Analysis of Rat Behavior: Behavioral Psychology Lab Report PSY 341L

This report details a behavioral psychology laboratory experiment conducted to study the behavior of rats under controlled conditions. The experiment aimed to investigate habituation, magazine training, and shaping techniques using classical conditioning principles. The methodology involved observing and recording the rats' behaviors within an operant chamber, including bar presses, object touches, and other activities. The report outlines the procedures for habituation, where the rats were initially introduced to the chamber, followed by magazine training, where they learned to associate a specific behavior with a reward (water). The shaping phase further refined the rats' actions to achieve desired responses. The results section presents observations and analysis of the rats' responses to stimuli and reinforcement. The report concludes with an assessment of the experiment's success in demonstrating the principles of behavioral psychology and classical conditioning. The experiment successfully illustrated how rats adapt to repeated stimuli and learn through positive reinforcement.

Running head: BEHAVIORAL PSYCHOLOGY 1
Behavioral Psychology
Name
Institution

BEHAVIORAL PSYCHOLOGY 2
Behavioral Psychology
Introduction:
Behavioral psychology is the study of the connection between the mind and the behavior.
Researchers and scientists always bring to our understanding why people or animals behave the
way they do and try to discover the pattern in our actions and behavior. Behaviorism is
principally concerned with noticeable behavior. Behavioral psychology performed on rats in the
laboratory was to examine the actions of a rat at some given conditions and to come out with the
required results.
Objectives of the Experiment
The main purpose of the laboratory was to assist in achieving the required objectives by
giving the opportunity to carry out the experiment and become proficient in laboratory
techniques and the use of the instruments (O’Leary, Gunn, & Brown, 2013). The learning goals
of this experiment were to gain an understanding of the scientific progression and the
experimental procedures to get more advanced in the scientific field (Mohammed, n.d). The
laboratory was illustrated for the performance of the experiment to illustrate the combined use of
many behavioral tests through pharmacological and genetic replicas and allow us to establish an
in-depth behavioral profile. The anecdotal of the significant concept of the laboratory was
organization of the tests, collection of the tasters, reporting of the results and recovering the data
designated. Habituation is a diminution in response to a stimulus after repeated exhibitions
(Galef, 2013). An observation made during a habituation lab could have the following outcomes;
where an organism decreases its response to a stimulus after prolonged repetition of the same
stimulus. Basically, the organism naturally learns many ways to stop showing any response to

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the stimulus which biologically becomes irrelevant (Gomez-Marin, Paton, Kampff, Costa, &
Mainen, 2014). This is illustrated by a situation where an organism may habituate to continuous
sudden loud noises especially when they are repeatedly accustomed to the fact that such
behaviors have no consequences.
Method
The subjects in this particular experiment were two Sprague Dawley rats, the 1st rat
(sally) was a 5-month-old female, the second rat (sam) was two-month-old male (Rats). An
experiment commenced with one rat (sally) that was to be taught to press a bar to get the result
of its action which in this experiment was water. This was only possible when the rat underwent
a sequence of different stages.
The behaviors of the rats were measured using computer software that surveyed the
activity of bar presses and reinforcement within an operant chamber A (Devarakonda, Nguyen,
& Kravitz, 2016).
Consequently, the materials in this experiment included an operant chamber within room
2. There was also bar press connected to a water feeder and a green light that flashed each time
the bar was pressed.in the habituation process a rat taxonomy data sheet was included the
following list of behaviors, “bar press”, :bar touch”, “magazine entry”, “object touch”, “rest”,
“groom self”, among others. Along with their definitions and another data sheet used for
recording those behaviors.
The procedure followed to have the rat get to the water successfully would be outlined as
follows in several phases;

