Mechanisms of Learning Across Development and Species

描述（由申请人提供）：拟建的培训计划将对博士生进行跨发展和跨物种学习机制的培训。学习是适应性行为的基础。它包括获取和修改信息、行为和技能。学习也是富有成效的：它通过归纳、演绎和整合来扩展自己。学习机制是博士前研究训练的一个关键领域，因为学习对适应和不适应行为都有普遍的影响，必须是任何成功的心理健康或教育干预的一个组成部分。培训师资来自埃默里大学的心理学系、耶基斯国家灵长类动物研究中心和跨学科神经科学研究生项目。主要的训练地点是心理学系和耶基斯国家灵长类动物研究中心。由16名成员组成的培训学院采用遗传、比较、计算、发育、神经生物学和神经心理学等技术，研究健康和临床人群从出生到老年的学习机制。他们研究了婴儿和儿童时期大脑的变化如何与学习的发育变化相关联，老年人如何适应衰老的大脑，以及不同物种如何获取和修改知识，从简单的联想到文化介导的仪式和传统。埃默里大学研究学习机制的年龄、物种和环境的多样性，为积累有关这些机制的证据提供了丰富的机会，从而为下一代科学家提供了理解基本学习机制所必需的技能。培训地点提供了一个独特的非常适合的环境，在其中完成美国国立卫生研究院的目标之一-将从婴儿期到衰老的发育变化研究与神经生物学框架内的成人认知研究结合起来。我们每年申请4名博士预科生，每人将接受3年的培训。学员将从埃默里大学高选择性的兰尼研究生院的学生中挑选。受训者将完成所有部门或项目的博士学位要求。该培训计划将通过至少五个培训增强提供附加价值：1)明确的共同指导和跨物种、年龄或方法的合作研究经验；2)基金撰写方面的强化培训，3)道德和负责任的研究行为方面的高级培训；4)参加有关跨发展和跨物种学习研究的课程、研讨会和研究展览会；5)实证支持的最佳实践在研究生培养中的应用。

DESCRIPTION (provided by the applicant): The proposed Training Program will train predoctoral students in the mechanisms of learning across development and species. Learning is fundamental to adaptive behavior. It involves acquiring and modifying information, behaviors, and skills. Learning also is productive: it extends itself through induction, deduction, and integration. Mechanisms of learning is a critical area to target for predoctoral research training because learning has pervasive impacts in both adaptive and maladaptive behavior, and must be an integral part of any successful mental health or educational intervention. The Training Faculty is drawn from the Department of Psychology, the Yerkes National Primate Research Center, and the interdisciplinary Neuroscience Graduate Program, all of Emory University. The primary training sites are the Department of Psychology and the Yerkes National Primate Research Center. The 16- member Training Faculty approach study of the mechanisms of learning as they manifest from birth to old age in healthy and clinical populations using genetic, comparative, computational, developmental, neurobiological, and neuropsychological techniques. They examine how changes in the brain during infancy and childhood relate to developmental changes in learning, how the elderly adapt with their aging brains, and how diverse species acquire and modify knowledge ranging from simple associations to culturally-mediated rituals and traditions. The diversity of ages, species, and circumstances in which learning mechanisms are studied at Emory provides rich opportunities for accumulation of converging evidence about these mechanisms, and thus for equipping the next generation of scientists with the skills necessary for understanding basic mechanisms of learning. The training site affords a uniquely well- suited environment in which to accomplish one of the goals of the NIH-to unite the study of developmental change from infancy to senescence with the study of adult cognition within a neurobiological framework. We request four predoctoral trainees per year, each of whom will be trained for 3 years. Trainees will be drawn from among students in Emory's highly-selective Laney Graduate School. Trainees will complete all departmental or program requirements for the Ph.D. This training program will provide added value through at least five training enhancements: 1) explicit co-mentoring and collaborative research experiences across species, ages or methodologies; 2) intensive training in grant writing, 3) advanced training in ethics and the responsible conduct of research; 4) participation in courses, workshops and research fairs specific to research on learning across development and species; and 5) application of empirically supported best practices in graduate student training.