Classical Conditioning In Rats
In a third article by Burdick and James (1970) also investigated classical conditioning in rats. The purpose of the experiment was to condition rats to suppress certain hunger behaviors such as water licking. Burdick and James paired the neutral stimulus of white light with shock in a “test chamber” to see if rats would develop an association between the two stimuli. Naturally, shock induces a fear-like freezing behavior, and after being conditioned the rats displayed the same behavior but only to the white light. Furthermore, they would then place the rats back in their “home” chamber after 1-72 hours and present the white light to see if the rats would spontaneously recover the conditioned response and suppress their water licking behavior
…show more content…
In the first six days of the experiment, all subjects were water deprived the entire day except for 20 minutes of access to water. After which, in the pre-conditioning phase they tested the white light in different intervals to ensure that the white light itself did not evoke any fear like behavior. In the conditioning phase, Burdick and James paired the white light for 30 seconds followed by a shock. After several trials, the rats began to associate the white lock with shock, and began to display freezing behavior in response to white light alone. Then, the rats underwent 40 extinction trials. To test for spontaneous recovery, they removed the rats for 1,3, 24 or 72 hours, and then returned them to the lab chamber. After which, they presented the rats with water and displayed the white light to see if rats would associate the light with shock and freeze, thus suppressing their water licking motion.
The results indicated that the rats were quickly conditioned, however they differed in their spontaneous recovery rates. The rats who were removed from the chamber for only an hour demonstrated the fastest spontaneous recovery time, followed by 72 hours, 3 hours and lastly 24 hours. Although, the rats conditioned at relatively similar rates and all had undergone extinction phases, those same rats differed when it came to spontaneous recovery. This study further highlights the importance of classical conditioning because the same organism can vary in spontaneous recovery time when both the neutral stimuli and unconditioned stimulus have been
In the first six days of the experiment, all subjects were water deprived the entire day except for 20 minutes of access to water. After which, in the pre-conditioning phase they tested the white light in different intervals to ensure that the white light itself did not evoke any fear like behavior. In the conditioning phase, Burdick and James paired the white light for 30 seconds followed by a shock. After several trials, the rats began to associate the white lock with shock, and began to display freezing behavior in response to white light alone. Then, the rats underwent 40 extinction trials. To test for spontaneous recovery, they removed the rats for 1,3, 24 or 72 hours, and then returned them to the lab chamber. After which, they presented the rats with water and displayed the white light to see if rats would associate the light with shock and freeze, thus suppressing their water licking motion.
The results indicated that the rats were quickly conditioned, however they differed in their spontaneous recovery rates. The rats who were removed from the chamber for only an hour demonstrated the fastest spontaneous recovery time, followed by 72 hours, 3 hours and lastly 24 hours. Although, the rats conditioned at relatively similar rates and all had undergone extinction phases, those same rats differed when it came to spontaneous recovery. This study further highlights the importance of classical conditioning because the same organism can vary in spontaneous recovery time when both the neutral stimuli and unconditioned stimulus have been