William Timberlake - US grants

The objective of this research is to integrate the study of learned performance with the study of the levels of organization underlying behavior. Complex levels of organization are apparent in the recurrent patterns, time course, and amount of behavior expressed within a particular time frame, for example, the circadian rhythm, meal frequency, and amount consumed in the rat's daily feeding pattern. Traditional approaches to the study of learning have focused on the details of stimulus and response associations while ignoring or placing arbitrary constraints on the levels of behavioral organization. For example, experimenters constrain daily intake of food noncontingently, while imposing contingency schedules which constrain the organization of feeding at levels ranging from the consumption of individual pellets through the size of a meal. The present experiments focus on the relation between learned performance and the levels of temporal organization of 14 behaviors related to feeding, drinking, general activity, sexual interest, and shelter-seeking. The initial studies examined the levels of temporal organization of these behaviors in continuous 24 hour session under a 12/12 hour light-dark cycle. Following establishment of the tentative levels of organization, each level of one behavior from each category was subjected to both noncontingent and contingent (instrumental) constaints on its duration and on its inter-event-interval. The remaining studies examined the time course of tendencies to compensate for constraints on behavior, and the intervals over which animals anticipate and integrate information about changes in response access. The results (1) provide a detailed description of the levels of behavioral organization in a number of biologically important systems of behavior; (2) determine the nature of and the relation among levels of behavioral control; (3) determine parallels between learned and unlearned adaptation to constraint at different levels of different behaviors; and, (4) specify the role of timing in anticipation of and compensation for changes in response access.

The objective of this research is to integrate the study of learning and the study of the temporal and organizational control of behavior. We believe that the separation of these lines of research has retarded advances in both areas. Typical learning paradigms attempt to constrain other determinants of behavior control without understanding them, resulting in an oversimplified analysis of learned behavior. Among these constraints are the isolation of a short portion of the animal's circadian activity cycle in the from of an experimental session, the restriction of the reward response to that session, the disruption of its normal pattern of expression within the session, the schedule-based linkage of two previously independent responses, the assumption of perfect integration over time of the costs and benefits of alternative responses, and neglect of the complexity of behavioral change both inside and outside the experimental session. The strategy of the present research is to establish the patterns, periodicities, and co-occurrence of multiple behaviors in a free-baseline condition, and then use fixed time and response constraints and response-linkage to explore further both the nature of behavior control and its relation to learned behavior. The results should put in place a framework for developing a comprehensive theory of behavior and learning, one that can clarify a number of anomalous schedule effects, relate field and laboratory work, and facilitate connections with the study of ecology, development, and physiology.

9014276 Ketterson We propose a Research Training Group in the inter disciplinary study of Animal Behavior. We are a collaborative group of Biologists, Psychologists, and Neuroscientists concerned that the study of behavior is being hampered by overspecialization. By training students in multidisciplinary approaches to common research problems, we can show the benefits of combining evolutionary thinking and the analysis of mechanism in the study of behavior. The primary component of our training will be the opportunity to address research problems from several perspectives and under the direction of more than one mentor. Our theme, "Choice, Transitions, and Constraints," reflects the importance we attach to (1) proximate assessment of the immediate environment, (2) learning and development, and (3) evolution, in understanding behavior. We request support for eight graduate students and two postdoctoral students. These trainees will rotate through at least two laboratories. Our research programs will include (1) the Study of Communication, (2) Sexual Behavior and Mate Choice, (3) Orientation and Migration, (4) Learning Mechanisms, Ecology, and Behavioral Plasticity, and (5) Parental Behavior and Ontogenetic Transitions. We will establish a Center for Animal Behavior at Indiana University that will provide a setting to promote our objective: the focussed, interdisciplinarv investigation of animal behavior. ***

The Fifth International Fungal Spore Conference, sponsored by the University of Georgia Center for Plant Cellular and Molecular Biology, will be held at the Unicoi Conference Center, Helen, Georgia on August 17-21, 1991. Approximately 150 scientists from around the world are expected to attend. The meeting consists of six plenary sessions covering all aspects of fungal spore formation, dispersal, and germination and informal workshops and discussions. The invited speakers are known for the high quality and significance of their research dealing with fungal sporulation. Funds are requested to help defray the travel costs of invited speakers.

This research stems from an ecological approach to the study of basic learning mechanisms, an approach based on the assumption that learning evolved and can be profitably studied within a functioning system of behavior. Specifically, the present experiments are designed to reveal the nature and number of the mechanisms involved in spatial learning. Do spatial learning and search vary with the type of cue used and the effects of reward? To what extent are there differences between the sensory-motor mechanisms controlling efficient search when rewards are used versus no rewards or different types of reward? The answers will determine the importance of considering the specific system context in analyzing spatial learning. The more general importance of this work involves establishing examples of the extent to which learning can be profitably studied within functioning systems of behavior (such as foraging for food, or seeking safety) rather than based only on very general mechanisms. If systems of behavior are important, it suggests that learning can be more effectively produced and controlled by understanding the function it serves rather than exhaustively analyzing the circumstances that produce it. In humans, the general importance of learning in determining behavior is large and unquestioned. What has not been so specifically dealt with is the extent to which learning follows somewhat different rules and determinants related to specific functions. Even in humans, learning about spatial locations and learning appropriate social behaviors may depend on different stimuli, motivational states, and mechanisms. The optimum conditions for promoting one sort of learning may well be different from the conditions promoting the other.

