Research at the Canine Cognition Lab

Investigation of Treat Displacement
We are interested in whether dogs have an understanding of physical properties of objects. From previous research in children and nonhuman primates, we know that the the type of displacement (covering vs. containment) impacts the ability to reason about physical objects. The present study aims to see if dogs respond with different searching behaviours to different methods of displacement. We ask your dog to sit and watch while we hide a treat out of sight in one of two possible locations. In a typical session, your dog will get between 10-30 repetitions of hidden treats to find. This study will help us to understand how dogs reason about their environment and can help us to design better studies in the future.

Investigations of Causal Reasoning
We are interested in how dogs form causal relationships about the world. In their everyday lives dogs are constantly being exposed to causal relationships that allow them to make predictions about their world. In our study, we want to explore two principles that may impact dogs' causal reasoning. In a typical session, your dog will be familiarized with the box and the noise it makes. Your dog will then watch a demonstrator make treats come out of the box using one or both of the actions on the box. They are then given the opportunity to freely interact with the box. This study will help us understand how dogs form causal relationships in their daily lives and better understand how their minds work.

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