Therapy dogs on campus: Experiment example, assignment, or discussion

[sue_frantz]

If you are looking to freshen up your examples of experiments, here’s a pretty readable one from an open access journal.

Pendry, P., Carr, A. M., Vandagriff, J. L., & Gee, N. R. (2021). Incorporating human–animal interaction into academic stress management programs: Effects on typical and at-risk college students’ executive function. AERA Open. https://doi.org/10.1177/23328584211011612

Here is a summary.

Petting therapy dogs can help college students cope with stress. (2021). The Optimist Daily. Retrieved May 28, 2021, from https://www.optimistdaily.com/2021/05/petting-therapy-dogs-can-help-college-students-cope-with-stres...

While you can use this as your own lecture example, if you want to make this an assignment or a discussion, here are some questions. Use whatever best matches your coverage of experiments.

Ask students to read both the summary and the original research article, then answer these questions.

What is the independent variable? What are the levels of the independent variable?

What is the dependent variable? How many different times was the dependent variable measured?

Were participants randomly assigned to conditions? Why is random assignment important?

In the research article, the authors identify three limitations to the study. What are they? Which of the three do you believe is the biggest limitation? Why?

Identify at least two more pieces of evidence you would like to have before recommending that your college or university spend money on therapy dogs.