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Do Animals Make us Smarter?

Nancy R. Gee, PhD

Professor of Psychiatry &

Director, Center for Human-Animal Interaction

School of Medicine

Virginia Commonwealth University

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• Why would I ask this question?

• What’s the evidence?

• What’s the answer?

• Implications for:

• the animals

• approaches to education

• policy

Organization



• A little background…

Why would I ask this question?



A little background…



What’s the evidence?


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• Empirical designs• Random

• Assignment to conditions• Presentation of stimuli

• Counterbalancing

• Repeated measures• Reduces error variance• Multiple data points per subject• Small sample sizes

• Medium to large effect sizes

Does the presence of an animal improve cognition?

My research with preschoolers…

TaskDog Condition relative to No Dog or

Stuffed Dog

Execution of Motor-skills Faster with no loss of accuracy

Following Instructions

Motor-skills Higher Adherence Instructions

Object Recognition Exp 1 Fewer prompts needed

Object Recognition Exp 2 Fewer prompts needed

Memory

Obect Recognition Faster and more accurate

Categorization

Match-to-Sample Fewer irrelevant choices

Match-to-Category Larger Animation Effect

Language Production

Story Telling Greater word production

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Review Papers…

Gathering more information…

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Discussions and Detailed Descriptions…

Workshop (Washington, DC):

• Researchers working in the field

• Discussed

• Current state of research

• Appropriate methodologies

• Best practices

• Legal issues

• What’s needed

Book:

• Current state of the research

• Resource for:

• Educators

• Researchers

• Volunteers

• Recommendations for:

• Research Design

• Best Practice

• Animal Welfare

• Discussion of legal issues

Call for Applications

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Three projects funded:

• Examined the impact of pet ownership on education related variables in

children - Westgarth

• Examined the impact of interacting with dogs on empathy, self-esteem,

stress & anxiety, and cognitive & language variables in children -

Meints

• Examined the impact of dogs on academic stress exposure and resulting

academic performance of young adults - Pendry

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• Investigate independent associations between ownership of different pet types and

• Emotional

• Behavioral

• Cognitive

• Educational

• and Language developmental outcomes

• In a large contemporary cohort of children (in the UK) – Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children

Aim:

Westgarth/Liverpool Study

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ALSPAC

• Full cohort approx 14000.

• With ~5000 attending yearly clinics.

• Estimated dates of delivery between April 1991 and December 1992.

• These women, the children arising from the index pregnancy and the women's partners have been followed up since then and detailed data collected throughout childhood.

• ALSPAC is now a three-generational resource available to study the genetic and environmental determinants of development and health.

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• Cats

• Dogs

• Rabbits

• Rodents

• Birds

• Fish

• Tortoises/turtles

• Horses

• Other

Pet types included:

Westgarth/Liverpool Study

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Construct/Variable Measure Age

Self-esteem Harter Self-Perception Profile (child focus clinic) 8

Anxiety Development And Wellbeing Assessment (DAWBA) (child

based questionnaire (parent reported))

7, 10 and 13

Depression DAWBA (child based questionnaire (parent reported)) 7

Mood and Feelings Questionnaire (MFQ) (child focus clinic) 10 and 13

Selective Attention Tests of Everyday Attention for Children (TEACh) 8 and 11

Inhibition & Impulsivity

Divided Attention

Executive Function

Working Memory Digit Recall & Counting span task 8 & 10

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Construct/Variable Measure Age

Hyperactivity Revised Rutter Scale & Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire 3 and 11

Emotional Symptoms

Conduct Problems

Prosocial Behaviour

Peer problems Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire 11

Key Stage 1 attainment SATs 7

Key Stage 2 attainment SATs 11

GCSE attainment GCSE grades 15

Language development Reynell Development Language Scale 2 and 5

MacArthur Communicative Development Inventories 2

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0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

-50 0 50 100 150 200 250

Perc

enta

ge t

hat

ind

icat

ed o

wn

ing

pet

typ

e

Age of child (months)

Any pets Cats Dogs Rabbits Rodents Birds Fish Tortoises/turtles Other pets Horse

10 yrs

8 months

7yrs10yrs

13yrs8yrs

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What do we know about associations with Pet Ownership?

