Domestic dogs (Canis familiaris) grieve over the loss of a conspecific.

Behavioural reactions towards a dead conspecific have been observed rarely in wild canids and there is no documented scientific evidence of grief in pet dogs. A quantitative analysis of grief-related responses in both dogs and owners was conducted, using the validated online Mourning Dog Questionnaire. The survey was completed by 426 Italian adults who had owned at least two dogs, one of whom died while the other was still alive. This research aims to explore whether, how and what a dog may experience over the loss of a companion dog. Multiple logistic regression indicates that both a friendly or parental relationship between two dogs but also the fact that dogs used to share food and the owner's grief and anger are principal predictors of negative behavioural changes. According to dog owners' answers, the surviving dog after the death of the companion dog changed both in terms of activities ("playing", "sleeping", and "eating") and emotions (fearfulness), which occurred as a function of the quality of the relationship between the two animals. By contrast, the time the two dogs had spent together had no effect on the behaviours of surviving dog. Owner perceptions about their dog's reactions and emotions were not related to the memory or suffering of the event that tended to diminish over time. These findings indicate that a dog may show grief-related behavioural and emotional patterns when a close conspecific dies, with aspects of the latter possibly related to the owner's emotional status.

Tradução, adaptação e avaliação das propriedades psicométricas da Arousal Predisposition Scale em crianças e adolescentes / Translation, adaptation and evaluation of the psychometric properties of the Arousal Predisposition Scale in children and adolescents / Traducción, adaptación y evaluación de las propiedades psicométricas de la Arousal Predisposition Scale en niños y adolescentes

A Arousal Predisposition Scale (APS) é um instrumento com 12 itens, elaborado para mensurar o nível de arousal de um indivíduo. O termo arousal, traduzido para o português falado no Brasil, significa excitação, isto é, a resposta do organismo frente a um estímulo externo ou estresse ambiental. A escala visa abordar o arousal como uma predisposição ou característica individual de excitação diante de um estressor ambiental. O objetivo deste estudo foi realizar tradução, adaptação e avaliação das propriedades psicométricas da APS para crianças e adolescentes. O estudo foi realizado com 189 alunos, de ambos os sexos, de escolas públicas, com idade entre 10 e 17 anos. A pesquisa foi dividida em duas etapas: a primeira foi a adaptação transcultural e a segunda etapa envolveu a avaliação das propriedades psicométricas da versão final. Os resultados apresentaram uma consistência interna dos itens aceitável para os grupos pré-adolescentes e adolescentes (alfa de Cronbach > 0,700). Não houve diferença significativa entre a escala total em médias de teste-reteste e uma correlação significativa de moderada a forte de validade de critério. A APS foi traduzida, adaptada e validada no Brasil para o grupo etário de 11 anos de idade. Destaca-se ainda a importância da utilização dessa escala por diferentes setores de saúde e da educação, em escolas de ensino fundamental e médio, contribuindo para identificar precocemente problemas de comportamento.

Arousal Predisposition Scale (APS) is a 12-item instrument designed to measure the arousal level of an individual. Translated into Brazilian Portuguese arousal means excitement, that is, the body's response to an external stimulus or environmental stress. The scale aims to address arousal as a predisposition or individual characteristic of excitement when facing an environmental stressor. Hence, this study sought to translate, adapt, and evaluate the psychometric properties of the APS for children and adolescents. Data was collected from 189 students, of all genders, from public schools, aged 10 to 17 years. The research was divided into two stages: first, the cross-cultural adaptation, followed by the evaluation of the psychometric properties in the final version. Results showed an acceptable internal consistency of the items for the pre-adolescent and adolescent groups (Cronbach's alpha > 0.700). The findings presented no significant difference between full-scale test-retest means and a significant moderate to strong correlation of criterion validity. The APS was translated, adapted and validated in Brazil for the 11-year-old age group. APS should be used by different health and education sectors in primary and secondary schools to help identify early behavioral problems.

La Arousal Predisposition Scale (APS) es un instrumento que consta de 12 ítems para estimar el nivel de arousal de un individuo. El término arousal significa excitación en portugués de Brasil, es decir, una respuesta del organismo frente a un estímulo externo o estrés ambiental. La escala pretende abordar el arousal como una predisposición o característica individual de excitación frente a un estrés ambiental. El objetivo de este estudio fue realizar la traducción, la adaptación, la evaluación y la valoración de las propiedades psicométricas de la APS para niños y adolescentes. Se realizó un estudio con 189 alumnos, de ambos sexos, de escuelas públicas, con edades de entre los 10 y 17 años. La investigación constó de dos etapas: la primera realizó la adaptación transcultural; y la segunda, la evaluación de las propiedades psicométricas de la versión final. Los resultados mostraron una consistencia interna de los ítems aceptable para los grupos de preadolescentes y adolescentes (alfa de Cronbach > 0,700). No hubo diferencias significativas entre la escala total en las medias de prueba-reprueba y una correlación significativa de moderada a fuerte como validez de criterio. Se realizó la traducción, la adaptación y la validación de la APS en Brasil para el grupo de edad de los 11 años. Se señala la importancia de la utilización de esta escala para los diferentes sectores de salud y de la educación, en la primaria y la secundaria, al contribuir a la identificación de problemas de comportamiento.

Pet Humanisation and Related Grief: Development and Validation of a Structured Questionnaire Instrument to Evaluate Grief in People Who Have Lost a Companion Dog.

