Abstract
A 4K PDP-8/E computer program package has been developed to control classical conditioning procedures, to collect response data, and to extract statistical summeries. In contrast with other existing behavioral control languages geared to digital data typical of discrete operant analyses, this program distinguishes itself by its ability to retrieve and analyze the analog data arising from phasic response systems such as the rabbit’s nictitating membrane. By means of a question-and-answer Teletype conversation with the E, the program establishes trial sequence and trial spacing parameters; CS and US duration, probability, and interstimulus interval; intertrial interval fractionation for recording intertrial response frequencies; and session length. Various versions of the program exist to compute statistical properties of the analog response data, to dump detailed trial-by-trial topographies, and to attach instrumental contingencies to subtle features of the real-time analog responding.
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References
Gormezano, I. Classical conditioning. In J. B. Sidowski (Ed.),Experimental methods and instrumentation in psychology. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1966.
Miilenson, J. R., & Sullivan, G. D. A hardware random number generator for use with computer control of probabilistic contingencies. Behavior Research Methods & Instrumentation, 1969, 1, 194–196.
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The program described herein was written in the summer of 1972, while the first author was on a leave of absence from Oxford University to the University of Iowa, Iowa City. The creation of the program and the preparation of this report were supported in part by NSF Grant GB-7907X to I. Gormezano and by SRC Grant B/SE5528 to J. R. Millenson.
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Millenson, J.R., Kehoe, E.J., Tait, R.W. et al. A minicomputer program for control and data acquisition in classical conditioning. Behav. Res. Meth. & Instru. 5, 212–217 (1973). https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03200167
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03200167