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Michael Domjan, Ph.D.
Professor

VITA Email:domjan@psy.utexas.edu Phone: 471-7702 Lab: 471-6529 Office: SEA 4.232 Lab: ARC 2.138 Sexual Conditoning Laboratory Imaging Research Center See also Behavioral Neuroscience

During most of my career, I have been studying behavioral mechanisms of learning, primarily in animals. I have been interested in adaptive specializations and functional approaches to learning. I first studied these issues in taste aversion learning and then developed an extensive program of work to study sexual conditioning. That research involved exploring conventional learning phenomena in the sexual behavior system in an effort to evaluate the generality of learning mechanisms. It also involved exploring ways in which learning is involved in how animals respond to species typical cues or sign stimuli. This latter line of work is revealing how learning can be involved in ecologically relevant situations.

From 1999 to 2005 I served as Chair of the Psychology Department and was then appointed Director of the newly established Imaging Research Center (IRC) at the University. In addition to taking care of administrative aspects of the IRC, I am learning about Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) and hope to conduct experiments on the neural mechanisms of learning in people using MRI.

Books

Domjan, M. The principles of learning and behavior: Active learning edition. Belmont, CA: Thomson/Wadsworth, 2006.

Domjan, M. Principles of learning and behavior. 5th edition. Belmont, CA: Thomson/Wadsworth, 2003.

Domjan, M. Essentials of conditioning and learning. 3rd edition. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth/Thompson Learning, 2005.

Recent Papers

Domjan, M. (1998). Going wild in the laboratory: Learning about species typical cues. In D. L. Medin (Ed.), The Psychology of Learning and Motivation (vol. 38, pp. 155-186). San Diego: Academic Press.

Domjan, M., & Holloway, K. S. (1998). Sexual learning. In G. Greenberg and M. M. Haraway (Eds.), Comparative psychology: A handbook. (pp. 602-613). New York: Garland.

Cusato, B., & Domjan, M. (1998). Special efficacy of sexual conditioned stimuli that include species typical cues: Tests with a CS preexposure design. Learning and Motivation, 29, 152-167.

Domjan, M., Blesbois, E., & Williams, J. (1998). The adaptive significance of sexual conditioning: Pavlovian control of sperm release. Psychological Science, 9, 411-415.

Köksal, F., & Domjan, M. (1998). Observational conditioning of sexual behavior in the domesticated quail. Animal Learning & Behavior, 26, 427-432.

Burns, M., & Domjan, M. (2000). Sign tracking in domesticated quail with one trial a day. Generality across CS and US parameters. Animal Learning & Behavior, 28, 109-119.

Domjan, M., Cusato, B., & Villarreal, R. (2000). Pavlovian Feed-Forward Mechanisms in the Control of Social Behavior. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 23, 235-249. (Target Article).

Domjan, M. (2000). Animal learning and behavior: Theoretical issues. In A. E. Kazdin (Ed.), Encyclopedia of Psychology, Vol. 1 (pp. 179-182). Washington, D.C./New York: American Psychological Association and Oxford University Press.

Domjan, M. (2000). Sexual conditioning. In A. E. Kazdin (Ed.), Encyclopedia of Psychology, Vol. 7 (pp.241-242). Washington, D.C./New York: American Psychological Association and Oxford University Press.

Cusato, B., & Domjan, M. (2000). Facilitation of appetitive conditioning with naturalistic conditioned stimuli: CS and US factors. Animal Learning and Behavior, 28, 247-256.

Domjan, M. (2002). Cognitive modulation of sexual behavior. In M. Bekoff & C. Allen (Eds.) The cognitive animal. (pp. 89-95). Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

Domjan, M., & Krause, M. A. (2002). Research productivity in animal learning from 1953-2000. Animal Learning & Behavior, 30, 282-285.

Domjan, M. (2003). Stepping out of the box in considering the C/T ratio. Behavioural Processes, 62, 103-114.

Domjan, M., Mahometa, M., & Mills, A. D. (2003). Relative contributions of the male and female to sexual behavior and reproductive success in the Japanese quail (Coturnix japonica). Journal of Comparative Psychology, 117, 391-399.

Krause, M. A., Cusato, B., & Domjan, M. (2003). Extinction of conditioned sexual responses in male Japanese quail (Coturnix japonica): Role of species typical cues. Journal of Comparative Psychology, 117, 76-86.

Köksal, F., Domjan, M., Kurt, A., Sertel, Ö., Sabiha, Ö., Bowers, R., & Kumru, G. (2004). An animal model of fetishism. Behavioural Research and Therapy, 42, 1421-1434.

Domjan, M., Cusato, B., & Krause, M. (2004). Learning with arbitrary versus ecological conditioned stimuli: Evidence from sexual conditioning. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 11, 232-246.

Mahometa, M. J., & Domjan, M. (2005). Classical conditioning increases reproductive success in Japanese quail, Coturnix japonica. Animal Behaviour, 69, 983-989. 

Domjan, M. (2005). Pavlovian conditioning: A functional perspective. Annual Review of Psychology, 56, 179-206.

Domjan, M. (2006). Ecological and functional perspectives on Pavlovian conditioning. In Q. Jing, M. R. Rosenzweig, G. d'Ydewalle, H. Zhang, H.-C. Chen, and K. Zhang (Eds.) Psychological science around the world. Vol. 1: Neural, cognitive, and developmental issues. Psychology Press.

Domjan, M., & Can, A. (2006). Sexual conditioning methods: Theoretical and practical considerations. In M. J. Anderson (Ed.), Tasks and techniques: A sampling of the methodologies for the investigation of animal learning, behavior, and cognition. Hauppauge, NY: Nova.

Çetinkaya, H., & Domjan, M. (2006). Sexual fetishism in a quail (Coturnix japonica) model system: Test of reproductive success. Journal of Comparative Psychology, 120, 427-432.

Matthews, R. N., Domjan, M., Ramsey, M., & Crews, D. (2007). Learning effects on sperm competition and reproductive fitness. Psychological Science, 18, 758-762.