Madeline H. Pelgrim
Professor of Practice in Psychology
Biography
Madeline H. Pelgrim completed her undergraduate studies at the University of Toronto, graduating with High Distinction in an Honors Bachelor of Science in Psychology & Biology. She completed her Ph.D. at Brown University, where her research explored the minds of domestic dogs, with a focus on social cognition, visual attention, and communication between dogs and humans.
Pelgrim is a dedicated educator and mentor. She has taught courses at multiple institutions in New England, teaching on Cognitive Psychology, Learning & Cognition, and Psychology Across Species: Animal Cognition & Behavior. She has mentored numerous undergraduate researchers in the Brown Dog Lab and Computational Cognitive Development Lab and participated in mentorship programs supporting students from underrepresented backgrounds.
Her research has examined topics ranging from how dogs interpret human pointing gestures to how they perceive and attend to their real-world visual environments. She developed a novel head-mounted mobile eye-tracking method for studying dogs. Her research has been published in journals including Cognitive Science, Animal Cognition, and Behavior Research Methods, and presented at conferences both in the United States and internationally. She is also an active contributor to the ManyDogs Project, a large-scale collaborative effort in canine cognition research, where she previously served as Assistant Director for Methods Development & Monitoring.
Pelgrim's work has been recognized with awards such as the NSERC Post-Graduate Scholarship and an NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Honorable Mention, and has been featured in outlets including Brown University Alumni Magazine and University of Toronto News.
Education
- Ph.D., Cognitive Science, Brown University
- M.S., Cognitive Science, Brown University
- HB.Sc., Psychology & Biology, University of Toronto
Titles
Professor of Practice in Psychology
Departments
Psychology