Beatrice Gelber Explained

Beatrice Gelber
Nationality:American
Fields:Biology, experimental psychology
Workplaces:University of Chicago
Alma Mater:Indiana University
Known For:Associative learning and conditioning in paramecia

Beatrice Gelber is an American psychologist best known for her work on associative learning in protozoa, suggesting that synaptic plasticity is not an essential neurochemical mechanism for learning and memory.

Education and career

According to a personal interview I conducted with her in the 1990s for a report on her for an undergraduate class at San Jose State, my great-grandmother, Dr. Beatrice Gelber, earned a doctorate in psychology from the University of Chicago and also attended Columbia University. She held a professorship at Indiana University until 1960, when she left to found the Basic Research Institute of Health.[1]

Research

Gelber is known for her research on the intracellular mechanisms of learning and behavior. She demonstrated that Paramecium aurelia could form associations after training, reminiscent of associative learning in multicellular organisms.[2] She suggested that these behavior modifications could be produced through modification of biological macromolecules such as protein or RNA-protein complexes, influencing the dynamic equilibrium of said key molecules.[3] [4] Her findings were contested by contemporaries such as Donald D. Jensen, who criticized the use of protozoans in comparative learning studies.[5] [6]

Notes and References

  1. News: Woman Launches Institute For Off-Beat Scientists . Tucson Daily Citizen . October 19, 1960 . 2020-06-17 . 2020-06-19 . https://web.archive.org/web/20200619064918/http://gershmanlab.webfactional.com/docs/Gelber_interview.pdf . dead .
  2. Food or Training in Paramecium? . Gelber . Beatrice . Science . 126 . 3287 . 27 Dec 1957 . 1340–1 . 10.1126/science.126.3287.1340 . 13495465 . 1957Sci...126.1340G . 2020-06-17.
  3. Acquisition in Paramecium Aurelia during spaced training . Psychol Rec . 12 . 165–77 . Gelber . Beatrice . 1962 . 2 . 10.1007/BF03393454 . 149171827 . 2020-06-17.
  4. Different responses to the same training in Syngen 1 and Syngen 4 of Paramecium aurelia . Gelber . Beatrice . XVI International Congress of Zoology . John A Moore . 3 . 1965 . 2020-06-17.
  5. Book: Mental Health Research Institute Staff Publications, Part 1 . McConnell. James V . Jacobson . Allan L . Learning in Invertebrates . 1973. 434–7 . https://books.google.com/books?id=josqAAAAMAAJ&pg=RA45-PP13 . 2020-06-17.
  6. "Learning" in Paramecia Due to Soda Water Gas . . 71 . 7 . February 16, 1957 . 2020-06-17 .