ABSTRACT

About 1970 the first author decided to devote the future efforts of his laboratory to the study of the substrates of associative learning and memory in the mammalian brain — to continue Lashley's search for the engram. Selection of the best and most appropriate behavioral paradigm was of critical importance. Many were considered and a few explored in more detail. Thanks in significant part to the elegant and extensive behavioral studies by Gormezano and his associates on classical conditioning of the rabbit nictitating membrane (NM) response, we selected it as our basic paradigm. Special thanks are due M. M. Patterson, who received his Ph.D. with Gormezano in 1969 and then held a postdoctoral fellowship in our laboratory. He proselytized the rabbit NM paradigm most persuasively. The conditioned eyelid response in the rabbit (both eyelid and NM become conditioned together in an essentially identical fashion, as described later) has also been used to very good effect in analysis of basic theoretical issues in learning (e. g., Donegan & Wagner, Chapter 13; Wagner, 1969, 1971, 1981).