Preference Testing
In the preference testing phase the animal is allowed barrier free access to all compartments of the apparatus. Time spent in each compartment is measured either by the experimenter or by motion detecting software; often the mean seconds per minute spent in each compartment is calculated. Statistical testing is used to determine whether the time difference is large enough, in comparison to the control group, to conclude that conditioned place preference or aversion has occurred. Strength of conditioning is inferred by the magnitude of the difference or in the amount of time taken for the response to show extinction.
Read more about this topic: Conditioned Place Preference, Conditioning Procedure, Steps To Conditioning Place Preference or Aversion
Famous quotes containing the words testing and/or preference:
“Today so much rebellion is aimless and demoralizing precisely because children have no values to challenge. Teenage rebellion is a testing process in which young people try out various values in order to make them their own. But during those years of trial, error, embarrassment, a child needs family standards to fall back on, reliable habits of thought and feeling that provide security and protection.”
—Neil Kurshan (20th century)
“He that has his chains knocked off, and the prison doors set open to him, is perfectly at liberty, because he may either go or stay, as he best likes; though his preference be determined to stay, by the darkness of the night, or illness of the weather, or want of other lodging. He ceases not to be free, though the desire of some convenience to be had there absolutely determines his preference, and makes him stay in his prison.”
—John Locke (1632–1704)