Everyday Research Methods

Do puppies remember their siblings?

The studies found that puppies recognize their mothers and that mothers recognize their offspring, but that siblings may not recognize each other after they've lived apart. Photo credit: cynoclub/Deposit Photos

Not an endorsement, but our dog Fig likes to use Rover.com, and the company sent me this article in their email newsletter. 

It's titled, "Do puppies remember their siblings?" I'm happy to talk about any kind of dog research, so let's dive in!

The article covered a couple of studies that tracked how long puppies would remember their siblings and mothers. Before you read on, consider: How could you measure whether puppies remember these early relationships? You can't ask them, so what behaviors might help you decide?

Here's the Rover description of one of the studies.

One study used scent-based tests to determine whether dogs recognized their mother and siblings two years after leaving the litter by the age of 12 weeks. They found that by the age of 2, dogs could only recognize a sibling they lived with—not any of their other siblings.

But dogs could recognize their mothers after two years of separation, and the mothers also recognized their puppies.

The snippet above doesn't provide a lot of information about how the scent-based tests were conducted. However, by looking at the original empirical article, we can learn more details. Specifically, the researchers placed blankets in the beds of dogs' littermates, mothers, and other unrelated dogs that were matched on sex and age. Then they conducted three studies.

In the first one, they tested mother dogs. The mother dogs were presented at the same time with a cloth from one of their offspring (who they'd not seen for about 2 years) and a cloth from an unrelated dog of the same sex and age. Fourteen out of 18 of the mother dogs spent more time sniffing the cloth from their own offspring.

In the second study, offspring were tested. The researchers presented offspring with a blanket from their own mother and from another female dog of the same age. Nineteen out of 25 offspring spent more time sniffing the cloth from their own mother. 

In the third study, dogs were presented with a blanket from one of their own siblings, whom they had not been with in over 2 years, and a blanket from another dog of the same age and sex. Among the 25 dogs who lived alone, they showed no preference for one blanket over another. Among the 23 who dogs lived with one of their siblings (they'd been adopted together), most showed a preference for the blanket from one of their siblings (not the one they lived with) compared to the control blanket. 

a) Start with the first study (with mothers). Make a table of the variables in this study:

Variable name	What are the variable's possible levels?	Is this manipulated or measured?	Is this an IV or a DV?	For IVs: is it within groups or independent groups?

b) Also with the first study: Which kind of experiment is this? Posttest only? Pretest/posttest? Concurrent measures? Repeated measures? 

c) Now do the with the third study (with siblings). Make a table of the variables in this study:

Variable name	What are the variable's possible levels?	Is this manipulated or measured?	Is this an IV or a DV?	For IVs: is it within groups or independent groups?

d) Also with the third study: Which kind of experiment is this? Posttest only? Pretest/posttest? Concurrent measures? Repeated measures? 

Sketch a graph of the results of the third study. Remember to put the DV on the y-axis. 

Now for another study from this article:

Another, smaller study also supports the importance of scent in recognizing dog and human family members. Eight dogs separated from their mother for varying lengths of time—from several months to several years—still reacted more strongly to her scent than the scent of another female dog.

And here's a study that tested whether dogs could recognize the smell of the humans who raised them as puppies (but whom they no longer lived with):

In the same study, researchers also considered nine dogs reared by humans from birth who were separated from their owners for varying lengths of time—from 11 months to just over three years. After this time, the dogs spent longer reacting to their owner’s scent than the scent of a same-sex human who lived with a dog of the same breed and gender.

e) In the "recognize the humans" study, classify the variables: 

Variable name	What are the variable's possible levels?	Is this manipulated or measured?	Is this an IV or a DV?	For IVs: is it within groups or independent groups?

f) Also with the first study: Which kind of experiment is this? Posttest only? Pretest/posttest? Concurrent measures? Repeated measures? 

g) You might have noticed that all of these studies used the same design (did you get concurrent measures?). Why? Could you design an independent-groups version of one of these studies? What might be the advantages and disadvantages of that choice? 

Gendered racism (intersectionality) and psychological distress

The study found a correlation between gendered racism and symptoms of depression among Black college women. Photo: Deposit Photos

This post is about a study on intersectionality--a combination of race and gender--in the lives of Black women in college. The empirical study appeared in the Journal of American College Health, and a journalist from PsyPost summarized it on the PsyPost website.

To start, here's the journalist's introduction to gendered racism, which is related to intersectionality:

Racism and sexism are both forms of discrimination that can take a significant psychological toll on the person suffering from it. Black women in particular are a group who often suffer from the combination of both forms of oppression, which can be referred to as gendered racism.

And here is an overview of the study's methods: 

For their new study, the researchers utilized 164 Black, female participants who were undergraduate or graduate students at a primarily White public university in the Southeast United States to serve as their sample. Data was self-reported online during the fall of 2016. Participants completed measures on demographic information, gendered racial microaggressions (e.g. “Someone accused me of being angry when I was speaking in a calm manner”), depression, and psychological distress.

One of the results reported by the journalist is the following: 

There was ... a relationship between frequency of gendered racism microaggressions and depression, with those experiencing more instances of microaggressions experiencing increased depression. 

a) Using the table below, identify the variables in this study:

Variable name	How was this variable operationalized? (if you can't really tell, say so)	Is this manipulated or measured?
		(add rows as needed)

 

b) Is this a correlational or experimental study? How do you know?

 

c) Sketch a scatterplot of the study's results (as described above).  Label your axes mindfully.

 

The PsyPost article included these two caveats: 

This study took important steps toward understanding negative outcomes associated with gendered racism. Despite this, there are limitations to note. One such limitation is that due to the cross-sectional nature of this study, causation cannot be inferred. Additionally, data was only collected from one, primarily White institution and may not be generalizable to other schools.

d) Let's dig into the first caveat, "One such limitation is that due to the cross-sectional nature of this study, causation cannot be inferred." Apply the three criteria for causation here.
i) First, does the study have covariance?  
ii) Second, why does the study not have temporal precedence?   
iii) Third, what is a third variable (a "C" variable) that might independently go with both gendered racism microaggressions AND with higher levels of depression? 

e) Now let's address the second caveat, "data was only collected from one, primarily White institution (PWI) and may not be generalizable to other schools".

Which big validity is this caveat addressing? 

f) Do you think that the association they found between gendered racism microaggressions and depression might be stronger, weaker, or the same if they conducted the study at a historically Black college or university (HBCU)?  Explain your reasoning. 

(Note: In question f, you are thinking about a moderator! Specifically, you are thinking about whether the type of institution (PWI vs. HBCU) moderates the relationship between gendered racism microaggressions and depression).

g) How could you interrogate the construct validity of this study? List two questions you could ask (one for each major variable).