Controlling Classical Conditioning and Other Behavioral Neuroscience Experiments

Abstract

The microcomputer is arguably the most powerful tool available to behavioral neuroscience researchers. As we have pointed out in a number of places in an earlier chapter, the microcomputer has become indispensable for research. Microcomputers are used to deliver stimuli, acquire data, and perform data reduction and analyses, including statistical analyses used for hypothesis testing. Databases are stored on microcomputers and they are even used to write the papers that report and interpret the results that are obtained in the study. In this chapter, for the most part, we concentrate on the use of microcomputers to control experiments. We begin with a brief history of the equipment that has been used to control classical conditioning experiments. We also give a brief history of our experience with the development of controllers and computers for classical conditioning as they evolved in the Thompson laboratory and later in our individual laboratories at the University of Southern California and Indiana University. We thank Richard Thompson for some corrections to this history. We next provide some details about simple controllers that were used prior to the advent of microcomputers and then present, in detail, the computer systems we currently use in our laboratories at the University of Southern California (Lavond) and at Indiana University (Steinmetz). We conclude with a brief presentation of some other systems that are available.