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ABSTRACT
The presence of a dog has been associated with reduced responses to stressors in several, but not all, previous studies. The presence of a dog has also been related to improved performance on some cognitive tasks. The current study was designed to evaluate the effect of touching a dog on stress responses to a working memory task (WMT). Heart rate variability (HRV) responses to a WMT while touching a dog were compared with responses while touching a stuffed dog and a person. HRV was recorded while 53 university students aged 18 to 41 years sat on the floor next to a randomly assigned co-participant (real dog, stuffed dog, or human) and listened to a reading before and after completing a WMT. This procedure was repeated with the two other co-participants, in a randomized block order. All participants wore an HRV monitor and placed their non-dominant hand on the co-participant throughout the appropriate phase. The WMT involved pointing to increasingly complicated sequences of geometric shapes until the participant failed three times at one level. Linear mixed models analysis for nested data revealed that the memory task was stressful, with parasympathetic nervous system arousal significantly lower during the memory task than the preor post-memory listening tasks (rMSSD: ps < 0.001, = 0.023; high frequency: ps < 0.001, = 0.001). Neither of the measures differed significantly among the three conditions. There also were no significant interactions, indicating that the stress response to the memory task did not differ when the participants were touching the three different co-participants. Touching a dog did not reduce arousal in response to a stressful memory task. This research suggests that a dog may not be effective at reducing stress responses to this type of stressor. Another possibility is that the presence of a dog is more effective than touching a dog at reducing stress responses. Further investigation will be required to evaluate these possibilities.
