A Pavlovian conditioning procedure known as Conditioned Place Preference (CPP) is used to behaviorally measure the...
A Pavlovian conditioning procedure known as Conditioned Place Preference (CPP) is used to behaviorally measure the motivational effects of various stimuli or environmental conditions and is used as an animal model for human behaviors such as addiction. Using this paradigm, a researcher may assess the rewarding or punishing qualities of various substances. To achieve this, a rodent is placed in one side of an open two-sided chamber for a certain period of time and is exposed to an Unconditioned Stimulus (US or UCS. e.g. a rewarding drug) only in this one side of the chamber. The animal may be trained (e.g. Acquisition or Leaming Phase) for several days in order to associate the US with that specific side of the chamber (e.g.that side serves as the Conditioned Stimulus (CS)). After training, the rodent is placed back in the two-sided chamber with no US present (eg. Extinction or Maintenance Phase) and then records the time spent on each side of the chamber in minutes (min). If the drug alters the motivational state of the rodent it will spend an unequal amount of time in either of the two chambers As such, a pharmacologist would like to assess whether the appetite-suppressing drug (Vyvanse), which is used to treat binge-eating disorder, is either reinforcing (0.9. causes addiction) or aversive (eg, causes nausea/malaise). The goal is to determine whether the drug suppresses appetite by either replacing food's reinforcing properties with that of the drug or by causing compulsive episodes of eating to be avoided due to the possibility of induced nausea (side-effech). After administering Vyvanse to n. 20 rats, each rat is placed in the two-sided chamber for a series of 12 training session of 30 minutes, once per day at 10:00 AM Allerwards, the presence of a CPP is assessed by measuring the time spent in the "Vyvanse-Side of the chamber out of a total of 30 minutes, assessed over 6 days. The researcher finds that 6-day mean time spent in Vyvanse-Side of the chamber isM 15.5 min, with a sum of squared deviations (SS) equal to 5. Based on the above information, select True or False True False: The appetite-suppressing drug (Wonse) is the independent variable in this data set. True False