Research Interests Dr. Timberlake studies learning and behavior within a general framework of behavior systems that calls attention to overall functional organization and evolutionary history as well as local mechanisms of processing and regulation. Dr. Timberlake's long-term goal is an approach sufficiently general to apply across species and sufficiently specific to make contact with the evolution and genetic makeup of particular species and individuals. Specific research topics include patterns of regulation in feeding and drinking, circadian and ultradian behavioral rhythms, time horizons in foraging, the interaction of conditioning and regulatory processes in feeding, Pavlovian conditioning as a tool for investigating the structures and processes underlying the appetitive-consummatory dimension of behavior, backward conditioning and system differences in learning and regulation. For reasons of history and convenience, most current work involves rats and pigeons.
- Behavior systems analyses of learning paradigms, phenomena, and theories
- Spatial and temporal control of search behavior
- Circadian anticipation of addictive drugs and food
- Behavior systems and repetitive behaviors
The long term objective of my research is to develop a theory of purposive behavior that combines an ecological emphasis on the basis of naturally occurring behavior with a focus on the role of learning and regulatory processes in controlling behavior. I am interested in ties to philosophy and computer science on one hand and to evolution and neuroscience on the other.
Empirically we are concerned with:
- Analyzing the temporal and stimulus control of sequential motivational states underlying foraging behavior, using the techniques of Pavlovian conditioning
- Clarifying the unique circadian control of anticipation of food
- Understanding the role of spatial cues and existing perceptual-motor organization in efficient locomotor search
Theoretically we have been concerned with:
- Simulating and modeling free and constrained feeding in rats, and generalizing our threshold approach to multiple behaviors
- Proposing a general conception of the organization of functional systems of behavior, particularly as applied to the perceptual, motor, and motivational structure underlying naturally occurring foraging behavior
- Developing a motivational "grammar" of purposive behavior.
Research Training Group (RTG) is a central focus of the recently-established Center for the Integrative Study of Animal Behavior at Indiana University. The faculty, who come from the Departments of Biology, Psychology, Law, and Medical Sciences, bring six subdisciplinary perspectives to the RTG: sensory physiology, behavioral ecology, evolutionary biology, developmental psychobiology, animal learning, and behavioral neuroscience. Graduate students who participate in the RTG are drawn from three graduate programs: biology, psychology and an interdisciplinary program in neuroscience. The RTG provides students with academic year and summer assistantships, travel support or research support. The courses, seminars and other educational activities of the RTG result from the integration across 5 areas of research: communication, sex and reproductive behavior, learning and motivation, ontogeny and evolution, and spatial organization of behavior. As well as representing natural combinations of faculty research interests, these areas provide foci for the development of student research projects. Several of the courses required of RTG trainees have been newly developed by RTG faculty; students must also participate in a year-long seminar on scientific integrity developed jointly by the RTG and the Poynter Center for Study of Ethics and American Institutions. In addition to the core faculty, there are 10 adjunct faculty in five other departments whose have related research interests and whose students benefit from the courses and seminars and other educational activities of the RTG.
The present research attempts to use the concept of ''behavior systems'' to combine the ethological study of ''instinctive'' behavior with laboratory research demonstrating the importance of learning in determining purposive behavior. A ''behavior system'' refers to stimulus filtering, preorganized response components, and motivational states organized around a specific function, such as foraging for food. Dr Timberlake assumes that learning mechanisms evolved to alter behavior within the context of such a functional system. He also assumes that the examples of learning produced by familiar laboratory procedures, such as Pavlovian and operant conditioning, can be profitably studied within a functional system. His experiments use prior knowledge of the feeding-foraging systems of rats and pigeons to predict the form of conditioned responding and the ease of learning under laboratory procedures. At the same time, these experiments use the analytic power of the laboratory manipulations to further develop and refine our knowledge of the feeding-foraging system. The experiments focus on characteristics of the sequence of motivational states related to foraging: the control of the general search state, as measured by locomotor search of maze environments; the control of the focal search state, especially as it relates to the conditioning of ''superstitious'' behavior; and the relation of learned chains of behavior to transitions between general and focal search states. The results should clarify the contribution of learning to behavior in both the laboratory and natural environments.
