learning rat lab manual

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PSYC 5235 LEARNING PRINCIPLES (INSTRUCTOR: LECHAGO)

Fall 2012

LAB MANUAL.............................................................................................................................................................2

HOME LABS........................................................................................................................................................ 2ETHICAL ISSUES RELATEDTOTHE HOME LAB ASSIGNMENTS...............................................................................2ADDITIONAL COMMENTSABOUTTHE HOME LAB ASSIGNMENTS...........................................................................3

Home Lab 1 ...........................................................................................................................................................4Home Lab 1 ...........................................................................................................................................................7Home Lab 2 ...........................................................................................................................................................9Home Lab 2..........................................................................................................................................................13Home Lab 3..........................................................................................................................................................15

RAT LAB........................................................................................................................................................... 16OBJECTIVES......................................................................................................................................................16GENERAL INFORMATIONAND INSTRUCTIONS......................................................................................................16

Rat Lab Log..........................................................................................................................................................24Data Records........................................................................................................................................................26Notes on APA Format...........................................................................................................................................29Rat Lab PROJECT - Questionnaire.....................................................................................................................30


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LAB MANUAL

Original Manual Prepared by Hilary Karp, Associate Professor of Psychology(Revised January 2010 by Jennifer N. Fritz and Fall 2012 by Sarah A. Lechago)

Home Labs

You will conduct a project in which you can either increase or decrease a behavior ofyours, a loved one, or even a pet.

If you choose the behavior increase project, you will choose a behavior that you wish tostart or increase. You will take a baseline to determine its occurrence at this time, institutereinforcement for a one-step increase in the behavior (the first step of a shaping program) for twoweeks and then stop the reinforcement for one week to determine if the reinforcement waseffective. If you found an effective procedure and wish to continue working on that behavior,you are welcome to do so, but it is not part of the assignment.

If you choose the behavior decrease project, you will choose a behavior that you wish todecrease or stop. You will take a baseline on this behavior to determine its occurrence at thistime, analyze the cues and reinforcers for the behavior and then brainstorm on how you coulduse the various methods of behavior decrease on that behavior. You may institute one or more ofthese procedures if you wish, but this is not part of the assignment.

You will have assignments to turn in on these projects so that you can get feedback andlearn from what you are doing. In addition, it will give you some practice in applying theconcepts from lecture to the real world. Although there are strict due dates for the variousassignments, there are times when they will become inappropriate for various reasons, be sure toask for a waiver of the late assignment policy, if that becomes appropriate for your project.

These projects are to be written up in accordance with the instructions in this guide. This

is not the place to get creative in presentation. Name each section as indicated in the guide, using

the headings that are written in bold on the guidelines below. This project is not written up inAPA format, and you should follow the guidelines for amount of expected content in each

section to earn all possible points.

Ethical Issues Related to the Home Lab Assignments

Who decides on the Target Behavior (TB)? It depends on whose behavior is being changed.

Your child or your pet no issue. Society designates parents and pet owners to make

such decisions. You not only have the right, but the responsibility to do so. Students whohave pets are strongly encouraged to conduct the behavior change project(s) with theirpet(s). These projects seem to produce the best results for students and pets alike!

Yourself no ethical issue. It is somewhat more difficult to change your own behavior,

however, because you are both the trainer and the trainee. When you decide on areinforcer you will need to be scrupulous about not allowing yourself access to thereinforcer unless you earn it. This can sometimes be problematic. It is generally easier ifsomeone else is involved. That person should be someone who can verify your behaviorand deliver the reinforcer.

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Contractual obligations may give certain individuals the right to expect certain behaviors

of others (employers, room-mates, spouses, teachers, etc.); however, if you deliberatelytry to modify the behaviors of others, it is best (and sometimes required) to do so withtheir (or their guardians) consent. This is especially true if the behavior in question is notone that directly involves you. See the instructor if you are uncertain whether you are

required to obtain consent.

Additional Comments about the Home Lab Assignments

By virtue of being in relationship we are always modifying the behaviors of others whether

we plan to or not. When we are inept in behavior change procedures, we tend to usecoercion or aversive control. When we are skilled, however, we can use more positivemeans, which improve relationships. The purpose of these assignments (and this class) is tointroduce you to the behavioral principles that underlie these skills.

In professional situations, the client is the final authority on appropriate target behaviors.

When the client is limited in participation in such decisions (due to behavior deficits such as

language or developmental disabilities), it is important that someone represents the clientsinterests (a family member or professional). This is probably not relevant for the behaviorchange project, because you likely will not be working on a clients behavior, but I want youto be aware of this requirement.

Behavior Analyst Certification Board Guidelines for Responsible ConductFor BehaviorAnalysts can be found on the internet at http://www.bacb.com/consum_frame.html . This is agood resource especially if you want to consider becoming a certified behavior analyst.

You need to be sure that the changes in behavior you work on are worthwhile to the subject

of the change. For this reason you are required to do a cost/benefit analysis to determine ifthe benefits outweigh the costs before starting this project.

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http://www.bacb.com/consum_frame.htmlhttp://www.bacb.com/consum_frame.html


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HOME LAB 1

Behavior Increase: Response Definition and ObservationNote: Remember to leave the bold print on your assignments and replace the detailed

instructions for each number with your response. Save your file as Initials_HomeLab1.doc for example, my assignment would be saved as: SAL_HomeLab1.doc orSALHomeLab1.doc

1. Participant (1 pt)You do not need to name the person, but you do need to specify the persons relationship toyou. Be sure to choose someone with whom you have interaction on a daily basis for thepurpose of this assignment. Consider some of the ethical issues that we have discussed abovein making this determination. Examples include myself, my spouse, my child, my dog, myemployees, my mother-in-law, etc. If the participant is not yourself or someone you haveresponsibility for (child, dog, etc.), indicate whether or not you have the participantsagreement to participate in this project. Note that you do not need to have the participantsagreement in all cases. It depends on the nature of your relationship and the behavior inquestion. (You could work on your roommates picking up her socks without her agreementfor example.) For an older child or a spouse, it may be helpful to have the participantsagreement as well. If you are not sure if you should ask the participant for cooperation, askyour instructor. Based on these and other ethical considerations (described above), the bestsubjects for these projects are your pet, yourself, or your child (probably in that order).

2. Target Behavior and Operational Definition (3)In this section, name the behavior that you hope to increase. Examples include exercise,meditation, reading journal articles, studying, picking up socks, using correct table manners,hanging up keys when coming in, coming when called, etc. Next, write a behavioraldefinition of the target behavior. Be specific enough that any outside observer would be ableto determine if the behavior was performed or not. For example, if you want to increaseexercise, you need to define what counts as exercise for this experiment. You might choose

to use a very narrow definition (e.g., walking on the treadmill at 3 mph at a 5% incline), oryou might choose to use a broad definition (e.g., any sustained movement that increases heartabove resting rate for 30 min). Choose what makes sense for you. Give the name of thebehavior as you indicated in #2 and say what it is (e.g., Exercise in this experiment consistsof .). Remember: The idea is to be specific enough such that two people could agreewhether or not the behavior occurred during an observation.

