Increasingly, researchers have begun to explore the potential of the Internet to reach beyond the traditional undergraduate sample. In the present study, we sought to compare the data obtained from a conventional undergraduate collegestudent sample to data collected via two online survey recruitment platforms. In order to examine whether the data sampled from the three populations were equivalent, we conducted a test of equivalency using inferential confidence intervals-an approach that differs from the more traditional null hypothesis significance testing. The results showed that the data obtained via the two online recruitment platforms, the Amazon Mechanical Turk crowdsourcing site and the virtual environment of Second Life, were statistically equivalent to the data obtained from the college sample, on the basis of means of standardized measures of psychological stress and sleep quality. Additionally, correlations between the sleep and stress measures were not statistically different between the groups. These results, along with practical considerations for the use of these recruitment platforms, are discussed, and recommendations for other researchers who may be considering the use of these platforms are provided.

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Previous research has indicated that aquatic features in nature may have additional restorative potential. The present study assessed the perceived restorativeness for nature images that contained only aquatic features (no greenery) and compared them to images that contained only greenery (no water) and only urban environments (no water or greenery) instead of using images that had various proportions of water and greenery, as conducted in previous research. There were no significant differences in ratings on the short-version of Perceived Restorativeness Scale’s (PRS) for aquatic-only compared to green-only images, but both had superior ratings on the short PRS compared to urban images. Thus, our findings indicated that aquatic-only images may not increase restorative potential compared to green-only images, at least not as assessed by the short PRS. Future research needs to assess the restorative effect induced by aquatic-only and green-only nature scenery on cognitive performance.

The aim of this study was to examine the current state of perceptions towards select breeds of dogs with a focus on perceived aggressiveness. While some studies investigating breed perceptions of aggressiveness have presented dogs in various poses, possibly adding to unintentional perception bias towards aggressiveness, this study showed standardized representations of 27 dog breeds. A hierarchical cluster analysis of data collected from a large sample suggests two distinct categories of dogs that were perceived as either higher or lower in aggressiveness. Additionally, this study asked participants about their intended behavior toward those breeds, thus providing data on people’s functional attitudes towards breeds perceived as more or less aggressive. The data show that people are less willing to interact with those breeds of dogs that are perceived to be higher in aggressiveness and intend to engage in more favorable interactions towards those breeds perceived as less aggressive.

During social interactions, one must be able to interpret social signals that convey information and respond appropriately to interactants. Several factors have been shown to influence decisions of interpersonal distance preferences; however, research has yet to determine the associative effects companion animals may have on social information processing during intended interactions. Previous research ( Briones et al., 2022 ) distinguished between various breeds of dogs perceived to be higher or lower in aggression, and further showed that people had a greater tendency to interact with dogs perceived to be lower in aggression. The current studies (Study 1 n = 174; Study 2 n = 229) were an extension of that research and used computer-simulated avatar interactions to assess the influence of dog breeds and other factors on actual proxemic behavior during goal-related social interactions. Results showed that during social interactions, (a) interactants associated with dog breeds perceived higher in aggressiveness elicited larger interpersonal spaces; (b) closer interpersonal distances are maintained with friends than strangers; (c) greater affinity for dogs, in general, was related to closer proxemic distances; and (d) dog handlers taking the perspective of the approaching interactant results in greater interpersonal distances.