On comparative cognition and theory of mind
Can dogs infer the content of others' minds? I am supervising undergraduate thesis student Fiorella Durand on this question at Johns Hopkins, advising on experimental design, data collection, and analysis. This project was awarded a Provost's Undergraduate Research Award fellowship (Summer 2026).
Theory of mind capacities involve not only predicting others' behavior, but also explaining it. I am currently developing a project to test whether non-human primates seek explanations for unexpected events, and if this behavior is extinguished when they are presented with a reasonable explanation.
How has domestication shaped animals' responses to communicative cues? This project compares dogs (Canis familiaris) and dingoes (Canis dingo) on a novel marker task, probing the evolutionary pressures behind social learning abilities in canids.
Cahill, A. · Invited talk at Boston College Canine Cognition Center · March 2026
Cahill, A., Byrne, M., Palermo, S.G., Johnston, A.M. · Poster presented at Conference on Comparative Cognition · April 2026
Cahill, A., Byrne, M., Palermo, S.G., Johnston, A.M. · Poster presented at BC Psychology & Neuroscience Undergraduate Research Conference · May 2025
Byrne, M., Cahill, A., Palermo, S.G., Johnston, A.M. · Poster presented at Canine Science Conference · June 2024