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kirkpatrick_kimberly

Kimberly Kirkpatrick, P.h.D

 

Contact Information

Office: BH 413

Phone: 532-0805

E-mail: kirkpatr@ksu.edu

Research Interests

I received my Ph.D. in Psychology from the University of Iowa in 1995 under the supervision of Professor Edward A. Wasserman. My dissertation examined the role of spatial and feature-based information in pigeon visual perception. I then moved to Brown University in 1996, where I worked as a Post-doctoral fellow with Professor Russell M. Church examining the role of timing processes in classical conditioning paradigms. My research was funded in part by an NRSA from the NIH during this time. After leaving Brown in 2000, I established the York Timing Laboratory at the University of York, UK, where I spend 8 years as a faculty member. I moved from York to Kansas State in 2008.

The main line of research in my laboratory is the role of timing and reward processes in determining choice in temporal discounting tasks in rats. This research is progressing along a number of different routes including examining interactions between timing and reward processing, examining the effect of pharmacological interventions on timing and choice behavior, and assessing the role of reward processing neural substrates such as the nucleus accumbens core in timing and choice paradigms. We are also conducting some investigations of strain-related differences in discounting paradigms to determine the source of differences in levels of impulsivity among different strains of rats. And, I recently received an RO1 grant from the NIMH to investigate targeted therapeutic interventions to treat impulsivity in our rat model. I am interested in developing this line of research into a translational environment for application to humans. We are also currently beginning work on a new neurocomputational model of timing, reward processing and temporal discounting.

My secondary line or research stems from my PhD work on avian visual cognition. I am currently collaborating with Dr. Les Loschky examining scene gist perception in pigeons in comparable tasks to what his laboratory have employed with humans. Scene gist is the context of a scene and this information is processed rapidly and automatically in humans. Pigeons are also capable of rapid scene gist categorization and we are currently investigating whether the mechanisms of scene gist in the pigeon are shared with humans and are examining the relative contributions of evolutionary history vs. experience on aspects of scene gist formation.

 

Student Involvement

Undergraduate and graduate students working in my laboratory are involved in all aspects of the research process. Depending upon the students’ interest, they can learn neurobiological techniques such as injections and stereotaxic surgery in addition to obtaining a strong grounding in behavioral analysis. Students will learn how to design projects, analyze data, write computer programs, and will be given the opportunity to contribute to the publication of the results and the writing of grants for funding of the research. Students are also encouraged to attend scientific meetings to present their research. I am open to supervising a multitude of possible projects that relate to the general areas described above and am also interested in developing new ideas based on the interests of potential students. In general, graduate students are funded on research assistantships with federal grants when money is available or through departmental graduate teaching assistantships. I can be contacted by e-mail (kirkpatr@ksu.edu) or telephone (785-532-0805) by students who are interested in conducting research in my laboratory.

 

Current Graduate Students

Angela Crumer

Ana Garcia

Andrew Marshall

 

Grant Funding (last 5 years)

  • National Institutes of Mental Health, Timing, reward processing, and choice, $875,000, 2010-2015
  • Kansas State University, University Research Small Grant, Differential rearing effects on novelty-seeking, impulsive action, and impulsive choice, $4000, 2010
  • National Science Foundation, ADVANCE Distinguished Lecture Series, $1200, 2009
  • Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (UK), International Scientific Interchange Scheme, Neurobiology of timing and reward value, £3000, 2007
  • The Leverhulme Trust, Study Abroad Fellowship, The neurobiology of time perception, £11,000, 2007
  • Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (UK), PI on Project Grant, Reward value effects on reward timing, £311,000, 2007-2009
  • The Royal Society, Conference Grant to attend The 13th International Conference on Comparative Cognition, £800, 2006
  • Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (UK), PI on Project Grant, The role of the basolateral nucleus of the amygdala in the acquisition of timing: neural and psychological processes, £186,000, 2005-2008

 

Recent Publications (*indicates student co-author)

  • *Russell, R., & Kirkpatrick, K. (2007). The role of temporal generalization in a temporal discrimination task. Behavioural Processes, 74, 115-125.
  • Kirkpatrick, K., *Wilkinson, A., & *Johnston, S. (2007). Pigeons discriminate continuous vs. discontinuous line segments. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Animal Behavior Processes, 33, 273-286.
  • Jennings, D. J., Bonardi, C., & Kirkpatrick, K. (2007). Overshadowing and stimulus duration. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Animal Behavior Processes, 33, 464-475.
  • *Wilkinson, A., & Kirkpatrick, K. (2009). Visually-guided capture of a moving stimulus by the pigeon (Columba livia). Animal Cognition, 12, 127-144.
  • *Galtress, T. & Kirkpatrick, K. (2009). Reward value effects on timing in the peak procedure. Learning and Motivation, 40, 109-131.
  • Pizzo, M. J., Kirkpatrick, K., & Blundell, P. J. (2009). The effect of changes in criterion value on differential reinforcement of low rate schedule performance. Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior, 92, 181-198.
  • *Galtress, T., & Kirkpatrick, K. (2010). The role of the nucleus accumbens core in impulsive choice, timing, and reward processing, Behavioral Neuroscience, 124, 26-43.
  • *Galtress, T., & Kirkpatrick, K. (2010). Reward magnitude effects on temporal discrimination, Learning and Motivation, 41, 108-124.
  • *Wilkinson, A., & Kirkpatrick, K. (2010). Tracking and capture of a constant vs. varying velocity stimulus in pigeons and humans. Animal Cognition.