3. Terminal goal (2)Specify how much of the behavior you are (or your subject is) to do by the end of thissemester. In other words, project what the ultimate terminal goal should be if you were tocontinue the program until the end of the semester. The terminal goal needs to specify the

amount of the target behavior that should occur, not the results that you hope will come outof that goal. Thus, your terminal goal for exercise might be something like exercise for aminimum of 20 minutes, three times a week. (Note: Specify minimums, not ranges. Younever know how much more of the behavior you might do and you dont want to limit it. Beclear about what minimum is satisfactory. Do not state something vague like be healthy orlose 20 lbs, because this is not a behavioral goal.)

4. Justification

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You need to do a cost/benefit analysis to determine if this is a worthwhile goal.

a) Benefits(2): Why is this goal worthwhile for the participant? (Note that it isworthwhile for children and pets to do behaviors that their parents/owners want themto do so that the parents/owners stop punishing them for not doing the behaviors,but try to think about actual benefits for the participant.)

b) Costs(2): What are the costs associated with making this change? (Think about time,effort, loss of comfort, etc.)c) Conclusion (1): Based on this analysis, why is it worthwhile to go ahead with this

project?

5. Observation method analysisDescribe how you could observe the target behavior using each of the methods listed below.If you cant see any way to use one, write N/A next to it and provide an explanation aboutwhy the recording method is inappropriate. Try to figure out a way that you could use each ofthem; do not just describe the ones that you want to use.

a) Outcome recording(3): Does the behavior leave a permanent product behind thatwould allow you to estimate and compare the behavior from one day to another? For

example, you could weigh yourself on a scale each day before you exercise andassume that any decrease in weight is due to the exercise. The problem with thismethod, however, is that there is usually more than one way to produce the permanentproduct. For example, you could change your eating habits, begin to exercise, or takediet pills, all of which could lead to a decrease in weight, even though you wantweight loss to be the result of an increase in exercise behavior.

b) Frequency recording(3): Is the behavior a discrete, countable behavior? Forexample, you could count the number of sit-ups you perform during an exercisesession. Or you might count the number of times you do each specified exercise. Forsome behaviors, you either do them or you dont on any given day. You could use afrequency method for those behaviors and each days data is either a one (performed

the behavior to criterion) or a zero (did not perform the behavior to criterion).c) Duration recording (3): Does the behavior have a clear beginning and ending?

Could you time how long you spend doing the behavior? For example, you couldtime how long you run on a treadmill.

d) Latency(2): Is there a cue associated with the behavior? If there is, then you couldrecord how much time passes between the cue and the onset of the behavior (thelatency). If there is no cue for the behavior, then you wouldnt be able to use a latencyobservation method. For example, if you are supposed to meditate each day as soonas you get up, you could measure how long it takes you to start meditating after youget up. If your goal is simply to meditate at some time during the day, there is no cuefor the behavior. Therefore, there is no way to use a latency measure, so you would

write N/A after it.e) Behavior/Opportunity(2): To record behavior/opportunity, you will have to record

two things: when the behavior occurs and when the opportunity for the behavioroccurs. For example, if you are trying to improve your childs meal-time manners youcould record each day the number of meals you had with the child where youobserved their manners (opportunities) and the number of meals at which theyexhibited good manners (as defined by your definition). Then you will divide thenumber of meals with good manners by the total number of meals you observed. If

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there are unlimited opportunities to do the behavior (such as using hand lotion whichcould happen at any time during the day), then you cant use this method and you willneed to write N/A. If the opportunities to do the behavior do not vary from day today, you could use this method, but it has no advantage over a straight frequencyrecording.

6. Chosen observation method (1)Specify which observation method you plan to use for this project. You may choose one ormore observation method, but the method(s) should be relevant to your terminal goal. If yourterminal goal is to exercise for 20 minutes, 3 times per week, you will need to use both aduration method and a frequency method of observation. Measuring your sweat or the qualityof the exercise would not be particularly relevant, because these would not indicate thenumber of minutes you exercised or the number of times per week you exercised. Youusually would not use more than two methods of observation; it becomes too cumbersomewithout providing much additional information.

Additional Instructions:

Keep the bold headings and (point values) in your paper, and replace the normal fonttext with your responses. This will allow me to provide comments without flipping back andforth between your version and the assignment.

Do not start taking the baseline measurement of your behavior using that observationmethod until you have gotten a go-ahead from the instructor. Once you get the go-ahead youwill need to start taking the baseline data for at least a week.

Baseline means you do not change anything. A baseline is simply a measurement ofbehavior before instituting a change. You simply record the behavior and do nothing else. If thebehavior does not occur at all, you simply record zeros for a week. Do not start trying to changethe behavior at this time. You are simply trying to find out how often the behavior occurs beforeyou start your program of behavior change.

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HOME LAB 1

Behavior Decrease: Response Definition and Observation

1. Participant (1 pt)Specify the persons relationship to you. Again, consider some of the ethical issues in making

the determination on whose behavior you will use. For behavior decreases, this becomeseven more important, so try to specify your pet, yourself, or your child as the participant.

2. Target Behavior and Operational Definition (3)Name the behavior. Examples include smoking, snacking, nail biting, yelling at other drivers,watching TV, etc. Be sure that you specify the behavior that you want to decrease or stop andnot what you want to take its place. Next, write a behavioral definition of the target behavior.For example, if you want to decrease smoking, you might define it as lighting a cigarette andtaking anything more than one puff on that cigarette before putting it out. Again, be sure thatyou are defining the behavior to decrease, not what you want to take its place. Write it in theform of Smoking is .. Remember: The goal is to write a definition such that 2 peoplecould observe the participant and agree whether or not the behavior occurred.

3. Terminal goal (1)Now you talk about how much of the behavior the participant is to do. Specify the ultimateterminal goal if you were to carry out the program. The terminal goal needs to specify theamount of the target behavior that should occur, not the results that you hope will come outof that goal. Do you want the behavior to totally stop and never occur? Or do you want only acertain amount of the behavior to occur (no more than ___)? Or do you want the behavior toonly occur in certain situations? Be sure to specify what your goal would be if you were tocarry out this program.

4. Justification

Complete a cost/benefit analysis to determine if this is a worthwhile goal.a) Benefits (2): Why is this goal worthwhile for the participant?

b) Costs (2): What are the costs associated with making this change? Think about time,effort, loss of comfort, etc.

c) Conclusion (1): Based on this analysis, why is it worthwhile to go ahead with thisproject?

