Aaron P. Blaisdell

Aaron P. Blaisdell is a Professor and Area Chair of Behavioral Neuroscience in the Department of Psychology at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). He has been a faculty member at UCLA since 2001, following two years as a Postdoctoral fellow in Psychology at Tufts University. His research is conducted through his laboratory, which can be found at pigeonrat.psych.ucla.edu.

Dr. Blaisdell received his educational training at several institutions: a B.A. in Anthropology from SUNY Stony Brook, an M.A. in Anthropology from Kent State University, and a Ph.D. in Psychology with a Behavioral Neuroscience focus from SUNY Binghamton.

His research focuses on the intersection between associative and cognitive processes in animal behavior. Specifically, he investigates how animals build and use representations of their world using Pavlovian and instrumental conditioning procedures. His work addresses questions about causal inferences in rats, rationality in rat behavior, spatial map learning in pigeons, sources of behavioral variability, and the role of variability in problem solving. More recently, he has expanded his research to examine human health and disease from evolutionary and ecological perspectives.

Dr. Blaisdell's research program spans multiple species including rats, pigeons, and hermit crabs, with particular emphasis on comparative approaches to understanding cognition. His laboratory employs various methodologies including traditional conditioning paradigms, touchscreen-operated chambers, and the Automated Remote Environmental Navigation Apparatus (ARENA) for cross-species comparisons.

Throughout his career, Dr. Blaisdell has maintained an active publication record with numerous papers in leading journals across psychology, neuroscience, and animal behavior. His work demonstrates how animal models can inform our understanding of fundamental cognitive processes that may have implications for human cognition and health.