Is previous experience important for inhibitory control? A comparison between shelter and pet dogs in A-not-B and cylinder tasks.

This study compares the performance of two groups of dogs with different levels of social interaction with humans, shelter and pet dogs, in two inhibitory control tasks. (1) In the A-not-B task, dogs were required to resist searching for food in a previously rewarded location, and (2) in the cylinder task, dogs were required to resist approaching visible food directly in favor of a detour reaching response. Our first aim was to evaluate the importance of learning and ontogeny in performing inhibitory tasks. Also, we assessed whether there is a correlation between the two tasks by comparing performance in the same subjects. Results showed significant differences between shelter and pet dogs in the A-not-B task, with poorer performance in shelter dogs. However, no differences were found in the cylinder task. The poorer performance of shelter dogs might be related to their infrequent interaction with humans, which reduces the chances to learn to inhibit certain behaviors. This result would highlight the importance of ontogeny in developing that ability. On the other hand, no correlations were found between the two tasks, which contributes information to the debate about the context specificity of inhibitory control in dogs.

Tolerance to delayed reward tasks in social and non-social contexts.

Domestic dogs have demonstrated striking social skills towards humans, however, there are few studies investigating impulsivity with delay-choice tasks in communicative contexts. In Study 1 we introduced a novel social delay-choice task in which subjects had to choose between one human cueing an immediate, low quality reward and another human signaling a delayed, high quality reward. In Study 2 we evaluated the tolerance to increasing delays using social and non-social cues. We also explored if more self-controlled dogs show any distinct behaviours during delays. Finally, we correlated all results with the Dog Impulsivity Assessment Scale (Wright et al., 2011). In Study 1 dogs reached an average maximum delay of 11.55s. In Study 2 that average was 52.14s with social cues and 40.2s with non-social, but differences were not significant. Tolerance to delays showed high interindividual variation. Dogs remained mostly standing and near the delayed experimenter in the social tasks although we could not to find any distinct coping strategies. No significant correlations were found between the delay reached and behaviours, neither with the scale. These results show the relevance of the parameters and methods used to investigate tolerance to delay of reinforcements. More investigations are required, especially an assessment of the same subjects performing the same tasks using different contexts.

[Work and fertility in France and West Germany: do French women perform miracles?]. / Travail et fecondite en France et en Allemagne de l'Ouest: les francaises font-elles des prouesses?

PIP: A comparative analysis of fertility and female employment in France and West Germany is presented. The author concludes that despite many demographic similarities between the two countries, French women both have higher fertility and work more than their German counterparts. Reasons for these differences are sought, including differences in value systems, attitudes toward large families, and pronatalist family allowances.^ieng

[Two or three children: the new decisions that women face]. / Deux ou trois enfants: les nouveaux arbitrages des femmes.

PIP: The authors examine the factors affecting women's decisions concerning family size in France. The focus is on the conflicting pressures on women of higher educational status. The data are from in-depth interviews with 40 professional women with at least two years of higher education who are living in unions and have two or three children. The desire for career success is identified as a primary factor affecting the decision to have a third child.^ieng