Results

Confounding Factors

Child factors IQTemperamentLife events,Older children in the homeDevelopmental delay

SexNumber of languages spoken in homeDay carEthnicity (language only)

Socio-Economic Status OvercrowdingHighest parental social classMaternal educationMaternal age at deliveryMarital statusFamily income

Home ownershipHouse typeHousing defectsSchool identifier/typeCar ownership

Maternal factors DepressionBonding

Anxiety

Purewal, et al (In Press)

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Top line summary of findings:

Results

• Some evidence for positive associations between pet ownership on prosocial behavior and language development.

• Little evidence for positive associations of pet ownership on emotional and cognitive development.

• Consistent evidence for negative associations of pet ownership on educational attainment.

Mixed Results Preponderance of evidence does not indicate

that owning a pet makes us smarter.

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Pet ownership as a variable in research

• Self-selection bias

• People like to pick their own pets

• Poorly defined and blunt

• Pet in household – yes/no

• Who cares for/interacts with the animal?

• What about multiple animals in house?

• Pet interaction/involvement instead

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• Implement a robust assessment of the effects of a dog intervention on:

• Cognition & language

• Socio-emotional well-being

• Children’s behavior

• Physiological functioning

• Children in mainstream and special needs schools

• Individual and group interventions

• Using appropriate control/comparison conditions: dog intervention, relaxation intervention and no treatment control group

Aim: investigate the effects of Animal-Assisted Interventions on children

Meints/Lincoln Study

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Assessment tools & measures

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Pre-testing

• 3 consecutive days collecting baseline cortisol

• Dog safety training with whole class

Longitudinal testing – individual cohort

Test 1: Baseline assessments of all measures with all children

• Familiarisation with dog

• Intervention: 4 weeks, twice per week 20 mins/child

Test 2: Repeat of all assessments

Test 3: 6 weeks after intervention

Test 4: 6 months after intervention

Test 5: 1 year after intervention

Timeline

N = 108 (special needs)

N = 150 (mainstream)

Longitudinal testing – group cohort→ Repeat with different group cohorts

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Cognition, maths and non-verbal reasoning, processing speed (Stroop)• Significant learning effects in all groups and over time• Boys outperformed girls in math• No effects or interactions for intervention condition, gender, or dog

ownership

Spatial ability• Significant interaction between learning x condition F (8,240) =

2.128, p = .034• Children in individual dog intervention were most improved

post intervention (p<.001) and 6 weeks later (p<.016)

Stroop task• Significant reduction in interference in individual dog intervention

F (4, 244) = 2.408, p = .016

Kids in mainstream schools – measures of cognition

Results in overview

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Language• Significant learning effects in all groups and over time

Syntactic Formation (Grammar)• No effects for intervention

Sentence Comprehension• Significant interactions with girls in dog intervention

most improvedF (8, 344) = 2.602, p = .009Males improved over all conditions.

• Significant improvement in individual dog intervention for children with dogs at home; children without dogs improved over longer interval

Kids in mainstream schools – measures of cognition

Results in overview

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Picture similarity

• significant and improvement in individual dog intervention after intervention (p< .005) and at 6 weeks (p< .029),

• no change in control group

• Language -Verbal Comprehension:

• improved only in dog and relaxation groups

F (5.882, 99.997) = 2.57, p = .002

Kids in special needs schools – Lower abilities

Results in overview

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Quantitative Reasoning, non-verbal scores, spatial reasoning and Stroop:• Significant improvement over time

Pattern Construction:

• Significant improvement over time, but biggest improvement in individual dog intervention (p<0.001)

Matrices:

• Significant improvement in dog (p<.015) and relaxation group (p<.018) interventions

Kids in special needs schools – higher abilities

Results in overview

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Physiological consequences of academic

stress exposure compromise students’

Executive Functioning (EF) and attitudes

towards learning (Cerqueira, Mailliet, Almeida, Jay, &

Sousa, 2007)

EF – a set of processes that allow us to

successfully engage in purposeful, goal-

directed, and future oriented behaviors (Hendrawan, et al., 2012)

Stress compromises academic success

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Measuring stress via salivary cortisol

Pre-intervention

Baseline cortisol

3 salivary

cortisol

samples

collected over 3

consecutive days

Acute cortisol

Session 1

before and 30 mins after

intervention

Acute cortisol

Session 4


intervention

Acute cortisol

Session 8


intervention

Post-intervention

Baseline cortisol

3 salivary cortisol samples collected over 3

consecutive days

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Baseline cortisol

Significant main effect of intervention condition (dog, relax, control) before and after intervention.

