Learning Objectives
- To understand the principles in Classical and Operant Conditioning
- To understand reinforcement learning and shaping behaviors.
- To compare the role of different schedules of reinforcement on behavior
- To work with simulations of research with animal models.
Materials
- Computers (Note: We don’t have power outlets at every table, switch the computers around in between every lab to keep all of them charged up).
- Sniffy Pro Software
For TAs:
This lab can be a bit more demanding of you, I have made extensive presenter notes on the slides to help, be sure to look at them before the lab.
Overview
In this lab, students will work with Sniffy the virtual rat, to learn principles in Classical and Operant conditioning.
Time Allocation:
| Introduction | 5 Minutes |
|---|---|
| Activity 1: Classical Conditioning | 15 Minutes |
| Activity 2: Shaping Activity | 10 Minutes |
| Activity 3: Schedules of Reinforcement | 10 Minutes |
| Class Discussion | 5 Minutes |
| Submission Time | 5 Minutes |
Introduction (5 min)
The lab starts with a short introduction with the goal of reminding students of what defines classical and operant conditioning, the differences between them, and a bit of the history of this area of study.
We then move on to an overview of how to work with the Sniffy Pro software, the different elements in an operant conditioning chamber, and how to interpret the graphical elements in the software.
Activity 1: Classical Conditioning (15 min)
Students will get a small prompt on how to set up a Classical Conditioning experiment on Sniffy Pro. Then, they will be left on their own for a bit as they set it up and try to interpret what happened.
Afterwards, go through with them on how to interpret the figures generated by the program.
Activity 2: Shaping Activity (10 min)
Since it is difficult to have enough time to practice shaping Sniffy in our laboratory setting, this activity is a way to create an illustrative example of what this means.
Here are the short instructions on it:
Before starting, ask for a volunteer for a short demonstration.
Send the volunteer out of the room while you and the class select a simple behavior to shape, for example, touching the chalkboard. Grab the clicker from the computer drawer.
Have the volunteer return. Explain the task as follows: “We’ve picked a particular act that we want you to do, but we won’t tell you what it is; you have to figure it out. It’s simple and not embarrassing. Each time you move in the direction of doing it, I will click the clicker If you don’t move in that direction, I won’t do anything. When you get a little warm, I won’t keep on clicking, I’ll wait for you to get a bit warmer before doing it. That way you will make progress. What I’ll be doing is called ‘shaping.’”
Begin shaping the volunteer’s behavior by clicking to any movement in the direction of the desired act. For example, if the volunteer is to touch the chalkboard, click to any glance, turn, or step toward it. Then click only to steps toward it, then to approaches of the hand toward it, etc.
After the activity is done, we will transition into the next activity by briefly discussing with students how they WOULD be shaping Sniffy if we had enough time, and some of the approaches involved in this.
Afterwards, you will show them how to open a previously shaped Sniffy, before moving on to the next activity.
Activity 3: Schedules of Reinforcement (10 min)
This last activity will involve two short guided experiments with Sniffy, where students will load a pre-bar-trained Sniffy and then put him through a couple of different schedules of reinforcement. Observing how his behavior changes afterwards.
This part should be fairly quick, since students are mostly just following along with the script. However, the main interesting part here is letting them try to interpret the output on their own first.
Afterwards, have a short explanation about how different schedules of reinforcement lead to different response patterns, and specifically how the variable interval schedules result in a continuous bar press over time, while the fixed interval results in a staircase-like response. In practice, variable interval schedules have important implications for our daily lives, and how we interact with things such as social media, which encourage us to be checking the apps frequently with unpredictable “rewards”.
Debrief and Wrap-Up (5 min):
The most basic principles of learning are universal—both human and non-human animals learn via classical and operant conditioning.
Principles of learning are sometimes described as “lower level” mental phenomena (relative to other things we study today like reasoning, language, theory of mind, metacognition etc…), but it is extremely important and continues to be a relevant area of study, with many applications!
Final Submission Question and FLAPPY SNIFFY ANNOUNCEMENT (5 min):
Tell them to stick around for a bit today before leaving after answering the question, as you will have an announcement for them. This will be, of course, showing the QR code for Flappy Sniffy, and telling them to play it for at least about 10 minutes or so before the next week, but to feel free to play as much as they want otherwise, as it will be very relevant for the next week’s lab.
What other experiments would you be curious to test with Sniffy? Do you have any hypotheses for what you might see?