Research Program – Basic Science
Program Overview
The major short- and medium-term objectives of the Institute’s Basic Science Program are to advance basic knowledge and methodological control of behavioral processes involved in symbolic function and symbolic communication. A longer-term objective is to take advantage of conceptual and methodological advances to define symbolic behavioral processes in relation to their determinants within the biological substrate. Work proposed in this research program concerns the operational definition and study of basic symbolic processes and their behavioral prerequisites. Two dimensions are emphasized: (1) Processes involved in establishing contextually-defined equivalence relations between symbols and their referents; (2) processes that render symbolic relations conventional in the sense that two or more individuals exhibit (a) joint attention to the physical features that define symbols and their referents and (b) behavior consistent with joint understanding of the symbol-referent relation.
As such, the Basic Science Program of the Institute addresses a variety of interrelated topics relevant to its primary interests. These include but are not limited to (a) basic processes in perception and attention relevant to symbolic functions, (b) within- and across-modality stimulus-stimulus relational learning, (c) behavioral emergence based on equivalence and ordinal stimulus-stimulus relations of the type that constitute simple semantic and syntactic relations, and (d) phylogenic status in relation to items a, b, and c.
These interests have been and will be pursued in the following series of projects:
1. Complex Relational Learning Methodologies
Description and Rationale: Studies proposed in this category explore a number of novel methodologies for the study of complex symbolic functioning in normally capable children and adults. Complex symbolic functioning is defined in terms of multi-element symbolic relations and networks, including those representing natural categorical and dimensional equivalence relations and those developed specifically in the laboratory for research purposes. As a group, the intent of these studies is to bring to light behavioral processes occurring during acquisition of complex symbolic relations via model systems that bring naturally occurring symbolic relations and networks into the laboratory.
Specific topics within this research line include (but are not limited to) (a) transfer and/or transformation of stimulus functions within laboratory models of semantics and syntactic networks (e.g., topics such as assessment of psychological distance in stimulus-stimulus relations, evaluation of basic and polymorphous class/category structures, etc.), (b) model systems that isolate processes of acquisition of symbolic relations from past symbolic learning (e.g. acquisition of musical notation reading in individuals who have no prior experience with this task), and (c) competition between experimenter-targeted equivalence relations and task-irrelevant (from the experimenter’s perspective) relations in re-acquisition or repeated acquisition of symbolic stimulus-stimulus relations (e.g., symbolic relation learning set, transfer from “effortful” to “automatic” information processing via elimination of initially strategic but later unnecessary precurrent responses, etc.).
2. Selective Attending and Observing Behavior in Symbolic Tasks
Description and Rationale: Projects in this category address the behavioral prerequisites for conventional symbolic functioning. A working hypothesis of several projects within the Institute program is that seeming failures of conventional symbolic functioning may be due instead to deficient or procedurally dysregulated attention processes. Essential to pursuit of this research hypothesis are (a) studies that measure correlates of attending, such as the direction of gaze, and (b) development or refinement of behavioral procedures that direct attending effectively or efficiently by manipulations of physical or temporal structure of stimuli presented in and/or the response requirements of behavioral procedures.
3. Animal Models of Symbolic Behavior and its Prerequisites
Description and Rationale: Projects in this category address the development of animal models that may potentially inform other studies within the Institute program and that may prove useful ultimately in applications of program research findings in basic and comparative neuroscience. Work with Cebus apella was substantially advanced during the recent PRONEX grant period, developing state-of-the-art methodology for establishing reliable inter- and intra-individual procedural control of certain critical aspects of relational learning (e.g., relating visual stimuli as either same or different on a generalized basis). Also advanced was development of methodology for assessing and potentially establishing featural (i.e., iconic) and functional equivalence relations in this species. New studies will build upon these successes, pursuing especially those that address apparent homology in certain behavioral processes exhibited in both humans and nonhuman primates.
A medium-to-long term objective of this program is to extend current preliminary work on virtual reality environments with basic discrimination tasks to address larger issues of physical feature and functional equivalence in the generalization and emergence of complex behavior, initially in Cebus apella and ultimately in humans. Laboratory models within virtual reality environments may prove especially informative in relating models to real world activity and ultimately may support translational and applied studies targeted at prevention or amelioration of learning challenges in regular and special education environments.
A new project with canines will derive in part from work conducted with Cebus apella, addressing species capacities that may clarify, for example, phylogenic status of behavioral processes underlying the rapid expansion of symbolic repertoires of typically developing toddler-aged children (i.e., are these processes uniquely human or are they represented in some form in other species).
Additional work with honeybees, some of which is derivative from and will be informed by other Institute projects, will address behavioral processes that may underlie the rudimentary symbolic capacity of this species, perhaps leading ultimately to useful models for neuroscience research to clarify the biochemical and molecular processes involved.
