Matthew Murphy

 Matthew Murphy

Matthew S. Murphy

  • Courses2
  • Reviews2

Biography

University of Massachusetts Boston - Psychology



Experience

  • Tufts University

    Teaching Assistant

    Matthew worked at Tufts University as a Teaching Assistant

  • Tufts University

    Researcher / Graduate Student

    Designing and conducting experiments in avian cognition, programming, statistical analysis, writing and publishing scientific papers, attending scientific conferences, managing a research laboratory.

  • Tufts University

    Lecturer

    Matthew worked at Tufts University as a Lecturer

  • Salem State University

    Assistant Professor

    Full-time temporary faculty in Psychology, focusing in cognition, perception, biological psychology, learning, statistics, and research methodology.

  • Salem State University

    Visiting Lecturer

    Adjunct instructor in Psychology, focusing in cognition, perception, biological psychology, and learning.

  • Carnegie Museum of Natural History

    Intern

    Intern in the malacology department of the Carnegie Museum of Natural History. Responsible for maintaining and updating the current collection, adding new specimens to the collection, and creating a dichotomous key for mollusks in a local nature reserve.

  • Harvard University

    Teaching Fellow

    Teaching fellow/assistant in the Harvard Extension School in Psychology, focusing in Psychology of Memory.

  • Brookhaven National Laboratory

    Research Assistant

    Undergraduate research assistant in NASA-funded psychology research.

  • Brandeis University

    Visiting Lecturer

    Adjunct instructor in comparative psychology.

  • University of Massachusetts Lowell

    Assitant Professor

    Visiting professor teaching psychology statistics and research methods.

Education

  • Tufts University

    Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.)

    Experimental Psychology

  • Tufts University

    Masters of Science

    Experimental Psychology

  • Graduate Student Travel Award


    Yearly award to support presentations at scientific conferences.

  • Tufts University

    Teaching Assistant



  • Tufts University

    Researcher / Graduate Student


    Designing and conducting experiments in avian cognition, programming, statistical analysis, writing and publishing scientific papers, attending scientific conferences, managing a research laboratory.

  • Tufts University

    Lecturer







  • Long Island University, Southampton Campus

    BS

    Interdisciplinary Psychology/Biology



Publications

  • Absolute and relational control of a sequential auditory discrimination by pigeons (Columba livia)

    Behavioural Processes

    Recent evidence indicates that pigeons can readily learn visual discriminations based on both absolute and relational stimulus factors. To examine how these two types of control function in their non-dominant auditory modality, we tested four pigeons in a go/no-go sequential auditory discrimination in which both absolute and relational cues were redundantly available. In this task, sequences of different sounds created from one set of pitches were reinforced, while different sequences created from another set of pitches and any same sequences made from either set of pitches were not. Across three experiments, we independently varied the relative discriminability of the absolute and relational components. The pigeons were consistently and primarily controlled by the absolute fundamental pitch of our notes in all of the experiments, although this was influenced by the range and arrangement of the pitches used in each set. A majority of the pigeons also demonstrated relational control when this component was made more salient. The more robust control exhibited by absolute factors is consistent with the comparative hypothesis that birds in general may have a well-developed aptitude for processing absolute pitch in many auditory settings. The relational control is consistent with our recent evidence of same/different auditory learning by pigeons.

  • Absolute and relational control of a sequential auditory discrimination by pigeons (Columba livia)

    Behavioural Processes

    Recent evidence indicates that pigeons can readily learn visual discriminations based on both absolute and relational stimulus factors. To examine how these two types of control function in their non-dominant auditory modality, we tested four pigeons in a go/no-go sequential auditory discrimination in which both absolute and relational cues were redundantly available. In this task, sequences of different sounds created from one set of pitches were reinforced, while different sequences created from another set of pitches and any same sequences made from either set of pitches were not. Across three experiments, we independently varied the relative discriminability of the absolute and relational components. The pigeons were consistently and primarily controlled by the absolute fundamental pitch of our notes in all of the experiments, although this was influenced by the range and arrangement of the pitches used in each set. A majority of the pigeons also demonstrated relational control when this component was made more salient. The more robust control exhibited by absolute factors is consistent with the comparative hypothesis that birds in general may have a well-developed aptitude for processing absolute pitch in many auditory settings. The relational control is consistent with our recent evidence of same/different auditory learning by pigeons.

