William “Deak” S. Helton

Helton Main Profile Selected Publications

DEAKS Lab Canine Factors and Ergonomics "Working Dogs" Environmental Psychology Human Factors and Ergonomics

Environmental Psychology

“The Study of People and the Environment”

We study how people conceptualize the environment, in particular their attitudes towards animals and their environments. Our laboratory focuses on comparative cognition, in particular the abilities of working dogs. Research on non-human animal cognition often leads to debates about the possibility of animal consciousness. People vary widely in their beliefs about animals having minds. We are interested in understanding how this variation in belief about animal mentality relates to other attitudes and beliefs.

Representative Publications

1. Helton, W.S., & Helton, N.D. (2005). Changing animal and environmental attitudes with evidence of animal minds. Applied Environmental Education and Communication, 4, 317-323.
2. Helton, W.S. & Duerrschnabel, N.B. (2003) Animal minds: Changing environmental attitudes with psychology. Proceedings of the North American Association of Environmental Education, 32, 40-46.