Publications

The 10 most outstanding publications in the last years

Chamizo, V. D. (2023). El necesario aumento de la mujer en disciplinas STEM y la mejora de sus habilidades espaciales. Encuentros Multidisciplinares, 75, 1-11.

Este artículo ofrece una visión general de la problemática de la brecha de sexo/género en las disciplinas STEM (en castellano, carreras CTIM -siglas de «Ciencia, Tecnología, Ingeniería y Matemáticas»), así como en las habilidades espaciales, más concretamente de la prueba de rotación mental (RM), tan relacionadas. Se destacan algunas medidas adoptadas en varios países con la finalidad de reducir dicha diferencia en estas disciplinas. El trabajo hace hincapié en algunas “intervenciones” concretas que ya han demostrado ser claramente efectivas: en la infancia, en la adolescencia y también en la edad adulta. El manuscrito puede leerse como continuación de un trabajo anterior publicado en esta revista (Chamizo, 2022).

Aguilar-Latorre, A., Romera-Nicolás, V., Gimeno, E., Chamizo, V.D. (2022). Previous experience seems crucial to eliminate the sex gap in geometry learning when solving a navigation task in rats (Rattus norvegicus). Frontiers in Psychology, section Cognition, 13:838407.

There is much evidence, both in humans and rodents, that while navigating males tend to use geometric information whereas females rely more on landmarks. The present work attempts to alter the geometry bias in female rats. In Experiment 1 three groups of female rats were trained in a triangular-shaped pool to find a hidden platform, whose location was defined in terms of two sources of information, a landmark outside the pool and a particular corner of the pool. On a subsequent test trial with the triangular pool and no landmark, females with prior experience with two other pool shapes -with a kite-shaped pool and with a rectangular-shaped pool- (Group Long Previous Experience, LPE), were significantly more accurate than control rats without such prior experience (Group No Previous Experience, NPE). Rats with a short previous experience -with the rectangular-shaped pool only- (Group Short Previous Experience, SPE), did not differ from Group NPE. These results suggest that the previous experience with different shaped-pools could counteract the prominence of the landmark cue in female rats. Then, Experiment 2A directly compared the performance of LPE males and females of Experiment 1, although conducting several test trials (i.e., shape, landmark, and preference). The differences between males and females disappeared in the three tests. Moreover, in a final test trial both males and females could identify the correct corner in an incomplete pool by its local, instead of global, properties. Finally, Experiment 2B compared the performance of NPE rats, males and females, of Experiment 1. On the test trial with the triangular pool and no landmark, males were significantly more accurate than females. The results are explained in the framework of selective attention.

Chamizo, V. D., Urrutia, M. S., Sanchez, O., Calabrese, M. D., & Riccio, O. (2020). Geometry learning while navigating: The importance of task difficulty and sex differences. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Animal Learning and Cognition, 46, 470-483.

Cheng (1986) trained male rats to search for food in a rectangular arena which also contained distinctive visual patterns. He found that the rats used mainly the geometric framework of the box itself to find the food, and claimed that geometrical information is processed in a specialised module, which is independent of feature information. The aim of the present set of experiments is to check if the previous results with male rats and an appetitive task, could be extended to an aversive task, while using both, male and female rats and three-dimensional landmarks. In Experiments 1 and 2 rats were trained in a rectangular-shaped pool to find a hidden platform whose location was defined in terms of two sources of information, landmarks of different salience (less salient in Experiment 1, more salient in Experiment 2) outside the pool and a particular corner of the pool. The results showed that both males and females used mainly the particular corner of the pool, supporting Cheng?s suggestion. In addition, in the two experiments, what the rats learned with respect to the landmarks was negligible. Experiment 3 used a more difficult triangular pool in addition to the rectangular pool. The results revealed sex differences in the triangular pool but not in the easier rectangular pool. These results suggest that task difficulty is a factor when it comes to finding sex differences in rats in spatial tasks.

Chamizo, V.D., Torres, M.N., Rodríguez, C.A., & Mackintosh, N.J. (2019 ). What makes a landmark effective in adolescent and adult rats?: Sex and age differences in a navigation task. Learning and Behavior, 47, 156-165.

