ArticleJournal of veterinary behavior : clinical applications and research : official journal of : Australian Veterinary Behaviour Interest Group, International Working Dog Breeding Association2024
What if the reward is not as yummy? Study of the effects of Successive Negative Contrast in domestic dogs in two different tasks.
Article in Journal of veterinary behavior : clinical applications and research : official journal of : Australian Veterinary Behaviour Interest Group, International Working Dog Breeding Association, 2024. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 3 papers.
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3 citing papers in PubMed, 3 citations in OpenAlex.
- Deference or sociability? Insights from dogs' and wolves' human-directed behavior in a food-conflict task.Frontiers in psychology · 2026Article
- Successive negative contrast: An appropriate approach to measure affective state in dogs?Animal welfare (South Mimms, England) · 2025Article
- Exploring breed differences in discrimination, reversal learning, and resistance to extinction in the domestic dog (Canis familiaris).Scientific reports · 2024Article
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Authors and funding
7 authors at 2 institutions in 2 countries.
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Abstract
Successive Negative Contrast (SNC) occurs when there is a reduction in the quantity or quality of a reward that is expected according to the presence of contextual cues. This induces an emotional response of frustration that is similar to stress. While this phenomenon has been observed in several mammal species, findings in domestic dogs have been inconsistent, although this issue has strong relevance in dog training. The aim of this study was to assess the effects of Successive Negative Contrast in two responses that had already been studied in this species, but with an increase in the methodological rigor and variations in the experimental conditions to examine the generalizability of the phenomenon. To this end, experimental dogs experienced a pre-shift phase in which they received a high-value reward (liver), followed by a post-shift phase in which they obtained a low-value reward (dry dog food), and then a re-shift phase in which the high-value reward was available again. Control dogs received dry food in all phases. The results show a contrast effect on the behavior of following human pointing to obtain food (Study 1). On the contrary, there were no differences in problem solving behavior after the de- and re-evaluation of the reward during a non-social task (Study 2). The results support that Successive Negative Contrast is not a consistent phenomenon in pet dogs. It is possible that certain characteristics of dogs such as the great availability of high-value rewards in their daily lives could attenuate the effects of a reduction in incentive value.
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