Cortisol increases over school term

• Increases were apparent in the control group (p< .013) and in the relaxation group (p< .025), but…

• No increase in dog intervention

Kids in mainstream schools

Results in overview

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Acute cortisol• Acute cortisol decreases after dog and

relaxation intervention

F (1,90) = 26.532, p <.001

Kids in mainstream schools

Results in overview

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.000

.020

.040

.060

.080

.100

.120

.140

.160

pre post

Me

an a

cute

co

rtis

ol (

µg/

dL)

S1

S4

S8

Mean pre-post-acute cortisol at intervention sessions 1, 4 and 8

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Baseline cortisol• Cortisol increases over school term F (1,26) = 6.224, p = .019

• Significant decrease only after dog group intervention (p = .003)

Kids in special educational needs schools

Results in overview

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Mainstream- cognition (spatial ability, executive functioning) - language (sentence comprehension)

SEN lower ability- cognition (picture similarity)- language comprehension

SEN higher ability- cognition (pattern construction, matrices)- language comprehension and production- behaviour at home- self-esteem- anxiety

Stress reduction - All children benefitted from the dog intervention

Mainstream No increase in cortisol

Children with SEN Decrease in cortisol

Clear evidence for cognitive benefits of AAI

Summary

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Aim: Examine the effects of varying levels of HAI as a university-based stress management tool

Pendry/Washington State Study

• GROUP 1: Academic Stress Management (ASM)• Students engaged in existing, evidence-based, stress prevention program conducted by

WSU Health & Wellness without canine interaction (0% HAI)

• GROUP 2: Human-Animal Interaction Enhanced ASM (HAI-E)• Students engaged in modified ASM curriculum that incorporated canine interacton

(50% HAI)

• GROUP 3: Human-Animal Interaction Only (HAI-O)• Students engaged in semi-structured sessions featuring only HAI (100%)

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• Close to 1000 campuses across the US offer

some type of AAA (Crossman and Kazdin, 2015)

• University staff bringing their pets to campus (Thomson, 2003)

• Adoptable animals from local shelters (Baran,

2003; Cavazos, 2010; Pendry et. al 2018)

• Trained therapy dogs and handlers (Barker, Barker,

McCain & Schubert; 2016; Binfet & Passmore, 2016).

Prevalence of programs has increased

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• Reduction in stress-related negative emotions

(Pendry, Carr, Roeter, & Vandagriff, 2018)

• Lower perceived stress, homesickness (Barker,

Barker, McCain, & Schubert, 2016; Binfet, 2017; Crossman, Kazdin, &

Knudson, 2015)

• Improvements in mood (Grajfoner, Harte, Potter, &

McGuigan, 2017)

• Reduction of momentary cortisol levels (Pendry &

VandaGriff, 2019)

Shown to reduce stress

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• EF predicts academic and life success

• including paying attention, staying engaged, inhibiting impulsive behaviors and managing

frustration (Blair & Raver, 2015).

• Lower levels of EF put students at educational risk (Blair & Diamond, 2008)

• EFs are negatively impacted by stress (Diamond, 2013).

• Programs that help us feel calm, socially supported, or that enhance emotional well-being can

improve EFs (Diamond, 2015).

• Interacting with animals has the potential to boost EF (Rajan, Gee, Golinkoff, and Hirsh-Pasek, 2017)

• because they are calming, reduces stress, fear and anxiety, and require the practice of

inhibition in handling the animal or waiting to interact with the animal.

Executive Function and Stress

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• Week 1: Pretest

• Week 2-5: Series of four weekly, hour long program sessions with varying levels of HAI

• Week 6: Posttest

• Week 12: Six-week follow-up

Procedure

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Some of the dogs…

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• The Behavior Rating Inventory of Executive Function, Adult (ages 18+; BRIEF-A; Roth, Isquith, & Gioia, 2005)

• Global Executive Composite - 75 items within nine exclusive clinical scales yielding an overall score, the (GEC)

• Two index scores:

- Behavioral-Regulation Index measures a respondent’s ability to regulate their behavior and emotional responses

- Metacognitive Index measures a respondent’s ability to solve problems in a systematic way by using skills involved in planning, organization, and holding information in working memory

• Composite and Index scores at each time-point were converted to T-scores and standardized, with higher T-scores indicative of worse executive functioning.

• The BRIEF-A has demonstrated high internal consistency (Cronbach’s α = 0.96; Roth, Isquith, & Gioia, 2005).

