US-Federal Republic of Germany Cooperative Research on      "Transitive Inference" in Animals and Humans (Behavioral    Science)
{'Code': '01090000', 'Directorate': {'Abbreviation': 'O/D', 'LongName': 'Office Of The Director'}, 'Division': {'Abbreviation': 'OISE', 'LongName': 'Office Of Internatl Science &Engineering'}}
{'SignBlockName': 'Christine French', 'PO_EMAI': None, 'PO_PHON': None}
This award supports Professor John E. R. Staddon of Duke University to          collaborate in behavioral research with Professor Juan D. Delius of the         Department of Social Sciences of the University of Konstanz, Federal            Republic of Germany.  They are interested in the "transitive inference"         paradigm, a form of serial learning task in which subjects are given            information about the relative values of stimuli presented in pairs,            and then asked to infer the relation between novel pairs.  In their             research, they plan to investigate the mechanisms used by several               different species to solve this task.  They are considering a number            of theories ("associative linkage", "rule stack", and "inference                engine") that could account for successful solution of the serial               learning problem.  In addition, Dr. Staddon has developed a novel               theory ("value transfer") that seems capable of describing many of the          experimental results in Dr. Delius' laboratory, as well as others in            the literature.  They will collaborate in a set of new experiments              designed to compare the four theories, then focus further experimental          effort on the details of the most successful theory.  Dr. Staddon has           an outstanding reputation for formulating and experimentally testing            formal models that explain complex adaptive behaviors of animals in             terms of simple rules.  His contributions to the collaborative research         will be theoretical expertise, experimental design and some experimen-          tal work.  Dr. Delius is internationally recognized for his studies of          comparative cognition.  His laboratory and research team are excellently        equipped to train pigeons in complex tasks in ecologically valid                environments.  Most of the experimental work will be carried out there.                                                                                         Recent research by these investigators and others suggests that animals         are able to solve tasks traditionally held to require deductive logic.          These results raise important questions about the phylogenetic                  distribution of reasoning and its underlying mechanisms.  Drs. Staddon          and Delius do not assume that success in serial learning tasks is               positive proof of an ability to reason logically using cognitive                representations.  Instead, they propose to examine four different               mechanisms that could account for success in the transitive inference           task without recourse to symbolic reasoning.
{'FirstName': 'John E. R.', 'LastName': 'Staddon', 'PI_MID_INIT': None, 'PI_SUFX_NAME': None, 'PI_FULL_NAME': 'John E. R. Staddon', 'EmailAddress': 'staddon@psych.duke.edu', 'NSF_ID': '000246399', 'StartDate': '05/01/1989', 'EndDate': None, 'RoleCode': 'Principal Investigator'}
{'Name': 'Duke University', 'CityName': 'DURHAM', 'ZipCode': '277054640', 'PhoneNumber': '9196843030', 'StreetAddress': '2200 W MAIN ST', 'StreetAddress2': None, 'CountryName': 'United States', 'StateName': 'North Carolina', 'StateCode': 'NC', 'CONGRESSDISTRICT': '04', 'CONGRESS_DISTRICT_ORG': 'NC04', 'ORG_UEI_NUM': 'TP7EK8DZV6N5', 'ORG_LGL_BUS_NAME': 'DUKE UNIVERSITY', 'ORG_PRNT_UEI_NUM': None}
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{'Code': '5936', 'Text': 'GERMANY (F.R.G.)'}
{'url': 'https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/download?DownloadFileName=1988&All=true', 'xml': '8822910.xml'}