Semester Project

Choice B

Classical Conditioning

 

Basic Guidelines

 

  1. Do not purchase a living being for this project.
  2. Do not purchase any thing expensive (a couple of dollars for Unconditioned Stimuli is OK).
  3. Pick something you will enjoy.
  4. Pick something you can do in a few hours
    1. All in an afternoon
    2. A few minutes a day
  5. Follow APA and USD guidelines for human subjects
    1. This essentially makes using humans impossible for this assignment!
    2. You must discuss use of human subjects with me prior to using humans as subjects!
    3. You can, however, use yourself as the subject
  6. Behave in an ethical, legal, and safe manner.
  7. Use a positive reflex stratedgy – no avoidance reflexes (well, an air puff is OK).
  8. Write a report on your experience (see Report material).
  9. Failure to achieve target behavior can be acceptable.
  10. Your report must explain “why and how” for success or failure.

 

Suggested Time Frame

 

 

Links to detailed processes

 

Process Name

Purpose

URL

1.  THE CONDITIONED RESPONSE

A simple method to demonstrate classical conditioning.

http://www.casaa-resources.net/resources/handbook/self-understanding/conditioned.html

 

2.  Home demonstration

A simple classical conditioning experiment that students can perform on themselves at home.

http://cwx.prenhall.com/bookbind/pubbooks/morris2/ chapter5/medialib/class/dilation.html

3.  Classical Conditioning Tutorial

Tutorial covers factors determining the effectiveness of classical conditioning, Resocorla-Wagner model, where are associations made, and what are associations made between.

http://www.biozentrum.uni-wuerzburg.de/~brembs/classical/classical.html

 

4.  Classical Conditioning of Proboscis Extension in Honey Bees

Complete instructions (with photos) on how to perform a classical conditioning experiment using honeybees.

http://www.cas.okstate.edu/psych/faculty/abramson/beeexperiment1.html

 

5.  Classically Conditioning Earthworms

Complete instructions (with photos) on how to perform a classical conditioning experiment using earthworms. Simpler than the one above using bees above.

http://www.cas.okstate.edu/psych/faculty/abramson/worms.html

 

 

 

 

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