In three experiments rats of different age were trained in a circular pool to find a hidden platform whose location was defined in terms of a single a landmark, a cylinder outside the pool. Following training two main components of the landmark, its shape and pattern, were tested individually. Experiment 1 was with adolescent and adult rats (1a, males; 1b, females). Adult rats always learned faster than adolescent animals. On test trials interesting tendencies were found, mainly one favouring males on the shape test trial and another favouring females on the pattern test trial. Then Experiment 2 was conducted only with adolescent rats and males and females did not differ when learning the task. However on test trials, males learned more about the landmark shape component than about the landmark pattern component, while females learned equally about the two components of the landmark. Finally, Experiment 3 was conducted only with adult rats and again males and females did not differ when learning the task. However on test trials, males learned equally about the two components of the landmark (shape and pattern), although females learned more about the landmark pattern component than about the landmark shape component. This set of experiments supports the claim that male and female rats can learn rather different things about a landmark that signals the location of the platform, age being a critical variable.

Sansa, J., Aznar-Casanova, J.A., Rodríguez, C.A., & Chamizo, V.D. (2019). Generalization Decrement and Not Overshadowing by Associative Competition Among Pairs of Landmarks in a Navigation Task with humans. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 72, 251-262 .

In three experiments a virtual preparation for humans of the Morris water task (VMWT) was used. Experiment 1 established that four landmarks were of similar salience. Then in Experiments 2 and 3 participants were trained to locate a hidden platform in the presence or either two or four of the previous landmarks. In Experiment 2 one pair of groups was trained with four visual landmarks spaced at equal intervals around the edge of the pool, while a second pair was trained with two landmarks only, either relatively close to or far from the hidden platform. After training, a reciprocal overshadowing effect was found: on a test without the platform with two landmarks only (either close to or far from the platform position), the participants trained with four landmarks spent less time in the platform quadrant than those trained with only two. Finally Experiment 3 showed that at least participants trained with two landmarks relatively close to the platform and then tested with four also performed worse on test than those trained and tested with two close landmarks only. This result suggests that generalization decrement, rather than associative competition, could provide a sufficient explanation for the overshadowing observed in Experiment 2 in the proximal groups. The present set of experiments extend, although only partially, the generalization decrement results documented in rats (Chamizo, Rodríguez, Espinet, & Mackintosh, 2012) to human participants.

Lugo, F., Torres, M.N., & Chamizo, V.D. (2018). Two strategies used to solve a navigation task: A different use of the hippocampus by males and females? A preliminary study in rats. Psicológica, 39, 319-339.

There is abundant research (both in rodents and in humans) showing that males and females often use different types of information in spatial navigation. Males prefer geometry as a source of information, whereas females tend to focus on landmarks (which are often near to a goal objects). However, when considering the role of the hippocampus, the research focuses primarily on males only. In the present study, based on Rodríguez, Torres, Mackintosh, and Chamizo?s (2010, Experiment 2) navigation protocol, we conducted two experiments, one with males and another with females, in order to tentatively evaluate the role of the dorsal hippocampus in the acquisition of two tasks: one based on landmark learning and the alternate one on local pool-geometry learning. Both when landmark learning and when geometry learning, Sham male rats learned significantly faster than Lesion male animals. This was not the case with female rats whith geometry learning. These results suggest that the dorsal hippocampus could play an important role in males only.

J.B. Trobalon & V.D. Chamizo, Eds. (2016). Associative Learning and Cognition. Homage to Professor N. J. Mackintosh. In Memoriam (1935-2015). Edicions Universitat de Barcelona (Tributes Collection).

The present volume is a homage to Professor N. J. Mackintosh (1935-2015), an outstanding academic and a dear friend and colleague to many of the participants, as a final tribute after being awarded the Gold Medal by the University of Barcelona (November 2015). Although the topics of the chapters in this book have been freely chosen by the authors (Geoffrey Hall, Anthony Dickinson, John M. Pearce, Ian McLaren, Paula J. Durlach, Irina Baetu to mention a few), as well as the type of contribution (either an empirical paper, a review, or an application), they concentrate on issues that are crucial to the understanding of the basic principles of attention and associative learning (both Pavlovian and instrumental), in humans and also in other animals. In other words, to unravel the nature of conditioning, with a special emphasis on perceptual learning. The final chapter, by Gabriel Ruiz, addresses the importance of the contribution by Professor Mackintosh to the renaissance of animal psychology in Spain, where the Spanish Society for Comparative Psychology (SEPC in Spanish) played a relevant role

Chamizo, V.D., Rodríguez, C.A., Sánchez, J., & Mármol, F. (2016). Sex Differences after Environmental Enrichment and Physical Exercise in Rats when Solving a Navigation Task. Learning and Behavior, 44, 227 - 238.

