![]() ![]() A pleasant consequence makes that behavior more likely to be repeated in the future. In operant conditioning, organisms learn to associate a behavior and its consequence ( ). Now we turn to the second type of associative learning, operant conditioning. Remember that in classical conditioning, something in the environment triggers a reflex automatically, and researchers train the organism to react to a different stimulus. The previous section of this chapter focused on the type of associative learning known as classical conditioning. Distinguish between reinforcement schedules.Explain the difference between reinforcement and punishment. ![]() It might interest you.By the end of this section, you will be able to: Consequently, the results of the Rat Park experiment are more relevant now than ever. This could pose a problem in the middle of an already significant addiction crisis. Since our society now mostly focused on screens and smart devices, social isolation is becoming increasingly more common. When they did give in to the morphine, the affected rats did everything they could to return to their normal states, even going through a period of withdrawal. The company of other rats and the freedom of the park seemed to significantly decrease the rats’ desire to consume. The Rat Park experiment showed how social isolation can be a determining factor in developing a drug addiction. They turned several rats in both groups into addicts, for example, but the pattern didn’t change much. The rats in the park seemed to understand the benefits of not consuming the drug and resisted doing it, even when they had already tried it. Alexander and his team introduced variations to the experiment. The rat park rats also drank the morphine but not until several days later.ĭuring the course of the experiment, scientists observed that the caged rats consumed 19 times more morphine than the free rats. After a few days, the caged rats started to show a preference for the morphine-spiked liquid. They hid the bitter taste of the morphine with a sugar solution. One of them contained morphine and the other didn’t. The researchers gave the rats a choice between two liquids. Both the caged rats and the rats in the park had access to morphine. The researchers dubbed their new experiment the Rat Park experiment and introduced wild rats to the rat park to interact with the lab rats. The space was designed to look like a park, with lots of plants and trees. For the other group, however, the researchers built an area 200 times the size of one of the cages. One group lived in the normal laboratory cages, isolated from each other. His research team started with two groups of animals. To answer these questions, Alexander started the Rat Park experiment in 1977. Is there an innate tendency towards addiction? When the rats consumed drugs, was the only possible outcome for them to continue using until they died? With all that in mind, these new researchers came up with the idea to create a rat park.Īlexander wondered if “free” rats would behave the same way as the caged rats. Being isolated in cages was obviously not their natural habitat. This is a sociable, curious, and intelligent species. All of the rats in the experiment were albino, descendant from a breed of Norwegian rats. Professor Bruce Alexander believed that the fact that the rats were kept isolated made it impossible to draw objective conclusions from the experiments. Then, Professor Bruce Alexander and a group of researchers from the Simon Fraser University in Canada came onto the scene and proposed the idea of the Rat Park experiment. The researchers concluded that if people have the same kind of access to this kind of drug, they would suffer the same fate. Consequently, many of the rats died in the course of the experiment. The only thing they didn’t forget was how to get more heroin. Some of the rats became so intoxicated that they forgot to eat or drink. The researchers noticed that, in certain circumstances, some of the rats pushed the lever repeatedly, supplying themselves with large quantities of the drug. The point was that every time a rat moved the lever, they got an immediate dose of the drug. Heroin is one of the most addictive drugs of all time. In nearly all of the cases, the drug in question was heroin. When they pressed the lever, the rats would give themselves a dose of psychoactive drugs. After that, they taught them to press the lever in the cage. Then, they put them in Skinner boxes (individual cages). What the behavioral psychologists of the 60s did was surgically place a supply device inside the rats. ![]()
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