Term Paper psych412

The subject of the term paper will be Sniffy, the virtual rat. You will select a topic from these three options related to operant conditioning: shaping, extinction (in operant conditioning), or variable ratio schedules. You will also choose an accompanying experiment from the Sniffy manual.




Please keep in mind that “topic” and “experiment” refer to two separate portions of your paper. Your topic is not the experiment you do, but rather what you are investigating in that experiment. If you are investigating shaping, your topic is not what you did in exercise 23. Your topic is shaping. Your experiment, then, is what you did in exercise 23.



Remember to keep your paper simple. Select only ONE of the options listed above, and address only that one. If you choose variable ratio schedules, for example, your hypothesis might be something like “If a variable ratio schedule is used, the rate of response will be rapid and steady.” This way, in your introduction you only address operant conditioning and the key terms that go into variable ratio schedules. Your study design would only describe the variable ratio experiment and those are the only results you would report.



Again I want to stress not to use first person, don’t say things like “I gave the subject…” Simply say “The subject was given…” Write in an objective, scientific manner.




Results

In this section you report the data you collected in your study. Do not comment or conclude, save that for the Discussion. Generally information presented in a table or graph is preferred but this depends on the nature of what you studied. Also, statistics are not expected though simple descriptive statistics may apply to your data (such as mean, mode, frequency charts, etc.).


Discussion


This should be the heart of the paper. In this section you discuss what your results mean in light of the current research in the area. Was your hypothesis supported? Why or why not? How useable are these results-what can you do with them (how do they apply to the real world, why is this type of research important?)? Are they generalizable? What changes to the study design would you recommend (if someone were to replicate your study, what should they do differently to improve on it?)? What direction should research in this area take in the future, and why? This is the section where you address the importance of your study and its findings. You should talk about any problems or limitations you encountered as well as the global meaning of your research or research in this area (see APA manual for more detail on this section).

Instructor Response to Assignmet #2

Dear Mr. Holt,

Pavlov referred dog food as a conditioned stimulus (CS). Conversely,

presentation of the significant stimulus necessarily evokes an innate,

often reflexive, response. Pavlov called these the unconditioned

stimulus (US) and unconditioned response (UR), respectively. If the CS

and the US are repeatedly paired, eventually the two stimuli become

associated and the organism begins to produce a behavioral response to

the CS. called this the conditioned response (CR).



If the above is true, than I would say the shock is the CS because

like the food the shock is the stimulus the evokes the innate, reflex

of jumping and freezing.



Is this correct? I am over-thinking this and getting myself confused.



Thank you,

Hi Alice,
The only thing that I see that needs to be fixed is that the dog food would be considered the Unconditioned Stimulus (US). That is, the food automatically produces the salivation (salivation is the UR here). The
US->UR relationship is really just reflexive (no learning required for the UR; food automatically elicits salivating).

The part that is interesting is when you pair a previously neutral stimulus with the US several times, after which the previously neutral stimulus alone can come to elicit a response. In classical conditioning terms we are talking about pairing the CS(any stimulus, e.g., a tone) and US(food). After several pairings, an association is made between the CS and US such that the CS alone comes to elicit a response (Conditioned Response). This is really what is exciting because we have evidence of learning through paired associations.
Shock would indeed be analogous to the food except that both are the US (not the CS).
One good thing about the Classical Conditioning model is that there are only 4 things you have to learn: CS, US, UR, and CR. If you can identify each of these you are in pretty good shape. You then should learn the relationship between the factors.

US--;UR

[CS-US] ---;UR - several pairings

CS ---; CR



Dan

Me -; I had to look up analogous: Alike, similar  having analogy;
1. corresponding in some particular: A brain and a computer are analogous.
2. Biology. corresponding in function, but not evolved from corresponding organs, as the wings of a bee and those of a hummingbird.

CER

My Response to Assignment 2:


The goal of in my first and second classical conditioning experiments was to have Sniffy acquire classically condition response, therefore, I did not reward Sniffy for anything; instead I used the tone as an unconditioned stimuli (US) or neutral stimuli that does not result in overt behavior. I used a shock as a conditioned stimuli (CS). I know the shock is the US because it has the intrinsic ability to elicit an obvious behavior in nearly any subject. Pairing the sound of a tone with an electric shock, fear conditioning establishes a CER quickly. After one or two pairings, the sound of the tone will send a wave of apprehension through amygdalar circuits of any organism capable of processing fear.



The tone CS and the shock US were paired in differing intervals so that the rat, Sniffy, would acquire a conditioned emotional response (CER) of fear (unobservable brain activity) and movement responses based on learning that the tone would be followed by a shock. Tone;ShockMovement/Fear (movement is recorded as lack of movement too).



In the basic acquisition (Exercise 1),Sniffy receives 10 pairings of medium-intensity tone (CS) with the medium-intensity shock (US). Sniffy’s movement increases from zero to about 7. Bar pressing slows to an eventual stop, and CS response strength mind increases. Sniffy’s psychological state is producing observer able behavior. Sniffy now has a CER to a medium-intensity tone CS. This fear/pain based CER is a [mind] response, outwardly characterized by jumping, freezing, and failing to push the lever. (lever pushing will only display in rats previously conditioned to do so.)



