Rutgers Rutgers Camden Rutgers Newark Universitywide Search Rutgers Department of Psychology



Undergraduate Programs

Syllabi 300 Level

Comparative Psychology
830:315:01
Fall 2002

Instructor: C. R. Gallistel
Email: randy@ruccs.rutgers.edu
Office: Psychology Annex, Rm A135
Office hours: MW 9:00-12:00 and by appointment

Course Description: This course examines fundamental behavioral mechanisms across a broad range of animals in order to gain an appreciation for: 1) the diversity of mechanisms that have evolved to solve the same problems; 2) the common features of those mechanisms; 3) the constraints that govern the evolution of behavioral mechanisms.

The mechanisms to be considered this term are: 1) mechanisms for seeing; 2) mechanisms for hearing; 3) unusual sensory mechanisms (magnetic and electrosensory); 4) mechanisms for combining information from more than one sensory modality; 5) mechanisms for generating coordinated patterns of goal directed movement; 6) regulatory (homeostatic) mechanisms; 7) mechanisms for determining time of day and time of year; 8) mechanisms for navigating; 9) mechanisms for learning

Exams
Midterms Friday 10/4 & Tuesday 11/5
Final is ?
both exams will be multiple choice and short essay

Schedule of Lectures and Reading
 

Date Day Lecture topic Readings
9/3 T 1. What can be learned from a comparative approach?
9/6 F Animal phylogeny 1) Osorio, et al
9/10 T Different eyes: different approaches to gathering & focusing light 2) R.G. Foster article3) L. Forster pp. 165-168(3rd)
9/13 F Same and different aspects of the molecular basis of light transduction 4) L. Stryer5) Schnapf & Baylor&.) Rest of L. Forster(= 2)
9/17 T Different uses of the visual system & Developmental problems unique to vision 6) R.D. Fernald
9/20 F Visual computations 7) Poggio & Koch
9/24 T Visual computations 8) M.V. Srinivasan9) J.P. Ewert
9/27 F Gathering sound & determining its direction 10)P.H. Brownell
10/1 T Determining sound direction (cont) 11) Knudsen & Konishi12) Huber & Thorson
10/4 F 1st Midterm
10/8 T How the bat Uses sound to determine the structure of its environment 13) N. Suga
10/11 F Bat-moth duet 14) Fenton & Fullard
10/15 T  Magnetic & electrosensing 15) Blakemore & Frankel 16) T. Bullock
10/18 F Combining information from more than one sense 17) M. Konishi18) Sparks & Nelson
10/22 T Moving 19) H.C. Berg20) K.G. Pearson
10/25  F Motor Patterns 21) Kupferman
10/29 T Hierarchical Organization I 22) Gallistel (1980)
11/1 F Hierarchical Organization II 23) Scheller & Axel
11/5 T 2nd Midterm
11/8 F Thermoregulation 24) B. Heinrich
11/12 T Telling time & date by internal clocks & calendars 25) Gillette26) E. Gwinner
11/15 F Navigation I: Dead reckoning 27) Schmidt, et al.
11/19 T Navigation II: Sun compass 28) Dyer & Dickinson
11/22 F Navigation III: Making & using a map 29) K.J. Lohman30) L.R. Aronson
11/26 T Navigation IV: Using the map to get oriented 31) Hermer & Spelke
11/29 F Thanksgiving Recess
12/3 T Learning I: Foraging & the matching law 32) D.G.C. Harper33) Godin & Keenleyside
12/6  F Learning II: Instincts to learn 35) Gould & Marler36) Emlen
12/10  T Learning III: A general purpose process versus adaptively specialized learning organs 37) Gallistel (1999)

Coursepak (C) & Library Reserved Rdgs (R)
Evolution of nervous systems

  1. Osorio, D., Bacon, J. P., & Whitington, P. M. (1997). The evolution of arthropod nervous systems. American Scientist, 85, 244-253. C

    Seeing
  2. Foster, R. G. (1993). Photoreceptors and circadian systems. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 2, 34-39. C
  3. Forster, L. (1982). Vision and prey-catching strategies in jumping spiders. American Scientist, 70(2), 165-175. C
  4. Stryer, L. (1987). The molecules of visual excitation. Scientific American, 557(1), 42-51.  R
  5. Schnapf, J. L., & Baylor, D. A. (1987). How photoreceptor cells respond to light. Scientific American, 256(5), 40-47. R
  6. Fernald, R. D. (1984). Vision and behavior in an African cichlid fish. American Scientist, 72(1), 58-65.  C
  7. Poggio, T., & Koch, C. (1987). Synapses that compute motion. Scientific American, 256(5), 46-52.  R
  8. Srinivasan, M. V. (1992). Distance perception in insects. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 1, 22-26.  C
  9. Ewert, J. P. (1974). The neural basis of visually guided behavior. In R. Held (Ed.), Recent Progress in Perception (pp. 96-104). San Francisco: W.H. Freeman.  C

