Principles of Learning Lab I
Due Date: September 09, 2013
Read Chapters 1 and 2.
Read Chapter 3 and perform exercises 1 through 5.
Prepare a lab report in APA format answering the following questions based on the completed exercises.
Questions provide a basis to write your report in an essay form. Do not write your report in points,
bullets, or answers to specific questions. Print out CS Response Strength Window, Movement Ratio
Window, and Fear & Sensitivity Windows for the exercises below.
Exercise 1.
What is Conditioned Emotional Response (CER)?
What acted as the Unconditioned Stimulus (UCS) and the Conditioned Stimulus (CS)?
Describe what happens when acquisition takes place, i.e., how does the CS affects freezing behavior
(movement ratio) or bar-pressing behavior (suppression ratio)?
Exercise 2.
What is Extinction?
Estimate and make a table showing a decline in freezing behavior (movement ratio) or increase in barpressing behavior (suppression ratio) as extinction proceeds during conditioning.
What was the rate of extinction during the 30 trials? Were 30 trials enough to extinguish freezing
behavior?
Exercise 3.
What is Spontaneous Recovery?
How many trials did it take for Sniffy’s behavior to extinguish after Spontaneous Recovery?
What would have happened if we had reinstated the unconditioned stimulus back during spontaneous
recovery?
Exercise 4.
Vary the strengths of CS and compare the acquisition of CERs using movement ratio or suppression
ratio. Bonus points for extracting data from these files and making a graph showing acquisition for all
three CSs.
Exercise 5.
Vary the strengths of UCS and compare the acquisition of CERs using movement ratio or suppression
ratio. Bonus points for extracting data from these files and making a graph showing acquisition for all
three UCSs.
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