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).