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Randy Gallistel

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 B409
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

Gallistel, C.R., & King, A. (2009) Memory and the computational brain: Why cognitive science will transform neuroscience . New York: Blackwell/Wiley

Cordes, S., Gallistel, C.R., Gelman, R., & Latham, P. (2007) Nonverbal arithmetic in humans: Light from noise. Perception & Psychophysics, 69,1185-1203

Gallistel, C.R. (2009) The foundational abstractions. In Piattelli-Palmirini, M, Uriagereka, J.., & Salaburu, P. (Eds) Of minds and language: A dialogue with Noam Chomsky in the Basque country. New York: Oxford University Press. pp. 58-73

Gallistel, C.R. (2008) Learning and representation. In R. Menzel (Ed) Learning theory and behavior. Vol 1 of Learning and Memory - A Comprehensive Reference. 4 vols (J. Byrne, Ed). Oxford: Elsevier. pp/ 227-242.

Leslie, A., Gelman, R., & Gallistel, C.R. (2008) The generative basis of natural number concepts. Trends in Cognitive Science,R 12(6), 213-218

Cordes, S. & Gallistel, C.R. (2008) Intact interval timing in circadian CLOCK mutants. Brain Research,R 1227, 120-127.

Balsam, P.D., & Gallistel, C.R. (2009) Temporal maps and informativeness in associative learning. Trends in NeurosciencesR, 32(2), 73-78

Balci, F., Allen, B. D., Frank, K., Gibson, J., Gallistel, C. R., & Brunner, D. (2009). Acquisition of timed responses in the peak procedure. Behavioral ProcessesR, 80, 67-75.

Gallistel, C.R. (2009, April) The importance of proving the null. Psychological ReviewR

Balci, F., Freestone, D., Gallistel, C.R. (2009, Feb) Risk assessment in man and mouse. Proceedings of the National Academy of SciencesR

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

Fellow, Sage Mind Institute, UC, Santa Barbara, Mid May-June, 2008
Warren Medal of the Society of Experimental Psychologists 2006
William James Fellow of the American Psychological Society2006
Member National Academy of Sciences (USA) 2002
Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences 2001
Fellow, Society of Experimental Psychologists
Teuber Lecturer MIT 2006
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 of the American Association for the Advancement of Science