Understanding the cognitive processes underlying representational behavior in non-human animals is a fundamental topic of research in comparative psychology. This study investigated whether pigeons (Columba livia) could generate structured, line-based representations of visual stimuli in a controlled laboratory setting. Using a touchscreen-based paradigm, pigeons were systematically trained to replicate spatial configurations of points and connections from a reference display onto a separate response area. The research design involved a forwards-chain reinforcement protocol to shape pigeons’ ability to encode and reproduce spatial relationships, with measures including latency, trial duration, pecking accuracy, and choice accuracy. This study contributed to psychological theories of perception, motor planning, and representational cognition, offering insights into the cognitive mechanisms that support structured mark-making behavior in non-human species. Moreover, understanding how pigeons process and reproduce spatial relationships can inform broader theories of visual cognition across species, shedding light on fundamental cognitive processes that may be shared among diverse taxa. By integrating rigorous behavioral experimentation with refined quantitative analysis, this research provided a novel framework for exploring visual-spatial cognition and its broader implications for comparative psychology and the evolutionary underpinnings of symbolic processing.

Opioid use disorder (OUD) has a high comorbidity with chronic pain and a high relapse rate. Opioid place preference and its reinstatement can be studied in rodents using conditioned place preference (CPP) models. Previous work in the lab has established the ability of mice to gain a conditioned preference for the context in which they were administered opioids. Additionally, it was found that female mice with chronic constriction injury (CCI) are more susceptible to reinstatement of opioid place preference induced by a kappa opioid receptor agonist, and only CCI female mice showed stress-induced reinstatement. We are currently testing the effect of JDTic (a long-acting kappa opioid receptor antagonist) on stress-induced reinstatement of opioid place preference in CCI female mice. Mice were conditioned in a three-chamber CPP apparatus: 2 identical chambers had unique contextual features, and the 3rd was neutral. We paired each unique chamber with either drug or saline. We extinguished this association in the mice, administered JDTic, and then did a forced-swim test to see if any mice showed stress-induced reinstatement. We expect all mice administered JDTic will not show stress-induced reinstatement, showing that the KOR is necessary for reinstatement, and only the CCI females given saline will show stress-induced reinstatement. Understanding reinstatement mechanisms in chronic pain female mice who are administered opioids can show how cues influence behavior in chronic pain humans with substance use disorders.

Neuroimaging studies show individuals with similar perspectives on the world demonstrate greater degrees of neural synchrony, a measure of similarity of neural responses over time. This research examines if education, specifically Gender Studies, can transform students’ interpretation of the social world, as measured by neural synchrony. The sample includes students enrolled in an Introductory Gender Studies class, a control sample from an Introductory Linguistics class, and Gender Studies majors and minors. Participants watch clips depicting gender role socialization, body image issues, and other gendered social experiences. They are asked to verbally recall everything from the clip and complete a 20-item knowledge assessment. Functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS), a brain imaging technique that measures changes in blood oxygenation via near-infrared light, will be used to measure changes in brain activity and determine the degree of similarity between participants’ neural patterns. Additionally, semantic analysis will compare how the participants’ cognitive representations of concepts affect the language used to describe the clips. We predict that Gender Studies students will show increased neural synchrony and semantic similarity over time. We do not expect this effect in Linguistics students as the lack of course-relevant stimuli may limit neurocognitive processing. This is important to understanding how education can unify cognitive processes across people.