James found that food-satiated puppies would eat significantly more food when presented with the food again in the presence of littermates the food presented in the absence of other puppies (James, 1953b). However, puppies that were reared alone after weaning did not show social facilitation of feeding when first fed in a group (James & Gilbert, 1955). James conducted a separate study on social facilitation that did not involve feeding behavior and demonstrated a clever and fascinating research line worthy of more thorough follow-up. He trained one dog to avoid a US (spray of water) in the start box of a three-compartment runway maze and found that a naïve dog would learn the escape response simply through social facilitation. escape response social facilitation. This procedure warrantfurther investigation as a tool for studying social learning in dogs. Finally, James also investigated the development of sensory systems and geotropic responses in puppies (James, 1952a, 1952b; 1956), and the effects of different levels of social deprivation on operant behavior in dogs for which the reinforcer was visual access to a conspecific (Angermeier & James, 1961). Here his work overlapped with the work of Hebb and his students, as well as Scott and Fuller. James' expansive work has given us a greater understanding of individual differences in dogs, as well as possible breed differences and techniques for further investigating these differences. On a theoretical level, he expanded Pavlov's view of individual nervous differences to differences that extend to the entire animal; for example, dogs deemed "excitable" through a conditioning procedure also had higher overall metabolic rates (James, 1941b). Although James often discussed individual differences with more of an essentialist slant than might be warranted, he clearly
James found that food-satiated puppies would eat significantly more food when presented with the food again in the presence of littermates the food presented in the absence of other puppies (James, 1953b). However, puppies that were reared alone after weaning did not show social facilitation of feeding when first fed in a group (James & Gilbert, 1955). James conducted a separate study on social facilitation that did not involve feeding behavior and demonstrated a clever and fascinating research line worthy of more thorough follow-up. He trained one dog to avoid a US (spray of water) in the start box of a three-compartment runway maze and found that a naïve dog would learn the escape response simply through social facilitation. escape response social facilitation. This procedure warrantfurther investigation as a tool for studying social learning in dogs. Finally, James also investigated the development of sensory systems and geotropic responses in puppies (James, 1952a, 1952b; 1956), and the effects of different levels of social deprivation on operant behavior in dogs for which the reinforcer was visual access to a conspecific (Angermeier & James, 1961). Here his work overlapped with the work of Hebb and his students, as well as Scott and Fuller. James' expansive work has given us a greater understanding of individual differences in dogs, as well as possible breed differences and techniques for further investigating these differences. On a theoretical level, he expanded Pavlov's view of individual nervous differences to differences that extend to the entire animal; for example, dogs deemed "excitable" through a conditioning procedure also had higher overall metabolic rates (James, 1941b). Although James often discussed individual differences with more of an essentialist slant than might be warranted, he clearly
History-of-Dogs-CCBR-FeuerbacherWynne.docx