condition looked at their guardian for longer periods and had a shorter latency to first look than dogs in the inattentive condition. Overall, we have demonstrated that synchronous citizen science studies with dogs are feasible and produce valid results consistent with those found in a typical lab setting.
公民科学方法近年来越来越受欢迎，部分原因是它们能够接触到更广泛的受众并产生更具普遍性的样本。然而，在犬类研究中，这些研究在材料或实验方案的控制方面受到限制，监护人通常在没有研究人员监督的情况下报告结果。在两项研究中，我们探索并验证了一种同步的公民科学方法。我们让犬类监护人在研究人员通过 Zoom 监督的情况下充当实验者。在研究 1 中，我们证明了同步的公民科学在选择任务中产生了与实验室设计相当的表现水平。与过去的实验室研究一致，狗在二选一的强制选择任务中选择了食物（而不是空盘子）。在研究 2 中，我们表明，Zoom 方法也适用于使用观察时间测量的研究。我们探索了狗在袋子里的食物被放在无法到达的地方时的观察行为，并且当狗试图取回食物时，狗的监护人要么专注要么不专注。与过去的工作一致，在专注条件下的狗比在不专注条件下的狗注视它们的监护人的时间更长，第一次注视的潜伏期更短。总的来说，我们已经证明，犬类的同步公民科学研究是可行的，并产生了与典型实验室设置中发现的结果一致的有效结果。