  • Pigeons’ categorization may be exclusively nonanalytic

    Psychonomic Bulletin & Review

    Recent theoretical and empirical developments in human category learning have differentiated an analytic, rule-based system of category learning from a nonanalytic system that integrates information across stimulus dimensions. In the present study, the researchers applied this theoretical distinction to pigeons' category learning. Pigeons learned to categorize stimuli varying in the tilt and width of their internal striping. The matched category problems had either a unidimensional (rule-based) or multidimensional (information-integration) solution. Whereas humans and nonhuman primates strongly dimensionalize these stimuli and learn rule-based tasks far more quickly than information-integration tasks, pigeons learned the two tasks equally quickly to the same accuracy level. Pigeons may represent a cognitive system in which the commitment to dimensional analysis and category rules was not strongly made. Their performance could suggest the character of the ancestral vertebrate categorization system from which that of primates emerged.

  • Absolute and relational control of a sequential auditory discrimination by pigeons (Columba livia)

    Behavioural Processes

    Recent evidence indicates that pigeons can readily learn visual discriminations based on both absolute and relational stimulus factors. To examine how these two types of control function in their non-dominant auditory modality, we tested four pigeons in a go/no-go sequential auditory discrimination in which both absolute and relational cues were redundantly available. In this task, sequences of different sounds created from one set of pitches were reinforced, while different sequences created from another set of pitches and any same sequences made from either set of pitches were not. Across three experiments, we independently varied the relative discriminability of the absolute and relational components. The pigeons were consistently and primarily controlled by the absolute fundamental pitch of our notes in all of the experiments, although this was influenced by the range and arrangement of the pitches used in each set. A majority of the pigeons also demonstrated relational control when this component was made more salient. The more robust control exhibited by absolute factors is consistent with the comparative hypothesis that birds in general may have a well-developed aptitude for processing absolute pitch in many auditory settings. The relational control is consistent with our recent evidence of same/different auditory learning by pigeons.

  • Pigeons’ categorization may be exclusively nonanalytic

    Psychonomic Bulletin & Review

    Recent theoretical and empirical developments in human category learning have differentiated an analytic, rule-based system of category learning from a nonanalytic system that integrates information across stimulus dimensions. In the present study, the researchers applied this theoretical distinction to pigeons' category learning. Pigeons learned to categorize stimuli varying in the tilt and width of their internal striping. The matched category problems had either a unidimensional (rule-based) or multidimensional (information-integration) solution. Whereas humans and nonhuman primates strongly dimensionalize these stimuli and learn rule-based tasks far more quickly than information-integration tasks, pigeons learned the two tasks equally quickly to the same accuracy level. Pigeons may represent a cognitive system in which the commitment to dimensional analysis and category rules was not strongly made. Their performance could suggest the character of the ancestral vertebrate categorization system from which that of primates emerged.

  • Identification Guide to Conspicuous Land Snails and Slugs of Powdermill Nature Reserve, Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania

    Carnegie Museum of Natural History, Section of Mollusks and Powdermill Nature Reserve

  • Absolute and relational control of a sequential auditory discrimination by pigeons (Columba livia)

    Behavioural Processes

    Recent evidence indicates that pigeons can readily learn visual discriminations based on both absolute and relational stimulus factors. To examine how these two types of control function in their non-dominant auditory modality, we tested four pigeons in a go/no-go sequential auditory discrimination in which both absolute and relational cues were redundantly available. In this task, sequences of different sounds created from one set of pitches were reinforced, while different sequences created from another set of pitches and any same sequences made from either set of pitches were not. Across three experiments, we independently varied the relative discriminability of the absolute and relational components. The pigeons were consistently and primarily controlled by the absolute fundamental pitch of our notes in all of the experiments, although this was influenced by the range and arrangement of the pitches used in each set. A majority of the pigeons also demonstrated relational control when this component was made more salient. The more robust control exhibited by absolute factors is consistent with the comparative hypothesis that birds in general may have a well-developed aptitude for processing absolute pitch in many auditory settings. The relational control is consistent with our recent evidence of same/different auditory learning by pigeons.

