Research
Dog cognition
Part of the Canine Cognition and Human Interaction Lab focuses on dog cognition. This means that we are interested in how dogs 'think'. We study their patience (how long they can wait), risk attitudes (how they deal with certainty vs. uncertainty), numerical cognition (how well the understand quantities), and odor detection (how they respond to smells).
We study these questions by having dogs play games for treats. Many of these games involve choices between different options. Sometimes, they involve interacting with other dogs. To do this work, we have dog owners in the community bring their dogs to the lab for testing. If you are interested in having your dog participate, please enroll.
Dog-human interaction
Part of the Canine Cognition and Human Interaction Lab focuses on dog-human interaction. This means that we are interested in how dogs interact with humans and influence our psychology. Currently, we are studying how interacting with dogs influences stress, memory, and attention. We would like to expand this to explore decision making and mental health. We would also like to investigate how pet dogs influence owner behavior, as well as how working dogs (like police and military dogs) interact with their handlers. We study these questions by having human participants come into the lab and complete behavioral tests before and after interacting with dogs..
