Summary: Stetina et al. (2011)

Recognition of emotions is required for interpersonal interactions and emotional competencies. Stetina et al. (2011) explored the possibility of enhancing emotion recognition of children (5-7 years) and adults (19-45 years) by using animal-assisted intervention, focusing on the emotional expression of dogs. Their results showed that the highest changes in both the adult and children groups related to the correct identification of fear and anger. Adults also showed an increase in the overall number of correctly identified facial expressions, as well as a decrease in the latency to respond. Children also increased their capacity for the recognition of disgust and neutral facial expressions, identified 5 more emotions correctly after training and decreased their response latency. Stetina et al. (2011) suggest that a generalization process from human-dog interaction to human-human interaction seems to occur. They indicate that the implied learning effects of animal-assisted interventions are a promising and essential aspect of psychological and psychosocial treatment.