Dognition | Laurie Santos

Dr. Laurie Santos

Director of the Yale Comparative Cognition Laboratory, Yale University
Associate Professor of Psychology, Yale University

Dr. Laurie Santos is director of the Comparative Cognition Laboratory at Yale University. Having received her Ph.D. in psychology from Harvard in 2003, she is now associate professor of psychology at Yale University. She is recognized as a leader in the field of animal cognition and has pioneered studies of economic decision making in primates. Her research has included creating a primate "market economy" with currency and flexible commodity prices for the Yale capuchin monkey population to study the roots of irrational behaviors observed in humans. She is now using cognitive games she developed to study primates to help us better understand dog cognition. She has received numerous awards, including the Stanton Prize, and was named a Popular Science magazine "Brilliant 10" Young Scientist. She and her research have been featured at TEDGlobal, Big Think and a NOVA special documentary film on American public television.

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