John Staddon
James B Duke Prof. of Psych. & Brain Sciences and Professor

+1 919 660 5724, 919 660 5725

GSRB2

Research Interests:

John Staddon is interested in the evolution and mechanisms of animal learning. Current topics are timing and memory, feeding regulation, and the ways in which pigeons and rats adapt to reward schedules. Experimental work involves individual animals in computer-controlled environments, where we manipulate the reward and stimulus conditions and try to understand the rules animals follow as they adapt to these changes. Theoretical work involves both analytical and computer-simulation studies of functional and mechanistic models for behavior. Our approach to understanding learning emphasizes the development and behavioral testing of real-time top-down models. Recent projects are, for example, a diffusion model for spatial orientation, a parallel model for the assignment-of-credit (response-selection) problem in operant conditioning, and timing models for choice behavior.

Current projects: Temporal dynamics of choice

Representative Publications   (More Publications)   (search)

1. Staddon, J.E.R., Adaptive Dynamics: The Theoretical Analysis of Behavior (2001), pp. xiv, 1-423, Cambridge, MA: MIT/Bradford .
2. Staddon, J.E.R., The New Behaviorism: Mind, Mechanism and Society (2001), pp. xiii, 1-211, Philadelphia, PA: Psychology Press .
3. Staddon, J. E. R. & Cerutti, D. T., Operant behavior., Annual Review of Psychology, vol. 54 (2003), pp. 115-144  [abs].
4. Staddon, J.E.R., Scientific imperialism and behaviorist epistemology., Philosophy & Behavior, vol. 32 (2004), pp. 231-242  [abs].
5. Staddon, J.E.R. & Higa, J.J., Time and memory: Towards a pacemaker-free theory of interval timing, Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior, vol. 71 (1999), pp. 215-251  [abs] [author's comments].
6. Staddon, J.E.R., Chelaru, I.M., & Higa, J.J., Habituation, Memory and the Brain: The Dynamics of Interval Timing, Behavioural Processes, vol. 57 (2002), pp. 71-88  [abs].