Preston Foerder

University of Detroit Mercy | UDM · Department of Psychology

Animal-assisted interventions have been used to improve human psychological and physiological wellbeing. Research studies on the effects of therapy dogs have found that the companionship of a dog significantly decreases stress levels in many different situations, including health care facilities. We investigated the effects of therapy dogs on adult...

The somatosensory homunculus shows a deformed human figure that illustrates the proportion of the brain devoted to the sense of touch in each part of the body. Originally based on Penfield’s brain mapping, it has been presented as a drawing of a human figure along the somatosensory cortex, an independent human figure, and a sculpted figure. Until r...

Exhibit design and environmental enrichment can influence space use by captive animals. On 2 May 2014, the Tennessee Aquarium opened a new, expanded North American river otter (Lontra canadensis) exhibit, "River Otter Falls". The exhibit housed six otters (5 male and 1 female). A group of three otters was rotated in the exhibit every 2-2.5 hours. U...

Social species can depend on each other for survival, help in the rearing of young, predator defense, and foraging. Personality dynamics between individuals may influence cooperative behaviors. Bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus) live in social communities and cooperate with other conspecifics to achieve goals both in the wild and in human car...

Social species can depend on each other for survival, helping in rearing of young, predator defense, and foraging. Personality dynamics between individuals may influence cooperative behaviors. Bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus) live in social communities and cooperate with other conspecifics to achieve goals both in the wild and in human care...

The 2012 President's Council on Science and Technology report emphasized teaching STEM fields in undergraduate colleges, particularly in the first 2 years to recruit and retain students in STEM fields. That report recommended implementing experiential learning techniques, encouraging community involvement and nonacademic partnerships to diversify c...

Animals in aggregations such as herds, schools, flocks, or colonies tend to synchronize their be-haviour with each other for food acquisition and predator detection. Different species of captive penguins, when housed communally, intermingle more than in their natural habitat. Wild pen-guins typically divide themselves into separate colonies by spec...

Overview of Experiments. (DOC)

List of commands and trained behaviors for each elephant. (DOC)

This video shows the elephant retrieving the cube from a non-visible placement during the second session in which the cube was placed in this position. The video starts from elephant's entrance at the beginning of the session (QuickTime; 4.9 MB). (MOV)

This video shows the elephant employing a tire as a tool to obtain food. (QuickTime; 2.0 MB). (MOV)

Kandula's Interest in Food. Number of times the elephant either sniffed at or reached for food without acquisition in each session. The elephant acquired the food in sessions 7, 8, and 9. (TIF)

Elephant Yard with Positions and Distances of Cube Placement. The yard is 25.91 m wide×24.38 m deep. The arrow marked with a star indicates the food placement. Sessions are indicated by the numbers in arrows. The elephant entered from elephant house door at center bottom of photo. (JPG)

This video shows the elephant's first use of the cube as a tool to acquire food. (QuickTime; 2.0 MB). (MOV)

This video shows the elephant stacking two blocks in an attempt to acquire food. (QuickTime; 4.6 MB). (MOV)

The "aha" moment or the sudden arrival of the solution to a problem is a common human experience. Spontaneous problem solving without evident trial and error behavior in humans and other animals has been referred to as insight. Surprisingly, elephants, thought to be highly intelligent, have failed to exhibit insightful problem solving in previous c...