Awards

National Academies - 2003

American Association for the Advancement of Science

About William D. Timberlake

Professor William Timberlake studied animal behavior and learning behavior theory; regulatory processes; behavior systems analyses of learning; circadian anticipation of food and addictive drugs; neural bases of general search behavior; and time horizons. He received his BA from Pomona College, MA from the University of Michigan, and PhD from the University of Michigan.

Dr. Timberlake studied learning and behavior within a general framework of behavior systems that calls attention to overall functional organization and evolutionary history as well as local mechanisms of processing and regulation. Dr. Timberlake's long-term goal was an approach sufficiently general to apply across species and sufficiently specific to make contact with the evolution and genetic makeup of particular species and individuals. Specific research topics include patterns of regulation in feeding and drinking, circadian and ultradian behavioral rhythms, time horizons in foraging, the interaction of conditioning and regulatory processes in feeding, Pavlovian conditioning as a tool for investigating the structures and processes underlying the appetitive-consummatory dimension of behavior, backward conditioning and system differences in learning and regulation. For reasons of history and convenience, most work involved rats and pigeons.

He passed away on October 17, 2019.