Psychology Department
Kenneth Rusiniak, Ph.D.

Professor
Ph.D. UCLA, 1976
M.A. UCLA, 1974
B.A. Northern Illinois University, 1971

341F Science Complex
734.487.2083
krusiniak@emich.edu
734.487.6553 fax

Biography

Teaching Interests

Graduate and undergraduate
Animal learning and behavior, comparative psychology and ethology, psychobiology, motivation, physiological substrates for learning, applications of conditioning principles to field and clinical problems.

Undergraduate
Learning, physiological psychology, comparative, introductory, perception, history and systems, experimental, statistics.

Courses Taught
Physiological Psychology, motivation and emotion, Comparative Animal Behavior, Seminar in Physiological Psychology, General Psychology, Learning, Drugs and Behavior, Introduction to Experimental Psychology. Psych of eating creativity and relaxation, conservation.

Taught in BS, MS and PhD level programs, supervised PhD dissertation, directed MS theses, directed independent research.
Courses
PSY 356 Motivation and Emotion
PSY 457 Psychological Psychology
PSY 479: Special Topics Psychology of Sex and Eating

Research Interests
Behavioral, Neurological and Development Mechanisms of Learning and Memory. Feeding and Conditioned Flavor Aversions. Brain Damage. Drug Effects. Animal Behavior. Field Applications of CTA on Predation.

Recent Publications
Rusiniak, K.W., Lipinksi, W.J., Johnson, M.D. Cholinergic antagonists disrupt conditioned odor and taste aversions (in preparation).

Rusiniak, K.W., Lipinski, W.J., Hilliard, M. & Davis, R.E. Differential effects of nerve growth factor on conditioned odor and taste aversion. (in preparation)

Rusiniak, K.W., Lipinski, W.J., Hilliard, M. & Davis, R.E. Nerve growth factor facilitates memory for conditioned taste aversion. (in preparation)

Lipinski, W.J., Pryor, D., Potts, M. & Rusiniak, K.W. (1995). Nerve growth factor improves conditioned taste and odor aversion memory in rats when given post-illness training. Society for Neuroscience ( Michigan Chapter), Ann Arbor, MI, 67(abst).

Lipinski, W.J., Callahan, M.J., Hilliard, M. Rusiniak, K.W. & Davis, R.E. (1993). Enhancement of conditioned taste aversion performance in rats by nerve growth factor. Society for Neuroscience (Michigan Chapter), Cranbrook, MI, 37 (abst).

Rusiniak, K. W., Hilliard, M. & Poschel, E. J. (1993). Individual differences in lithium chloride sensitivity in rats. Michigan Acadamician, 25,147-157.