Conditioning and Sniffy the Virtual Rat

For the first part of this assignment, complete Exercises 1-3 in Chapter 3.

• Follow the instructions in the text for Acquisition of a CR (Exercise 1). At the end of training, create an MS Word document and paste a copy of the contents of Sniffy's Movement Ratio window and CS Response Strength mind window into the document.

• Follow the instructions in the text for Extinction of a CR (Exercise 2). Copy, paste and label the Movement Ratio and CS Response Strength windows into your document.

• Follow the instructions in the text for Spontaneous Recovery of a CR (Exercise 3). Copy, paste and label the Movement Ratio and CS Response Strength windows into your document.

  Note: Include each of these graphs and label each of them appropriately because I need to see these graphs to determine if you trained Sniffy correctly and answered the following questions correctly based on your ability to train Sniffy.

• You will receive 10 points based on your answers to the following questions.

  • What aspects of behavior and psychology do the Movement Ratio and Response Strength graphs represent?

  • Do you believe that the observable behavior of the rat adequately or accurately explains the psychological state of the rat? Explain your answer.

  • Is it necessary to understand the psychological reasons an animal engages in a behavior in order to understand the behavior or is it enough to be able to predict and control behavior? Explain

For the second part of this assignment, complete Exercises 4-7 in Chapter 5 and Exercise 11 in Chapter 6.

• After completing Exercises 4,5 and 7, copy and paste the cumulative record into the document (see expercise 6). Label approriately

• After completing Exercise 11, copy and paste the cumulative record into the document. Label appropriately

• You will receive 10 points based on your answers to the following questions.

  • What type of conditioning are you engaging in - classical or operant? Justify your answer.

  • Did you encounter any difficulties magazine training Sniffy? If so, what were they and what aspect of conditioning explained the difficulties you were having?

  • What schedule of reinforcement did you use magazine train Sniffy? Justify your answer.

  • How did Sniffy's responses (as indicated in the cumulative record) differ between magazine training and training under a small VR schedule (exercise 11)?

Save the document you created containing the labeled graphs and your answers to these questions and upload the document to Moodle to submit your homework for this assignment.