Behavioural Analysis of Drug Effects

Question 0

Dependent Variable?

Answer 0

The observed or measured event. ( change in behaviour)

Question 1

Independent Variable?

Answer 1

The manipulated event.(amount of drug given)

Question 2

Experimental Control?

Answer 2

capability to state to some degree what would have happened if the drug had not been given. (comparison btwn drug and nondrug states.

Question 3

Within-Subjects Design?

Answer 3

Comparison of behaviour between an individuals drugged state and drug free state under similar conditions. (exp control) ( few participants, takes a long time, eliminates random variations and genetic differences since the same individual is used).

Question 4

Between-Subjects Design?

Answer 4

Comparison of a drugged participants behaviour with other drug-free participants under similar conditions. ( faster, involve many participants, uses group avgs)

Question 5

Placebo Control?

Answer 5

a group getting a look-alike drug that actually has no real medicinal properties which is given under the exact same conditions as if they were getting the real deal. (control group)

Question 6

Fillmore and Vogel Sprott ( 1992)

3 groups: 
1. told coffee would enhance their speed
2. told coffee would slow their speed 
3. told no information at all
***all were actually given placebo, decaffeinated coffee. 
Results?

Answer 6

enhance> nothing> slow.

Question 7

Balanced Placebo Design?

Answer 7

Four Groups:
1.expect to get drug, get it.
2. expect to get drug, don’t get it (placebo).
3. no expectation, get drug.
4. no expectation, don’t get drug. (placebo)
[ no expectation groups highlight any differences are due entirely to the drug b/c there is no expectations prior.

Question 8

Three-Groups Design?

Answer 8

1. gets the drug in question
2. gets a placebo
3. gets a drug with known effects.
   ( 1 and 2 show improvement in drug in question or none; 2 and 3 show if there are any detectable improvements, 1 and 3 show if there are any advantages between the two)

Question 9

Experimental Bias?

Answer 9

an experimenter can influence the outcome of research without knowing it.

Question 10

Double-Blind Procedure. (exp bias solution)

Answer 10

the patients nor the researchers giving the drug and interviewing the patients know who has been given the drug or the placebo.This eliminates the possibility of placebo effects and experimenter-bias effects.

Question 11

Non-experimental Research

Answer 11

Shows a correlation btwn two measured events. It can only show that two variables are correlated but the relationship might be due to some third factor that causes both events. ( cannot conclude cause and effect).

Question 12

State-dependent learning??

Answer 12

events experienced in a drugged state might not have the ability to control behaviour when the organism was not in a drugged state and vice versa.

Question 13

Drugs as a discriminative stimuli ?

Answer 13

On days an animal is drugged or given saline the levers alt on which gives it a reinforcer. After a while the animal can discriminate between which state it is in and which lever it is required to go after.Mostly drugs that act on the CNS can do this.

Question 14

Substitution Test?

Answer 14

An animal is trained to discriminate between a saline and a drug. Then it is given a new drug. If it responds to it the same as it would with the other drug, this shows generalization. They usually generalize drugs of the same class. (good for screening and drug development)

Question 15

Abuse Liability?

Answer 15

This is the reinforcing property of a drug and indicates the potential of a drug to be abused.
A. Rate of responding ( not a good measure)
B. Progressive ratio schedule. ( what is the breaking point before the work required to get the reward is just too much).

Question 16

Rate of Responding?

Answer 16

many drugs interfere with self-administration

Drugs also have different durations!

Question 17

Progressive Ratio Schedule of Reinforcement (FR)

Answer 17

if a drug is highly reinforcing an organism will continue to work harder for it after the FR is increased thereby increasing its risk of abuse.

Question 18

Choice?

Answer 18

Two levers will be presented. One will dispense drug A and the other will dispense drug B. These occur in separate sessions so in one session a lever will contain drug A and the other will have a saline.This allows equal exposure to both and the animal can than decide which it prefers more. (aka the more reinforcing drug)

Question 19

Conditioned Place Preference? (CPP)

Answer 19

A long box with two distinct halves separated via partition. Animals will be given a drug and confined to one half to experience it there. On equal amounts of time it will be given a placebo on the opposite end and confined there to experience it. Later the wall dividing the halves will be removed and the rats will be placed in the centre. They than will be recorded for how long they spend on each half. If they spend a lot of time in the end associated with the drug it shows it is highly reinforcing.