Department of psychology

About the DepartmentDepartment Resources For Our Alumni & Friends Participate in Research

Stephen B. Fountain , Ph.D.

Education: Ph.D., The Johns Hopkins University (1981)

Research Interests

I do research on the behavioral and brain processes that give animals, including humans, the ability to organize complex behavior. Research in my laboratory can be described as "comparative cognition," though some studies also explore the neural basis of complex behavior through psychobiological techniques and computer simulations of cognitive processes.  Current research in the lab also explores the role of cholinergic and glutamatergic systems in cognition, including studies examining the effects of adolescent nicotine exposure on adult cognitive processes.

Lab Site: Animal Cognition and Neuroscience Laboratory

Courses Frequently Taught

• Basic Learning Processes (undergraduate)
• Animal Cognition (undergraduate)
• Introduction to Learning Core (graduate)
• Comparative Cognition (graduate)
• Connectionism and Neural Networks (graduate)
  

Recent Publications

Wallace, D. G., & Fountain, S. B.  (2002).   What is learned in sequential learning?  An associative model of reward magnitude serial-pattern learning.  Journal of Experimental Psychology: Animal Behavior Processes, 28, 43-63.

Wallace, D. G., & Fountain, S. B. (2003). An associative model of rat serial pattern learning in three-element sequences. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology Section B: Comparative and Physiological Psychology, 56, 301-320.

Fountain, S. B. (2006). The structure of sequential behavior. In E. A. Wasserman and T. R. Zentall (Eds.), Comparative Cognition: Experimental Explorations of Animal Intelligence (pp. 439-458). Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Fountain, S. B., & Benson, D. M. (2006). Chunking, rule leaning, and multiple item memory in rat interleaved serial pattern learning. Learning and Motivation, 37, 95-112.

Fountain, S. B., Rowan, J. D., & Carman, H. M.  (2007).  Encoding structural ambiguity in rat serial pattern learning: The role of phrasing.  International Journal of Comparative Psychology, 20, 25-34.

Wallace, D. G., Rowan, J. D., & Fountain, S. B.  (2008).  Determinants of phrasing effects in rat serial pattern learning.  Animal Cognition, 11, 199-214.  DOI 10.1007/s10071-007-0110-7.

Fountain, S. B. (2008).  Pattern structure and rule induction in sequential learning. Comparative Cognition & Behavior Reviews, 3, 66-85.

Fountain, S. B., Rowan, J. D., Kelley, B. M., Willey, A. R., & Nolley, E. P.  (2008).  Adolescent nicotine impairs adult serial pattern learning in rats.  Experimental Brain Research, 187, 651-656.