Measures of Executive Function

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• no between-group differences on any demographic or screening variable including students’ gender, F(2,290)=.08, p=.92, age F(2,289)=2.21, p=.11, total credits enrolled for the semester, F(2,286)=.25, p=.78, or general risk status, F(2,290)=1.15, p=.32

• no significant group differences at pretest for the global executive composite for executive function, F(2,301)=1.26, p=.28, or for the metacognitive index, F(2,303)=1.68, p=.19, the behavioral regulation index, F(2,304)=.84, p=.43

At baseline

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Posttest Metacognitive Index(Model 1a, R2 = .113)

Unstandardized B SE β p-value

(Constant) -.232 .147 .115

HAI-E .124 .202 .059 .540

HAI-O .231 .199 .107 .246

General Risk .574 .258 .274 .027*

HAI-E * General Risk -.082 .333 -.030 .807

HAI-O * General Risk -.715 .343 -.231 .038*

Posttest Behavioral Regulation Index (Model 1b, R2 = .124)

(Constant) -.073 .142 .608

HAI-E -.236 .196 -.114 .231

HAI-O .071 .192 .034 .714

General Risk .467 .250 .228 .063

HAI-E * General Risk .058 .322 .022 .856

HAI-O * General Risk -.645 .333 -.214 .054*Final models presented control for participant age, sex and average negative mood at time of assessment.

Regression analyses – at Post-Test –ASM as ref group

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Regression analyses – at Follow-up –ASM as ref group

Unstandardized B SE β p-value

Follow-up Metacognitive Index (Model 1a, R2 = .181)

(Constant) -.241 .132 .069

HAI-E .114 .183 .055 .535

HAI-O .259 .183 .121 .158

General Risk .555 .246 .266 .025*


HAI-O * General Risk -.720 .327 -.232 .029*

Follow-up Behavioral Regulation Index (Model 1b, R2 = .188)

(Constant) -.103 .135 .445

HAI-E -.189 .185 -.092 .307

HAI-O .175 .184 .083 .345

General Risk .468 .254 .225 .067


HAI-O * General Risk -.609 .333 -.199 .069Note.*p < .05. ** p < .01. ***p < .001. Final models presented control for participant age, sex and average negative mood at time of assessment.

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Global Executive Function

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Metacognition Index

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Behavioral Regulation Index

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Interacting with therapy dogs (and their handlers), but NOT exposure to formalize stress reduction content, improves EF.

Discussion

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• What’s the answer?

• Implications for:

• the animals

• approaches to education

• policy

Let’s consider those questions I posed at the start…

So…Do Animals Make us Smarter?

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• No harm, no foul.

• Associations with pet ownership certainly don’t linked it with improved cognition or educational attainment.

• Problems associated with pet ownership as a variable

• More research is needed

What if the answer is no?


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• Interacting with a dog:

• Decreases physiological stress responses in academic settings.

• The evidence shows improvements in executive functioning in two age groups.

• Improvements in other variables related to cognitive functioning following a period of interacting with a dog.

• Many of these effects have been sustained over time.

• It’s far too early to know for sure, but the answer could be yes…

What if the answer is yes?


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WOW!



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It’s time to re-think so many things related to the role of animals in educational settings.



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• In some cases – nothing will change.

• Teachers have know for a LONG time…

• More broadly – standardization, value, acceptance

• Moving from a fun classroom to activity to a serious educational experience

• Potential to legitimize the practice in other settings

• Validate a life-span approach from early childhood acquisition of learning skills and information to old age and retention of cognitive abilities

Implications for education?


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• Higher level of importance in educational settings

• Increased attention to animal welfare and quality of life

• Widespread implementation of standards for inclusion of animals

• Larger role for organizations like Pet Partners

• The evidence is much stronger with regards to AAI than PO

• Need to examine these effects for other species (e.g., Guinea pigs aka O’Haire) which may be more suitable for individualize circumstances

Implications for the animals?


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• Legitimized educational practices lead to the implementation of policies to support those practices such as:

• Therapy animal access to:

• Public transportation

• Housing

• Funding to support and evaluate programs

• Standardization and regulation of

• Requirements for therapy animal registration

• Best practices and program evaluation

Implications for policy?


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Conclusion

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Thank You!

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Any Questions?

do animals make us smarter? - pet partners › wp-content › uploads › 2019 › 09 › ... ·...

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