Dr. Karen Anderson’s Laboratory
Variables Affecting Decision Making: Many of the problem behaviors in society, such as drug abuse, obesity, and pathological gambling, involve poor decision-making.
One of the objectives of Dr. Anderson’s research is to identify determinants of choice, particularly when that choice is deemed risky (choosing a larger, but uncertain reward over a smaller, but certain one; probability discounting). Another objective is to assess effects of drugs (commonly use/abused or therapeutic) on these impulsive or risky choices in our animal models. REU participants will be involved in research projects that extend the ongoing line of investigation into determinants of risky choice and effects of drugs on that choice in rodent models. They will also be involved in investigating the extent to which adaptogenic mushrooms, e.g., cordyceps, may substitute for caffeine in a drug-discrimination procedure. REU participants will gain technical laboratory skills related to rat handling and husbandry, administration of drugs (e.g., caffeine), and graphical/statistical analysis of resulting behavioral data. REU participants will also develop a deeper understanding of experimental design and behavioral pharmacology/neuroscience when analyzing effects of drugs and other variables on behavior and by attending weekly lab meetings.
Dr. Kathryn Kestner’s Laboratory
Translational Research on Relapse-Prevention. Dr. Kestner’s lab conducts translational research to develop and test relapse-prevention techniques to improve clinical behavior-change interventions.
Relapse of undesirable behavior is a significant social concern. Behavioral relapse is most often thought of as a problem in drug and alcohol treatment, but relapse commonly occurs in a myriad of situations that are important to individual wellbeing and public health. Relapse commonly follows healthy changes such as quitting smoking, starting an exercise regime, or healthier eating. These and other health-related behaviors are well served by behavioral interventions; however, the maintenance of these positive changes is harder to achieve. Data show that people return to smoking, sedentary lifestyles, and unhealthy eating patterns 75% of the time16. Behavioral research evaluating the ways in which environmental factors influence relapse is an area of research that leads to fruitful discoveries that change the way behavioral interventions are used for better success in long-term behavior change. There are three variations of behavioral relapse known as resurgence, renewal, and reinstatement. Dr. Kestner’s lab studies relapse by first characterizing the effects of relapse-prevention techniques in well-controlled laboratory studies with humans and nonhuman animals, and subsequently evaluating the clinical efficacy of these techniques when delivered as part of inventions for socially significant behavior (e.g., physical activity).
In Dr. Kestner’s lab, REU participants will lead a laboratory study during the 10-week experience with human subjects within the ongoing line of research of relapse-prevention in health behavior to compare relapse-prevention techniques using predictions derived from BMT and a brief laboratory model developed in Dr. Kestner’s lab (Abbreviated Activity and Relapse Model; AARM). REU participants will learn to code behavioral observations using a computerized data collection program (Behavior Logger Observational Coding System), and participants will run experimental sessions with human subjects, collect and graph data, and analyze the results.
Dr. Claire St. Peter’s Laboratory
Translational Approaches to Understanding Procedural Fidelity. Dr. St. Peter’s overarching goal is to better understand the mechanisms by which behavior is shaped, maintained, modified, and reduced.
This work includes laboratory models and bridges to applied domains. A central theme is procedural fidelity—the extent to which interventions are implemented as designed—and the contingencies that influence fidelity. To address this, her lab uses experimental manipulations that isolate component processes (e.g., discriminative control, reinforcement schedules) to evaluate how small deviations or variability in implementation emerge and subsequently affect outcomes.
In recent and ongoing work, members of Dr. St. Peter’s laboratory have focused on the rigor of experimental measurement systems and collaborated closely with Dr. Morrison’s neuroscience team to explore stress as a moderator of behavioral processes. These projects generally take a reverse translational approach by taking issues observed in therapeutic contexts back into the laboratory to uncover behavioral processes or mechanisms. For example, one line of inquiry examines how exposure to stress (e.g., social stressors) affects the time course of extinction, response variability, and response persistence. These experiments integrate behavioral assessment with neurobiological markers (e.g., cortisol) to examine how stress interacts with contingencies to destabilize performance. In reverse-translation, features of intervention implementation (e.g., fidelity errors, variability in adherence) are modeled in the lab to understand boundary conditions and mechanisms.
Undergraduates working in Dr. St. Peter’s lab would have opportunities to program contingencies, collect fine‐grained data, determine effects of data-analytic strategies on resulting decisions, analyze behavioral and neurobiological measures, interpret results, and iteratively refine procedures. Students might assist in designing fidelity manipulations, conducting research sessions, coding detailed temporal data, and helping integrate neuroscience assays with behavioral outcomes.