5. Observation method analysisAs in Home Lab 1, describe how you could observe the target behavior using each of themethods listed below. If you cant see any way to use a method, write N/A next to it andhope that I cant either. For the decrease behavior, remember that you need to observe the

occurrence of the behavior that you want to decrease, not what you hope will take its place.For example, if you want to decrease the number of times your child hits another child, youcannot take data on appropriate social interactions. You would need to take data on hittingbehavior directed at other children.

a) Outcome recording (3): Does the behavior leave a permanent product behind thatwould allow you to estimate and compare the behavior from one day to another? Forexample, you could count the number of cigarettes you have at the beginning of the

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day and the number you have at the end of the day and subtract to get the number ofcigarettes smoked per day.

b) Frequency recording(3): Is the behavior a discrete, countable behavior? Forexample you could count the number of times you light a cigarette.

c) Duration recording (3): Does the behavior have a clear beginning and ending?

Could you time how long you spend doing the behavior? For example, you couldtime how long you spend watching TV.

d) Latency(3): Is there a cue associated with the behavior? If there is, then you couldrecord how much time passes between the cue and the onset of the behavior. Forexample, if you bite your nails while studying you could record how soon after thestart of studying does nail-biting start.

e) Behavior/Opportunity(3): To record behavior/opportunity, you will have to recordwhen the behavior occurs and when the opportunity for the behavior occurs. Forexample, if you were working on road rage you, could count the number of times youget in the car and drive somewhere (opportunity) and whether or not you exhibitedroad rage during that trip. Then you would divide the number of trips in which youexhibited road rage by the total number of trips you took.

6. Which observation method will you use? (1)Choose one or more observation method to use for this project. Your observation methodshould be relevant to your terminal goal.

Additional Instructions:Do not start taking the baseline measurement of your target behavior until you have

gotten a go-ahead from the instructor. Once you get the go-ahead you will need to starttaking the baseline data for at least a week. When you take baseline you do not change anything.You simply record the behavior and do nothing else. For the behavior decrease project, it ishelpful to collect some additional information besides the simple observation of the behavior

during baseline to allow for the analysis required in Home Lab 2. You are going to be lookingfor the cues or settings for the behavior (that precede the behavior) and the reinforcers for thebehavior (that follow it). Therefore, when you take the baseline data for the decrease project,besides the measurement of the behavior that you specified, you will want to also note what cuesor settings precede the behavior and what consequences follow the behavior. You will only take

one week of baseline data and then proceed to Home Lab 2. If you wish to carry out one of thechange procedures, that is fine, but it is not part of the assignment for this class.

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HOME LAB 2

Behavior Increase: Contingencies, Reinforcers, and Baseline Summary

You can start considering possible reinforcers and contingencies before you finish taking yourbaseline, but you will not be able to fill in your baseline summary and determine your first

shaping step until you have completed the baseline. If you need additional time to do thisbecause your observation method needed to be revised, be sure to apply for extra time. So thatyou dont get behind, if you need to revise your observation method, send it in by Blackboardemail so you can get a quicker response and get started.

1. Participant, Target Behavior, and Operational Definition(1):

2. Terminal Goal (1):

3. Observation Method (2): Describe the observation method that you chose to use do notjust name it; describe how you are doing the observations (e.g., record the number of minutesof exercise on the date of exercise on the calendar posted on the refrigerator)

4. Natural ReinforcersFirst, lets look at some of the natural reinforcement contingencies for your target behavior (TB).

a) What might be automatic (nonsocial) natural reinforcers for your TB?(2) Once youare doing this behavior regularly, what is likely to happen automatically in the realworld as a result of the TB that keeps it going? For example, having more energy mightbe an automatic natural reinforcer for exercise. If there are no automatic naturalreinforcers for your TB, say none and hope that I cannot identify any.

b) What might be likelysocially mediated natural reinforcersfor your TB? (2) Thesereinforcers also commonly occur in the real world, but require that someone give them.They dont just happen automatically, but are likely to happen because people usuallyrespond that way. For example, if you increase the number of times you say nice things

to your significant other (S.O.), your S.O. is likely to also increase saying nice things toyou. Your S.O. isnt doing it because it was set up as part of a training program for you(which would make it a contrived contingency), but because you saying nice things sets anicer tone to your relationship and people are more likely to act nicely when they aretreated well. It also doesnt happen automatically as a result of your saying nice things(which would make it a nonsocial contingency). If there are no socially mediated naturalreinforcers for your TB say none and hope that I cannot identify any.

If there are no natural reinforcers for your TB, why are you trying to do this behavior?(Reexamine your justification to be sure it makes sense to work on this behavior. Yourjustification usually involves the natural reinforcers for the behavior.)

The target behavior is one that you want to start or increase, but obviously at this time the naturalreinforcers for that behavior are not sufficient to get the behavior going at the level you desire.Therefore, you will need to use some form of contrived reinforcement to get the behavior up togoal level where it may become maintained by the natural contingencies. So, lets examine somepossible reinforcers you could use.

5. Possible contrived reinforcers:

a) Unconditioned (primary) reinforcers (2)

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This is a reinforcer that needs no training (no back-up) to be a reinforcer. You mightthink of it as something physically enjoyable. It could be something like a favorite fooditem, or a massage from your S.O., or a bubble bath, or spending time lying in the sun(with lots of sunscreen on), or setting the air conditioner as low as you really like. Itusually has no natural (real-world) relationship with your target behavior, but it could.For example, allowing yourself to eat something special when you exercise that day hassome reasonable connection with exercise, because exercising more burns more caloriesand increases your metabolism. Therefore, eating more will not result in weight gain ifyou are exercising regularly. It is still a contrived reinforcer, however, because peopledont usually walk up and offer you food when you exercise. It is something you will besetting up for training purposes. So, name a primary reinforcer that you think might workfor the participant in this study.

b) Activity reinforcers

I. What activity reinforcer might work for this participant? (2)This involves allowing a specific amount of time for doing some activity that youenjoy but do not do very often. Conversely, it could be one that you do regularly but

that you are willing to only allow yourself to do if you earn it. This might beleisurely reading the newspaper while drinking coffee, or watching a favorite TVshow, or reading stuff that has nothing to do with school, or riding bikes with yourkids, or locking yourself away in your room with no one bothering you, etc.

II. Is this behavior probablya higher probability behavior or a lower probability

behavior in relation to your TB? (1)In other words, do you spend more or less time per day doing the activity reinforcerbehavior than you do the TB at this time (before you start the change program)?The proper way to find out is to record how long you spend doing the activityreinforcer behavior each day at the same time as you take baseline on the TB, but Iwill allow you to estimate based on your casual observation in this case.

III. Principle (1):Based on your answer above, if you use this activity reinforcer, state whether youwill be using the Premack Principle or the Timberlake and Allison extension.

