Highfill and two colleagues have been lately awarded a $2,120 grant for his or her mission titled Enhancing Canine Enrichment Via Computerized Gaming Interfaces. Highfill will function principal investigator together with her collaborators Sarah Nadler ’10, visiting assistant professor of animal research at Eckerd and a licensed psychological well being counselor, and Kelley Winship, Ph.D., a scientist on the Nationwide Marine Mammal Basis in San Diego.

Highfill explains that the thought got here from a visitor lecture Winship gave for her by way of Zoom final yr. “She was speaking about a number of the analysis being executed with California sea lions in San Diego,” Highfill says. “How utilizing video gaming provides them some further enrichment after they’re of their enclosures, to stimulate their brains. There has additionally been related work executed with lab primates up to now.

“As I used to be watching her current the lecture,” Highfill says, “I puzzled if canines might do this. So we determined to offer it a strive with some canines right here on the Comparative Psychology Lab at Eckerd. Allison Kenawell ’24, who had interned with Dr. Winship in San Diego, utilized for an inside grant from Eckerd to get issues going. And Sarah Nadler has a remedy canine named Orlo that she adopted. So we began coaching him, and he’s been doing nice. He actually appears to get pleasure from enjoying the sport. However he does get pissed off. It’s like watching a child play a online game.”

Highfill says the workforce utilized for the grant to help analysis that appears at canine coaching. “I’m fascinated to see how far he can go fixing these issues,” she says. “What are the very best practices on the subject of coaching? How can we assist working canines achieve success?”

Highfill provides that whereas previous analysis has proven that canines can make the most of contact screens for analysis functions, that is the primary time canines have been launched to a gaming console that controls a cursor on a sport display screen. This gaming strategy, she says, “affords larger flexibility in comparison with contact screens when it comes to playable content material. Our major focus presently lies in refining coaching methodologies and conducting behavioral observations all through gameplay classes.”