You will need to gather your equipment:  noise maker, pencil/pen and this lab package.

Homework Assignment

The goal of this assignment is to demonstrate several concepts related to classical conditioning, including: the learning curve, acquisition, unconditioned stimulus, unconditioned response, conditioned stimulus, conditioned response, stimulus generalization, stimulus discrimination, extinction, and spontaneous recovery.  You hypothesize that a classically conditioned response will develop if you pair the word CAN with a loud noise (whistle).

Procedures

The basic procedure is to blow a loud whistle while a long list of words is being read.  You can only whistle when the word “CAN” is read.  Eventually, hearing the word can by itself will cause various conditioned responses.  You MUST recruit a subject.  If you can, you should have an observer as well.

Step 1.  You will need to gather your equipment:  noise maker, pencil/pen and this lab package. (If you do not have an observer, you will need a device to record the subject during the experiment.)

Step 2.  Select one person to be the subject and have him/her sit to face the wall.  Explain that a list of words will be read loudly they should respond naturally.

Step 3.  One person (not the subject) will read the list of words loudly.  [Stimulus Word List].

The reader of the words must activate the noisemaker immediately after reading the uppercase word, “CAN”.  On the lowercase “can” or any other word, do nothing but continue to read.  Activate the noise just after you read “CAN.”

If you have observers, they will watch the subject’s reactions and makes detailed notes during the experiment.  (If not, the experimenter will have to record the subject to make notes on the reactions to each stimulus word later.) – Use the Observation Form in this package.

Step 4. Throughout the experiment, the subject keeps his/her eyes closed to avoid the use of any visual stimulus cues from the other people’s facial expressions or hand movements.

Read the words at a steady rate of about one per second.  Try to keep your voice even.  Read all the words, including “CAN,” in the same fairly loud voice.  Try to persuade any “observers” from laughing and/or talking during the experiment.

Step 5.  After the experiment concludes, thank the subject.  Talk with the subject about feelings he/she may have experienced.  Take notes.

Step 6.  Write up the experiment identifying the following classical conditioning concepts in the context of this experiment:

• acquisition
  • note that at first, the word “can” itself caused no special response. But after repeated pairings of “can” and the whistle, the word “can” by itself became gradually more and more likely to cause a learned response.
• unconditioned stimulus
• unconditioned response
• conditioned stimulus
• conditioned response
• stimulus generalization
  • hint: after conditioning occurred, was there any reaction to words that sounded like “can” (e.g., ban, ran, van, fan, tan, camp, card, cap, cape, call, cast).
• stimulus discrimination (see above)
• extinction
  • (note that there was a long run late in the list of the word “can” occurring without a whistle (i.e., “can” but not “CAN”)
• spontaneous recovery (try this out)

Step 7. Please make sure to include the completed table with the subject observations in the Appendix of your paper.  Also, make sure to describe the observations and refer to the table in the results section of your paper.

Please note that you are welcome to communicate/discuss this with your classmates as you are learning about learning. J However, your responses must be individual and original.  If I receive duplicate responses or extremely similar responses, neither will earn full credit.  Your response must be original.

Please note: Your write up MUST describe behavior that illustrates the behavior that would illustrate the following concepts no matter what your observations are: acquisition, unconditioned stimulus, unconditioned response, conditioned stimulus, conditioned response, stimulus generalization, stimulus discrimination, extinction, and spontaneous recovery