6. Immediacy Issue

a) Primary reinforcer (1): Discuss whether or not you could deliver the primaryreinforcer immediately following the TB. For example you generally cannot deliver aspecial dinner dessert immediately following morning exercise.

b) Activity reinforcer (1): Do the same for the activity reinforcer. For example, if youare going to exercise first thing in the morning, you probably wont have time todeliver a reinforcer that consists of 30 minutes of enjoyable reading immediately.You probably need to get ready to go to work or school or whatever and you probably

dont have time to do your enjoyable reading at that time.

7. Possible conditioned reinforcersIn situations in which reinforcement cannot be delivered immediately, it is best practice to use aconditioned reinforcer to bridge the time gap. Even if you can deliver the unconditionedreinforcer or the activity reinforcer immediately following the TB, do the conditioned reinforcerpart of the exercise anyway.

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a) Conditioned reinforcer (1): What could you use as a conditioned reinforcer thatcould be presented immediately following the behavior? This would be somethingthat has no value in itself but gains value because you link it to some other reinforcer(i.e., the back-up reinforcer). Typical conditioned reinforcers include points, checkmarks, tokens, money put in a jar, amounts of money written in a log, or something

that indicates that you have done the required behavior and have earned a specifiedreinforcer.

b) Back-up Reinforcer (1): What will you use as the back-up reinforcer(s) for theconditioned reinforcer? The back-up reinforcer can be the unconditioned or activityreinforcer that you specified above, or it could be something else. You could have asingle back-up reinforcer, several back-up reinforcers, or a menu specifying howmany points (or other conditioned reinforcers) are needed to earn each item on yourmenu.

8. Potential reinforcer (1):

Now that you have considered various possible contrived reinforcers, which reinforcer will youuse in your behavior increase program? Specify the reinforcer, not the category it falls into. (For

example, I will use a small DQ ice cream cone. NOT I will use a primary reinforcer.) Besure that you can deliver the reinforcer immediately following the behavior. If you cant deliverit immediately, describe the conditioned reinforcer you will present immediately following thebehavior and the back-up reinforcer(s) that will make it effective.

9. Establishing Operation (1):What establishing operation will you use to make this reinforcer maximally effective? Dont justname the operation, but describe how you will do it. Therefore, how will you use deprivation orhow will you limit access to the reinforcer, or is the reinforcer already limited?

10. Baseline Summary (2)Create a table to show your baseline data. This may be a simple two-column (or two-row) table.

Remember that you will need to turn you observations into a daily data point. Be sure that yourheading for the data column (or row) indicates what the data represent. Write a one-sentencesummary about these results (e.g., mean rate of the behavior).

11. Graph (2)Graph your baseline data using Excel or a graphing program of your choice. Make sure you haveincluded all of the important features of a graph: appropriate data point symbol(s), data pathlabels (if necessary), x-axis label, y-axis label, condition labels (e.g., Baseline andTreatment), axis units of measurement (e.g., date on x axis and appropriate number range toencompass your data values on the y axis).

12. Behavioral Contingency (1)Based on your baseline behavior, determine your first behavioral requirement for earning yourreinforcer and specify how much of the reinforcer it will earn. Be sure to set it up so that it isvery likely that your behavior will earn the reinforcer (i.e., a reasonable increase over thebaseline average) and make sure that the reinforcer is large enough to be effective (i.e., to getyou to do the behavior). This will be in the format of [this much] of the TB will earn [thismuch] of the reinforcer.

Additional instructions:

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Begin your reinforcement program as soon as you have collected sufficient baseline data(usually one week will suffice unless it was an unusual week). Continue the reinforcementprogram for two weeks. Or if you find that the program is not working after the first week andyou want to make some adjustments for the second week you can do so, but you should checkwith the instructor before you do. After you have used the contingency treatment program fortwo weeks, stop the reinforcement contingency and continue recording the behavior for oneweek. At that time you will be through with the increase behavior program for the course andyou will be ready to do Home Lab 3.

That is all that is required for the increase project for this course. If your treatmentprogram was successful, however, you might want to go back to your treatment contingency andcontinue shaping the behavior until you get it to the level that you desire. Once you get it to thedesired level and you are maintaining it at that level, you might want to gradually and slowly thinout the contrived reinforcement contingency to allow the natural reinforcers to take over and toestablish resistance to extinction.

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HOME LAB 2

Behavior Decrease: Baseline Summary, Analysis, and Possible Procedures

1. Participant, Target Behavior, Operational Definition, and Terminal Goal (1):

2. Observation Method (2): Describe the observation method that you chose to use do not

just name it; describe how you are doing the observations3. Baseline Summary and Graph (2):

Create a table to show your baseline data. This may be a simple two-column (or two-row)table. Remember that you will need to turn you observations into a daily data point. Be surethat your heading for the data column (or row) indicates what the data represent.

Draw a graph showing your baseline data using Excel or a graphing program of your choice.You may wish to consult the information in the study guide on graphing or attend officehours for additional assistance.

4. Analysis

a) Possible Cues (2):What are the possible cues for the TB? The cues are the setting, people, stimuli, etc. thatprecede the behavior. Does TB occur at a certain time? Does TB occur when certain peopleare around? Does it occur in certain settings? Does it occur with certain emotional states?

b) Possible Reinforcers (2):What could be reinforcing the TB? What follows the behavior? What does the subject getfrom the behavior? Is it simply an enjoyable activity in itself? Does it produce physiologicalchanges that may be reinforcing? Does it produce a reaction in someone else? Speculate.

5. Procedures to Decrease BehaviorFor each of the following six ways to decrease a behavior, describe how you could apply that

method to the behavior you have chosen to decrease (even if it is not one that you would belikely to use). Describe specifically how this could be done (realistically), specifyingbehaviors and consequences exactly. If there is no way to apply a certain method to thatbehavior, explain why. Then evaluate the likelihood of each method you have describedbeing successful (this includes the likelihood that you would in fact use it). If there is nopossible way to use this method just say so (and hope that I cant think of a way to use iteither).

a) Response Prevention (3):Set up some way that the behavior cannot occur. You are preventing it BEFORE it happens.Even if you would never wear mittens all the time to prevent yourself from biting your nails, it isstill a possible procedure, just not one that you are likely to comply with.

b) Punishment (3):Suggest one punishment procedure. It can be Type I (positive punishment) or Type II (negativepunishment). Be realistic. Dont say that you will whip yourself if you do the behavior, and thensay that obviously you wont carry it out so it wont work. Suggest a realistic form ofpunishment, and then discuss why you would or would not use it. Things that people commonlydo include fining themselves for TB occurrences and then donating the money to a charity thatthey abhor, making themselves do something effortful if they do the TB, or taking away pointsthat are conditioned reinforcers.

