Final Paper Assignment

Learning Laboratory Final Paper Guidelines

You are required to submit a final APA-style paper describing the experiments conducted throughout the semester. Write the paper for a general reader with some knowledge of psychology not just for your instructor.

An American Psychological Association (APA) -style paper includes the following major sections:

Title Page - contains a concise and explanatory title of the manuscript, authors name and a running head (short title which appears on every page of the final published paper)

Abstract - A very brief summary of the content of the manuscript. The abstract appears by itself on the second page of the manuscript, but it should be written last after you have completed writing the other sections. The abstract includes one statement of the general purpose of the study, a description of the subjects, a description of the main results, and, if possible, any conclusions being offered.

Introduction- The reader should be provided with sufficient background information to understand the purpose and scope of the experiments. Some definition of terms are usually needed. This introduction ends with a clear statement introducing the procedures that were used in the experiments. The procedural details will be given in the method section.

Method - describes how the experiments were conducted. Sufficient details are given such that any one can use the text to duplicate the study as it was originally done Include the following sub-sections: Subjects ( a description of the subject), Apparatus (a descrition of the operant chamber) and procedure (a description of the procedures used during all phases of the experiment).

Results- The actual results of the study are reported. Graphs (identified as figures) are used to summarize the data. Brief verbal descriptions are provided throughout the result section, often referring the reader to the figures.

Discussion - This is the section where the author summarizes the main results and identifies if the goals stated in the introduction section were achieved. The discussion section is also the place where the author may try to relate the results to past studies and explain the results. Usually the explanation is based on one or more theories. This section is also the place where the limitations of the research are discussed as well as the applications. For your paper you should concentrate on the summary and theoretical explanations of the results.

References - a list of books and papers that were included as references in the body of the paper. (Note: In the text of the manuscript all papers are referenced by last name of authors and year of publication, e.g., Johnson, 1994 or Jones, Plum, & Smith, 1984)

Figure Captions- A list of captions for the figures. All figures require a caption. A figure caption identifies a figure with a number and title.

Figures - All the figures are placed, in consecutive order, in the back of the manuscript, one graph per page.

Below are general guidelines for writing some of the major sections of your final paper. I used the Adaptation and Magazine training components of the lab as an example of what may be included in each section of the final paper. The final paper must also include the Shaping and Discrimination Data as well as the Chaining, Extinction and spontaneous recovery data.

Background & Purpose (Introduction Section)

	What is learning? Are there different types of learning?
	Briefly define event-event and behavior-event learning and compare with nonassociative learning. Try to cite the course textbook and some of the other articles that we read in class.
	It is sometimes necessary to write in general terms before giving specific details. For example, you should not write about rats learning to associate a "magazine area" with food unless you first explain what a "magazine area" is. In the introduction when you have not yet had a chance to describe the operant chamber you can write generally about rats learning to "associate a location in their environment with food" or learning to "associate food with a sound that reliably precedes food".
	What is the purpose of the laboratory excercises? To provide evidence of different learning phenomenon in the rat.

2. Method (Subject, Apparatus & Procedure Sub-Sections)

	Identify your subject (species, age) and the fact that it is deprived of food. (Subject subsection of Method)
	Include a description of the operant chamber and its main components. Generally the reader should be given an indication of the function of each component (e.g., magazine, bar, & pushrod). (Apparatus section of method section)
	A detailed description of how the chamber was divided to facilitate the recording of the animal's location in the chamber is needed. Make sure to note how the 4 locations of the upper (which the animal must stand up to enter) and the lower chamber (where the food magazine is located) were labeled.

	Identify the purpose of the adaptation days ( when no food was presented) and relate it to habituation .
	Identify the purpose of magazine training and relate it to event-event learning (classical conditioning).

	Do not refer to "writing on data sheets". Although data sheets were used to facilitate observations the reader of your paper will not have access to such data sheets. Instead describe what behavior was of interest (location of rat), how it was measured (operationally define "location"), and how often (frequency) the behavior was measured.
	Do not refer to pressing the Function keys on the computer or any other detail specific to the software used in the Seton Hall lab. Simply state that a computer was used to control and, in some cases, record the events in the operant chamber.
	When describing several days of procedures do not repeat the descriptions of the procedures common to all days, instead simply note the major difference. e.g., " On day 3 the rats were treated as in Day 2 except that food was provided….."