    Hearing
  10. Brownell, P. H. (1984). Prey detection by the sand scorpion. Scientific American, 251(6), 86-97.  R
  11. Knudsen, E. I., & Konishi, M. (1979). Mechanisms of sound localization by the barn owl. Journal of Comparative Physiology, 133, 13-21.  C
  12. Huber, F., & Thorson, J. (1985). Cricket auditory communication. Scientific American, 253(6), 60-68.  R
  13. Suga, N. (1990). Biosonar and neural computation in bats. Scientific American, ?(June), 60-68.  R
  14. Fenton, M. B., & Fullard, J. H. (1981). Moth hearing and the feeding strategies of bats. American Scientist, 69(3), 266-275.  C

    Unusual Senses
  15. Blakemore, & Frankel, R. B. (1981). Magnetic navigation in bacteria. Scientific American, 245(6), 58-65. R
  16. Bullock, T. (1973). Seeing the world through a new sense: Electroreception in fish. American Scientist, 61, 316-325.  C

    Combining Information from More than One Sense
  17. Konishi, M. (1986). Centrally synthesized maps of sensory space. Trends in Neurosciences, 9, 163-168.  C
  18. Sparks, D. L., & Nelson, J. S. (1987). Sensory and motor maps in the mammalian superior colliculus. Trends in Neuroscience, 10, 312-317.  C

    Moving and Motivation
  19. Berg, H. C. (1975). Bacterial movement. In T. Y. Wu, C. J. Brokaw, & C. Brennen (Ed.), Swimming and Flying in Nature (pp. 1-11). New York: Plenum.  C
  20. Pearson, K. G. (1976). The control of walking. Scientific American, 235(6), 72-86.  R
  21. Kupferman, I. (1993). The generation of motor patterns. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 2(4), 126-129.  C
  22. Gallistel, C. R. (1980). From muscles to motivation. American Scientist, 68, 398-409.    C
  23. Scheller, R. H., & Axel, R. (1984). How genes control an innate behavior. Scientific American, (March), 54-62.  R
  24. Heinrich, B. (1987). Thermoregulation in winter moths. Scientific American, 256(March), 104-111.  R

    The Time Sense
  25. Gillette, M.U. (1997) Cellular and biochemical mechanisms underlying circadian rhythms in vertebrates. Current Opinion in Neurobiology, Vol. 7, 797-804 C
  26. Gwinner, E. (1986). Internal rhythms and bird navigation. Scientific American, 254(4), 84-93.  R

    Navigating
  27. Schmidt, I., Collett, T. S., Dillier, F.-X., & Wehner, R. (1992). How desert ants cope with enforced detours on their way home. Journal of Comparative Physiology. Series A, 171, 285-288.  C
  28. Dyer, F. C., & Dickinson, J. A. (1994). Development of sun compensation by honeybees: How partially experienced bees estimate the sun's course. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, USA, 91, 4471-4474. C
  29. Lohman, K. J. (1992). How sea turtles navigate. Scientific American, (January), 100-106.  R
  30. Aronson, L. R. (1971). Further studies on orientation and jumping behavior in the gobiid fish, Bathygobius soporator. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 188, 378-392  C
  31. Hermer, L., & Spelke, E. (1996). Modularity and development: The case of spatial reorientation. Cognition, 61(3), 195-232.  C

    Learning
  32. Harper, D. G. C. (1982). Competitive foraging in mallards: ideal free ducks. Animal Behaviour, 30, 575-584.  C
  33. Godin, J.-G. J., & Keenleyside, M. H. A. (1984). Foraging on patchily distributed prey by a cichlid fish (Teleosti, Cichlidae): A test of the ideal free distribution theory. Animal Behaviour, 32, 120-131.  C
  34. Gould, J. L., & Marler, P. (1987). Learning by instinct. Scientific American, 256, 74-85.  R
  35. Emlen, S. T. (1970). Celestial rotation: its importance in the development of migratory orientation. Science, 170, 1198-1201.  C
  36. Gallistel, C. R. (1999). The Replacement of General-Purpose Learning Models with Adaptively Specialized Learning Modules. In M. S. Gazzaniga (Ed.), The cognitive neurosciences. 2nd ed., (2 ed.). Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.