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c) Extinction (2):Be sure to pay attention to what you indicated might be reinforcing the behavior. You must havethe behavior occur without getting that reinforcer to use extinction. This may not be possible. Ifit is not possible, indicate what the reinforcer is and explain why the behavior cannot occurwithout the reinforcer also occurring. Remember that ignoring a behavior is only extinction if

your attention was the reinforcer for the behavior.d) Differential Reinforcement of Other Behavior or Zero Behavior (DRO) (2):

For this procedure you need to determine a reinforcer and deliver it when a specified amount oftime has gone by without the target behavior occurring. The reinforcer does not need to be thereinforcer for the TB; it can be anything that you think will work as a reinforcer for your trainee.

e) Differential Reinforcement of an Incompatible or Alternative Behavior (DRI/DRA)

(2):Describe an incompatible or alternative behavior that could be reinforced, and describe what youwould use as a reinforcer. Again, it does not have to be the same reinforcer that is maintainingthe problem behavior.

f) Change the Motivation (2):This involves the reinforcer for the TB. Make the reinforcer less reinforcing (think aboutestablishing operations, such as satiation).

6. Which method would you attempt to use initially? Why? (2)Which method(s) would likely be most effective in decreasing the behavior and why?Remember: You should attempt reinforcement-based interventions before you selectimplement a punishment-based intervention. (In clinical, school, and other settings, youshould demonstrate that the reinforcement-based interventions are not effective beforeresorting to punishment.)

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HOME LAB 3

Behavior Increase & Decrease: Results and Analysis

1. Participant, Target Behavior, Operational Definition, and Terminal Goal (3):

2. Observation Method (3):

3. Reinforcement/Punishment Contingency (3):Describe the reinforcement contingency that you used. If you switched to a different contingencyin the second week of treatment, specify that contingency as well.

4. Data Summary (3):Expand the table that you created for Home Lab 2 to show all of your data. Include the full datafrom your baseline, your two-week treatment, and the one-week return to baseline. Be sure thatyour data heading indicates the form of the data (is it a frequency, an average, a percent, etc.) andthat the data are under the appropriate condition in the table. In other words, you need 3columns: baseline, treatment, and reversal.

5. Graph (3):

Draw a graph showing your data using Excel or a graphing program of your choice. This shouldshow the baseline, the treatment condition, and the return to baseline on one continuous,sequential graph. See the ABAB or Reversal Design graph on page 31 of the Pierce & Cheney(4th edition) text for an example. Be sure to label the axes appropriately (NOTE: the graph onpage 31 does not have labels on the x axis; see the graph on the bottom of page 35 for anexample of labeling the x axis) and label each section of the graph correctly. Please see meduring office hours if you need assistance graphing. Note: Responses per Minute is not anappropriate y-axis label, because it does not specify what the behavior is. A better y-axis labelwould be Aggression (Responses per Minute).

6. Results and Discussion (10):Write a paragraph describing the results of this mini-experiment. What happened, and how can

you interpret this? Was the reinforcer that you chose in fact a reinforcer? How do you know?(Review how an ABA research design can indicate if a potential reinforcer functions as an actualreinforcer. This information can be found in P&C 4th edition on pages 30-32.) If it was areinforcer, what should you do next to ensure that it will continue to function as a reinforcer? Ifnot, do you have any ideas about why not? Was there anything you could have done to make itmore effective? Or would it have been better to choose some totally different possible reinforcer?

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Rat Lab

Objectives

To directly experience the importance of the proper arrangement of the environment for

changing behavior

To experience the thrill of affecting the behavior of another living being.

To practice the skills involved in changing behavior (close observation, patience, shaping,

chaining, etc.).

To see a vivid demonstration of basic principles of learning (shaping, chaining, positive

reinforcement, schedules, extinction, discrimination training, etc.).

To gain experience in working with a team. (Note that many employers have reported to us

that the lack of experience in working in a team is a deficit of many university graduates.)

General Information and InstructionsThe rats we will work with have been specifically bred for this purpose. This strain of rats is

not found in the natural world, and the rats will not survive outside the shelter of the laboratory.Their only purpose in life is to teach you the important principles that you must understand to bean effective therapist/ counselor/ teacher/ administrator/ program planner/ parent/ etc. Please donot waste this gift.

The rats live in a special animal care facility on campus where they are regularly taken careof and monitored to ensure their health and well-being. They have been bred in our own breeding

colony and raised on campus. These are very clean and gentle animals. Please do not frighten

them with sudden movements or loud noise.

The rats are brought over to this laboratory once a week and it is our responsibility to ensurethat their stay in our laboratory is a pleasant and productive one. Handle the rats carefully. Theyare living beings, not pieces of laboratory equipment.

Be sure that they are taken out of and returned to their boxes securely by holding them by

the base of the tail with one hand and under their feet with your other hand.

Be sure that the water bottles contain water and that the spout points downward so that

they can get water.

If a rat gets agitated, return it immediately to either the operant chamber or its home box.

Loud noises frighten rats. Keep your voice down in the lab.

When the semester is over, the rats are returned to the breeding colony where they may

be used for breeding. At the end of their productive lives they will be sacrificedhumanely. Rats can be adopted if students are willing to sign a contract and take overentire responsibility for the rats well-being.

Your rat can be identified by the colors marked on the tail. Be sure to note your rats tail

colors, so that you always get the same rat. If the tail colors fade, be sure to re-mark the

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tail. The marking pens are kept on the shelves above the rats. You are welcome to nameyour rat as well; your rat will be your partner in the laboratory experience.

Please wash your hands before and after coming into the rat lab . Our rat colony isvery healthy and does not carry disease; however, rats are susceptible to many humandiseases that you may be carrying on your hands. Of course, for your health, you should

wash your hands after lab as well.

You may wish to use vinyl gloves and/or a lab coat while handling the rat to protect

yourself from scratches from rat nails and protect your clothes from rat effluvia. If a ratshould bite you (a rare occurrence), report the event to the lab assistant and/or instructorimmediately and go to the health center to have the bite cleaned. For your protection, youwill need to have a tetanus shot if you have not had one within the last five years.

You will work in a group of 3-5 students. The laboratory work should be divided evenly

among all members of the group, and all are expected to participate actively (even if thatparticipation only involves observation). For this reason, attendance is taken in rat lab. If youshow up more than 10 min after the start of rat lab, you will be counted as absent for that day

(unless you have a legitimate, written excuse as determined by the instructor). If you are sittingin the lab reading your textbook for another class, you will be counted as absent. If somemember does not wish to handle the rat, this is fine, because there are many other jobs thatperson can do. You will conduct the experiment and collect data as a group, but you will answerthe session questions individually.

The protocols for this rat laboratory have been examined and approved by the UHCL IACUC(Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee) to ensure that they meet all ethical guidelines forthe treatment of animals. The facility where the rats are housed is regularly inspected andapproved by the IACUC and the US Dept. of Agriculture to insure that the rats are housedappropriately and that their housing meets all federal standards of care.