Research will focus on how genetic variation is distributed in natural populations of a filamentous mold, Aspergillus nidulans, and how it propagates itself in nature. Molds like A. nidulans can produce clonal propagules called spores that are genetically exactly identical to their single parent. Or, they can produce spores that are a genetic mixture of the two parents. This research distinguish will between these two events by surveying genetic variation in natural populations. Genetic markers have been identified that are variable between individuals in nature. If only distinct combinations of markers are observed in any given individual, then reproduction is clonal. However, if some individuals have markers that are combinations of those seen in others, then sexual reproduction occurs. The Aspergilli are an important group of organisms. Many Aspergilli and their relatives are used to produce a variety of useful substances, such as antibiotics. Aspergillus flavus commonly grows on stored grain products, producing a powerful carcinogen called aflatoxin, a threat to livestock and humans. Aspergillus fumigatus and Aspergillus parasiticus can be human pathogens, commonly lethally infecting immune- compromised individuals. While Aspergillus nidulans isn't a pathogen, it is a well-developed research organism, with tools for genetic analysis available that are not developed in other species. Information about its population structure and how it propagates in nature should provide useful clues about the life histories of other molds.

IBN 9408366 Timberlake The present research attempts to use the concept of "behavior systems" to combine the ethological study of "instinctive" behavior with laboratory research demonstrating the importance of learning in determining purposive behavior. A "behavior system" refers to stimulus filtering, preorganized response components, and motivational states organized around a specific function, such as foraging for food. Dr. Timberlake assumes that learning mechanisms evolved to alter behavior within the context of such a functional system. He also assumes that the examples of learning produced by familiar laboratory procedures, such as Pavlovian and operant conditioning, can be profitably studied within a functional system. His experiments use prior knowledge of the feeding-foraging systems of rats and pigeons to predict the form of conditioned responding and the ease of learning under laboratory procedures. At the same time, these experiments use the analytic power of the laboratory manipulations to further develop and refine our knowledge of the feeding-foraging system. The experiments focus on characteristics of the sequence of motivational states related to foraging: the control of the general search state, as measured by locomotor search of maze environments; the control of the focal search state, especially as it relates to the conditioning of "superstitious" behavior; and the relation of learned chains of behavior to transitions between general and focal search states. The results should clarify the contribution of learning to behavior in both the laboratory and natural environments.

9413220 Ketterson This award renews support of a joint effort of 14 faculty that provides education and research training for undergraduate, graduate and postdoctoral students. This Research Training Group (RTG) is a central focus of the recently-established Center for the Integrative Study of Animal Behavior at Indiana University. The faculty, who come from the Departments of Biology, Psychology, Law, and Medical Sciences, bring six subdisciplinary perspectives to the RTG: sensory physiology, behavioral ecology, evolutionary biology, developmental psychobiology, animal learning, and behavioral neuroscience. Graduate students who participate in the RTG are drawn from three graduate programs: biology, psychology and an interdisciplinary program in neuroscience. The RTG provides students with academic year and summer assistantships, travel support or research support. The courses, seminars and other educational activities of the RTG result from the integration across 5 areas of research: communication, sex and reproductive behavior, learning and motivation, ontogeny and evolution, and spatial organization of behavior. As well as representing natural combinations of faculty research interests, these areas provide foci for the development of student research projects. Several of the courses required of RTG trainees have been newly developed by RTG faculty; students must also participate in a year-long seminar on scientific integrity developed jointly by the RTG and the Poynter Center for Study of Ethics and American Institutions. In addition to the core faculty, there are 10 adjunct faculty in five other departments whose have related research interests and whose students benefit from the courses and seminars and other educational activities of the RTG. ***

This award will support the participation of 10 undergraduate students each year in the Research Experiences for Undergraduates program offered by the Center for the Integrative Study of Animal Behavior (CISAB) at Indiana University, Bloomington. The program is ten weeks in length and focuses on recruiting undergraduate students from groups currently underrepresented in the sciences. This program is a new REU site that will build on the formal undergraduate internship program offered by CISAB for the past two years and on CISAB's collective experience with undergraduate training. Students will conduct research projects and present their findings at a concluding symposium. They will also attend (1) a team-taught course introducing research issues and techniques in the areas represented by CISAB faculty, (2) classes on mentoring and career issues taught via the Committee on Institutional Cooperation's campus-wide Summer Research Opportunities Program, and (3) seminars on ethics and conduct in science taught in conjunction with the Poynter Center for the Study of Ethics & American Institutions. The program will give students intensive research experience and will introduce them to science as a profession, to interdisciplinary modes of thinking, and to specific research techniques used in the study of animal behavior. This award will foster the continued education and training of individuals who will be part of the next generation of basic researchers in the diverse aspects of animal behavior.

