Alexandra Horowitz

Great class! If you are interested in psychology and have not taken AP Psych then this class is for you! She puts all the powerpoints online before the class. I would highly recommend printing these out before class and taking notes on them as nearly all her exam questions come from her lectures. Reading the textbook reinforces what you learn in lecture and a few questions (maybe 2-3 come directly from the book). So basically go to her lectures! So many people decided not to come to her class and were at a real loss wasting time taking meticulous notes when she goes over nearly everything she wants you to know. Also, if you participate often enough she will give you extra credit. So try and participate once a week or so. I found the lectures quite engaging, but I had an interest in Psychology before the class. I also enjoyed how she asks the class questions and will answer your questions in the middle of a lecture, even with such a large class. The topics covered are broad, as with most intro classes, but this way you can see which parts of psychology interest you most and can decide from there which upper-level classes to take. The experiments are fun too! If you try, you should get a pretty good grade on them. Exams aren't tricky as long as you've studied and shown up to lectures and the TA review before the final.

Alexandra Horowitz is not only brilliant as a teacher but also skilled in explaining every complex, enigmatic concept arisen in discussions. Her interest and avidity for the subject is conveyed in her lectures and reading list, never once inspiring a state of boredom in her class. I would highly recommend taking this course. It's refreshing to enter a psyche class in which a textbook isn't heavily relied on, and the fact that the sole material for this class is journal articles not only serves to give students a full understanding of how the field works, but excellent practice for further psychology class reading and writings. As I mentioned before almost every reading was highly absorbing and so engrossing that it went by faster than you would expect. Discussions were always great because this class, due to its specificity, is comprised of students interested in the subject of animal behavioral science, so there never was a time where Professor Horowitz had to continue rambling to fill the time. Class presentations were also fascinating, something that isn't true for a lot of courses. However, the greatest part about this course is that the field of canine cognition is one that is constantly expanding. Every class there was a new current article to talk about or a video to watch. Some final perks: this course only meets once a week which ensures that there really isn't class…

Professor Horowitz is very sweet and very approachable. Her lectures were often semi-tedious and followed the textbook pretty closely, but she had lots of interesting examples and videos. A very low-stress course. She's always willing to help if you don't understand something or just want to talk about animals. The concepts were all very straight-forward and easy to understand.

Prof. Horowitz is very clear about her expectations for the course, and makes a worthwhile point about integrating the psychology of learning into her lectures, to encourage the most efficient manner of study as possible. As such, her lectures overlap significantly with the textbook readings and the power points that she puts on Courseworks, which, as she explains, is the most efficient manner of learning, but make it difficult for the less-than-motivated to continue coming to class. She's one of the best in her field, though, so it's worth going. She is an entertaining lecturer, though, and extremely receptive to student questions.

Why this woman is not a gold star yet, I don't know, but this was one of my favorite classes of my Columbia career so far. Perhaps it was related to finally having an outlet for my self-proclaimed mild obsession with dogs, but even for the less obsessed of us out there, it was undoubtedly a valuable experience. Despite the very real danger inherent in such a small seminar filled mostly with dog-people, this was in no way a pop-psychology, "Let's tell cute animal stories" type of class, but rather a fascinating, academic investigation of canine behavior, domestication and cognition against a background of classic experimental psychology. We read not only dog studies, but related human, primate, and wolf studies along some evolutionary biology material during the portion of the class that looked at canine domestication and heritage. Except for one or two papers that I found too philosophical and somewhat irrelevant, her choice of literature was excellent. Her lectures are interesting and paced quite well. I've had some seminar classes in the past that were too heavily lecture and often dry or too heavily discussion and thus unguided and not as useful, but Professor Horowitz strikes the elusive right balance. She also (at least seems to) actually seriously and thoughtfully consider students' comments and opinions without resorting to the somewhat coddling and mindless approval th…

Prof Horowitz is great. She has this infectious smile that keeps me awake during class (except this one specific lecture about dancing bees...embarassing because the class is relatively small). In any case, the reading is interesting and she shows videos during class! The tests are definitely doable, although there are specific examples of certain animals that she tells you to know beforehand. I would suggest going to lecture as it condenses the wordy textbook's explanation of animal mating habits and the like in a mere 1 hour and 15 minutes. Our final project was an animal study, which led me to sit in a penguin house for about 10 hours of my life. Rewarding nonetheless, as she bought donuts to our class presentations. She is wonderfully helpful, captivating, and i highly recommend this class.

Honestly, I don't know what everyone is complaining about. Professor Horowitz is extremely knowledgeable and, more importantly, a great professor. Her intro to psych class is by far the best of all those offered currently. Not only is she engaging, but she literally goes over EVERYTHING necessary to do well. The work load is extremely manageable, and it is clear from her VERY HELPFUL power points what will and what will not be on the final exam. Anyone complaining is clearly just wining. Suck it up and stay awake, her class is great.

Every dog lover should take this class. While Dr. Horowitz normally teaches intro psych and animal behavior, canine behavior is her true area of expertise and her research interest. She runs a lab that studies canine play behavior and has written a best-seller on the mind of a dog. The participation-heavy seminar involves reading 3 or 4 journal articles a week and then discussing them in class. The topics include, among other things, theories of domestication and canine evolution, comparative cognition between primates and canines, canine sensory capabilities, and human-animal interaction. She's very knowledgeable, funny, and personable. Everyone gets plenty of chances to speak and she's always receptive and interested in everyone's ideas.

Dr. Horowitz is the most engaging and helpful professor I have encountered at Barnard or Columbia so far. Although the final research project seemed daunting at first, Dr. Horowitz is quick to help students arrange visits to any zoo or aquarium in NYC and answer questions pertaining to the project (or any other animal-behavior related subject) before and after class. She is also very accessible via email and responds to student e-mails quickly. Her own work on domestic dog playing behavior is fascinating, and she sometimes uses videos of her subjects (or David Attenborough videos) to illustrate concepts, which made it very easy to understand the reading and the exams. Her lectures are interesting and an integral part of the course; students who skip class will be surprised by some of the examples given on exams, so go to class and pay attention! If you do miss a class, however, you can usually access the lecture from home using iTunes. Overall, this was an enjoyable course that I would recommend highly to anyone with an interest in animal behavior.

Horrible class. I'm an upcoming psych major so I love psych and I took psych courses in the summer, but this was the worse. Her class is boring because she doesn't make the lessons interesting. I fell asleep a million times. But, she is a very helpful professor and will accommodate your schedule if you need to meet with her. She is also obviously very smart and knows how to answer questions if you have any. She's great at explaining. Nice woman, but boring professor.