The Bray Lab at the University of Arizona has created a coding system that analyzes audio recordings of owners talking with their pets.
The Auditory-based Understanding of Relational Animal-directed Language (AURAL-Pet) system uses recordings randomly gathered from participants throughout the day to model how owners interact with pets.
Using a sample size of 240 participants across four archival studies, the researchers poured over 5,027 sound clips of pet interaction collected from an electronically activated recorder (EAR) app.
The app randomly recorded participants in 30- and 50-second increments throughout the day to document subject behavior in a natural setting.
The system measures 30 variables in human-pet interaction, including usage of nicknames, owners referring to themselves in a parental role and talking to their pets as if they were human.
Ph.D. student Dara Jonkoski is a co-author of the study on the AURAL-Pet system's development.
"We found that people were talking to their pets about 10% of the time in which they were speaking at all, so it really speaks to the importance that pets play in people’s lives," Jonkoski said.
Jonkoski said the technology will be used in future studies to more accurately measure wellness outcomes in pet owners by providing a better understanding of the deeper nuances in owner-pet interactions.