Each week you will fill out a session summary with any relevant information for that

session. You also need to be prepared for lab by reading the procedures that you might

need for the day before you come to lab. You should always read one section ahead. Youalways need to be ready to take the next step. I suggest that you read the entire procedure beforeyou start so that you get the overall picture and then re-read the sections that might be relevant toyour days work the night before class.

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Information about the Rats and Lab:

Species: Sprague-Dawley

Age: approximately 4 months when we start

Experimental history: none

Establishing operation: maintained at 89% of free-feeding weight and not fed until aftertraining on Tuesdays

Computer program: Graphic State Notation by Coulbourn Instruments

Overview

In the rat lab, you will be establishing a stimulus-response chain with 3 components. The ratwill learn to pull the chain that will turn on the house and cue lights and activate the lever, thento press the right lever (which will provide a clicking sound and the delivery of food into thefood hopper), and then to go to the food hopper to get the food. To train the rat to do this, youwill use backwards chaining which involves teaching the behaviors one at a time starting fromthe last behavior in the chain. Thus, you will first teach the rat to go to the food hopper to getfood when the rat hears the click of the food delivery mechanism. Then you will teach the rat topress the right hand lever to produce that click and the food. You will then establish adiscrimination in which the lever produces the click and food only when the house lights and thelights above the right-hand lever (cue lights) are on. This establishes the lights as a conditionedreinforcer. Once that is completed, you will teach the rat to pull the chain to turn on the lights. Atthat point the rat will be doing the entire behavior chain.

The following table provides a summary of what you will be doing in the Rat Lab. It is meant asa reference guide only; be sure to read the details in the following sections carefully!

Activity Complete When To DoAdaptation Rat eats pellets in hopper - 20-min BL of lever presses (start of 1st day)

Magazine training Rat consistently goes tohopper when food isdispensed

Shape lever press Rat has one full day of experience pressing the leverindependently

- SR+ successive approx. to lever pressing- 20-min during full day of independent leverpressing

Discrimination training 80% of presses occur w/ lighton

Shape chain pull Rat independently performs Rchain

- 5-min BL on entire R chain- 20-min data collection w/ entire chainoccurring independently

Adaptation and Baseline

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The first session in the lab will include an opportunity for you and your rat to get acquainted.

In addition, you will take the baseline measurements of the rats lever pressing behavior. Before

you put the rat in the box, place several food pellets in the food hopper by depressing the

switch on the feeder itself. Tell the lab assistant (Adeline) when you put the rat in the box so

the lab assistant can start the computer program.

Place the rat in the box and leave the rat to explore this new environment.

While the rat is doing this, you will take a 20-minute baseline of lever pressing. Have one

member of your group time one-minute intervals while other members of the group count thenumber of presses on the lever to the right of the food hopper in each minute. (A form forrecording the data is included in this manual on page 27.)

When you finish collecting the baseline data, if your rat has eaten the pellets in the hopper,

you can go on to magazine training. If the rat has not eaten the pellets, wait until the rat hasdone so. The rat usually will not eat until the new environment has been exploredsufficiently. (It is possible that your rat will need more than one session to adapt.)

You should use the data you collected to graph the rats responses for both response rate andcumulative responding.

The group can share the data at the end of the session, but each group member MUST graphthe data independently!

Magazine Training

The purpose of magazine training is to train the rat to move to the food hopper from anyplace in the box when the food delivery mechanism (magazine) clicks. In other words, you wantto set up the click of the mechanism to be a conditioned reinforcer by making it a cue(discriminative stimulus) that indicates that if the rat goes to the food hopper, food will beavailable.

While the rat is exploring the cage, deliver a pellet while the rats nose is in the foodhopper. After the rat has eaten that pellet, deliver another one. Continue to do this until the ratimmediately eats the pellets and does not jump when the hopper sounds. When the rat is eatingthe pellets regularly, withhold the pellet briefly and watch for the rat to begin to move slightly

away from the hopper. As soon as the rat is one or two steps away, deliver a food pellet and

wait until the rat eats it. Repeat a few times. Then wait until the rat gets farther and fartheraway from the hopper to deliver food. Allow the rat to get into all parts of the box. Do not

deliver food for going to only one place. When your rat returns to the food hopper quickly

when food is delivered, you are ready to go on to shaping the lever press . The behaviors ofgoing to the hopper and eating will serve as the 3rd behaviors (R3) in your response chain.

Shaping the lever press

You are now going to teach your rat to press the lever. This will serve as the 2nd behavior(R2) in your behavior chain. You could do this by waiting until the rat accidentally hits the leverand thus hears the click followed by food. This might take quite a long time, however. So, Iinstead suggest shaping.

To shape the behavior, you will differentially reinforce successive approximations to theterminal behavior of lever-pressing with the click that signals the delivery of a food pellet. Besure you understand both why you want to use the click of the food hopper as the reinforcer for

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lever pressing, and how it becomes a conditioned reinforcer. (The answer to these questions canbe found in P&C 4th edition pages 77-78 and pages 221-222.)

NOTE: The lights over the lever should be on during this process and the chain should behanging into the cage.

Here are some guidelines for shaping lever pressing:

Let the rat show you where to start. Start with a behavior currently in the rat'srepertoire that most closely resembles the terminal behavior of lever pressing, andreinforce that behavior. As the rat does that behavior, there will be some variability inform. Gradually start reinforcing those variations that come closer and closer to the finalbehavior, and gradually stop reinforcing those that are farther away.

Take small steps. You must observe closely and catch small changes that move in theright direction. Be sure to record what steps you are reinforcing in your session notes sothat you can describe these in your final paper.

Think fast. The reinforcer must be delivered immediately, otherwise it may reinforce a

different behavior. This involves close observation and almost anticipation from theshaper. It is very important that the person operating the switch be able to see the rat wellfor precise timing. In general, it does not work to have one person watch and tell a secondperson when to operate the switch. The delay that this causes can be fatal to shaping.

Be flexible. The actual shaping procedure often looks different than the idealized one;you need to move with your rat and let the rat determine the pace. In other words, youmight plan to reinforce a particular behavior next, but the rat might do something elsethat is close. Reinforce that behavior.

Reinforce often. The required behavior should be such a slight change that the rat getsthe reinforcer quite frequently. Otherwise the rat may lose interest in the lesson. If the ratdoes leave the lever area, however, just wait until it comes back to resume.

Be patient. If it takes more than one session to shape lever pressing, move back a step or

two to an easier criterion at the beginning of subsequent sessions.

Be sure to record what shaping steps you used in your session notes. Doing so will helpyou answer the Rat Lab questions.

Please record the number of lever presses each session from adaptation (baseline) through thelast day of shaping training (mastery). You will use these data to produce your rate graph for ratlab assignment #1.

