Messerli
Research Institute
University
of Veterinary Medicine Vienna, Vienna, Austria
1)
Conspecific and interspecific social tendencies in dogs: the influence of
training, breed and
personality on prosocial attitudes in pet dogs
The
aim of this PhD project is to investigate whether and to what extent dogs show
prosocial attitudes.
Pro-social behavior is defined as actively granting food to a companion and is considered
to be part of altruism. In humans helping one another is closley linked to
emotions and
results in feeling good. Pro-social tendencies have been found to be strongest
towards familiar
and bonded partners such as kin and group mates. Although pro-social tendencies have
traditionally been investigated between conspecifics, because of the peculiar interspecific
bond between dogs and humans, the current project will also explore whether dogs
show prosocial tendencies also towards their human partners. A number of issues
will be explored
a) if and to what extent dogs show pro-social attitudes, b) how these reactions
are affected
by the relationship with the partners and c) by their personality; d) if
different breeds (e.g.
selected for cooperative work vs. independent work) exhibit pro-social
tendencies to different
degrees, and lastly e) whether training for specific tasks (selected based on
the degree
of cooperative work required) affect dog’s prosocial tendencies.
Eligible
candidates will have a master’s degree (or Diplom) in Biology, Veterinary
Medicine or
Psychology and research experience in animal behavior, a genuine understanding
of animal cognition
and a strong commitment to basic science. Practical skills in animal training techniques
and in empirical work with dogs are beneficial, but not a precondition. This
PhD project
is funded by the Austrian Science Funds (FWF). The project is based at the
Clever Dog
Lab of the Messerli Research Institute (at the University of Veterinary
Medicine Vienna) and
co-supervised by Dr. Sarah Marshall-Pescini, Prof. Ludwig Huber and Dr. Zsófia
Virányi. Principal
investigator of the whole project and supervisor of this PhD-project: Dr.
Friederike Range.
2)
Prosocial attitudes in dogs and wolves
The
aim of this PhD project is to investigate whether and to what extent canines
show prosocial
attitudes and the effect of domestication on the propensity to exhibit these behaviours.
Pro-social behavior is defined as actively granting food to a companion and is considered
to be part of altruism. In humans helping one another is closley linked to
emotions and
results in feeling good. Pro-social tendencies have been found to be strongest
towards familiar
and bonded partners such as kin and group mates. Furthermore, it is
hypothesized
that
species with strong cooperative tendencies (e.g. joint pup-raising) are more
likely to show prosocial
behaviors than others. Here we will investigate a) if and to what extent dogs
and wolves
show pro-social attitudes, b) how these reactions are affected by the
relationship with the
partners (i.e. in terms of kinship and friendship/affiliation) and c) to what
extent emotions play
a role. By comparing pack-living wolves and dogs raised and kept in the same
way at the Wolf
Science Center in various test situations varying the relationship with their
partners and complementing
behavior testing with physiological measurements (cortisol and heart rate), we will
explore the ultimate and proximate mechanism mediating prosocial attitudes in
canines.
Eligible
candidates will have a master’s degree (or Diplom) in Biology, Veterinary
Medicine or
Psychology and research experience in animal behavior, a genuine understanding
of animal cognition
and a strong commitment to basic science. Practical skills in animal training techniques
and in empirical work with dogs are beneficial, but not a precondition. This
PhD project
is part of a larger project funded by the European Research Council (ERC) on “Understanding
the Proximate Mechanisms of Canine Cooperation. Although the project is based
at the Messerli Research Institute (at the University of Veterinary Medicine
Vienna), the
research will be conducted at the Wolf Science Center, Ernstbrunn. The project
is cosupervised by
Dr. Sarah Marshall-Pescini, Prof. Ludwig Huber and Dr. Zsófia Virányi. Principal
investigator of the whole project and supervisor of this PhD-project: Dr.
Friederike Range.
3)
Inequity aversion in dogs and wolves
The
aim of this PhD project is to investigate the cognitive and motivational
building blocks of inequity
aversion in canines. Inequity aversion is defined as partners resisting
inequitable outcomes
and is important for regulating and maintaining cooperation. In humans,
inequity aversion
seems to be based on the simultaneous evaluation of costs and gains in
comparison to
those of a partner, but also is dependent on the relationship between the
partners. At the emotional
level, it is strongly linked to anger. Although we know that dogs react
inequity averse
in a simple experimental paradigm, it is unclear a) how these reactions are
affected by the
relationship with the partners and b) to what extent emotions play a role.
