Michael Davison

Phone: +64 9 373 7599 ext 88540
Email: m.davison@auckland.ac.nz
Room: HSB 531
Mobile: 027 448 4912
Office Hours: By appointment

I obtained my B.Sc. (Hons) from Bristol University, and then went to Otago University on a Commonwealth Scholarship to do my PhD. I was then successively a Lecturer at Otago University, then at University College London, before returning to New Zealand and The University of Auckland. I have been elected Fellow of the NZ Psychological Society, Fellow of the Royal Society of New Zealand, and Fellow of the Association for Behavior Analysis International. I also received the 1994 Society for the Advancement of Behavior Analysis award for the International Dissemination of Behavior Analysis, and my lab received the 2009 award for Enduring Programmatic Contributions in Behavior Analysis from the same organization. I have served on the boards of four international oprganisations, and as Associate Editor of the Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior. I have also worked in Educational and Scientific Developments on developing audio-visual teaching systems.

My research interests are concerned with the fundamental processes of behaviour. I study choice—how animals distribute their activities between available alternatives—both in the stable state and in transition (learning and adaptation). This research, which is quantitative in focus, has led me recently to question the oldest “law” in Psychology—Thorndike’s (1897) Law of Effect—wrong for over 100 years. I recently spent some time applying these interests to the study of prenatal nutrition on the speed of learning of offspring in the National Research Center for Growth and Development at the Liggins Institute (a Center of Research Excellence). We demonstrated that maternal undernutrition led to less adaptability to changing circumstances, and we have located the epigenetic effects likely responsible for this. Sadly, while our papers on this are still being published, I have now ceased working in this area.

• DAVISON, M.  'Matching', Encyclopedia of the Sciences of Learning., (1edn), Springer Academic Publishers, p.-, In Press.
• BOUTROS, N.J., ELLIFFE, D.,  DAVISON, M.  'Time versus response indices affect conclusions about preference pulses', Behavioural Processes, 84, p450-454, 2010, doi:10.1016/j.beproc.2009.11.007
• ELLIFFE, D.,  DAVISON, M.  'Four-alternative choice violates the constant-ratio rule', Behavioural Processes, 84, p381-389, 2010, doi:10.1016/j.beproc.2009.11.009
• NAVAKATIKYAN, M.A.,  DAVISON, M.  'The dynamics of the law of effect: A comparison of models', Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior, 93, p91-127, 2010
• DAVISON, M.,  BAUM, W.M.  'Stimulus effects on local preference: Stimulus-response contingencies, stimulus-food pairing, and stimulus-food correlation', Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior, 93, p45-59, 2010

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