  • Pigeons’ categorization may be exclusively nonanalytic

    Psychonomic Bulletin & Review

    Recent theoretical and empirical developments in human category learning have differentiated an analytic, rule-based system of category learning from a nonanalytic system that integrates information across stimulus dimensions. In the present study, the researchers applied this theoretical distinction to pigeons' category learning. Pigeons learned to categorize stimuli varying in the tilt and width of their internal striping. The matched category problems had either a unidimensional (rule-based) or multidimensional (information-integration) solution. Whereas humans and nonhuman primates strongly dimensionalize these stimuli and learn rule-based tasks far more quickly than information-integration tasks, pigeons learned the two tasks equally quickly to the same accuracy level. Pigeons may represent a cognitive system in which the commitment to dimensional analysis and category rules was not strongly made. Their performance could suggest the character of the ancestral vertebrate categorization system from which that of primates emerged.

  • Identification Guide to Conspicuous Land Snails and Slugs of Powdermill Nature Reserve, Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania

    Carnegie Museum of Natural History, Section of Mollusks and Powdermill Nature Reserve

  • Absolute and relational control of a sequential auditory discrimination by pigeons (Columba livia)

    Behavioural Processes

    Recent evidence indicates that pigeons can readily learn visual discriminations based on both absolute and relational stimulus factors. To examine how these two types of control function in their non-dominant auditory modality, we tested four pigeons in a go/no-go sequential auditory discrimination in which both absolute and relational cues were redundantly available. In this task, sequences of different sounds created from one set of pitches were reinforced, while different sequences created from another set of pitches and any same sequences made from either set of pitches were not. Across three experiments, we independently varied the relative discriminability of the absolute and relational components. The pigeons were consistently and primarily controlled by the absolute fundamental pitch of our notes in all of the experiments, although this was influenced by the range and arrangement of the pitches used in each set. A majority of the pigeons also demonstrated relational control when this component was made more salient. The more robust control exhibited by absolute factors is consistent with the comparative hypothesis that birds in general may have a well-developed aptitude for processing absolute pitch in many auditory settings. The relational control is consistent with our recent evidence of same/different auditory learning by pigeons.

  • Pigeons’ categorization may be exclusively nonanalytic

    Psychonomic Bulletin & Review

    Recent theoretical and empirical developments in human category learning have differentiated an analytic, rule-based system of category learning from a nonanalytic system that integrates information across stimulus dimensions. In the present study, the researchers applied this theoretical distinction to pigeons' category learning. Pigeons learned to categorize stimuli varying in the tilt and width of their internal striping. The matched category problems had either a unidimensional (rule-based) or multidimensional (information-integration) solution. Whereas humans and nonhuman primates strongly dimensionalize these stimuli and learn rule-based tasks far more quickly than information-integration tasks, pigeons learned the two tasks equally quickly to the same accuracy level. Pigeons may represent a cognitive system in which the commitment to dimensional analysis and category rules was not strongly made. Their performance could suggest the character of the ancestral vertebrate categorization system from which that of primates emerged.

  • Identification Guide to Conspicuous Land Snails and Slugs of Powdermill Nature Reserve, Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania

    Carnegie Museum of Natural History, Section of Mollusks and Powdermill Nature Reserve

  • Avian Visual Processing of Motion and Objects

    Oxford University Press

    Chapter in "How Animals See the World: Behavior, Biology, and Evolution of Vision".

