Meet the Expert: Dr. Lauren Robinson, psychologist and animal welfare scientist
Currently, I am visiting assistant professor in psychology at Mt. Holyoke College in South Hadley, MA USA. I teach courses on the principles of animal behavior, animal cognition, animal welfare in the psychological sciences, and human-animal interactions.
I am an animal welfare scientist and psychologist. Basically, I try to find ways to assess and improve the lives of captive animals! I primarily work with zoo and sanctuary-housed animals, canids (mostly domestic dogs) and nonhuman primates but am open to projects on a variety of species.
One of the big things I’m interested in is how differences in animal personality are associated with animal welfare, happiness, and variations in cognitive performance. I do a lot of work on personality, both in relation to welfare and other topics. I spent 5 years working on cognition studies with the goal of performing studies that incorporate multiple aspects of individuality.
I specialize in animal welfare science and animal behavior as well as comparative, cognitive, and personality psychology.
I spent 6 years as a postdoc for institutions including Disney’s Animal Kingdom as contracted through New College of Florida, University of Veterinary Medicine Vienna, and the University of Michigan.
You can learn more about Dr. Lauren HERE
Animals that Dr. Lauren has worked with
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CHALLENGE: Watch an animal and describe what they are doing. This is how understanding animal behavior starts.
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Highlighted book for this episode!
Zoology: Cool Women Who Work With Animals (Girls in Science)
by Jennifer Swanson (Author), Lena Chandhok (Illustrator)
Book List:
Zoology for Kids: Understanding and Working with Animals, with 21 Activities by Josh Hestermann (Author), Bethanie Hestermann (Author)
Reptiles for Kids: A Junior Scientist’s Guide to Lizards, Amphibians, and Cold-Blooded Creatures
by Michael G. Starkey
The Fascinating Animal Book for Kids: 500 Wild Facts! by Ginjer Clarke