When your rat is pressing the lever reliably, let her lever-press for at least one full session

before continuing on. Take data during the first 20 minutes of that session using the same

procedures you used to take the baseline data (i.e., the day the rat has been trained and isresponding independently). The data sheet for this assignment is found on page 27. Compare thefirst 20 minutes of the first day (baseline) with the first 20 minutes of the last day of training.

Rat Lab #1 Assignment:

You will take the raw data collected for lever pressing described in the previous paragraph and

you will graph the response rates in each session during each session of shaping. Refer to

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the sample graphs below for your assignment. You will hand in three of the same types of

graphs, using your rats performance data. You will also hand in the raw data from page

27 of your rat lab manual.

Sample frequency graph:

Sample cumulative record:

Sample rate graph:

Discrimination Training

This segment is a demonstration of discrimination training in which the rat will learn thatlever-pressing is only reinforced when the cue lights over the lever are on. You will be using thetraditional, trial-and-error discrimination training procedure. You will present alternating periods

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of SD (when responses will be reinforced) and S (when responses will not be reinforced). Do not

start this program until your rat has had at least one entire session working on CRF so that thelever-press is well established.

The computer is programmed to control the presentation of the SDand S-delta (S) periods.

SD (lights on, lever-presses reinforced on a CRF schedule) will last for 30 seconds. At that point,

the program will change to S (lights off, lever pressing on extinction). After the first 25 seconds

in S, the computer will start a program called a Change-Over Delay (COD), which occurs

during S (lights off). The COD requires that the rat not press the lever for five seconds before it

will turn the light back on. Each time the rat presses the lever during the COD, the timing of thefive seconds starts over. This is to prevent adventitious (superstitious) reinforcement of leverpressing with the light turning back on (now a conditioned reinforcer). The SD period includesthe COD. The duration of SD, thus, will vary depending on how often responses occur during theCOD.

Alternate SD and S periods until your rat shows a clear discrimination. This would be

indicated by the rat's responding at a high rate in S D with very few, if any, responses in S. As a

guideline, about 80% of the responses should occur during the presence of the S D. This usuallytakes several weeks, but it can also happen very quickly (e.g., 1-2 days).

Rat Lab Assignment #2:

On each day of discrimination training you will record the number of responses in SD and the

number in S. Fill out these numbers on the data sheet in the study guide (page 28) and

calculate the percentage of SD responses. Graph the percentage of SD and S responses

during each session of discrimination training to keep track of your rats progress. Make a

textbox above the SD responses to indicate the percentage of responses that occurred in the

presence of the SD.

Sample graph:

Behavior ChainNow you are ready to establish the final part of the behavior chain. You have already

established the responses of going to the food hopper when the click is heard, and pressing thebar when the light is on (which produces the click). You now want to establish the first behaviorthat will turn the light on and make food available for a lever press. Therefore, you will establishthe chain-pull as the first behavior (R1) in the behavior chain.

The program is set up so that a chain-pull will turn on the lights over the right hand lever andmake that lever active.

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Take a baseline for the full behavior chain by hand for five minutes . The full behaviorchain will be a chain-pull followed by a lever-press followed by going to the food hopper andeating. Have one person time the one-minute intervals while other group members observe therat and count the number of full behavior chains that occur in each minute. (Note: It would besurprising if there were any, but there could be.) Observe for five minutes. The data sheet for this

part of the assignment can be found on page 28.Start training your rat to pull the chain hanging down from the center of the cage. You will

need to use hand-shaping again. If you put your hand on the lever at the top of the cage

where the chain is attached, you can manually press the lever down (which the chain will dolater), which turns on the light and makes the lever active. When your rat presses the lever, afood pellet is obtained by going to the hopper, the light goes off and the lever becomes inactiveagain.

Start reinforcing (with the light and active lever) your rat for turning away from the

hopper. Then reinforce successive approximations to chain pulling until the rat pulls it

reliably on its own. Be sure to record the successive approximations you used in training thechain-pull in the session notes.

Rat Lab Assignment #3:

Once the rat is pulling the chain and pressing the lever reliably, start taking data. Count thenumber of behavior chains (chain pull, lever press, food consumption) completed per minute for

20 minutes using the same procedure you used for collecting baseline data. Record your data onthe sheet provided on the bottom of page 28. Graph your data as a frequency graph and as a

cumulative record. Please refer to the two (frequency and cumulative) graphs below to

serve as models for your assignment.

Sample frequency graph: Sample cumulative record:

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RAT LAB LOG

Rat Tail Mark ___________________

Session 1: Date ____________

Notes: (Describe what happened in the session and any special responses noted. These notes do

not need to be completed for a grade, but they will help you remember what happened duringlab when you are writing your Rat Lab assignments.)

Session 2: Date ____________

Notes:

Session 3: Date ____________

Notes:

Session 4: Date ____________

Notes:

Session 5: Date ____________

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Notes:

Session 6: Date ____________

Notes:

Session 7: Date ____________

Notes:

Session 8: Date ____________

Notes:

Session 9: Date ____________

Notes:

Session 10: Date ____________

Notes:

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Session 11: Date ____________

Notes:

Session 12: Date ____________

Notes:

Session 13: Date ____________

Notes:

Session 14: Date ____________

Notes:

Session 15: Date ____________

Notes:

DATA RECORDS

Data Record for the Lever Press

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Baseline Last session of Shaping

Min Resp. Cum.Resp.

Min Resp. Cum.Resp.

Min Resp. Cum.Resp.

Min Resp. Cum.Resp.

1 11 1 11

2 12 2 12

3 13 3 13

4 14 4 14

5 15 5 15

6 16 6 16

7 17 7 17

8 18 8 18

9 19 9 1910 20 10 20

Instructions: Record the number of right lever presses from the data sheet for each minute for the first 20 minutesof the first day of lab (i.e., during adaptation). Record that in the column labeled "resp." To get cumulativeresponses (cum. resp.) add the number of responses for that minute to the total cumulative responses from theprevious minute and record this in the "cum. resp." column. To get the data for the last session, use the first 20

minutes from the last day of training before you start discrimination training.

Date Record for Average Response Rates for the Lever Press

Session 1: 2: 3: 4: 5: 6:

Averageresponse rate

(R/Min)

Instructions: Record the Response Rates (in Responses per Minute) for each session day. Indicate next to the

numbers whether the rat was in adaptation, magazine training, or shaping when those data were produced.

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Data Record For Discrimination Training

Session 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

SD resp.

S-delta

(S) resp.

Total

resp.

% of SD

resp.

Instructions: The number of SD and S

responses will come from your daily collection of the data during the

discrimination sessions. To get total responses, add them together. To get the % of SD responses, divide the numberof SD responses by the total responses for each session.

Data Record for Three-Response Chain

Baseline:

Minute Completed Chains

1

2

3

4

5

After Training:

Minute # Completed Chains Minute # Completed Chains

1 11

2 12

3 13

4 14

5 15

6 16

7 17

8 18

9 19

10 20

Instructions: Take data by hand. Use a watch with a second hand or one of the lab stopwatches.

