This assignment is from a psychology cognitive research subject, so basically you have to look up some of the parameters and definitions: like what is spontaneous recovery, dishabituation and make up a “fake: experiment. This is like an essay you will be free to make up an experiment and write about it. Just make sure to follow the instructions and check for grammar.
You will have to complete different tasks:
- Create an experiment that:
- Illustrates habituation of a startle response in a rat
- Illustrates spontaneous recovery of a startle response in a rat
- Illustrates dishabituation of a startle response in a rat
Ensure you make note of the following
- How many trials for each phase?
- What stimulus is being used and what behavior are you recording for each trial
- How long is each trial? What are the criteria for completion of one trial (i.e., does the rat need to exhibit a specific behavior a specific amount of times to move onto the next trial or do they continue regardless?)
- What is the completion criteria for the experiment (i.e., how do we know when the experiment is over?)
- For the written assignment, please use Times New Roman, 12pt, double spaced font.
This assignment should include all of the following:
- A title page
- An introduction section
- This section should introduce the purpose of the experiment and define and describe all of the relevant terms (habituation, spontaneous recovery, and dishabituation). It should also state what the hypotheses are (there should be one hypothesis for each phase)
- A procedure section
- This section should include the procedure of the experiment itself. This section should be detailed enough so that if I read this section I would be able to complete the experiment on my own. This section should begin from placing the rat into the apparatus until final completion. Some points to definitely include are a) What should be taking place in each phase (i.e., does the box need to be set up a specific way for each phase?) b) how long is each phase c) what behavior is being recorded and how d) completion criteria of each phase and the experiment as a whole
- A results section
- This section should include fake data. If you utilize startle responses, you should state the magnitude of startle response for each phase. To make things most clear, detail an average for each phase that illustrates the concept you are trying to test. For example, in the spontaneous recovery phase, we would expect a sharp increase in startle response before a decrease.
- A discussion section
- This section should reiterate the purpose of the experiment and whether the hypotheses were supported. Most importantly, it should discuss the results and whether they support the concepts and hypotheses at hand and why. Lastly, this section should also discuss real-world implications of these concepts (i.e., why should we care about this?)
I am also attaching a file as an outline.