This research stems from an ecological approach to the study of basic learning mechanisms, an approach based on the assumption that learning evolved and can be profitably studied within a functioning system of behavior. Specifically, the present experiments are designed to reveal the nature and number of the mechanisms involved in spatial learning. Do spatial learning and search vary with the type of cue used and the effects of reward? To what extent are there differences between the sensory-motor mechanisms controlling efficient search when rewards are used versus no rewards or different types of reward? The answers will determine the importance of considering the specific system context in analyzing spatial learning. The more general importance of this work involves establishing examples of the extent to which learning can be profitably studied within functioning systems of behavior (such as foraging for food, or seeking safety) rather than based only on very general mechanisms. If systems of behavior are important, it suggests that learning can be more effectively produced and controlled by understanding the function it serves rather than exhaustively analyzing the circumstances that produce it In humans, the general importance of learning in determining behavior is large and unquestioned. What has not been so specifically dealt with is the extent to which learning follows somewhat different rules and determinants related to specific functions. Even in humans, learning about spatial locations and learning appropriate social behaviors may depend on different stimuli, motivational states, and mechanisms. The optimum conditions for promoting one sort of learning may well be different from the conditions promoting the other.
Research Training Group (RTG) is a central focus of the recently-established Center for the Integrative Study of Animal Behavior at Indiana University. The faculty, who come from the Departments of Biology, Psychology, Law, and Medical Sciences, bring six subdisciplinary perspectives to the RTG: sensory physiology, behavioral ecology, evolutionary biology, developmental psychobiology, animal learning, and behavioral neuroscience. Graduate students who participate in the RTG are drawn from three graduate programs: biology, psychology and an interdisciplinary program in neuroscience. The RTG provides students with academic year and summer assistantships, travel support or research support. The courses, seminars and other educational activities of the RTG result from the integration across 5 areas of research: communication, sex and reproductive behavior, learning and motivation, ontogeny and evolution, and spatial organization of behavior. As well as representing natural combinations of faculty research interests, these areas provide foci for the development of student research projects. Several of the courses required of RTG trainees have been newly developed by RTG faculty; students must also participate in a year-long seminar on scientific integrity developed jointly by the RTG and the Poynter Center for Study of Ethics and American Institutions. In addition to the core faculty, there are 10 adjunct faculty in five other departments whose have related research interests and whose students benefit from the courses and seminars and other educational activities of the RTG.
The present research attempts to use the concept of ''behavior systems'' to combine the ethological study of ''instinctive'' behavior with laboratory research demonstrating the importance of learning in determining purposive behavior. A ''behavior system'' refers to stimulus filtering, preorganized response components, and motivational states organized around a specific function, such as foraging for food. Dr Timberlake assumes that learning mechanisms evolved to alter behavior within the context of such a functional system. He also assumes that the examples of learning produced by familiar laboratory procedures, such as Pavlovian and operant conditioning, can be profitably studied within a functional system. His experiments use prior knowledge of the feeding-foraging systems of rats and pigeons to predict the form of conditioned responding and the ease of learning under laboratory procedures. At the same time, these experiments use the analytic power of the laboratory manipulations to further develop and refine our knowledge of the feeding-foraging system. The experiments focus on characteristics of the sequence of motivational states related to foraging: the control of the general search state, as measured by locomotor search of maze environments; the control of the focal search state, especially as it relates to the conditioning of ''superstitious'' behavior; and the relation of learned chains of behavior to transitions between general and focal search states. The results should clarify the contribution of learning to behavior in both the laboratory and natural environments.
This research stems from an ecological approach to the study of basic learning mechanisms, an approach based on the assumption that learning evolved and can be profitably studied within a functioning system of behavior. Specifically, the present experiments are designed to reveal the nature and number of the mechanisms involved in spatial learning. Do spatial learning and search vary with the type of cue used and the effects of reward? To what extent are there differences between the sensory-motor mechanisms controlling efficient search when rewards are used versus no rewards or different types of reward? The answers will determine the importance of considering the specific system context in analyzing spatial learning. The more general importance of this work involves establishing examples of the extent to which learning can be profitably studied within functioning systems of behavior (such as foraging for food, or seeking safety) rather than based only on very general mechanisms. If systems of behavior are important, it suggests that learning can be more effectively produced and controlled by understanding the function it serves rather than exhaustively analyzing the circumstances that produce it In humans, the general importance of learning in determining behavior is large and unquestioned. What has not been so specifically dealt with is the extent to which learning follows somewhat different rules and determinants related to specific functions. Even in humans, learning about spatial locations and learning appropriate social behaviors may depend on different stimuli, motivational states, and mechanisms. The optimum conditions for promoting one sort of learning may well be different from the conditions promoting the other.
Animal Behavior/Ethology, Animal Ecology, Behavioral/Experimental Psychology, Economic Theory, Learning Motivation, Migratory Animals and Birds, Political Theory, Population Control, Psychobiology, Sexual Behavior, Sociology of Science, Wildlife, Work Motivation
