He received his B.A. in Anthropology in 1991 at the State University of New York, Stony Brook, his M.A. in Anthropology in 1996 at Kent State University, his Ph.D. in Psychology in 1999 at the State University of New York, Binghamton under the mentorship of Ralph R. Miller, and was an NRSA postdoctoral fellow in Robert Cook’s lab at Tufts University. His research concerns the comparative analysis of learning and cognition in pigeons, rats, and humans, with primary interests in spatial and causal cognition, behavioral variability, and problem solving behavior. His work is currently funded by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke.