U.S.-Turkey Cooperative Research: Experimental Psychology

描述：该项目支持由美国科学家、德克萨斯大学奥斯汀分校心理系的Michael Domjan博士和土耳其伊斯坦布尔Bogazici大学心理学系的Falih Koksal博士的合作项目。这项研究旨在提高对动物学习过程的总体理解，特别是对性行为的制约。这项实验工作将在鹌鹑身上进行，并将在奥斯汀和伊斯坦布尔进行。在一项初步研究中，有研究表明，观察一只示范雄性鹌鹑接受巴甫洛夫条件反射程序有助于观察受试者随后获得性条件行为。计划进行实验，以确定是什么因素造成了这种影响。这些研究将：1.评估观察条件刺激对象与雌性鹌鹑配对对随后的性条件行为习得的影响；2.比较观察示威者针对雌性鹌鹑或条件刺激对象的行为的效果；3.检查观察学习而不是刺激增强是否导致观察者获得更快的习得。其他实验将确定观察性程序是否可以在没有表现出条件交配行为的受试者中诱导条件交配行为。此外，还将进行研究，以确定通过观察性学习获得的条件性反应是否与通过直接巴甫洛夫条件反射形成的反应一样抵抗灭绝。范围：该项目允许两名经验丰富的科学家合作，他们的能力互补，从事重要的科学工作。这位土耳其科学家在苏格兰接受过研究生培训，在实验临床心理学方面有经验，他的观点与美国实验心理学项目中常见的观点略有不同。他在引入与性学习项目相关的新的实验室调查方面发挥了重要作用。这个项目将通过将以前的研究(例如学习在老鼠、鸽子和蜜蜂中进食的学习)扩展到一个新物种(日本鹌鹑)和一个以前未探索的反应系统(性行为)来帮助理解学习的过程。该项目由综合生物学和神经科学部共同支持。该项目符合国际方案司的目标。

Description: This project supports a cooperative project by a US scientist, Dr. Michael Domjan, Department of Psychology, University of Texas at Austin, and Dr. Falih Koksal, Department of Psychology at Bogazici University, Istanbul, Turkey. The research aims at improving the understanding of the animal learning process in general, and the conditioning of sexual behavior in particular. The experimental work will be on quails and will be conducted in Austin and in Istanbul. In a pilot study it was indicated that observing a demonstrator male quail receive a sexual Pavlovian conditioning procedure facilitates the subsequent acquisition of sexual conditioned behavior in observer subjects. Experiments are planned to identify what factors are responsible for this effect. These will: 1. evaluate the effect of observing pairings of a conditioned stimulus object with a female quail on the subsequent acquisition of sexually conditioned behavior; 2. compare the effects of observing a demonstrator's behavior directed towards a female quail or a conditioned stimulus object; and 3. examine whether observational learning rather than stimulus enhancement is responsible for the faster acquisition in the observer subjects. Additional experiments will determine whether observational procedures can induce conditional copulary behavior in subjects that do not otherwise show such responding. Also studies will be carried out to determine whether conditioned responses acquired through observational learning are as resistant to extinction as those that develop through direct Pavlovian conditioning. Scope: This project allows cooperation of two experienced scientists whose capabilities complement each other to do important scientific work. The Turkish scientist, who has Scottish graduate training and experience in experimental clinical psychology, has a somewhat different perspective from that commonly found in the U.S. experimental psychology programs. He has been instrumental in introducing new lines of laboratory investigation related to the sexual learning project. This project will help understand the process of learning by extending previous studies ( such as learning of feeding in rats, pigeons, and honey bees) to both a new species (Japanese quail) and to a previously unexplored response system (sexual behavior). The project is supported jointly with the Division of Integrative Biology and Neuroscience. This project meets the objectives of the Division of International Programs.