1) IMITATION, EMPATHY AND PROSOCIAL BEHAVIOR IN DOGS The aim of this PhD-project is to investigate the links between imitation, empathy and prosocial behaviour in dogs. Cognitive scientists have revealed that imitation, emotion understanding and empathy are tightly linked, and social psychologists found that peoples’ tendency to inadvertently copy each other’s gestures facilitates social interaction. This project aims at resolving open questions with respect to the ultimate (evolutionary) and proximate (neuro-cognitive) mechanisms mediating these relationships. These questions are multi-level in nature and therefore require interdisciplinary approaches and complementary expertise. Bringing together a team of leading European experts, we will conduct behavioral experiments on dogs and behavioral and neuroscientific ones in humans. This part of the project will only involve cognitive-behavioral experiments with dogs. Eligible candidates will have a master’s degree (or Diplom) in Biology, Veterinary Medicine or Psychology and research experience in animal behaviour, 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 Vienna Science and Technology Fund (WWTF) on “the evolutionary and neurocognitive basis of the link between imitation, empathy and prosocial behaviour in dogs and humans”, and conducted together with psychologists at the University of Vienna (Prof. Lamm) and neuroscientists at the Medical University of Vienna (Prof. Windischberger). It will be based at the Clever Dog Lab (www.cleverdoglab.at) of the Messerli Research Institute (at the University of Veterinary Medicine Vienna) and co-supervised by Dr. Friederike Range and Dr. Zsófia Virányi. Principal investigator of the whole project and supervisor of this PhD-project: Prof. Ludwig Huber.
2) COOPERATIVE COMMUNICATION IN DOGS: MECHANISMS AND GENETIC BASIS The aim of this PhD-project is to critically investigate the phylogeny of the cognitive and motivational building blocks of following gaze and pointing as forms of cooperative, referential and intentional communication, a non-verbal alternative of language that is available also for non-human animals. The developmental and mechanistic aspects will be investigated by comparing adult pet dogs and puppies as well as by using sophisticated technologies, such as eye-tracking and genotyping the oxytocin receptor gene of the subjects.
As such, the successful candidate will have a master’s degree (or Diplom) in Biology, Veterinary Medicine or Psychology and research experience in animal behaviour, a genuine understanding of animal cognition and a strong commitment to basic science. Practical skills in dog handling and training as well as having a well-trained dog who can act as a conspecific experimenter are beneficial, but not a precondition.
The position is part of a larger project, funded by the Vienna Science and Technology Fund (WWTF) on "The semantics of talking with the eyes and gestures: the hormonal and cognitive underpinnings of comprehending cooperative intentional communication in domestic dogs and wolves" that complements the PhD project with an evolutionary aspect by comparing dogs and wolves at the Wolf Science Center (Ernstbrunn, Austria) (www.wolfscience.at).
The PhD project will be based at the Clever Dog Lab (www.cleverdoglab.at) of the Messerli Research Institute (at the University of Veterinary Medicine Vienna) and will be co-supervised by Prof. Ludwig Huber, Dr. Friederike Range (Messerli Research Institute) and Dr. Zsolt Rónai (Semmelweis University, Budapest, Hungary). Principal investigator of the whole project and supervisor of this PhD-project: Dr. Zsófia Virányi.
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) an international team of students and researchers studies the cognition and behaviour of pet dogs.
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 Mrs. Karin Bayer, MSc by email (Karin.Bayer@vetmeduni.ac.at) until 1 February 2012. Planned interview dates are in mid February 2012. Both positions are for three years; starting date is 1 March 2012. 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.