People often develop strong emotional connections with their dogs and consider them to be members of the family. The purpose of this study was to develop a novel validated tool, the Mourning Dog Questionnaire, to recognise and evaluate the mourning process in people who have lost a dog. The research model was based on a grid of five different questionnaires: the Pet Bereavement Questionnaire, the Lexington Attachment to Pets Scale, the Animal-Human Continuity Scale, the Positivity Scale, and the Testoni Death Representation Scale. The Italian version of the survey was posted on social networks. A sample of 369 Italian dog owners filled in the questionnaire (mean age ± SD 42.00 ± 10.70 years). Reliability indices were good for all instruments. The total scores of the five questionnaires correlated with each other. The results from the Mourning Dog Questionnaire support the negative view of life after the death of a pet and people's tendency to humanise their pet, since dog owners perceived animals no differently from humans in terms of emotions, needs and legal rights. Findings arising from the use of the Mourning Dog Questionnaire will help the implementation of rationality-based strategies to improve the wellbeing, resilience and quality of life of people in the world experiencing the loss of a pet.

Petting away pre-exam stress: The effect of therapy dog sessions on student well-being.

Recently, many universities have implemented programmes in which therapy dogs and their handlers visit college campuses. Despite the immense popularity of therapy dog sessions, few randomized studies have empirically tested the efficacy of such programmes. The present study evaluates the efficacy of such a therapy dog programme in improving the well-being of university students. This research incorporates two components: (a) a pre/post within-subjects design, in which 246 participants completed a brief questionnaire immediately before and after a therapy dog session and (b) an experimental design with a delayed-treatment control group, in which all participants completed baseline measures and follow-up measures approximately 10 hr later. Only participants in the experimental condition experienced the therapy dog session in between the baseline and follow-up measures. Analyses of pre/post data revealed that the therapy dog sessions had strong immediate benefits, significantly reducing stress and increasing happiness and energy levels. In addition, participants in the experimental group reported a greater improvement in negative affect, perceived social support, and perceived stress compared with those in the delayed-treatment control group. Our results suggest that single, drop-in, therapy dog sessions have large and immediate effects on students' well-being, but also that the effects after several hours are small.

Sleep health and its assessment and management in physical therapy practice: the evidence.

Sleep and sleep deprivation have become major health issues in our modern society. Impaired sleep can negatively affect physical and psychological well-being, and conversely, certain common conditions can impair sleep. Furthermore, insufficient or disrupted sleep can contribute to functional impairments. As health care professionals, physical therapists are singularly concerned with function and well-being. To understand the role of sleep and sleep deprivation on health, this article describes sleep, our contemporary culture of sleeplessness, insomnia, sleep needs, the physical cost of inadequate sleep, the psychological cost of sleep deprivation, and the effects of sleep debt on safety. How to assess an individual's sleep debt is then described, and a sleep inventory questionnaire and scoring scale are presented. Evidence-based recommendations for optimizing sleep are outlined, and these can be readily implemented by the busy clinician. The sleep inventory questionnaire can be used to evaluate the outcome of these recommendations or other interventions as well as serve as an assessment tool. Based on the literature, the assessment and evaluation of sleep and basic sleep recommendations need to be considered as fundamental clinical competencies in contemporary physical therapy care.

The effect of caffeine ingestion on the perceived instability of visual patterns.

The unique cytoarchitecture of the visual cortex, with cells of particular orientation-specificity arranged in vertical columns adjacent to other columns with somewhat different orientation-specificity causes subjective visual instabilities when viewing some repetitive grid patterns for normal subjects. Since caffeine increases cortical arousal by serving as an antagonist to the inhibitory neurotransmitter adenosine, caffeine intake might be expected to increase these subjective disturbances. Twenty subjects were administered a placebo, 100 or 200 mg of caffeine orally. After 40 min subjects rated the level of visual instability on nine subjective dimensions, while viewing grating patterns. Each subject was tested on all levels of caffeine intake, with at least 48 h between tests. With increasing caffeine dosage the level of reported visual disturbances increased. These data suggest that the increased cortical arousal associated with caffeine intake may interact with the structural properties of the visual cortex to increase the perceptual instability associated with viewing grid patterns.

Navigational range lights: effect of stimulus configuration on alignment accuracy.

The use of range lights in nautical navigation involves the visual determination of the vertical alignment of two points of light, in order to indicate the centre of the channel. In two experiments it is shown that this vernier alignment task is more accurate if illuminated linear stimuli are used as range lights. Experiment 1 involved a laboratory simulation and experiment 2 involved a field test with full sized range lights. The average reduction of error through the use of linear stimuli over the standard point stimuli, for navigational alignments at a distance of one-half nautical mile from the range lights, was 69-4%. This suggests that a marked safety advantage might accrue from the use of linear range lights for nautical navigation purposes.

The Relative Dominance of Different Facial Expressions of Emotion under Conditions of Perceptual Ambiguity.

Facial expressions of happiness, excitement, surprise, fear, anger, disgust, sadness, and calm were presented stereoscopically to create pair wise perceptual conflict. Dominance of one expression over another as the most common result, but basic emotions (happiness, fear, etc.) failed to dominate non-basic emotions (excitement, calm), Instead, extremely pleasant or extremely unpleasant emotions dominated less valenced emotions (e.g. surprise). Blends of the presented pairs also occurred, mainly when the emotions were adjacent according to a circumplex structure of emotion. Blends were most common among negatively valenced emotions, such as fear, anger, and disgust.

Principles of perceptual organization and spatial distortion: the gestalt illusions.

In five interleaved experiments, conducted with 94 observers, it is shown that organization of the visual field according to gestalt principles results in measurable spatial distortions. Using the principles of proximity, similarity, good continuation, and two types of closure, it was found that interior distances (within a perceptual unit or group) are underestimated relative to exterior distances. The relationship between these spatial distortions and the resultant perceptual organization are discussed.