Randy Gallistel

Title: Professor II
Area: Behavioral Neuroscience
Phone: 732-445-2973/8086
Email: galliste@ruccs.rutgers.edu
Campus: Busch
Building: RuCCS A135/Nelson Labs
Website: http://ruccs.rutgers.edu/faculty/GnG/gallistel.html

My research pursues a psychophysical approach to screening for memory malfunction in genetically manipulated mice. The purpose is to make possible a genetic attack on the problem of the physical (cellular and molecular) basis of memory by developing behavioral screening methods that distinguish between genetic defects in memory per se and genetic defects in the many processes that affect the extent and manner in which memory is manifest in behavior. Memory is the mechanism or mechanisms that carry information forward in time within nervous systems. My behavioral screens look for distortions and increased noise in simple quantitative memories like interval duration, distance and number. It is psychophysical in character in that it tests memory for the same simple quantity repeatedly (hundreds of times) and processes the results with the kind of elaborate statistical analysis employed in psychophysical work on sensory systems. As in sensory psychophysics, the goal is to extract from behavioral data quantitative properties of the underlying mechanisms. The experimental research grows out of my theoretical research on problem-specific (modular) information processing approaches to learning and memory.

Recent Publications

Brannon, E.M., Wusthoff, C.J., Gallistel, C.R., & Gibbon, J. (2001) Numerical subtraction in the pigeon: Evidence for a Linear Subjective Number Scale. Psychological Science , R 12 , 238-243

Gallistel, C. R., Mark, T. A., King, A. P., & Latham, P. E. (2001). The Rat Approximates an Ideal Detector of Changes in Rates of Reward: Implications for the Law of Effect. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Animal Behavior Processes , R 27 , 354-372

Cordes, S., Gelman, R., & Gallistel, C. R. (2001). Variability signatures distinguish verbal from nonverbal counting for both large and small numbers. Psychological Bulletin and Review , R 8, 698-707

Gallistel, C. R. (2003). Conditioning from an information processing perspective. Behavioural Processes R 62 , 89-101.

Gallistel, C. R., King , A., McDonald, R. (2004) Sources of variability and systematic error in mouse timing behavior. Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior: Animal Behavior Processes , R 30 (1), 3-16

Gallistel, C. R., Balsam, P. D., & Fairhurst, S. (2004). The learning curve: Implications of a quantitative analysis. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, R 101 (36), 13124-13131

Gelman, R., & Gallistel, C.R. (2004) Language and the origin of numerical concepts. Science , R 306 , 441-443

Gallistel, C.R., & Gelman, R. (2005) Mathematical cognition. In K. Holyoak & R. Morrison. Cambridge handbook of thinking and reasoning . New York: Cambridge University Press (pp. 559-588)

Education

1966 Ph.D. Yale University

Professional Experience

2000-	Professor of Psychology, Rutgers University
2000-	Professor Emeritus, UCLA
1989-	Member of the Interdisciplinary Degree Program in Neuroscience, UCLA
1989-2000:	Professor of Psychology, UCLA
1988-1989:	Bernard L. & Ida E. Grossman Term Professor, University of Pennsylvania
1983-1989:	Member of the Graduate Group in Neuroscience, Univ. of Penn.
1981-1984:	Chair, Department of Psychology, Univ. of Penn
1979-1983:	Member of the Graduate Group in Biology, Univ. of Penn.
1976-1989:	Professor, Department of Psychology, Univ. of Penn.
1966-1976:	Assistant Professor - Associate Professor, University of Pennsylvania

Awards

Member National Academy of Sciences (USA) (elected 2002)
Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (elected 2001)
Blackwell Lectureship, University of Maryland (Nov 2003)
APA Distinguished Scientist Lecturer (MPA, May 2004)
MacEachern Lectureship, University of Alberta, Oct. 1997
James McKeen Cattell Fund Sabbatical Award '95-'96
Fellow, Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences, 1984-1985
Chair Section J (Psychology) AAAS (1995)
Fellow, Society of Experimental Psychologists
Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science