Extinction is the goal of Exercise 2, where 30 extinction trials are executed using a stimuli of medium-intensity tone CS and no shock US. (note; a CER takes longer to extinguish than it takes to acquire thus more extinction than acquisition trials). The CS Response Strength mind window indicates the mind is settling compared to the trails in Ex1. By the end of Ex2 the mind has settled. The movement window mirrors the mind window and shows the body settling (for a rat this settling could be uncharacteristic or like freezing and may indicate some nervousness brought about by the tone CS.



Exercise three is set up so that Sniffy will experience spontaneous recovery. First, Sniffy has a time out, later, returning to the experiment cage where only a medium-intensity tone CS is set as stimuli (with no shock US). Sniffy’s movement spike (from .1 in Ex2 to .5 in the first trial of Ex3). Again the Movement and the CS Response Strength mind windows are mirrors of one another, displaying results of a settling mind and body.

#2 Conditioning a CER in Sniffy

Once you have read chapter 2 of the Sniffy manual, set up a classical conditioning experiment from chapter 3 (exercises 1, 2, & 3), specifically a CER experiment in which you use tone as a CS and shock as a US. In classical conditioning, you will not reward Sniffy for anything so do not hit the space bar or lever and give Sniffy food during the experiment (you can play around with this outside of this experiment if you like). For this week's conference, please sum up what you did with Sniffy. In your post, first sum up exercise 1 by explaining what a CER is and how we conditioned a CER with Sniffy. In your posting, explain what CS and US you used and how you know which one is the CS and which is the US (hint, it is not the order of presentation, it has to do with the type of stimulus). Describe the CER and explain how you know you conditioned a CER in Sniffy. In summing up exercise 2, explain what extinction is and how you set up an extinction experiment with Sniffy (explain what was presented and what wasn't). What happened in the extinction experiment? Lastly, sum up exercise 3 by explaining what spontaneous recovery is and how you demonstrated this with Sniffy. You must post your response by Sunday, midnight.

Week 1: The What, Why, and How's of Studying Learning

Week 1: The What, Why, and How's of Studying Learning


• Readings: Read Chapter 1 of the Powell et al. textbook.

• Sniffy Reading: Load the Sniffy cd-rom onto your hard drive. Read through chapter 1 of the Sniffy manual. It is short and will give background information on this software program. You may play around a little with the software if you like or wait for our first Sniffy exercise next week.

• Class Activities:

1. Virtual Tour the web site of the American Psychological Association (APA) at http://www.apa.org. You will find this site useful for reference information, links and many other things. Compare the guidelines on the use of animals in research http://www.apa.org/science/anguide.html to the guidelines for the use of humans http://www.apa.org/ethics/code.html.

2. Set up an address book for the class. Even though the class emails are all listed on the course site, occasionally the site goes down and it is handy to have at the minimum my email address, but you may want the emails of others in the class as well.

• On-line Conference Assignment:

Conference 1. Introduce yourself in the "Introductions" thread of our class conference, our "virtual classroom". Please give us more than your name. Include things about yourself such as your profession, hobbies, interest in psychology, and any other information that can help us get to know you. Please post your introduction by Sunday, midnight. I will leave the thread open after the due date so that everyone can go back and read other postings and respond to classmates.



• Quiz #1:

Quiz 1 will consist of 25 multiple choice questions. The quiz will cover chapter 1 of the textbook as well as some questions relating specifically to the Sniffy manual and software. You may look answers up to the questions in your book and manual. You will have five days to work on this quiz. The quiz will open on Wednesday and remain open until Sunday. You may open the quiz as many times as you like, but may only take it (submit it) once so be sure to only click the Submit button at the end of the exam when you are ready to turn in your quiz.

PSYC 412 Learning and Cognition Resources Page

I think the below are links that exist [on honeybee's Psych page] from last time i tried this course. If not i can try to google them or look back to the online class... either way i will eventually add them as links... Also i better get the APA or MLA Style Guide.  :)

Psychology Search Engine

• PsychCrawler

Tools and Forums for Psychology Students

• On-line forum for psychology students

• APA home page

• www.psychologyinfo.com

• http://www.psychology.org

Conditioning and Behavioral Psychology Sites

• http://chiron.valdosta.edu/whuitt/col/behsys/operant.html

• http://psychology.about.com/od/behavioralpsychology

• Skinner

Language and Cognition

• Center for Research on Concepts and Cognition

• Memory and Cognition

Other

• Internet Glossary

• WWW Virtual Library: Writers' Resources On The Web



Unacceptable Internet Resources for Citation Purposes:

• Wikipedia

• WikiInfo

• Anarchopedia

Any other internet resource where authors and/or sources cannot be identified and properly cited using MLA, APA, or Turabian style standards.


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Phil 330

considering changing my major or at least taking some CS courses.  I see Phil 330 as a #1 requirement in many majors. Why is it not in Psych. 

Note: PHIL 330 Ethics is a junior level philosophy course, as such students must be required to read from the original texts of all philosophers covered. Further, students must be required to write critical papers formalizing, criticizing and providing responses to arguments found in the reading.


Consequentialism
Deontology
Virtue Theory