Testing Countdown

I’ve decided that it’s a take-it-easy kind of week. I haven’t made it into the office before 10, and I haven’t stayed past 4 yet. And I don’t plan to change that pattern over the next two days.

Unfortunately this can only mean one thing: it’s time to start testing. This time I’m looking at the acquired equivalence and distinctiveness of cues – The DOC task – which we hope will some day turn into a new test of executive control. Basically, you present a discrimination (x vs y), and then in two contexts (A and B) the correct answer is x, and in C and D the correct answer is y. None of the four contexts share any similarity besides the way that they predict the rewarded discrimination. You then test to see if the rat treats A and B, and C and D, as similar, which implies high executive control.

It’s never been done before in the way that we’re going to do it – so I have no idea how long it’s going to take me to get through it all. Which is fun…

Then, once I’m done with that, I’m retesting the sample that I tested a couple of months ago – you remember, the couple of weeks of hellishly long days: yeah, that ’s happening again. Then we’ve got another experiment in the wings to keep me busy after that. So, if I’m (un)lucky, I’m going to be in the lab full(+) time for the next few months.

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Tags: long hours, testing, the lab

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