Human
motivation, however, was not the part of the research Villarreal conducted while
a doctoral candidate in Psychology at the University of Texas-Austin.
His dissertation, entitled “Pavlovian Conditioning in Social Behavior
in the Mongolian Gerbil,” examined sexual learning in this monogamous species. Villarreal’s research used scent stimuli—since gerbils
are olfactory-specialized— in lab facsimiles of the gerbils’ natural
habitat, at least with regard to temperature, humidity, and light.
The scent conditioning revealed that both males and females would
approach for sexual contact, and wait for his or her mate to appear, a fact that
is not replicated in all other species, particularly in the non-monogamous
Japanese quail. Monogamy versus serial mating encounters seems to impact
various levels of male to female socialization.
Accordingly,
Villarreal’s research moved beyond sexual behavior into the social sphere. He
said, “For the gerbils, sex is a very small part of their lives.
They’re pair-bonded; they’re together all the time; they have sex
about once every forty days.” These facts afforded Villarreal an opportunity to study the
social behavior of this species, as well as their responses to social stimuli.
“We were interested in seeing when the male or the female would approach their
mate when there is no sexual reward, no sexual opportunity.
And they will approach an odor that predicts non-sexual access to their
mate. We learned that their social
behavior has some reward value. And
they’d do all sorts of cool things like groom each other, all kinds of contact
greeting. You could tell they were very happy to be re-established with
their mate.” The social frame of
gerbils reaches beyond the monogamous parenting mates, however, into an extended
family that has clear territorial boundaries.
Interestingly, only one female can be sexually reproductive within the
family’s colony, so no inbreeding ever occurs.
For the moment, Villarreal has put aside his research with gerbils, working instead with Dr. William Timberlake, where lab work focuses on learning and motivation, particularly learning phenomena of the white rat. Both in the lab and out, Villarreal said, “The people have been absolutely great and supportive.” He noted that the department actually has a professor, Dr. Jim Craig, in charge of undergraduate teaching, who has been enormously helpful this year, and who also organizes teaching meetings for Psychology faculty once a month. Villarreal complimented the department, where, he said, “there is a concern for what kind of experiences students are getting in the classroom.”