This page is no longer being updated and remains online for informational and historical purposes only. The information is accurate as of the last page update.
For questions about page contents, contact the Communications Division.
“I enjoy the experiments. I’m interested in the aspects of psychology that are empirical, and the most empirical area of psychology is behaviorism,” says Matt, a junior double major in psychology and American Studies from New Providence, N.J., and a graduate of New Providence High School. “It’s the kind of opportunity you have at Lafayette that you would not have at another school — a chance to work one-on-one with a professor and get published.”
Matt Sitomer’s research may lead to insights into how to help stop autistic children from harming themselves.
Sitomer is participating in Lafayette’s EXCEL Scholars program, in which students do collaborative research with faculty members and earn a stipend. He is working with Robert W. Allan, associate professor of psychology, to study how pigeons’ behavior can be changed or modified. Modifying the behavior of pigeons can lead to a better understanding of how to modify the behavior of people, including stemming negative behavior.
“I enjoy the experiments,” Sitomer says. “It’s fascinating. I’m interested in the aspects of psychology that are empirical and the most empirical area of psychology is behaviorism, which is studied through animal study. It’s very rewarding.”
Sitomer says project involves the interplay between classical and operant conditioning.
Classical conditioning is the association between two stimuli. An example is the famous experiment by Ivan Petrovich Pavlov, the Nobel Prize-winning Russian physiologist and experimental psychologist, in which dogs fed when a bell rang began to drool whenever the bell rang, even if they were not given food.
Operant conditioning is the association between one’s action and the response received for that action. For instance, a dog who is fed when it barks becomes conditioned to bark when it wants food.
Allan has done research with pigeons and a light that gets brighter over a 30-second period. At the end of the period, pigeons get to eat. After several run-throughs, the pigeons begin to peck at the light, and they peck more and more as it gets brighter.
Then Allan and Sitomer try to change how the pigeons are acting. The more the pigeons peck, the longer the reward, the food, will be delayed.
“You’re reinforcing them not to peck, which is very difficult to do,” Sitomer says. “It could be applied to behavior modification with patients who are self-punishers.”
Sitomer is also working on an honors thesis with pigeons and a touch-sensitive computer screen. A dot moves across the screen left to right, and when it reaches the right, the pigeons receive food. If they peck at the dot, it will move to the left instead of the right, also delaying their reward.
“It’s the kind of opportunity you have at Lafayette that you would not have at another school,” Sitomer says. “It’s a chance to work one-on-one with a professor and get published.”
Sitomer does everything from keeping track of data to giving the pigeons food and water and helping clean their cages. He also helped Allan write the computer program to move the dot across the screen.
“He’s a great student,” Allan says. “One of the best I’ve had.”
Another Side of Matt
As a Writing Associate in the College Writing Program, he helps other students with their writing assignments. He is a member of Lafayette’s varsity track and field team and plays baritone sax in the Jazz Ensemble.