Latest

animal psychology

·November 29, 2023·5 min read

Personality and Attachment: Shaping the Pet-Owner Well-being Bond

A new study involving about 2,500 pet owners and 3,300 pets, has explored the dynamics of owner–pet attachment and its impact on mental wellbeing. The research, a first of its kind, considered both the personalities of pets and their owners, revealing how attachment styles (anxious and avoidant) relate to the mental wellbeing of both parties. Anxiously attached owners tend to have heightened needs for proximity, whereas avoidantly attached owners seek independence.

Featured Neuroscience Psychology

·August 22, 2023·4 min read

Woofs & Whispers: Dogs Tune In More to Women’s Deliberate Tones

A recent study highlights that dogs are more receptive to speech directed specifically at them, especially when spoken by women. Using fMRI scans on trained family dogs, the study discovered that the canine brain responds more strongly to dog- and infant-directed speech than to regular adult speech.

Featured Neuroscience Psychology

·August 7, 2023·5 min read

Dog’s Facial Markings Influence Human-Canine Communication

Researchers discovered that the complexity of a dog's facial markings affects human interpretation of their expressions. It was revealed that dogs with plainer faces make more facial expressions and are better understood by humans than dogs with more complex markings.

Featured Neuroscience Open Neuroscience Articles Psychology

·July 26, 2023·4 min read

Child’s Age and Pet Ownership Improve Recognition of Dog Emotions

The ability to correctly identify dog emotions from their facial expressions appears to be influenced by a person's age and prior experience with dogs. This research found that adults and 6-year-olds were more accurate in recognizing aggressive expressions in dogs than 4-year-olds, regardless of whether they had pet dogs.

Featured Neuroscience Psychology

·April 24, 2023·5 min read

The Power of Bullying: Aggressive Behavior Boosts Chimpanzees’ Social Status and Reproductive Success

A new study finds that chimpanzees with more aggressive personalities and less conscientiousness are more successful at climbing the social ladder and siring offspring than their more passive counterparts. However, the researchers also find it puzzling that not every chimpanzee has the same personality traits, suggesting that there may be other factors at play that determine the diversity of personalities in chimpanzees.

Featured Neuroscience Psychology

·April 24, 2023·3 min read

Monkey See, Monkey Think: Groundbreaking Study Reveals Primate’s Ability for Complex Decision-Making

Move over humans, monkeys can think deeply too! A novel study has shown that monkeys are capable of careful decision-making by considering costs, consequences, and constraints. Findings reveal our primate cousins are capable of making optimal choices instead of impulsive decisions.

Featured Neuroscience Open Neuroscience Articles Psychology

·March 29, 2023·5 min read

How Dogs Are Used Impacts How They Are Treated

A dog's behavioral functions are strong predictors of how its owners treat them.

Featured Neuroscience Open Neuroscience Articles Psychology

·March 15, 2023·3 min read

Characterizing Abnormal Neural Networks in Dogs With Anxiety

Dogs with anxiety have stronger neural connections between the amygdala and other areas of the anxiety network in the brain compared to less anxious dogs.

Featured Neuroscience

·March 9, 2023·4 min read

Complex Learned Social Behavior Discovered in Bee’s Waggle Dance

A bee's "waggle dance", an intricate series of motions that signals the location of critical resources to other bees, is improved by social learning and can be culturally transmitted.

This shows a drawing of bees having a meeting

Featured Neuroscience Open Neuroscience Articles

·March 7, 2023·3 min read

Puzzle-Solving Behavior Spreads Through Bumblebee Colonies

Bumblebees are able to learn to solve puzzles by watching more experienced bees complete a task. This new behavioral preference then spreads throughout the entire colony. The bees that learned from others became more adept and began to prefer the learned solution over alternatives.

Featured Neuroscience Open Neuroscience Articles Psychology

·January 23, 2023·4 min read

Dogs Show Things to Humans but Pigs Do Not

While pet dogs and pet pigs pay their owners a similar amount of attention, when it comes to pointing to the location of an out-of-range treat, only dogs direct their owner's attention to the location. Findings suggest directing human attention to an interesting location is not ubiquitous in domesticated animals.

Featured Neuroscience Psychology

·January 16, 2023·4 min read

Study Questions Whether Toddlers Choose to Help Dogs Impulsively

Toddlers are twice as likely to help a dog reach a toy, even when the animal showed no interest in the object. The findings suggest toddlers' prosocial and goal-reading abilities extend beyond other humans and to animals.

1 2 3 … 9

animal psychology

Personality and Attachment: Shaping the Pet-Owner Well-being Bond

Woofs & Whispers: Dogs Tune In More to Women’s Deliberate Tones

Dog’s Facial Markings Influence Human-Canine Communication

Child’s Age and Pet Ownership Improve Recognition of Dog Emotions

Monkey See, Monkey Think: Groundbreaking Study Reveals Primate’s Ability for Complex Decision-Making

How Dogs Are Used Impacts How They Are Treated

Characterizing Abnormal Neural Networks in Dogs With Anxiety

Puzzle-Solving Behavior Spreads Through Bumblebee Colonies

Dogs Show Things to Humans but Pigs Do Not

Study Questions Whether Toddlers Choose to Help Dogs Impulsively

AI’s Vulnerability to Misguided Human Arguments

Maternal Inflammation Linked to Child Behavioral Dysregulation

Brain Area Associated With Impulse Control Discovered

Serotonin Drop Linked to Memory Decline in Early Alzheimer’s Progression

Subscribe