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NOTES ON APA FORMAT

Citations

To cite a source in your text (either a direct quote or paraphrasing another authors writing), place

the last name of the authors in parentheses at the end of the quoted source with commas betweenthe names and an ampersand before the last name of the final author. After the last authorsname, place a comma followed by the year of publication. For example: (Iwata, Dorsey, Slifer,Bauman, & Richman, 1982/1994).

If there are more than 5 authors, write the first authors last name followed by et al., a comma,

and the year. For example: (Wacker et al., 1990).

Creating a Reference List

All sources that you refer to in your paper must appear in your reference section. Any source not

referred to in your paper, even if you used it for background understanding, does not appear inthe reference section. A reference section is different from a bibliography.

Double space all entries.

Use a hanging indent format. This means that the first line of each entry is set flush left and

subsequent lines are indented.

Use acceptable abbreviations (i.e., chap. for chapter, Ed. (or Eds.) for Editor(s), ed. foredition, p. for one page, and pp. for more than one page).

Give city and state of publication in U.S., city and country outside of the U.S. If numerous

publication sites are listed in the book, just give the first one.

Alphabetize entries according to surnames, but do not alphabetize the authors within one source.

For several works by same author, use author's name in all entries and place them by date with

the earliest year first.

Only capitalize the first word of a book or journal article title, the first word in the subtitle (the

first word after a colon), and proper names. For the name of a journal, capitalize all importantwords.

Put book titles and journal titles in italics, but not the titles of articles within a journal.

Put a period after the year of publication, after the title of a journal article, after the title of a

book, and at the end of the entry. Examples of general forms for references

Periodicals (Journal articles):

Author, A. A., Author, B. B., & Author, C. C. (1994). Title of article. Title of Periodical,volume number, 12-35. [NOTE: 12-35 are page numbers]

Non-periodicals (books):

Author, A. A. (1994). Title of work. City: Publisher.

Authors

Invert authors' names, using surnames and initials (e.g., Pryor, K.).

Use commas to separate authors surnames and initials, and initials and suffixes.

Use an ampersand for two or more authors (e.g., Pierce, W. D. & Cheney, C. D.).

To refer to an edited book (where different people write each chapter and the editor puts ittogether), place the editors' names in the author position, add Ed. or Eds. in parentheses afterthe last editor's name.

For a work with no author, move the title to the author position.

Publication Date -- Put the date the work was copyrighted in parentheses.

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RAT LAB PROJECT - QUESTIONNAIRE

Name: __________________________________

Your rats tail colors: _____________________

1. Diagram the full behavior chain when it is completed. (5 pts)

EO:

SD1: R1: SR1:

SD2: R2: SR2:

SD3: R3: SR3:

NOTE: R1 refers to the first behavior in the response chain NOT the first behavior you taught. Yourchain involves a sequence of 3 behaviors. R1 refers to what the rat does first in that sequence, R2 is whatthe rat does second, and R3 is what the rat does last.

2. What did you establish as the SD for the 3rd behavior in the response chain (R3)? Once this becamean SD for the final behavior, what else did it become for another behavior? (5)

3. Write a description of the steps your group used in shaping the rat to do R2, but do not includemagazine training. (3)

Describe what behavior was reinforced in each step of the shaping procedure. You should have writtenthis information in your Rat Lab Log (pp. 24-26).

4. Copy and paste from Excel a cumulative graph (record) of R2 in the baseline and after the rat wasshaped to do R2. (5)

To do this,draw a cumulative graph of the minute-by-minute data from the baseline and after training.These are the data you took by hand and wrote into the table at the top of page 27. Remember that minute1 from after training did not happen at the same time as minute 1 in baseline, so dont put them on top ofeach other they are sequential. Think of it this way: Pre-shaping data are your baseline, and shapingwas your treatment. Be sure to label each axis so that your reader knows what units are indicated ineach for cumulative graphs the label of the ordinate (y axis) needs to indicate cumulative frequency, not

just frequency. Make sure the graph is fully labeled. See an example graph on page 21.

5. Attach a frequency graph of R2 in the baseline and after the rat was shaped to do R2. (5)To do this,draw a non-cumulative (frequency) graph of the minute-by-minute data from the baseline andafter training (shaping). These are the same data that you graphed in Question #4; they are just presentedin a different format. Make sure the graph is fully labeled. See an example graph on page 21.

6. Attach a non-cumulative (rate) graph of R2 for the sessions in which you were training the rat to do(shaping) R2 (start with the first session of rat lab). (5)

Draw a non-cumulative (responses per minute) graph of average response rate per session (these are thedata you got from the computer print out each week and wrote into the table on the bottom of page 27).

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The ordinate label needs to indicate what this rate represents (responses/minute; responses/hour;responses/day, etc.). See an example graph on page 21.

7. What was the goal of discrimination training in the rat lab? What was the SD and what was the S inthis section of lab? (5)

What is the outcome you are after in this section of the training? What do you want the rat to do when youfinish discrimination training?

8. What two basic behavioral processes are involved in discrimination training? Provide a quote fromthe Pierce and Cheney textbook to support your answer. (5)

9. Describe the change-over delay (COD) in your own words. What was the purpose of the COD? (5)

10. Explain the role of discrimination training in the formation of behavior chains. Use appropriateAPA formatted citations if necessary. (5)

11. Create a bar graph showing the frequency of lever presses during SD and S over the discriminationtraining sessions. (5)

Be sure to label the graph completely and accurately. These are the data that you wrote into the table onthe top of page 28. See an example graph on page 22.

12. Compare your rats responses in SD and S in the first session. What extinction effect does thisdemonstrate? If none, explain what extinction effect you might expect in the beginning of adiscrimination that is not demonstrated by your data. (5)

13. What will be the reinforcer for the first behavior in your behavior chain? What type of reinforceris this? (3)

14. Create a frequency graph showing the baseline and after-shaping data for the entire behavior chain.(5)

These are the data you recorded by hand and wrote into the tables on the middle to bottom of page 28.You should have 5 min of baseline and 20 min after shaping. See an example graph on page 23.

15. Create a cumulative graph showing the baseline and after-shaping data for the entire behaviorchain. (5)

These are the data you recorded by hand and wrote into the tables on the middle to bottom of page 28.You should have 5 min of baseline and 20 min after shaping. See an example graph on page 23.

16. Did you have any difficulties in the training procedure or notice any confounding stimuli that may

have affected your results? (2)

17. If you were to do this exercise again, what would you change? If nothing, what did you like bestabout the rat lab? (2)

18. Attach the data records for the entire rat lab. These are the tables found on pages 27-28 of theManual. (3)

19. Include an APA-formatted reference list for the citations you included in this assignment. (2)

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