Adaptive Behavior and Learning

Summarizes the current state of both theoretical and experimental knowledge about learning in animals.

J. E. R. Staddon (Author)

9781107442900, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 7 March 2016

611 pages, 208 b/w illus. 5 tables
24.6 x 17.3 x 2.7 cm, 1.22 kg

'… a remarkable contribution that will appeal to a broad range of scientists.' Andrea S. Griffin, The Quarterly Review of Biology

Every day at about 4:30, Jazz, a Hungarian Vizsla dog, leaps up on the sofa and looks out for his owner who always comes home at 5:00. He doesn't need an internal clock because he has an acute sense of smell that allows him to measure how long his master has been absent. Explaining complex behavior in simple ways, this book is a fascinating exploration of the evolution, development and processes of learning in animals. Now in its second edition, there is increased emphasis on development, evolution and dynamics; new accounts of taxic orientation, reflex induction, habituation and operant learning in organisms; more discussion of spatial learning and the processes underlying it; expanded chapters on choice and completely new chapters on molar laws, classical conditioning theories and comparative cognition. J. E. R. Staddon provides a definitive summary of contemporary theoretical understanding suitable for graduates and advanced undergraduates.

1. The evolution, development, and modification of behavior
2. Variation and selection: kineses
3. Reflexes
4. Direct orientation and feedback
5. Operant behavior
6. Reward and punishment
7. Feeding regulation: a model motivational system
8. The optimal allocation of behavior
9. Choice: dynamics and decision rules
10. Foraging and behavioral ecology
11. Stimulus control and cognition
12. Stimulus control and performance
13. Molar laws
14. Time and memory, I
15. Time and memory, II
16. Template learning
17. Learning, I
18. Models of classical conditioning
19. Learning, II
20. Learning, III: procedures
21. Comparative cognition.

Subject Areas: Animal behaviour [PSVP], Neurosciences [PSAN], Cognition & cognitive psychology [JMR], Physiological & neuro-psychology, biopsychology [JMM]