The effects of early environmental enrichment (EE) and voluntary wheel running on the preference for using a landmark or pool geometry when solving a simple spatial task in adult male and female rats were assessed. After weaning, rats were housed in same-sex pairs in enriched or standard cages (EE and control groups) for two and a half months. Then the rats were trained in a triangular-shaped pool to find a hidden platform whose location was defined in terms of these two sources of information, a landmark outside the pool and a particular corner of the pool. As expected, enriched rats reached the platform faster than control animals, and males and females did not differ. Enriched rats also performed better on subsequent test trials without the platform with the cues individually presented (either pool geometry or landmark). However, on a preference test without the platform, a clear sex difference was found: Females spent more time in an area of the pool that corresponded to the landmark, whereas males spent more time in the distinctive corner of the pool. The present EE protocol did not alter females’ preference for the landmark cue. The results agree with the claim that environmental enrichment is a consequence of a reduced anxiety response (measured by thigmotaxis) during cognitive testing. A possible implication of ancestral selection pressures is discussed

Rodríguez, Clara A., Chamizo, V.D., Mackintosh, N.J. (2013). Do hormonal changes that appear at the onset of puberty determine the strategies used by female rats when solving a navigation task?. Hormones and Behavior, 64, 122-135.

The present set of experiments evaluated the possibility that the hormonal changes that appear at the onset of puberty might influence the strategies used by female rats to solve a spatial navigation task. In each experiment, rats were trained in a triangular shaped pool to find a hidden platform which maintained a constant relationship with two sources of information, one individual landmark and one corner of the pool with a distinctive geometry. Then, three test trials were conducted without the platform in counterbalanced order. In one, both the geometry and the landmark were simultaneously presented, although in different spatial positions, in order to measure the rats preferences. In the remaining test trials what the rats had learned about the two sources of information was measured by presenting them individually. Experiment 1, with 60-day old rats, revealed a clear sex difference, thus replicating a previous finding (Rodríguez et al., 2010): females spent more time in an area of the pool that corresponded to the landmark, whereas males spent more time in the distinctive corner of the pool even though the remaining tests revealed that both sexes had learned about the two sources of information. In Experiment 2, 30-day old female rats, unlike adults, preferred to solve the task using the geometry information rather than the landmark (although juvenile males behaved in exactly the same way as adults). Experiment 3 directly compared the performance of 90- and 30-day old females and found that while the adult females preferred to solve the task using the landmark, the reverse was true in juvenile females. Experiment 4 compared ovariectomized and sham operated females and found that while sham operated females preferred to solve the task using the landmark, the reverse was true in ovariectomized females. Finally, Experiment 5 directly compared adult males and females, juvenile males and females, and ovariectomized females and found that adult males, juvenile males and females, and ovariectomized females did not differ among them in their preferred cue, but they all differed from adult females

Chamizo, V.D., Rodríguez, C.A., Espinet, A., & Mackintosh, N.J. (2012). Generalization decrement and not overshadowing by associative competition among pairs of landmarks in a navigation task. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Animal Behavior Processes, 38, 255-256.

When they are trained in a Morris water maze to find a hidden platform, whose location is defined by a number of equally spaced visual landmarks round the circumference of the pool, rats are equally able to find the platform when tested with any two of the landmarks (Prados, & Trobalon, 1998; Rodrigo, Chamizo, McLaren, & Mackintosh, 1997). This suggests that none of the landmarks was completely overshadowed by any of the others. In Experiment 1 one pair of groups was trained with four equally salient visual landmarks spaced at equal intervals around the edge of the pool, while a second pair was trained with two landmarks only, either relatively close to or far from the hidden platform. After extensive training, both male and female rats showed a reciprocal overshadowing effect: on a test with two landmarks only (either close to or far from the platform), rats trained with four landmarks spent less time in the platform quadrant than those trained with only two. Experiment 2 showed that animals trained with two landmarks and then tested with four also performed worse on test than those trained and tested with two landmarks only. This suggests that generalization decrement, rather than associative competition, provides a sufficient explanation for the overshadowing observed in Experiment 1. Experiment 3 provided a within-experiment replication of the results of Experiments 1 and 2. Finally, Experiment 4 showed that rats trained with a configuration of two landmarks learn their identity

Chamizo, V. D. ((en revisión)). How and when virtual technologies can help bridge the sex and gender gap in STEM careers: some considerations. .