  • Absolute and relational control of a sequential auditory discrimination by pigeons (Columba livia)

    Behavioural Processes

    Recent evidence indicates that pigeons can readily learn visual discriminations based on both absolute and relational stimulus factors. To examine how these two types of control function in their non-dominant auditory modality, we tested four pigeons in a go/no-go sequential auditory discrimination in which both absolute and relational cues were redundantly available. In this task, sequences of different sounds created from one set of pitches were reinforced, while different sequences created from another set of pitches and any same sequences made from either set of pitches were not. Across three experiments, we independently varied the relative discriminability of the absolute and relational components. The pigeons were consistently and primarily controlled by the absolute fundamental pitch of our notes in all of the experiments, although this was influenced by the range and arrangement of the pitches used in each set. A majority of the pigeons also demonstrated relational control when this component was made more salient. The more robust control exhibited by absolute factors is consistent with the comparative hypothesis that birds in general may have a well-developed aptitude for processing absolute pitch in many auditory settings. The relational control is consistent with our recent evidence of same/different auditory learning by pigeons.

  • Pigeons’ categorization may be exclusively nonanalytic

    Psychonomic Bulletin & Review

    Recent theoretical and empirical developments in human category learning have differentiated an analytic, rule-based system of category learning from a nonanalytic system that integrates information across stimulus dimensions. In the present study, the researchers applied this theoretical distinction to pigeons' category learning. Pigeons learned to categorize stimuli varying in the tilt and width of their internal striping. The matched category problems had either a unidimensional (rule-based) or multidimensional (information-integration) solution. Whereas humans and nonhuman primates strongly dimensionalize these stimuli and learn rule-based tasks far more quickly than information-integration tasks, pigeons learned the two tasks equally quickly to the same accuracy level. Pigeons may represent a cognitive system in which the commitment to dimensional analysis and category rules was not strongly made. Their performance could suggest the character of the ancestral vertebrate categorization system from which that of primates emerged.

  • Identification Guide to Conspicuous Land Snails and Slugs of Powdermill Nature Reserve, Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania

    Carnegie Museum of Natural History, Section of Mollusks and Powdermill Nature Reserve

  • Avian Visual Processing of Motion and Objects

    Oxford University Press

    Chapter in "How Animals See the World: Behavior, Biology, and Evolution of Vision".

  • Pigeons Use High Spatial Frequencies When Memorizing Pictures

    Journal of Experimental Psychology: Animal Learning and Cognition

    The ability of animals to visually memorize and categorize a large number of pictures is well established. Determining the kinds of information animals use to accomplish these goals has been more difficult. This experiment examined the contribution of spatial frequency information to picture memorization by pigeons. A series of grayscale pictures were notch-filtered to eliminate different portions of the spatial frequency spectrum of memorized pictures. The results indicated that the higher spatial frequencies in the pictures were most important to accurate recognition, suggesting that the detection of fine detail at the high range of pigeon visual acuity was a critical component to their memorized representations. Subsequent tests with band-pass and hybrid conflict stimuli confirmed this conclusion. It is suggested that cognitive and task demands may determine how spatial frequency is used by pigeons, with higher frequencies more important to item memorization, while lower spatial frequencies may contribute to categorization in other types of discrimination tasks.

  • Absolute and relational control of a sequential auditory discrimination by pigeons (Columba livia)

    Behavioural Processes

    Recent evidence indicates that pigeons can readily learn visual discriminations based on both absolute and relational stimulus factors. To examine how these two types of control function in their non-dominant auditory modality, we tested four pigeons in a go/no-go sequential auditory discrimination in which both absolute and relational cues were redundantly available. In this task, sequences of different sounds created from one set of pitches were reinforced, while different sequences created from another set of pitches and any same sequences made from either set of pitches were not. Across three experiments, we independently varied the relative discriminability of the absolute and relational components. The pigeons were consistently and primarily controlled by the absolute fundamental pitch of our notes in all of the experiments, although this was influenced by the range and arrangement of the pitches used in each set. A majority of the pigeons also demonstrated relational control when this component was made more salient. The more robust control exhibited by absolute factors is consistent with the comparative hypothesis that birds in general may have a well-developed aptitude for processing absolute pitch in many auditory settings. The relational control is consistent with our recent evidence of same/different auditory learning by pigeons.

