Purpose:

To train the animal to perform a chain of responses – pole displacement followed by the bar press response. The pole displacement will turn on the cue light. The first bar-press after the cue light is on will be reinforced, and the light will turn off. The animal will again need to perform the pole displacement response to turn on the cue light.

1. Do an equipment test.
2. Notify the TF when you are ready to begin the experiment.
3. The initial procedure is identical to the first part of Experiment 5. Place your subject in the operant chamber, and turn on the cue light by pressing the hand switch. The first response emitted will be reinforced and the light will go off. Time one minute, then press the hand switch to turn the cue light on again. The first response will be reinforced, and the light will go off. Continue this procedure until twenty responses have been made.
4. After the 20^th response, the light will go off and should remain off for three minutes. The external light will flash to indicate the start of the baseline phase. This is to determine the baseline condition of the pole displacement response. Time this three-minute period and record the number of pole displacement responses. At the end of baseline, the external light will again flash.
5. Following the three-minute baseline allow an additional three minutes for automatic reinforcement of the pole displacement-bar press chain of responses.
6. If the chain response is not spontaneous, then it will be necessary to shape your subject. Begin doing this by reinforcing successive approximations of the pole-response. In this experiment, conditioned reinforcement of the pole-displacement response is light. You should therefore press the hand switch to present the light following an approximation of the pole displacement response. Once the light is on, the first bar press will be reinforced.
7. After the first pole displacement occurs (with or without shaping), the next fifty chain responses (pole displacement, light on, bar press) will be reinforced.
8. You are required to record latencies. Time from after the bar press response, until the pole displacement (B-P) and time from after the pole displacement response until the bar press (P-B). Use the stopwatch for this purpose.
9. After fifty chain responses have been reinforced, your subject will enter an extinction period. Allow the rat to complete twenty extinction chains.
10. . The house light will go off indicating the end of the experiment after 120 minutes.

Data Collection:

Before coming to class prepare a data sheet.

You will be collecting two sets of data.

Group Data:

Submit your group data before leaving class.

Lab Report # 3:

Present the data in a manner that you think best represents the findings of this experiment. There are no specific requirements; you need to think. Use the questions from the previous experiments to prompt the necessary analytical thought process.

Statistical Analysis:

Consider which questions need answering and decide what the appropriate statistical analysis would be for this experiment.

MED-PC Output

Array A – latency bar-pole

Array B – latency pole- bar