Brain Research Institute

Aaron Blaisdell, Ph.D.

Email Address:
blaisdell at psych.ucla.edu

Work Address:
Office
Franz Hall
Los Angeles, CA 90095
UNITED STATES

Fax Number:
310-206-5895
Work Phone Number:
310-267-4589
310-267-4590

Department / Division Affiliations

Associate Professor, Psychology

Member, Neuroscience Graduate Program, Brain Research Institute

Bio:

After receiving his BA and MA in Biological Anthropology, Dr. Blaisdell realized that animal cognition was even more interesting than dead humans. So he trecked on over to SUNY Binghamton for his Ph.D. in Experimental Psychology with Ralph Miller, where he studied learning, memory, and temporal cognition in the rat. This was followed by a brief stint as an NRSA Postdoctoral Fellow with Robert Cook, and expert on Avian Visual Cognition at Tufts University, where he learned how pigeons perceive and think about the world. Since 2001, Dr. Blaisdell has emigrated to the climatological and cultural paradise of sunny LA as Assistant Professor in Learning & Behavior in the UCLA Psychology Department. He presides over a rat and pigeon lab where he studies Animal Cognition.

Publications:

Blaisdell, A. P. Mechanism through methodology: No madness in the method. International Journal of Comparative Psychology 2005; 18: 23-27.
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Denniston, J. C., Savastano, H. I., Blaisdell, A. P., & Miller, R. R. Cue competition as a retrieval deficit.. Learning and Motivation. 2003; 34: 1-31.
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Blaisdell, A. P. Proteus caught in a (neural) net. Review of Animal learning and cognition: A neural network approach. Nestor A. Schmajuk.. Journal of Mathematical Psychology. 2003; 47: 229-234.
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Cook, R. G., Shaw, R., & Blaisdell, A. P. Dynamic Object Perception by Pigeons: Discrimination of Action in Video Presentations.. Animal Cognition. 2001; 4: 137-146.
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Blaisdell, A.P., Denniston, J. C., & Miller, R. R. Recovery from the Overexpectation Effect: Contrasting Performance-focused and Acquisition-focused Models of Retrospective Revaluation.. Animal Learning & Behavior. 2001; 29: 367-380.
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Blaisdell, A.P., Denniston, J. C., Savastano, H. I., & Miller, R. R. Counterconditioning of an Overshadowed Cue Attenuates Overshadowing of Aversive Associations.. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Animal Behavior Processes. 2000; 26: 74-86.
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Blaisdell, A. P., Savastano, H. I., & Miller, R. R. Overshadowing of Explicitly Unpaired Conditioned Inhibition is Disrupted by Preexposure to the Overshadowed Inhibitor.. Animal Learning & Behavior. 1999; 27: 346-357.
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Blaisdell, A. P., Gunther, L. M., & Miller, R. R. Recovery from Blocking Achieved by Extinguishing the Blocking CS.. Animal Learning & Behavior. 1999; 27: 63-76.
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Friedman, B., Blaisdell, A. P., Escobar, M. E., & Miller, R. R. Comparator Mechanisms and Conditioned Inhibition: CS Preexposure Disrupts Pavlovian Conditioned Inhibition but not Explicitly Unpaired Inhibition.. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Animal Behavior Processes. 1998; 24: 453-466.
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Denniston, J. C., Blaisdell, A. P., & Miller, R. R. Temporal Coding Affects Transfer of Serial and Simultaneous Inhibitors.. Animal Learning & Behavior. 1998; 26: 336-350.
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Blaisdell, A.P., Denniston, J. C., & Miller, R. R. Temporal Encoding as a Determinant of Overshadowing.. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Animal Behavior Processes. 1998; 24: 72-83.
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Blaisdell, A.P., Denniston, J. C., & Miller, R. R. Unblocking with Qualitative Change of Unconditioned Stimulus.. Learning and Motivation. 1997; 28: 268-279.
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Blaisdell, A. P., Sawa, K., Leising, K. J., & Waldmann, M. R. Causal reasoning in rats. Science. 2006; 311: 1020-1022.

Sawa, K Leising, KJ Blaisdell, AP Sensory preconditioning in spatial learning using a touch screen task in pigeons.. Journal of experimental psychology. Animal behavior processes. . 2005; 31(3): 368-75.
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Cook, RG Levison, DG Gillett, SR Blaisdell, AP Capacity and limits of associative memory in pigeons.. Psychonomic bulletin & review. . 2005; 12(2): 350-8.
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Blaisdell, AP Cook, RG Two-item same-different concept learning in pigeons.. Learning & behavior : a Psychonomic Society publication. . 2005; 33(1): 67-77.
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Blaisdell, AP Cook, RG Integration of spatial maps in pigeons.. Animal cognition. . 2005; 8(1): 7-16.
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Denniston, JC Blaisdell, AP Miller, RR Temporal coding in conditioned inhibition: analysis of associative structure of inhibition.. Journal of experimental psychology. Animal behavior processes. . 2004; 30(3): 190-202.
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Chang, RC Blaisdell, AP Miller, RR Backward conditioning: mediation by the context.. Journal of experimental psychology. Animal behavior processes. . 2003; 29(3): 171-83.
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Blaisdell, AP Miller, RR Conditioned inhibition produced by extinction-mediated recovery from the relative stimulus validity effect: a test of acquisition and performance models of empirical retrospective revaluation.. Journal of experimental psychology. Animal behavior processes. . 2001; 27(1): 48-58.
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Blaisdell, AP Denniston, JC Miller, RR Posttraining shifts in the overshadowing stimulus-unconditioned stimulus interval alleviates the overshadowing deficit.. Journal of experimental psychology. Animal behavior processes. . 1999; 25(1): 18-27.
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Blaisdell, AP Bristol, AS Gunther, LM Miller, RR Overshadowing and latent inhibition counteract each other: support for the comparator hypothesis.. Journal of experimental psychology. Animal behavior processes. . 1998; 24(3): 335-51.
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