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Short histories of the study of animal behavior have been provided by: Lorenz, K.Z. (1981). The foundations of ethology, New, York: Springer-Verlag, and by: Ratliff, F. (1962). Some interrelations among physics, physiology and psychology in the study of vision. In: S. Koch (ed.) Psychology: A study of a science. Study II. Empirical substructure and relations with other sciences vol. 4: Biologically oriented fields: Their place in psychology and biological science. New York: McGraw-Hill, 417–482. A collection of landmark papers in the history of animal behavior has been provided by: Houck, L.D., and Drickamer, L.C. (editors) Foundations of animal behavior, Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1996. Useful summaries of classical reflex physiology and its relation to behavior include: Denny-Brown, D. (1939). Selected writings of Sir Charles Sherrington, Oxford, U.K.: Oxford University Press; Fukuda, T. (1984). Statokinetic reflexes in equilibrium and movement, Tokyo: University of Tokyo Press; and Fulton, J.F. (1949). Physiology of the nervous system, 3rded. New York: Oxford University Press. An excellent modern introduction to the behavior of the laboratory rat that is relevant to neuroscience is: Whishaw, I.Q., and Kolb, B. (editors) The behavior of the laboratory rat: a handbook with tests. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005. A very general discussion of recent developments in the Thorndike-Watson-Skinner approach to behavior has been provided by: Staddon, J. (2001). The new behaviorism: mind, mechanism and society, Philadelphia: Psychology Press.
It is interesting that Sherrington, who allowed no trace of mentalistic interpretations in his studies of reflexes, was nonetheless a dualist and believed that higher level perceptual and motor processes involved something beyond anatomy and physiology.
Tinbergen, N. (1972). The animal in its world, vol. 1, Field studies. London: George Allen and Unwin Ltd., pp. 250–294. It appears that gulls remove egg shells from the vicinity of the nest soon after hatching because the white interior of the empty shell attracts predators.
Holmyard, E.J. (1990). Alchemy. New York: Dover Publications (first published, 1957).
Vidyasagar, T.R. (1993). Assessment of brain electrical activity in relation to memory and complex behaviour, in Methods in Neurosciences, vol. 14, Paradigms for the Study of Behavior (Conn, P.M. ed.) Academic Press, San Diego, pp. 407–431. In delayed matching tests, three food wells (i.e. large holes drilled in a thick piece of plank or plastic) are placed just outside the bars of a cage containing a monkey. As the monkey watches, a food item is placed in the center well, covered by a distinctive item such as a beer can, and the animal is allowed to retrieve the food. An opaque screen is then lowered and the beer can (for example) is placed over one of the outside food wells and a novel object, such as an empty bottle, is placed over the other outside food well (either the right or the left one in random sequence). After a variable delay, the monkey is allowed to choose one of the objects. In the delayed match-to-sample version of this test the food item would be located under the beer can in this example while in the delayed non-match-to-sample version of the test the food would be located under the bottle. Thus, in everyday language, we can say that the monkey is required to remember the original demonstration item (many different items are used) and to make a choice based on that memory.
Vanderwolf, C.H. and Cain, D.P. (1994). The behavioral neurobiology of learning and memory: a conceptual reorientation. Brain Research Reviews, 19: 264–297. Also see: Vanderwolf, C.H., and Leung, L.-W.S. (1998). The relation of brain electrical activity to behavior. In: A.A. Boulton, G.B. Baker, and A.N. Bateson (eds.) Neuromethods, vol. 32, In vivo neuromethods, Totowa, New Jersey, pp. 325–357.
Vanderwolf, C.H. (2003). An odyssey through the brain, behavior, and the mind. Boston: Kluwer Academic Publishers.
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(2007). An introduction to behavior for neuroscientists. In: The Evolving Brain. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-387-34230-6_2
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