Research Programs

Organization for Human-Animal Interaction Research - OHAIRE

OHAIRE is a research group led by Dr. Maggie O'Haire at Purdue University. It includes national and international collaborators, students, and community members working together to conduct rigorous, scientific research on the unique and pervasive effects of interacting with animals. We study many areas of Human-Animal Interaction, including companion animals, service animals, and animal-assisted intervention. Please explore the website to learn more about our work, our people, and our sponsors. Please see the OHAIRE website for more information.

HABRI Central

HABRI Central is an online platform for open research and collaboration into the relationships between humans and animals, specifically companion animals. HABRI Central uses a combination of library resources to facilitate the discovery, access, production, and preservation of human-animal interaction research. A bibliography of references to human-animal interaction literature helps you to discover existing research while a full-text repositoryallows you to freely access a wide-array of materials and tools. Along with these library resources, community-driven discussion areas, blogs, and user groups all allow you to connect and share knowledge with experts, professionals, and others involved in the study of human-animal interaction. By hosting all of these features in an easily accessible and centralized way, HABRI Central helps unite those involved in the study of human-animal interaction across disciplines while simultaneously lowering access barriers that might prevent the free flow of information among them.

OHAIRE Coding Tool

The Observation of Human-Animal Interaction for Research (OHAIRE) is a timed interval coding system intended to capture the unique interactions between humans and animals. It was originally developed and piloted with children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) interacting with typical peers in a small group school setting with guinea pigs compared to toys.

Undergraduate Research Opportunities

• Earn course credit or volunteer with the O'Haire or Gaskill Lab
• Summer Research Opportunity Program
• Multicultural - Historically Black Institution Visitation

Animal Behavior Clinic Canine Research

The Purdue Animal Behavior Clinic does Canine Behavior Research. Their goal is to understand the behavioral health in dogs by studying normal and pathological canine behaviors. Visit their canine behavior research website for more information.

Previous Research

• It's for the Birds
• Animals Help the Alzheimer's Disease Patient
• Survey of Pet Animals in the Classroom

Pets and Robot Pets with Children and Older Adults

Cooperative studies with the University of Washington, funded by the National Science Foundation.

Normal interaction with animals has been shown to increase a child's physiological health, social competence, and learning opportunities. Therefore, it is not surprising that companion animals are more common in families with young children. In addition, there has been a movement to create technological substitutes for pets, such as the Tamagotchi, Furby, Tama, and AIBO. As this technology becomes more pervasive and sophisticated, its impact on children's lives will increase. How automated imitations of animals, i.e., robotic pets, impact a child's cognitive, social, and moral development is now being studied.

The studies with children and robotic pets are designed to better understand child development, and there is no expectation that robots will replace the family pet. That will probably never happen.