BEHAVIORAL PSYCHOLOGY 2
Habituation is the phase where the baseline behavior provides the essential data that can
be used in future to make self-reliable individualized training. Emphasis is put on the existing
pattern of behavior (Tighe & Leaton, 2016). During the Habituation/Observation Sally was
positioned randomly inside of the chamber and monitored, two rats were finally trained to
accomplish supposed different activities through the skills of classical conditioning. Originally,
the first rat, Sally, was classically conditioned
The second phase is Magazine Training/shaping phases includes the process where
positive stimuli and the reinforcer is continuously paired a behavior effectively (Reid, Futch,
Ball, Knight, & Tucker, 2017). During this process, the behavior is shaped in line with the
approach of Continuous Schedules of Reinforcements. For this particular experiment, two rats
were trained to bar press and push around a ping-pong ball through the use of aids of water.
After several sessions, the rat learned that if they did a certain behavior the reward would be
water. In the end even just a familiar sound from the chamber was enough for the rats to detect.
Room 1
output 1 output2 output 3 output 4
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habituation magazine shaping
Water and Ping-Pong
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Behavior Definition
bar press Subject under study depresses the lever to an extent that it is sufficient to
trigger the light diode used as the monitor in the experiment.
bar touch Subject under study touches the lever as it moves with either its nose or
its paw(s).
magazine entry Subject being investigated breaks through the plain of the wall barrier
with its nose.
object touch Subject under study touches lights or even wall screws with paw or paws
or its nose.
rest Subject does not show any evidence of movement for a period greater
than three seconds.
groom self Subject licks itself or its paws, and also includes the movement of limbs
or paws over its nose or may also involves dividing its fur and scratches
its body.
move Subject shows the evidence of movement in paw leading to a change in
locations or its orientation within the chamber.
explore Subject under study shows evidence of the movement of its upper body,
however, it does not move its hind limbs. This leads the subject to change
its orientations within the chamber.
rear Subject can be observed to raise both of its forepaws off the chamber
floor in upright exploration. However, its remains in a fixed position due
to no movement in the hind limps.
other Subject engages in a behavior that is not defined above.

BEHAVIORAL PSYCHOLOGY 2
There are two principles of regulation as stated by Dom Jam; 1. Regulated variables;
2. Spontaneous recovery where if the stimuli is withdrawn as a result of habituation training,
then the response tends to be of recovery nature over time.
Spontaneous recovery is in most cases associated with classical conditioning for learning.
In classical conditioning learning, an organism tries to learn to associate an environmental
stimulus producing a response that is in no way conditioned, and that the stimulus that had
initially been neutral results in its own response corresponding to that from an unconditioned
stimulus (Wilson, Takahashi, Schoenbaum, & Niv, 2014). Pavlov tested this behavior by tested
how dogs could behave towards food through examination of salivation when the dog sees food.
Such classical conditioning methods still try to unveil some of the most psychological behavior
exhibited by most of the animals including human beings.
Conclusion
The main purpose of the lab was achieved as it clearly brought out the psychological
behavior of the rats under different conditions and situations they are presented in. bringing out
clearly out they respond to elements like noise when it is repeatedly presented to them. Therefore
I would conclude that lab process was successful and this result can be used to compare the
behavioral psychology of different organisms in the different strategic situations. There were no
surprises though at some point the rats’ rate of response decreased and totally declined later. This
was an expected observation given the earlier observations.

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References
Devarakonda, K., Nguyen, K. P., & Kravitz, A. V. (2016). ROBucket: a low cost operant
chamber based on the Arduino microcontroller. Behavior research methods, 48(2), 503-
509.
Galef, B. G. (2013). IMITATION IN ANIMALS: HISTORY, DEFINITION, AND
INTERPRETATION OF DATA FROM THE PSYCHOLOGICAL LABORATORY.
Social learning , pp. 15-40.
Gomez-Marin, A., Paton, J. J., Kampff, A. R., Costa, R. M., & Mainen, Z. F. (2014). Big
behavioral data: psychology, ethology and the foundations of neuroscience. Nature
neuroscience, 17(11), 1455.
Mohammed, M. A. (n.d). Knowledge Sharing to Enhance Scientific Research Among
Universities.
O’Leary, T. P., Gunn, R. K., & Brown, R. E. (2013). What are we measuring when we test strain
differences in anxiety in mice? Behavior genetics, 43(1), 34-50.
Rats, C. O. (n.d.). Sprague Dawley® Rat. stress, 11, 44.
Reid, A. K., Futch, S. E., Ball, K. M., Knight, A. G., & Tucker, M. (2017). Assessment of
progressively delayed prompts on guided skill learning in rats. Learning & behavior,
45(1), 62-75.
Tighe, T. J., & Leaton, R. N. (2016). Habituation: Perspectives from child development, animal
behavior, and neurophysiology. Routledge.

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Wilson, R. C., Takahashi, Y. K., Schoenbaum, G., & Niv, Y. (2014). Orbitofrontal cortex as a
cognitive map of task space. Neuron, 81(2), 267-279.