Ruth Melanie Colwill
Associate Professor of Psychology:
Psychology
Phone: +1 401 863 2547
Ruth_Colwill@Brown.EDU
My research uses primarily behavioral methods to examine how information is represented by the animal mind. Topics include animal learning and behavior, early adverse experiences on cognitive development, canine communication systems and aggressive behavior, and environmental enrichment.
Biography
Ruth M. Colwill received her PhD from the University of Cambridge and her BA from the University of York. Her research interests include animal learning and behavior, early adverse experiences on cognitive development, canine communication systems and aggressive behavior, and environmental enrichment.
Interests
My research uses primarily behavioral methods to examine how information is represented by the animal mind. Current areas of research are:
Instrumental learning. One of the most pervasive principles of modern experimental psychology is that behavior is governed by its consequences. One goal of my research has been to determine the extent of an organism's knowledge of the consequences of its acts and the circumstances giving rise to that knowledge. In previous work, I have documented that when multiple outcomes are uniquely correlated with different responses, rats learn which response produces which outcome. Current research is addressing the role of discriminative stimuli in determining instrumental performance.
Pavlovian conditioning. The ability to detect relations between events endows an organism with the knowledge to predict the occurrence of future events. Previous work with pigeons examined the effect of degrading the contingency between a signal and its outcome by additional presentations of either that same outcome or related outcomes during acquisition and extinction. Recent work with mice has focused on their ability to represent higher-order relational information where one event modulates the connection between two other events.
Effects of early experience on cognitive development. My lab in collaboration with the Creton & Kreiling labs is using zebrafish to examine the effects of embryonic exposure to PCBs on neurobehavioral development. My lab has also developed several procedures for studying the effects of in utero exposure to marijuana on executive functions in cognition in the C57BL/6J mouse.
Canid communication. Evidence suggests that animal vocalizations can be used to transmit information about the identity of the sender, information about the motivational or behavioral intent of the sender, and referential information. We have been studying the acoustic structure of canine vocalizations for evidence that pack members produce distinctive sounds that can be used for individual recognition. Other topics include using playback procedures to investigate individual recognition by conspecifics and the deployment of a dynamic intruder classification system.
Dog bite prevention. Dog bites are a prevalent source of injury in the US population. It has been estimated that as many as 4.7 million individuals receive dog bites each year and that almost 800,000 of these individuals require medical attention for their bites Children under the age of 10 years are at greater risk for dog bite injuries compared to the adult population. Children are most likely to be bitten by a familiar dog that is their own dog, a dog owned by a relative, or a friend's family dog. In collaboration with the Injury Prevention Center at RI Hospital, we are testing the effectiveness of a dog bite prevention program (Dog Safety & Literacy Program) developed in my lab for children in grades 1 through 4. I have also developed dog bite prevention programs for adults including letter carriers, social workers, health care professionals, animal control officers and animal shelter volunteers. Information about these programs is available on request.
Environmental enrichment. Enrichment programs are essential for the physical and psychological well being of zoo animals. In collaboration with staff at the Roger Williams Park Zoo, we are developing new enrichment programs and implementing methods to assess the effectiveness of those programs.
Awards
Graduate Student Fellowship, Medical Research Council, United Kingdom
Fellow, Association for Psychological Science
Board of Directors, Eastern Psychological Association
Affiliations
American Psychological Association
Association for Psychological Science, Fellow
Animal Behavior Society
Eastern Psychological Association, Board of Directors (2005-2007)
International Society for Comparative Psychology
Neurobehavioral Teratology Society
RI Animal Welfare Coalition
Teaching
I currently teach a first year seminar (FYS) and an undergraduate laboratory course. Animal Minds (PY19) is a CAP course for first year students and offers a scientific approach to the study of animal cognition and emotion. The Animal Behavior Laboratory (PY145) takes place at Roger Williams Park Zoo and provides students with training in research methods in animal behavior. Other recent courses taught include Topics in Animal Behavior: Canine Behavior (PY175), Animal Cognition (PY180), Animal Learning & Behavior Laboratory (PY120) and a graduate core course in learning and cognition (PY207).
Psychology 0019: Animal Minds (FYS and CAP course).
Psychology 0145: Animal Behavior Laboratory
Funded Research
Principal Investigator (Colwill). (co-PI: J. Michael Walker). A murine model of marijuana-induced executive dysfunction. National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA). (April 2001 – March 2005). $471,000
Principal Investigator (Colwill). Canine behavior project: Intervention and education. Virginia B. Butler grant, RI Foundation. (July 2004 – June 2005). $8,000
Principal Investigator. (Colwill). Canine behavior project: Intervention and education. Virginia B. Butler grant, RI Foundation. (August 2003 – July 2004). $18,000
Principal organizer (Colwill). (co-organizers Professor David Konstan, Classics and Professor John Emigh, Theater, Speech & Dance). The art and science of affective behavior: An interdisciplinary approach to the study of emotion. Wayland Collegium, (2003-2004).
Principal Investigator. (Colwill). Learning and Memory in Bullfrog Tadpoles. Rhode Island Space Foundation Grant. (2000-2001).
Principal Investigator. (Colwill). Associative structures in instrumental learning. National Science Foundation, IBN 9407326 (1994-1997).
Principal Investigator. (Colwill). Collaborative Research: Associations in Instrumental Learning. National Science Foundation IBN 8915342, (1989 1994).
Principal Investigator. (Colwill). Associative Learning in Aplysia californica, National Science Foundation BNS 8922551, (1990 1993).
Principal Investigator (Colwill). Associative Mechanisms in Pavlovian and Instrumental Learning. Biomedical Research Support Grant, Brown University, (1989 1990).
Principal Investigator (Colwill). Dynamics of stimulus outcome learning in rats and humans. Biomedical Research Support Grant, Brown University, (1989 1990).