3. Description of Results (Result Section)

Refer to all graphs as figures.

	Include one or two sentences explicitly stating what is being plotted in each figure. Identify what is being plotted on the Y and X axis, without referring to the "Y axis" and "X axis" ( For example, "Figure 1 plots the frequency the rat was in each location during the 10 minute adaptation phase". You may also need to provide additional information such as which chamber (upper or lower or both) is plotted. NOTE: if there are several graphs with the same X and Y axes, then it is only necessary to identify the variables on the X and Y axis for the first graph. The reader can easily determine that the graphs that follow plot the same variables.
	Your written description of the adaptation data must be consistent with the data shown in the figures (graphs).
	Do not ask the reader to interpret the graph completely on his/her own and do not describe the data in too much detail. Give a general description of the data so that the most important results are highlighted, if the reader desires more detail it can be obtained by carefully studying the graph.

4. Explanation of Results (Discussion Section)

First explain the data that was described in the result section. That means that you must explain the frequency data that was plotted in the graphs. It is quite likely that you observed other behaviors consistent with your explanations, such as a noticeable decrease in startle to the click (suggesting habituation) or a gradually developing reaction to the click of the magazine (suggesting event-event learning). You may explain these observations too, but only after providing a brief description of these anecdotal observations. (These observations are anecdotal because the behaviors you refer to were not systematically recorded (hence, no graphs). Systematic experimentation is needed to confirm your anecdotal observations.

Your explanation of the data must be consistent with the results. If the data does not show any clear evidence of habituation of behavior do not force habituation as an explanation. It is okay to fail to find an expected result.

"Habituation" as a learning (nonassociative) explanation of the behavior seen during the adaptation procedure (with no food presented) can be given only when there is evidence to support it. Examples of evidence supporting an habituation interpretation of the data (explanation) are listed below.

On Day 1 of observation the rat visits several chamber locations early in session but settles down in one or two locations at the end of the session (this would support the habituation of "exploratory behavior").
On Day 1 of observation the rat stays in only one location early in the session but begins to visit several chamber locations at the end of the session (this would support the habituation of "fear-elicited" freezing behavior).

	Results support hypotheses they do not prove them.
	In most cases the magazine training procedure clearly changes the behavior of the animal (compared to the adaptation on Day 1). (If your data does not show this change clearly, then you don't have evidence that magazine training changed behavior. Sometimes lack of evidence happens.) The explanation of this behavior change is presumed to be event-event learning. The events that the rat presumably associated are: 1) magazine area with food, and 2) click of magazine with food. The data that you collected and plotted in the graphs do not measure these two associations directly, it simply measures how often the rat was near the magazine area. We are simply suggesting that the rat remains near the magazine because it has learned one or both associations. But there are other non-associative explanations that can't be ruled out by your data, e.g., the animal smells the food and is no longer interested in exploring the chamber (because it has habituated to the chamber) so it simply stays near the source of the smell. Keep this point in mind when you explain why behavior changed during magazine training. Is there any other anecdotal evidence that you can offer to support the associative account of the behavior change?
	There was no direct evidence that the rats associated the clicking sound of the magazine with food. Can you suggest a different measure that can be used in a new experiment to provide systematic and direct evidence of this association?
	What theories of learning discussed in the lectures and textbook can be used to explain the results observed in the laboratory?

5. Organization & Writing

	All students must write their own text. Obviously you are sharing data and you may discuss the data and share ideas but you must write your own text.
	All lines must be double spaced
	The first line of each paragraph must be indented 5 spaces. But do not indent the abstract.
	Always write in complete English sentences.
	Organize your thoughts and writing. Provide the reader with the necessary information in a logical order. For example you can't refer to "a magazine" and "a click" without first describing the chamber and method of delivering food to the animal. Another example: you can't describe a rat as "spending time in area B of the lower chamber" if you first do not describe how the chamber was divided to facilitate your observations of exploratory behavior.
	The final paper should be written consistently in past tense.
	Do not give "cook book" instructions. Do not give instructions on how to conduct the experiment simply describe what you did.

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