Behavioral Neuroscience

Deborah Watson

		Graduate Student  -  Primary Advisor: Mark E. Stanton Research Interests Recent Publications   dwatson@psych.udel.edu Office: 129 Wolf Hall (302) 831-6098 (302) 831-3645 -fax Lab: 132 Wolf Hall (302) 831-0687 Preferred contact method - email

Research Interests

Learning and Memory, Neurobiological developmental disorders

Research Summary:

My current research primarily focuses on developmental neurological disorders, such as autism and fetal alcohol syndrome. I am interested in how they relate to learning.  I am also interested in using animal models to study these disorders.

There are a variety of learning paradigms that we use in our lab.  One of the most used learning paradigms is eyeblink conditioning.  Eyeblink conditioning is a widely used Pavlovian learning mechanism that can be used in children, adults, and can even be adapted to animals such as rabbits, rats, and mice.  It has been suggested that children with autism and fetal alcohol syndrome have difficultly learning these types of tasks.  We use infant animals at a variety of ages to study these disorders. 

Since my first summer as a graduate student in 2003 I have been awarded two travel awards from the International Society for Developmental Psychobiology, as well as travel awards from the Office of Graduate Studies, and Psychology Department.  My most recent honor was that I was awarded the WISE (Women in Science and Engineering) Future Faculty Development Award from UD’s Commission on the Status of Women.  This award was given to our Psychology department for being successful in their endeavors to hire female faculty.  This award was also given to Melanie Donley and Kelly Johnson.

Recent Publications

D.J. Watson, J.R. Sullivan, J.G. Frank, & M.E. Stanton (2004).  Serial reversal learning of position discrimination in developing rats.  (Manuscript in preparation)

D.J. Watson, J.G. Frank & M.E. Stanton (2004).  Ontogenetic differences in the serial reversal of a position habit in weanling rats.  Poster presented at the annual meeting of the International Society of Developmental Psychobiology, Aix-en-Provence, France.

D.J. Watson, J.G. Frank, & M.E. Stanton (2003).  Serial reversal learning of position discrimination in developing rats.  Poster presented at the annual meeting of the International Society of Developmental Psychobiology, New Orleans, LA.

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