  • Pigeons’ categorization may be exclusively nonanalytic

    Psychonomic Bulletin & Review

    Recent theoretical and empirical developments in human category learning have differentiated an analytic, rule-based system of category learning from a nonanalytic system that integrates information across stimulus dimensions. In the present study, the researchers applied this theoretical distinction to pigeons' category learning. Pigeons learned to categorize stimuli varying in the tilt and width of their internal striping. The matched category problems had either a unidimensional (rule-based) or multidimensional (information-integration) solution. Whereas humans and nonhuman primates strongly dimensionalize these stimuli and learn rule-based tasks far more quickly than information-integration tasks, pigeons learned the two tasks equally quickly to the same accuracy level. Pigeons may represent a cognitive system in which the commitment to dimensional analysis and category rules was not strongly made. Their performance could suggest the character of the ancestral vertebrate categorization system from which that of primates emerged.

  • Identification Guide to Conspicuous Land Snails and Slugs of Powdermill Nature Reserve, Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania

    Carnegie Museum of Natural History, Section of Mollusks and Powdermill Nature Reserve

  • Avian Visual Processing of Motion and Objects

    Oxford University Press

    Chapter in "How Animals See the World: Behavior, Biology, and Evolution of Vision".

  • Pigeons Use High Spatial Frequencies When Memorizing Pictures

    Journal of Experimental Psychology: Animal Learning and Cognition

    The ability of animals to visually memorize and categorize a large number of pictures is well established. Determining the kinds of information animals use to accomplish these goals has been more difficult. This experiment examined the contribution of spatial frequency information to picture memorization by pigeons. A series of grayscale pictures were notch-filtered to eliminate different portions of the spatial frequency spectrum of memorized pictures. The results indicated that the higher spatial frequencies in the pictures were most important to accurate recognition, suggesting that the detection of fine detail at the high range of pigeon visual acuity was a critical component to their memorized representations. Subsequent tests with band-pass and hybrid conflict stimuli confirmed this conclusion. It is suggested that cognitive and task demands may determine how spatial frequency is used by pigeons, with higher frequencies more important to item memorization, while lower spatial frequencies may contribute to categorization in other types of discrimination tasks.

  • Implicit and Explicit Categorization: A Tale of Four Species

    Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews

    Categorization is essential for survival, and it is a widely studied cognitive adaptation in humans and animals. An influential neuroscience perspective differentiates in humans an explicit, rule-based categorization system from an implicit system that slowly associates response outputs to different regions of perceptual space. This perspective is being extended to study categorization in other vertebrate species, using category tasks that have a one-dimensional, rule-based solution or a two-dimensional, information-integration solution. Humans, macaques, and capuchin monkeys strongly dimensionalize perceptual stimuli and learn rule-based tasks more quickly. In sharp contrast, pigeons learn these two tasks equally quickly. Pigeons represent a cognitive system in which the commitment to dimensional analysis and category rules was not strongly made. Their results may reveal the character of the ancestral vertebrate categorization system from which that of primates emerged. The primate results establish continuity with human cognition, suggesting that nonhuman primates share aspects of humans'​ capacity for explicit cognition. The emergence of dimensional analysis and rule learning could have been an important step in primates' cognitive evolution.

  • Absolute and relational control of a sequential auditory discrimination by pigeons (Columba livia)

    Behavioural Processes

    Recent evidence indicates that pigeons can readily learn visual discriminations based on both absolute and relational stimulus factors. To examine how these two types of control function in their non-dominant auditory modality, we tested four pigeons in a go/no-go sequential auditory discrimination in which both absolute and relational cues were redundantly available. In this task, sequences of different sounds created from one set of pitches were reinforced, while different sequences created from another set of pitches and any same sequences made from either set of pitches were not. Across three experiments, we independently varied the relative discriminability of the absolute and relational components. The pigeons were consistently and primarily controlled by the absolute fundamental pitch of our notes in all of the experiments, although this was influenced by the range and arrangement of the pitches used in each set. A majority of the pigeons also demonstrated relational control when this component was made more salient. The more robust control exhibited by absolute factors is consistent with the comparative hypothesis that birds in general may have a well-developed aptitude for processing absolute pitch in many auditory settings. The relational control is consistent with our recent evidence of same/different auditory learning by pigeons.