The Program and Center for the Integrative Study of Animal Behavior (CISAB) was established at Indiana University in 1990 with the aid of a National Science Foundation Research Training Group (RTG) Grant. Over the past 8 years we have gathered a group of 81 faculty, postdoctoral, and graduate researchers who work collaboratively to combine approaches from individual disciplines in order to better understand animal behavior. Renewal of our REU Site Award in Animal Behavior would allow us to continue bringing 10 undergraduates each summer to Indiana University to spend 10 weeks conducting research under the direction of CISAB scientists. These interns are recruited primarily from groups' under-represented in science and from schools that cannot offer intensive research training. Interns have the opportunity to complete their own research projects, analyze and prepare their findings, and present these findings at a concluding symposium. In addition, interns meet regularly for: (1) a series of introductory faculty research presentations that introduces them to the research issues and diverse approaches used in the study of animal behavior, (2) a workshop on ethics and conduct in science; and (3) classes on mentoring and career issues offered in conjunction with the campus-wide Summer Research Opportunities Program. The central goal of this program, like all REU programs, is to give students an intensive research experience and an introduction to the conduct of science as a profession. Particular to this proposal is a second important goal, that of introducing students to interdisciplinary modes of thinking and research that will allow them to apply a variety of perspectives and techniques to the study of animal behavior.

Animal Behavior Program
Nontechnical Abstract


Proposal #: 9817175
PI: Timberlake, William
Title: Search Modes and Repertoires in Traditional Pavlovian Paradigms

The goal of this research is to develop a systems approach to motivated behavior that combines an ethological emphasis on naturally occurring behavior with a psychologist's precise analysis of how learning changes the form and probability of responses. The behavior systems approach attempts to resolve the split between ethologists and psychologists by assuming that the same substrate of sequential search states and perceptual-motor organization underlies the behavior of animals whether they are free-ranging or constrained. This research specifically tests how a sequence of search modes is revealed by and contributes to traditional laboratory phenomena in Pavlovian Conditioning, including the control of excitatory states by temporal duration and simple conditioned-stimuli, intertrial clocks, serial conditioned stimuli, higher-order conditioning, and backward conditioning.
The results of this research should provide a specific but generalizable framework for integrating the field observations of natural scientists with the extensive laboratory research on learning in animals. By embedding foraging behavior in the sensory, motor, and motivational organization of a behavior system, the present approach provides a specific model that can predict behavior in the laboratory as well as in field and applied settings. A behavior systems framework should provide a basis for generating similar models for other species, and for defining more clearly the effects of neurophysiological and drug-related manipulations.

The Research Experiences for Undergraduates in Animal Behavior Site Grant enables promising undergraduate students to participate in laboratory or field research projects in animal behavior. Each year, the program awards internships to 10 students who experience firsthand the nature of the research process, the conduct of science in general, and the integrative study of animal behavior. To accomplish these goals, REU pays travel expenses, room & board, and a stipend so that interns can spend 10 weeks in the summer on the Bloomington campus or at a field site conducting research with scientists from Indiana University's Center for the Integrative Study of Animal Behavior. Participation in the research project provides the main focus of the program, but interns also participate in research ethics workshops, attend lectures that introduce them to the integrative approach to studying animal behavior, and write up and orally present their research findings at a final REU Research Symposium. Interns also participate in social activities, field trips and activities that help them prepare for graduate school or other postgraduate training. An important objective of the REU in Animal Behavior program is to provide to students from groups traditionally underrepresented in science and from institutions with limited research opportunities access to cutting-edge research and membership in a research university community. It is expected that in the long term this program will help such students consider careers in animal behavior or related disciplines and increase their representation in science in general.

ABSTRACT

Indiana University's REU program will provide students with intensive research experience in an area of animal behavior, combined with an introduction to science as a profession. The goal is to increase students' likelihood of entry into graduate training and jobs in science. Students are matched with individual labs and have the opportunity to perform and complete their own research projects--including analyzing data, preparing findings in a poster format, and presenting at a concluding symposium. The program emphasizes an interdisciplinary environment beginning with introductory seminar meetings with a range of Animal Behavior faculty, and includes exposure to techniques of conducting genetic and neuroendocrine assays, collecting data in zoos, and making science accessible to the public. Students receive training in reasoning applied to the conduct of science with an emphasis on basic and applied animal behavior research, assistance in how to present research, strategies in taking GRE tests, and career options in science and education. Because the core emphasis is on the research experience, the scheduling of training events is designed to allow students to begin work in their home laboratories during the first week of the program. Students from institutions with limited research opportunities for research and those from groups under-represented in science are especially encouraged to apply. More information is available at http://www.indiana.edu/~animal/REU or by contacting Linda Summers, (812) 855-9663, cisab@indiana.edu.