69th Nebraska Symposium on Motivation--Canine Cognition and the Human Bond

In 2022, Dr. Jeffrey R. Stevens organized the 69th Nebraska Symposium on Motivation on the topic of Canine Cognition and the Human Bond. This two-day symposium brought four international experts to UNL (and three over Zoom) to present on and discuss aspects of dog behavior/cognition and canine-human interactions.

Symposium information

Dogs are a valued part of almost 70 million American households. Yet, in terms of behavior and cognition, they have only become a serious subject of scientific study in the last 20 years. Similarly, we have recently witnessed a sharp increase in studies of canine-human interaction, exploring the motivational, emotional, cognitive, physiological, and neural mechanisms of dogs on human psychology and well-being. The primary goal of this symposium is to bring together researchers from psychology, biology, neuroscience, anthropology, and social work to delve deeper into the canine-human bond.

• Anindita Bhadra (Indian Institute of Science Education & Research Kolkata) A dog's life in the human jungle
• John-Tyler Binfet (University of British Columbia) Dogs on campus: Lessons learned from 10 years overseeing canine-assisted interventions and programming
• Brian Hare (Duke University) Is dog cognition the secret to working dog success?
• Jeffrey Katz (Auburn University) Dog, human, and robot bonding: Past, present, and future
• Patricia Pendry (Washington State University) Conceptual and pathway models guiding research on identifying active treatment components of AAIs on stress-related outcomes
• Friederike Range (University of Veterinary Medicine, Vienna) Wolves-humans-dogs: How did domestication change the human-canine relationship?
• Kerri Rodriguez (Colorado State University) PTSD service dogs for military veterans: Current knowledge and future directions