Dr. Katie Morrison’s Laboratory
Morrison Translational Neuroscience Lab
The time surrounding the onset of puberty is a particularly sensitive window during which adverse experiences, such as stress, are associated with an increased risk for affective and cognitive dysfunction across the lifespan. This is particularly true for females, who are more likely to suffer mood disruption and cognitive deficits later in life during other times of hormonal change, including pregnancy and postpartum. We have shown that prior pubertal stress alters some aspects of maternal behavior in postpartum female mice, causing a risk for negative outcomes both for the mom and the offspring. We are expanding our analysis of several domains of behavior both during and after pregnancy, as there is relatively little understood about behavior during this developmental period. Ongoing projects involve (a) applying machine learning approaches (DeepLabCut/SimBA) to previously collected videos of home cage pup directed behavior, and (b) working with live animals to test other types of behavior in the postpartum period (both pup-directed and other types).
REU participants will run experimental sessions with peripartum mice or will work to code pre-recorded videos. In all studies, participants will collect and graph data and analyze the results. Overall, these studies will provide insight into the types of behaviors in the peripartum period that are susceptible to perturbation by pubertal stress. REU participants can learn to code behavioral observations using a computerized program (Anymaze) and/or machine learning programs (DeepLabCut/SimBA) and can learn to rigorously conduct behavioral testing with mice. REU students will also participate in a weekly lab meeting and will have opportunities to learn about the other ongoing projects in the lab.
Subjects/participants: Mixed strain c57/Bl6J:129 mice
Requirements/restrictions: None beyond standard online training and OHQ clearance
Dr. Brennan Armshaw’s Laboratory
Behavioral Approaches to Health and Wellness: Many of the barriers affecting health and wellness are behavioral in nature. These behavioral factors play a role in chronic disease, medical compliance, and rehabilitative outcomes, to name a few.
Dr. Armshaw’s research focuses on the behavioral barriers related to muscular and neuromuscular rehabilitation. Using surface electromyograms to measure very small changes in neuromuscular activity (a key indicator of muscle strength and control). Dr. Armshaw’s work investigates methods to further individualize and optimize historic approaches to surface electromyographic biofeedback to improve rehabilitative outcomes, for example, for patients recovering from injuries such as total knee replacement or ACL surgery. Muscular control is a learned skill, and while physiological barriers may interfere with one’s ability to control their muscles on command with proper measures and individualized SMART goal it is possible to retrain muscle use and improve quality of life.
REU participants will lead research projects that extend the ongoing line of investigation into the effects of feedback on muscular activity and methods (such as gamification) to optimize physical rehabilitation following injury or surgery. REU participants will gain technical laboratory skills related to the identification of muscle groups, placement and operation of surface electromyograms, the implementation of different feedback types and schedules, and graphical and statistical analysis of resulting behavioral data. REU participants will also develop a deeper understanding of experimental design, with particular emphasis on methods for controlling confounds related to fatigue, dose and order effects. REU students will also develop skills related to the translation of behavioral research to medical and vis versa.
Dr. Ray Joslyn's Laboratory
Examining Individual Differences During Analog Forensic Interviews.
Research shows that people are sensitive to interviewer behavior during forensic interviews. The way an interviewer asks a question about a past event can affect the accuracy of the interviewee’s responses. For example, an interviewer may ask a question including co-witness information (e.g., “Your friend said there were two people in the car. Is that true?) or ask a suggestive question (e.g., “There were two people in the car, right?). These kinds of questions can produce more inaccurate responses than open-ended questions (e.g., “How many people were in the car?”). The interviewer’s reactions to the answers to their questions also affects future responding. Responding positively to incorrect answers and negatively to correct answers lowers the overall accuracy of responding in an analog interview.
Despite the numerous studies that have been conducted in this area, very few of them have explored individuals’ sensitivity to these questioning approaches. Most research in this area has been conducted using large-n group designs which are ideal for answering some research questions but are not well suited for examining differences on the individual level. Recent research has shown that individuals respond differently to the behavior of the interviewer. For example, some people may be very sensitive to questions including co-witness information, but others are unaffected.
Dr. Joslyn’s lab explores individual differences and idiosyncratic responding during analog forensic interviews. REU students will have the opportunity to lead research projects examining different variables affecting the accuracy of responding to questions in analog forensic interviews.
Dr. Andy Lattal’s Laboratory
Behavioral Contrast
Behavior is affected not only by events that happen directly to it, but also by things that happen in other seemingly unrelated circumstances. If, for example, a response in situation A is no longer reinforced, behavior in that situation decreases. The effects, however, often “carry over” to another situation, B, even though nothing has changed in B. An increase in responding in situation B as behavior in situation A decreases illustrates something called “behavioral contrast.” In our laboratory, we will study behavioral contrast by reinforcing key pecking of pigeons first in situations A and B. We then will extinguish responding in situation A by discontinuing food delivery for key pecking and look at the effects on responding in unchanged situation B under two conditions. In different conditions, we will either abruptly or gradually eliminate food for key pecking in situation A and compare the effects of the two food-elimination procedures on pecking in situation B. In these comparisons our broader interest is in how sudden and gradual changes in circumstances affect behavior, a question with many implications for human behavior.
Subjects/Participants: Pigeons
Requirements/Restrictions: None beyond CITI training
Visit Dr. Lattal’s website to learn more about Andy and his research.