Jessica (Jesi) M. Godin

Advisor: Dr. Jerome Frieman

Description of Research

My current research has been proposed for my Doctoral Thesis. It investigates temporal discounting in Dwarf hamsters and compares their behavior to those of rats. These species were chosen because both are social rodents, temporal discounting has been explored in detail in rats (making them an ideal comparison specie), and both differ in how they value food. Dwarf hamsters are prodigious hoarders, storing large amounts of food for future consumption. Rats on the other hand don’t tend to store food for further consumption (though there is some debate that they do store food for other purposes). I hypothesize that since hamsters are more concerned with future availability of food (compared to present availability) they will be more tolerable of waiting for larger food rewards. Research to date supports this hypothesis.

The doctoral thesis followed a pilot experiment exploring Dwarf hamster behavior when placed in a Progressive Ratio operant task. There is a paucity of operant research in Dwarf hamster, and this pilot was designed to ensure that they could perform an operant task.

My MS Thesis project investigated Kin Recognition in Dwarf hamsters. Results of this research indicated that, much like Golden hamsters (Mesocricetus auratus), Dwarf hamsters are capable of recognizing the difference between two male odors if the odor donors are unrelated to each other (r > .0625), but not if those odor donors are siblings (r = .5). This research suggests that inbreeding avoidance is a likely reason for kin recognition in this species. These results also suggest that self-referent phenotype matching is not the mechanism of kin recognition for Dwarf hamsters. Publication of this thesis is currently being sought.

After graduation I hope to research positive healing in domestic animals and the effects of behavior and environment on healing in animals.

Representative Publications

None To Date

Representative Presentations

None To Date

Teaching Experience

Instructor (Brown-Mackie College, Salina):

● Small Animal Medicine I

● Biochemistry

G.T.A. Experience (KSU)- Taught at least one class (period) in each of the following:

● Principles of College Teaching (6 semesters)

● Perception

● Developmental Psychology

● Experimental Methods (2 semesters)

● Problem Solving and Decision Making

● Cognitive Psychology

Education

● M.S., Psychology: Animal Learning and Behavior, Kansas State University

● B.A., Psychology, University of Southern Maine

● A.A.S., Veterinary Technology, Vermont Technical College