  • Pigeons’ categorization may be exclusively nonanalytic

    Psychonomic Bulletin & Review

    Recent theoretical and empirical developments in human category learning have differentiated an analytic, rule-based system of category learning from a nonanalytic system that integrates information across stimulus dimensions. In the present study, the researchers applied this theoretical distinction to pigeons' category learning. Pigeons learned to categorize stimuli varying in the tilt and width of their internal striping. The matched category problems had either a unidimensional (rule-based) or multidimensional (information-integration) solution. Whereas humans and nonhuman primates strongly dimensionalize these stimuli and learn rule-based tasks far more quickly than information-integration tasks, pigeons learned the two tasks equally quickly to the same accuracy level. Pigeons may represent a cognitive system in which the commitment to dimensional analysis and category rules was not strongly made. Their performance could suggest the character of the ancestral vertebrate categorization system from which that of primates emerged.

  • Identification Guide to Conspicuous Land Snails and Slugs of Powdermill Nature Reserve, Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania

    Carnegie Museum of Natural History, Section of Mollusks and Powdermill Nature Reserve

  • Avian Visual Processing of Motion and Objects

    Oxford University Press

    Chapter in "How Animals See the World: Behavior, Biology, and Evolution of Vision".

  • Pigeons Use High Spatial Frequencies When Memorizing Pictures

    Journal of Experimental Psychology: Animal Learning and Cognition

    The ability of animals to visually memorize and categorize a large number of pictures is well established. Determining the kinds of information animals use to accomplish these goals has been more difficult. This experiment examined the contribution of spatial frequency information to picture memorization by pigeons. A series of grayscale pictures were notch-filtered to eliminate different portions of the spatial frequency spectrum of memorized pictures. The results indicated that the higher spatial frequencies in the pictures were most important to accurate recognition, suggesting that the detection of fine detail at the high range of pigeon visual acuity was a critical component to their memorized representations. Subsequent tests with band-pass and hybrid conflict stimuli confirmed this conclusion. It is suggested that cognitive and task demands may determine how spatial frequency is used by pigeons, with higher frequencies more important to item memorization, while lower spatial frequencies may contribute to categorization in other types of discrimination tasks.

  • Implicit and Explicit Categorization: A Tale of Four Species

    Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews

    Categorization is essential for survival, and it is a widely studied cognitive adaptation in humans and animals. An influential neuroscience perspective differentiates in humans an explicit, rule-based categorization system from an implicit system that slowly associates response outputs to different regions of perceptual space. This perspective is being extended to study categorization in other vertebrate species, using category tasks that have a one-dimensional, rule-based solution or a two-dimensional, information-integration solution. Humans, macaques, and capuchin monkeys strongly dimensionalize perceptual stimuli and learn rule-based tasks more quickly. In sharp contrast, pigeons learn these two tasks equally quickly. Pigeons represent a cognitive system in which the commitment to dimensional analysis and category rules was not strongly made. Their results may reveal the character of the ancestral vertebrate categorization system from which that of primates emerged. The primate results establish continuity with human cognition, suggesting that nonhuman primates share aspects of humans'​ capacity for explicit cognition. The emergence of dimensional analysis and rule learning could have been an important step in primates' cognitive evolution.

Possible Matching Profiles

The following profiles may or may not be the same professor:

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    Georgia State University - Georgia State University

  • Matthew Murphy (00% Match)
    Visiting Professor
    Salem State University - Salem State University (ssa)

  • Matthew Murphy (00% Match)
    Visiting Lecturer Psy
    Salem State University - Salem State University (ssa)

  • Matthew Murphy (00% Match)
    Visiting Professor
    Salem State University - Salem State University (ssa)

  • Matthew Murphy (00% Match)
    Visiting Assistant Professor
    University of Massachusetts Lowell - University Of Massachusetts System (ums)

  • Matthew Murphy (00% Match)
    Assistant Professor
    Coastal Carolina University - Coastal Carolina University