Research

Our group studies the behavior and cognition of the domestic dog, Canis familiaris. Past and present research topics include:

CURRENT STUDY: Dog-human play -- participate in this study by contributing a video of you playing with your dog
Olfactory discrimination of dogs
Empirical investigation of anthropomorphisms, including:
- Analysis of the dog's understanding of "fairness"
- An analysis of the "guilty look" of dogs
Use of attention and play signals in social play
Intra-canid vocalizations: barks, whines, whimpers

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Recent publications and presentations

September 2009: Inside of a dog: What dogs see, smell, and know.

2012. Fair is fine, but more is better: Limits to inequity aversion in the domestic dog. Social Justice Research, 25, 195-212.

Research with domestic dogs provides an unique approach for exploring the evolution of fairness and justice. Not only are dogs descended from highly social Canids; they have also been bred for cooperative tasks with humans. Dogs act cooperatively in social play and are skilled on other social cognitive tasks. But do dogs perceive and respond to unfairness or injustice, a skill potentially borne of long-term affiliation with and selection by humans? In this research, thirty-eight subject dogs and a control dog approached two trainers in turn: one who rewarded them equally for sitting on command, and one who rewarded them unequally -- either over-rewarding or under-rewarding the control dog. After familiarization with the trainers, subjects chose which trainer to approach by themselves. Subjects preferred the over-rewarding trainer over the fair trainer; they had no preference between the under-rewarding and the fair trainer. Age and cooperative work experience reversed the approach preference; breed did not. These results suggest that the precursory sensitivity which dogs showed to inequitous outcomes in prior research does not extend to both advantageous and disadvantageous inequity, and does not hold when the subject is continually rewarded. Dogs selected a trainer who had treated them "unfairly," yet who presented a potentially greater opportunity for future rewards. Dogs showed a greater sensitivity to the quantity of a reward than to the fairness of a reward.

2012. (Hecht & Horowitz:) Physical prompts to anthropomorphism of the domestic dog (Canis familiaris) Third Canine Science Forum, Barcelona, Spain.

Humans readily anthropomorphize dogs, assigning them human characteristics. Theories of which physical characteristics prompt anthropomorphism usually invoke neoteny or features involved in the "cute response." In this study, those theories are explicitly tested by comparing the "likeability" of visible physical features. Human subjects (N=124) participated in an aesthetic preference test in which they saw computer-modified image pairs of mixed-breed adult dogs. In each image-pair presentation, one of fourteen features associated with neoteny, the cute response, or other physical characteristics was modified. The results reveal that some, but not all, characteristics of neoteny were preferred: larger eyes were selected over smaller; but a larger forehead ("cranial vault") was not. Nor were other features consistent with the theory of neoteny preferred, such as small nose or big paws. Subjects also evinced a preference for images of dogs with smaller jowls, larger distance between the eyes, distinct and colored irises, and a mouth approximating a smile. By contrast, symmetry of ears and piebald facial coloration, as well as size of ears, eyebrows, tongue, and nostril, did not lead to uniform subject preference. A catalogue of physical features which lead to anthropomorphizing could be used to design expressive robots, elicit aid for threatened species, advertise adoptable shelter animals or re-consider dog-breeding practices.

2011. Theory of mind in dogs? Examining method and concept. Learning & Behavior, 39, 314-317.

In line with other research, Udell, Dorey, and Wynne's (in press) finding that dogs and wolves pass on some trials of a putative theory-of-mind test and fail on others is as informative about the methods and concepts of the research as about the subjects. This commentary expands on these points. The intertrial differences in the target article demonstrate how critical the choice of cues is in experimental design; the intersubject-group differences demonstrate how life histories can interact with experimental design. Even the best-designed theory-of-mind tests have intractable logical problems. Finally, these and previous research results call for the introduction of an intermediate stage of ability, a rudimentary theory of mind, to describe performance.

2009. Disambiguating the "guilty look": Salient prompts to a familiar dog behavior. Behavioural Processes, 81, 447-452.

Anthropomorphisms are regularly used by owners in describing their dogs. Of interest is whether attributions of understanding and emotions to dogs are sound, or are unwarranted applications of human psychological terms to non-humans. One attribution commonly made to dogs is that the "guilty look" shows that dogs feel guilt at doing a disallowed action. In the current study, this anthropomorphism is empirically tested. The behaviors of fourteen domestic dogs (Canis familiaris) were videotaped over a series of trials and analyzed for elements that correspond to an owner-identified "guilty look." Trials varied the opportunity for dogs to disobey an owner's command not to eat a desirable treat while the owner was out of the room, and varied the owners' knowledge of what their dogs did in their absence. The results revealed no difference in behaviors associated with the guilty look. By contrast, more such behaviors were seen in trials when owners scolded their dogs. The effect of scolding was more pronounced when the dogs were obedient, not disobedient. These results indicate that a better description of the so-called guilty look is that it is a response to owner cues, rather than that it shows an appreciation of a misdeed.

