Is the Presence of a Companion Animal Dog Beneficial for Computer Operators

摘要

This research was conducted to assess whether workers' social facilitation-inhibition could be evoked by introducing a companion animal dog into the workplace or not. The experiments were carried out with three kinds of work conditions: working alone, presence of a person, and presence of a dog. There were two different discrimination tasks using PC. During each task performance, participants' response times and the number of errors were measured to investigate their performance. Also, workers' Heart Rates and Oxidation-Reduction Potentials of Saliva were measured to monitor their physiological changes. Before/after each performance, their emotional states, as defined by the Profile of Mood States questionnaire, were measured. The results suggest that for complex tasks, a companion animal can produce inhibition effects. However, the results also suggest that for more complex and difficult tasks, the presence of a familiar companion animal dog might produce facilitation effects.