Cocaine produces multiple neuroadaptations with chronic repeated use. Many of these neuroadaptations can be reversed or normalized by extinction training during withdrawal from chronic cocaine self-administration in rats. This article reviews our past and present studies on extinction-induced modulation of the neuroadaptive response to chronic…

Pigeons were trained in a matching task in which samples involved presentation of a white line on a green background (feature-present) or on an otherwise dark key (feature-absent). After asymmetrical training in which one group was initially trained with the feature-present sample and another was initially trained with the feature-absent sample,…

Studies that examine the effects of exercise on children's intelligence, cognition, or academic achievement were reviewed and results were discussed in light of (a) contemporary cognitive theory development directed toward exercise, (b) recent research demonstrating the salutary effects of exercise on adults' cognitive functioning, and (c) studies…

Adaptive motor actions require prior knowledge of instrumental contingencies. With practice, these actions can become highly automatic in nature. However, the molecular and anatomical substrates mediating these related forms of learning are not understood. In the present study, we used in situ hybridization to measure the mRNA levels of two…

Forward blocking is one of the best-documented phenomena in Pavlovian animal conditioning. According to contemporary associative learning theories, forward blocking arises directly from the hardwired basic learning rules that govern the acquisition or expression of associations. Contrary to this view, here the authors demonstrate that blocking in…

Gottlieb promoted the value of a developmental psychobiological systems approach to the study of human development. This approach recognizes the importance of comparative, animal-based research to advancing our understanding of the complexities and dynamics of the process of development. The major contribution of animal developmental studies is…

Cognition is a general term describing the mental capacities of an animal, and often includes the ability to categorize, remember, and communicate about objects in the environment. Numerous regions of the telencephalon (cerebral cortex and limbic system) are responsible for these cognitive functions. Although many researchers have used traditional…

Urges the inclusion of comparative psychology in the undergraduate curriculum. Defines zoological or comparative psychology as a field that explores the behavior patterns and minds of many animal species and the genesis, control, and consequences of a range of behavioral patterns. Traces the history and development of the discipline. Discusses…

Two experiments examined pigeons' generalization to intermediate forms following training of concept discriminations. In Experiment 1, the training stimuli were sets of images of dogs and cats, and the transfer stimuli were head/body chimeras, which humans tend to categorize more readily in terms of the head part rather than the body part. In…

Argues that common anatomical and functional characteristics exist among the brains of reptiles, mammals, and man--the most significant commonality for educators being social behavior. Illustrates inherited behavior, including behavior observed in classroom and believed to be learned by placing it in context of a model "triune"…

The dendritic structure of layer II-III pyramidal neurons of the parietal cortex in 41 Long-Evans rats was compared to behavioral assessments of attention to novelty, response flexibility, and reasoning. A significant correlation between dendritic arborization and behavioral performance was not demonstrated. (SLD)

Disentangling bottom-up and top-down processing in adult category learning is notoriously difficult. Studying category learning in infancy provides a simple way of exploring category learning while minimizing the contribution of top-down information. Three- to 4-month-old infants presented with cat or dog images will form a perceptual category…

Adolescence is a developmental period characterized by suboptimal decisions and actions that give rise to an increased incidence of unintentional injuries and violence, alcohol and drug abuse, unintended pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases. Traditional neurobiological and cognitive explanations for adolescent behavior have failed to…

This paper aims to compare cognitive development in humans and chimpanzees to illuminate the evolutionary origins of human cognition. Comparison of morphological data and life history strongly highlights the common features of all primate species, including humans. The human mother-infant relationship is characterized by the physical separation of…

The study investigates what an intermediate success rate means in bonobos, chimpanzees, and orangutans. Apes participated in liquid conservation experiments where they had to track the larger of two different quantities of juice after various kinds of transformations [Suda, C., & Call, J. (2004). Piagetian liquid conservation in the great apes…