2009. Attention to attention in domestic dogs' (Canis familiaris) dyadic play. Animal Cognition, 12, 107-118.

The social cognitive capacities of dogs, including their communication skills and use of visual attention cues, have recently been investigated in numerous experimental studies. This paper reports on research of domestic dog behavior in a natural setting, which shows sensitivity to the visual attention of their partners when engaged in dyadic rough-and-tumble play. The sequential behaviors and head-direction of both dogs were noted throughout the bouts. The behaviors were differentially used according to the partner's posture. Play signals were sent nearly exclusively to forward-facing conspecifics; attention-getting behaviors were used most often when a playmate was facing away, and before signaling an interest to play. In addition, the mode of attention-getter matched the degree of inattentiveness of the playmate: stronger attention-getters were used when a playmate was looking away or distracted, less forceful ones when the partner was facing forward or laterally. In other words, these dogs showed attention to, and acted to manipulate, a feature of other dogs that mediates their ability to respond: which feature in human interaction is called "attention".

2007. Naturalizing anthropomorphism: Behavioral prompts to our humanizing of animals. Anthrozoös, 20, 23-35.

Anthropomorphism is the use of human characteristics to describe or explain nonhuman animals. In the present paper, we propose a model for a unified study of such anthropomorphizing. We bring together previously disparate accounts of why and how we anthropomorphize and suggest a means to analyze anthropomorphizing behavior itself. We introduce an analysis of bouts of dyadic play between humans and a heavily anthropomorphized animal, the domestic dog. Four distinct patterns of social interaction recur in successful dog-human play: directed responses by one player to the other, indications of intent, mutual behaviors, and contingent activity. These findings serve as a preliminary answer to the question, "What behaviors prompt anthropomorphisms?" An analysis of anthropomorphizing is potentially useful in establishing a scientific basis for this behavior, in explaining its endurance, in the design of "lifelike" robots, and in the analysis of human interaction. Finally, the relevance of this developing scientific area to contemporary debates about anthropomorphizing behavior is discussed.

Lab members

Professor Alexandra Horowitz, PI, Barnard

Julie Hecht, Lab manager
Julie received her Masters with distinction in Applied Animal Behaviour and Animal Welfare at the University of Edinburgh. She is the founder of dogspies.com, lectures on dog science and provides private ethological consultations. She would really like to meet your dog.

Adam Croom
Adam is a native of Redondo Beach, California, and is currently affiliated with the University of Pennsylvania. He loves listening to music, playing the saxophone and piano, being around dogs in general, and working with the Horowitz Dog Cognition Lab in particular. Adam has also published articles in several academic areas, such as psychology, linguistics, and philosophy. Most of his papers can be found here: http://upenn.academia.edu/adamcroom/Papers

Eleonora d'Amore, Barnard '13
Eleonora is a Senior at Barnard College majoring in Psychology and minoring in Italian. She loves finding herself in the presence of dogs and is excited to be a member of the Dog Cognition Lab. When she is not working, she enjoys playing different sports, listening to music, and playing with her dog Charlot.

Alexandra Dedrick, Columbia M.S. student in Public Health
Alex is currently a masters candidate in biostatistics at Columbia's Mailman School of Public Health. She's really excited to be working with the dog cognition lab and to be analyzing their data! When she isn't analyzing data or studying, she enjoys knitting, baking, and playing with her dog Kramer in the park.

Nora Inman, Barnard '14
Nora Inman is a Junior at Barnard College majoring in Psychology. When she is not marveling at the variety of dogs (and their owners) in the city, she enjoys playing music and watching old movies. She is so happy to put her love for dogs to good use as a member of the Dog Cognition Lab!

Rebecca Johnson, Barnard '13
Rebecca is a senior chemistry major at Barnard College. Originally interested in pre-vet studies, she now aspires to attend graduate school for organic synthesis once she graduates in 2013. Though she studies chemistry, her passion for dogs and science has led her to the Horowitz Dog Cognition Lab where she very much enjoys studying and learning new things about dog behavior and working with her fellow labmates.

Merav Stein, Barnard '15
Merav is a sophomore at Barnard College majoring in biology and studying pre-veterinary medicine. When not obsessing over every dog in the Upper West Side, she enjoys holding office hours as the Intro Bio TA, kicking a soccer ball around, and cooking. She's ecstatic to be working with the Dog Cognition Lab and can't wait to see all the fantastic future studies!

Dog Cognition Lab in our natural environment, Spring 2012

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Past members:

Adam Chapman, Columbia, '11

Emily Cherenack, Barnard, '12

Orellana del Fierro, Barnard '11

Rebekka Dohme, Barnard, '11

James Fuller, PhD, Columbia '12

Meredith Leeman, Barnard, '12

Sabrina Mashburn, Post-bacc, Columbia

Jennifer Oh, Barnard '11

Hannah Salomons, Columbia '10

Jessica Sapire, Barnard '12

Shoshana Schoenfeld, Barnard '11

Olivia Tandon, Columbia '09

Ilana Yablonowich, Barnard '12