Effect of the presence of a dog on psychophysiology of a subject performing a cognitive task

Elena Gobbo (2017) Effect of the presence of a dog on psychophysiology of a subject performing a cognitive task. MSc thesis.

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Abstract

Stressful situation, the one that we are exposed to in everyday life, as well as the one artificially created in the laboratory, leads to changes in the activity of the autonomic nervous system. This appears as a change in the cardiovascular system and other physiological parameters. The consequences of an increased cardiovascular response could have different negative effects on human health, therefore it is important to explore various factors that would contribute to reducing stress and intensity of responses to stressors. One of the possible factors for stress reduction is social support during the duration of a stressor, such as the presence of pets. This can affect the reduction of changes in physiological parameters as well as the subjective assessment of anxiety. I designed a study in which I measured various physiological responses and subjective assessments of anxiety during the exercise of stressful activity in the form of a cognitive tasks, involving 30 students who own the dog or cohabit with a dog. Participants partook in two experimental conditions: during the measurements in one of the conditions the dog was present and during the other it was not. I measured the anxiety with a short version of the STAI-X1 questionnaire, and the cognitive task was mental arithmetic. The results of the study showed that the presence of one's own dog while performing a cognitive task does not reduce statistically significantly systolic and diastolic blood pressure and heart rate, nor does it affect the reduction of subjective anxiety and performance in cognitive tasks. The sample of participants in the study was too small and limited to the population of students, therefore the results can not be generalized.

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