Yale psychologist to discuss ‘The Secrets of Your Dog’s Mind’

Laurie R. Santos, associate professor of psychology, will be one of the featured guests for a live chat on “The Secrets of Your Dog’s Mind,” which will hosted by Science magazine at 3 p.m. on Thursday, Feb. 28.

“When it comes to studying the animal mind, dogs have traditionally been ignored,” write the organizers. “For much of the 20th century, researchers considered them too tainted by domestication and human contact. But over the past 15 years, the field of canine cognition has exploded as scientists have shown that dogs can outsmart chimpanzees in some tests and can even shed light on the evolution of our own intellect. What surprising new things are we learning about the canine mind? Are some breeds smarter than others? And did we really domesticate dogs — or was it the other way around?”

Santos heads the Comparative Cognition Laboratory. She studies primates and canines for clues to the evolution of the human mind. Joining her for the live chat will be Brian Hare, an evolutionary anthropologist at Duke University and the head of the Duke Canine Cognition Center, and moderator David Grimm, the online news editor of Science

The live chat can be watched here.