SABA Experimental Fellowship Recipients
2010: Monique Udell, University of Florida
Monique Udell's fascination with animal behavior began long before any formal training. As an undergraduate student she decided to put her interests to work, conducting both field and laboratory research on animal behavior and volunteering as a keeper at an exotic cat rescue facility. After receiving degrees in biology and psychology from Stetson University, she decided that her aspirations for graduate school could best be met by studying under Clive Wynne at the University of Florida. It was here that Monique was first introduced to behavior analysis.
Upon entering graduate school Monique began a line of research new to her program, focusing on the social interactions between humans and domestic dogs. Although interest in the adaptations and behavioral traits allowing domestic dogs to thrive within a human environment had been circulating for over a decade, the existing research had almost exclusively stemmed from evolutionary and cognitive perspectives. Her growing exposure to behavior analysis convinced her that a better understanding of canine behavior could be accomplished through the experimental analysis of behavior, using predominantly behavioral methods and interpretations. Heavily influenced by coursework taken with Jesse Dalley and Timothy Hackenberg during her first year in the University of Florida's behavior analysis program, these ideas were formalized in a review article written for Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior, co-authored with her research mentor Clive Wynne. This marked the foundation of the Canine Cognition and Behavior Laboratory, which now consists of students ranging from undergraduates to postdoctorates who wish to study canids from a behavioral perspective.
Monique's current research interests center around environmental and experiential factors that contribute to canid success in using human gestures as discriminative stimuli. This involves testing domestic dogs from different populations (pets, working dogs, strays/shelters) on standardized tests that require the use human stimuli to obtain reinforcement. She has also conducted comparisons with human-socialized wolves and coyotes. This line of research has emphasized the importance of early and lifetime experience for the development of canid responsiveness to human action. It has also demonstrated that not all human stimuli are equal predictors of canine behavior; stimulus properties and an individual's learning history contribute greatly to their performance on these tests. These findings suggest that treating dogs' positive responsiveness to humans as a given inhibits a broader understanding of the lifetime development of canine social behavior, sometimes resulting in less effective policies and training practices within a society where the presence of dogs is inescapable. Monique hopes to broadly impact the way humans view their interactions with dogs, tying her experimental work to practical considerations for applied settings.
After graduation, Monique plans to continue her research as well as teach at the college level. She hopes to extend what is known about canine social behavior and human-canine interactions through experimental analysis of behavior and also demonstrate the effectiveness of behavioral methods and interpretation in this field.
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