Our primary interest is in learning and the evolution of intelligence. We work mostly with honeybees, whose performance in a wide range of learning situations proves to be closely similar to that of vertebrates despite the remoteness of the evolutionary relationship and the vast differences in brain size and organization; broad functional convergence is indicated. In work with pigeons and fish, our primary concern is with the development of quantitative theories of learning that permit exact rather than merely ordinal predictions of experimental outcomes.

Couvillon, P.A., Hsiung, R., Cooke, A.M. & Bitterman, M.E. (2005). The role of context in the inhibitory conditioning of honeybees. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 58B, 59-67.

Blaser, R. E., Couvillon, P.A. & Bitterman, M.E. (2006) Blocking and pseudoblocking in honeybees. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 59, 68-76.

Bitterman, M. E. Classical conditioning since Pavlov. Review of General Psychology, in press.