Hood Today

Many exciting things are happening these days in the basement of Rosenstock Hall, the home of the Hood College Psychology department. The newest addition to the Psychology faculty is Dr. Shannon Kundey, now in her second year of teaching and researching here.

Some Psychology students know Dr. Kundey as their professor for Psych 101 or the higher level courses she teaches, such as Psychology of Learning, Memory, and Cognition and Psychopharmacology. She also does many interesting studies at Hood involving dogs and humans.

Kundey has a strong background in the field of psychology. She obtained her Bachelor's degree from Wesleyan College, a small women's college in Macon, Georgia. A native of Columbus, Georgia, she obtained her doctorate degree from Kent State University in Kent, Ohio. Her degree is in experimental psychology with a biopsychology concentration, and her dissertation was a study on pattern-learning in rats, which is very similar to the study she is currently doing at Hood with humans.

Kundey is currently working on two types of studies at Hood, one of which examines attention, memory, and learning in humans. Participants in the study are asked to complete two computer tasks and one pencil and paper questionnaire. The computer tasks are very easy, testing pattern-learning and inhibition of behavior. The questionnaire asks questions about attention concerns, such as ability to concentrate and other symptoms related to ADHD, in the participant's everyday life.

Kundey is working to find out if performance in pattern-learning is related to whether or not participants have attention concerns, and if that variable can distinguish participants with attention concerns in a different way than tasks that researchers already know make distinctions. This study is similar to one that Kundey did last year at Hood.

Anyone at Hood who is over 18 years old can participate in this study. The tasks take 30-45 minutes to complete, and the only risk is a possibility of low levels of stress from filling out the questionnaire.

Students in some Psychology classes may receive extra credit, or credit for Outside Activities in Psychology 101, for participating. There are posters around campus with Kundey's contact information for students who are interested.

Kundey says around 200 students have participated in the study. Many students participate for extra credit, but Kundey tells me, "A lot of people come out of the goodness of their heart, because they know someone with attention problems, so they really care about the research."

Attention concerns are an important topic in Psychology today because of the rise of attention problems in both children and adults.

"Attention concerns are really interesting," Dr. Kundey says. "A lot of people are able to handle them in their lives without any intervention, but others need therapy or medication."

Students may have seen the Hood College dog lab in the Rosenstock basement, but never knew what sorts of experiments were conducted there. There are actually a variety of experiments performed in the room, with dogs being brought in every few days to participate. The experiments are constructed to find out how dogs think about the physical world and the social world, and how the way they think is similar or different from humans.

Kundey's pug, Rylah (whose name comes from the first letters of the song "Rock You Like a Hurricane" by the Scorpions) is the "pilot dog" for all of the experiments. The dog, nicknamed Ry, is a bundle of energy who leaps around the room, barking excitedly.

The first experiment he participates in is a test of his inhibition. A treat is placed on a plate in front of him, and he is instructed, "Wait!"

Kundey describes the experiment this way: "It's like if someone put a cookie in front of you and told you you could eat it now, or you could have more if you wait." Ry holds back for 17.8 seconds, a new personal record.

Another experiment tests dogs' understanding of solidity. A box is set up, with two holes in the front. Panels of varying solidity are placed in the middle of the box - some have holes, some are half solid and half open, and others have bars in the middle. Ry is shown each panel before it is placed in the middle of the box, with the research assistant tapping it with her hand to show him the solid and the open parts.

Then a treat is rolled down a tube that leads into one side of the box. Ry then chooses a side to look for the treat, based on whether he understood that the treat could roll through the panel and end up on the far side, or be stopped by it and land on the nearer side. Sometimes Ry seems to understand the solidity, such as when a panel is used that is completely solid. Other times he is confused and searches for a treat on the wrong side.

According to Kundey, the solidity study is the one that receives the most support. The one she is doing currently is based on an earlier study, in which only solid panels or no panels at all were used. The paper for the early study has received a "revise and resubmit" from the journal Animal Cognition.

Ry participates in another experiment that tests his will, using pointing cues. Two tall glass jars are placed in front of him, and the experimenter drops a treat into one. She then points to one of the jars, and Ry goes to that jar, even though he knows it is not the one that contains the treat.

After a few times, Ry begins ignoring the cues and simply goes to the jar containing a treat. The experimenters tell me dogs often become irritated with this experiment, and will bark or simply lie down and refuse to participate.

Working with animals can indeed be difficult sometimes. One dog, a scruffy mutt named Jy, refuses to participate in the experiments. He is not interested in the food he is offered, and will not follow a remote control car across the floor.

Jy obviously thinks it's playtime, following the experimenter around and jumping excitedly! Jy is taken outside to try one last experiment, to test how much eye contact he will make while being petted. The experimenter petting him wears a hat with a camera attached to the bill, so that the dog's eye contact can later be measured and coded.

Difficulties can also arise when working with rescued dogs. The experiment looks at differences between rescued dogs, dogs from breeders, and dogs from the pound.

"A lot of the time you really don't know about the dog's background, so sometimes the dogs are hard to work with," says Kundey. "A lot of the rescue dogs don't like to be petted from above, because they're afraid they will be hit. Other dogs don't like men."

However, the experimenters are very gentle and patient with all of the dogs. The dogs are treated very well in the Hood College Dog Lab. "We only use positive reinforcement and reward with the animals. They get lots of treats and affection. The dogs all seem very happy," Kundey explains.

The experiments have been a great success for Kundey, who says the Frederick community is a great place for the work she does.

"The dog owners in the community are very willing to come in. Also, students will get their parents to bring their dogs in, or bring their own if they live in the area, which is great. We have worked with all kinds of dogs, from little teacup chihuahuas all the way up to Great Danes!"

Many people bring their dogs in just once, but since the experiments alternate often, dogs can come in about once every month to participate.

"A lot of the owners are just looking for something new to do with their dogs, and they are curious about what their dogs think, and how it's different from how we see the world," she says.

The experiments are also great for the students who participate as research assistants. Most of the students are looking for research experience to put on applications to graduate school, as well as the rewards of working with the dogs.

"I wanted research experience for grad school, and I also love dogs, so it seemed like a good way to get to play with dogs," says Rebecca Allen, a senior at Hood. "I have four dogs at home in Massachusetts, but I don't get to see them much, so these are kind of my dogs away from home."

Another positive reward of participating in this research is the credit the students receive for the work.

"When we get papers published, the students involved get their names on them too, which looks really good when they're trying to get into grad school," Kundey says. "I think my research interests are kind of different from those of the other faculty here, so it's been good that these studies have expanded what's available here at Hood."

Kundey is always recruiting new subjects for her dog study and new participants for her human study, so anyone who is interested should find one of her posters and contact her about participating.

Article Tools