Moreover, we have
little knowledge if and how domestication influenced canines reactions to
inequity. By comparing
pack-living wolves and dogs raised and kept in the same way at the Wolf Science Center
in various test situations varying the relationship with their partners and complementing
behavior testing with physiological measurements (cortisol and heart rate), we will
explore the ultimate and proximate mechanism mediating inequity aversion in
canines.
Eligible
candidates will have a master’s degree (or Diplom) in Biology, Veterinary
Medicine or
Psychology and research experience in animal behavior, a genuine understanding
of animal cognition
and a strong commitment to basic science. Practical skills in animal training techniques
and in empirical work with dogs are beneficial, but not a precondition. This
PhD project
is part of a larger project funded by the European Research Council (ERC) on “Understanding
the Proximate Mechanisms of Canine Cooperation. Although the project is based
at the Messerli Research Institute (at the University of Veterinary Medicine
Vienna), the
research will be conducted at the Wolf Science Center, Ernstbrunn. The PhD is
cosupervised by
Dr. Sarah Marshall-Pescini, Dr. Zsófia Virányi and Prof. Ludwig Huber. Principal
investigator of the whole project and supervisor of this PhD-project: Dr. Friederike Range.
4)
The underlying mechanisms of inequity aversion in dogs
The
aim of this PhD project is to investigate the underlying mechanism of inequity
aversion in pet
dogs. Inequity aversion is defined as partners resisting inequitable outcomes
and is important
for regulating and maintaining cooperation. In humans, inequity aversion seems
to be
based on the simultaneous evaluation of costs and gains in comparison to those
of a partner.
Although we know that dogs stop cooperating when treated unequally, it is
unclear whether,
like in humans, this behavior is driven by the same evaluation of costs and
gains in comparison
to the partner or based on simpler mechanisms. The aim of this project is to devise
experimental designs allowing for understanding the cognitive and emotional mechanisms
of inequity aversion in pet dogs.
Eligible
candidates will have a master’s degree (or Diplom) in Biology, Veterinary
Medicine or
Psychology and research experience in animal behavior, a genuine understanding
of animal cognition
and a strong commitment to basic science. Practical skills in animal training techniques
and in empirical work with dogs are beneficial, but not a precondition. This
PhD project
is funded by the Austrian Science Funds (FWF). The project is based at the
Clever Dog
Lab of the Messerli Research Institute (at the University of Veterinary
Medicine Vienna) and
co-supervised by Dr. Sarah Marshall-Pescini, Dr. Zsófia Virányi and Prof.
Ludwig Huber. Principal
investigator of the whole project and supervisor of this PhD-project: Dr.
Friederike Range.
The
Messerli Research Institute has been recently founded with support of
the University of Veterinary
Medicine Vienna, the Medical University of Vienna, the University of Vienna and the
Messerli Foundation (Switzerland) for the scientific study of human-animal
interactions, with
an integrative and highly interdisciplinary approach of comparative cognition
and behaviour,
comparative medicine, and animal ethics. Its division on Comparative Cognition (headed
by L. Huber) investigates the cognitive abilities in both the social and
physical domain
of various, free-living as well as domesticated, animal species ranging from
keas to dogs.
At the Clever Dog Lab (www.cleverdoglab.at) and the Wolf
Science Center (www.wolfscience.at)
an international team of students and researchers studies the cognition and
behaviour of canines.
Application: Materials
including a letter of application, CV, a summary of research experience,
copies of any published or in-press papers, and two letters of recommendation should
be sent to Dr. Friederike Range by email (friederike.range@vetmeduni.ac.at)
by 1st February
2013. All positions are for three years; starting date for positions 1 & 2:
1st March 2013;
for positions 3 & 4: 1st June 2013. Salaries according to the standards of
Austrian basic science
funds.
The
University of Veterinary Medicine Vienna promotes the employment of
women in fields of
work in which they are underrepresented and therefore encourages qualified
women to apply
to this opening. Disabled people will be preferentially treated if qualified.