Neuroscience Lab

The psychology department has an animal conditioning and neuroscience laboratory that is equipped with a MED Associates interface and several operant chambers. This lab is used in our learning and motivation course to acquaint students with technology that is essential for the investigation of basic psychological processes. It is also used to provide students the opportunity to conduct independent research involving animals. Many students go to present their findings at regional or national undergraduate research conferences. 

Tom Hassett, a former psychology student, implements a variety of conditioning procedures in the lab

Litter of pups assigned to an experiment focusing on the effects of environmental enrichment and two chemical compounds on spatial memory and self-control

Animals assigned to an enriched-rearing condition

Operant Chamber

Rat's performance in the radial arm maze is used to assess its spatial memory

Student Research Projects using the Conditioning and Neuroscience Lab:

Effects of Sustained Administration of Bupropion on Spatial Learning, Self-Control and Emotionality in Rats

Rat displays self-control by choosing a stimulus correlated with a large amount of food after a long delay—as opposed to one correlated with a small amount of food after a short delay. Poster presented at eighty-first annual meeting of Midwestern Psychological Association in Chicago, IL.