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For information about joining the Animal Behavior and Psycho-Pharmacology Lab, contact Dr. Mark Galizio or Dr. Kate Bruce.
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Dr. Kate Bruce (Animal Behavior) |
I am an interdisciplinary experimental psychologist and the director of the UNCW Honors College. My main research interests are in the study of comparative cognition, or similarities and differences in learning patterns across species. I collaborate with Mark Galizio to study learning and memory in rats, especially as it relates to evolutionary processes. We use olfactory cues to investigate working and episodic memory. For more info: check out my webpage. In addition, I also have published research on mate choice and social interactions in live-bearing fish (like guppies, mosquitofish, and swordtails). Another research interest is in health psychology; I study attitudes about controversial issues in sexuality (for example, sexually transmitted disease, risky sexual behavior, gender roles and contraceptive risk taking) and have developed a number of attitude survey instruments |
Dr. Mark Galizio (Psychopharmacology) |
My research interests are in psychopharmacology and the experimental analysis of behavior. My students and I are currently working on a project investigating the effects of abused drugs such as MDMA (ecstasy), methamphetamine and methylphenidate (Ritalin) on learning and memory in rats. We use some of the same behavioral procedures to try to determine whether some experimental compounds might be able to enhance learning and memory processes. Currently we are exploring whether drugs that act on various sub-receptors of GABA and acetylcholine systems of the brain might act as “cognitive enhancers”. I also have interests in the field of comparative cognition: seeking the roots of human conceptual behavior in non-humans. Graduate and undergraduate students are active collaborators in all of my research. For more information about my research and for my class web pages please visit my web site. |
