Lauren M RobinsonUniversity of Michigan | U-M · College of Literature, Science, and the Arts
Lauren M Robinson
PhD - Psychologist and animal welfare scientist
About
19
Publications
17,467
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146
Citations
Citations since 2017
Introduction
I specialize in psychology (differential, comparative, health), animal welfare, and applied animal behavior (i.e., applied ethology).
I am interested in interdisciplinary research that utilizes a mix of methods (e.g., surveys, behavioral observations, physiological measures) to answer research questions across a range of species.
Additional affiliations
March 2019 - March 2020
Position
- PostDoc Position
Description
- Joint postdoc with between Vienna and Georgia State University studying cooperation in canids.
January 2019 - March 2019
Position
- PostDoc Position
Description
- Two month position reviewing the literature on animal joy.
December 2017 - March 2019
Education
September 2013 - August 2017
September 2011 - August 2012
June 2007 - December 2009
Publications
Publications (19)
When we treat an animal’s welfare as an individual experience, we should consider the possibility that it may be associated with individual differences in personality. We tested for such associations in 44 socially housed rhesus macaques (Macaca mulatta) that lived at the California National Primate Research Center. For each macaque, we obtained ra...
Unequal outcomes disrupt cooperation in some situations, but this has not been tested in the context of coordination in economic games. To explore this, we tested brown capuchins (Sapajus [Cebus] apella) on a manual version of the Stag Hunt (or Assurance) Game, in which individuals sequentially chose between two options, Stag or Hare, and were rewa...
Introduction
To explore human-canid relationships, we tested similarly socialized and raised dogs ( Canis familiaris ) and wolves ( Canis lupus ) and their trainers in a wildlife park. The aims of our study were twofold: first, we aimed to test which factors influenced the relationships that the trainers formed with the dogs or wolves and second, w...
This volume reviews the broad topic of welfare in nonhuman primates under human care. Chapters detail the history of primates in captivity, ethical and legal issues surrounding the use of nonhuman primates as entertainment or in research, the different approaches that welfare are measured, and how housing, enrichment, and other conditions can foste...
Like most species, primates display stable individual differences in their behavior, perceptions, cognition, and emotions. In this chapter, we examine the relationship between these traits and different measures of welfare. To this end, we first review the work on the measurement, validation, and structure of personality in nonhuman primates. We th...
Humans stand out for their capacity to flexibly cooperate, possibly because they understand their partners' role. Researchers have explored if such understanding is unique to humans by assessing whether non-human species wait to manipulate a cooperative apparatus until a delayed partner arrives. If animals do wait, then it is assumed that they reco...
In the past decade, there has been substantial growth in the number of animal personality studies published, however relatively little work has been conducted on different species of bears. Personality structure can provide insight into individual differences in behavioural responses, and in the context of captive management, may be valuable for im...
Comparative studies can help identify selective pressures that contributed to species differences in the number and composition of personality domains. Despite being adapted to an aquatic lifestyle and last sharing a common ancestor with primates some 95 million years ago, bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus) resemble nonhuman primate species i...
This second edition of Mental Health and Well-Being in Animals is fully revised, expanded, and comprehensively updated with the most current knowledge about the full array of mental health issues seen in animals. Written by key opinion leaders, internationally-recognized experts and specialists, it is comprehensive covering basic principles to ment...
Infant temperament is theorized to lay the foundation for adult personality; however, many questions remain regarding personality in infancy, including the number of dimensions, extent to which they are adult-like, and their relation to other outcomes, such as mental and physical health. Here we tested whether adult-like personality dimensions are...
Aspects of personality in nonhuman primates have been linked to health, social relationships, and life history outcomes. In humans as well as nonhuman primates, facial morphology is associated with assertiveness, aggression, and measures of dominance status. In this study we aimed to examine the relationship among facial morphology, age, sex, domin...
Facilities housing captive animals are full of staff who, every day, interact with the animals under their care. The expertise and familiarity of staff can be used to monitor animal welfare by means of questionnaires. It was the goal of our study to examine the association between chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes) welfare, happiness, and personality. To...
Animal welfare questionnaire designed by myself and Dr. Matt Leach , which we have used in different animal welfare projects.
One way to gain insights into personality evolution is by comparing the personality structures of related species. We compared the personality structure of 240 wild white-faced capuchin monkeys to the personality structure of 100 captive brown capuchin monkeys. An ancillary goal was to test the degree to which different personality questionnaires y...
Welfare questionnaires, which allow people who are familiar with individual animals to rate the welfare of the animals, are an underutilised tool. We designed a 12-item welfare questionnaire and tested its reliability and associations with subjective well-being (SWB), locomotor stereotypy, and personality traits. The welfare questionnaire included...
Puppy assessments for companion dogs have shown mixed long-term reliability. Temperament is cited among the reasons for surrendering dogs to shelters. A puppy temperament test that reliably predicts adult behavior is one potential way to lower the number of dogs given to shelters. This study used a longitudinal design to assess temperament in puppi...
Projects
Projects (2)
Editors: Drs Lauren M Robinson and Alexander Weiss
Publisher: Springer
Out in: 2023
This book has 27 chapters from specialists studying nonhuman primate welfare. It will cover a range topics including history of primates in zoos, pros and cons of their use in research, welfare assessment techniques, animal rights, and ways to improve welfare among other topics.
List of publications to come out of work using surveys to look at individual differences, such as personality and welfare, in nonhuman animals.
