ROBucket: A low cost operant chamber based on the Arduino microcontroller

The operant conditioning chamber is a cornerstone of animal behavioral research. Operant boxes are used to assess learning and motivational behavior in animals, particularly for food and drug reinforcers. However, commercial operant chambers cost several thousands of dollars. We have constructed the...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Behavior research methods Vol. 48; no. 2; pp. 503 - 509
Main Authors: Devarakonda, Kavya, Nguyen, Katrina P., Kravitz, Alexxai V.
Format: Journal Article
Language:English
Published: New York Springer US 01.06.2016
Springer Nature B.V
Subjects:
Animal behavior
Animal cognition
Animals
Behavioral Research - instrumentation
Behavioral Science and Psychology
Cognitive Psychology
Conditioning
Conditioning, Operant
Copyright
Male
Mice
Motivation
Operant conditioning
Psychology
Reinforcement Schedule
Rodents
Social services delivery
Sucrose
Tracking
Instrumental conditioning
Operant chamber
Operant conditioning
Open source
Arduino
ISSN:1554-3528, 1554-3528
Online Access:Get full text
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Summary:The operant conditioning chamber is a cornerstone of animal behavioral research. Operant boxes are used to assess learning and motivational behavior in animals, particularly for food and drug reinforcers. However, commercial operant chambers cost several thousands of dollars. We have constructed the Rodent Operant Bucket (ROBucket), an inexpensive and easily assembled open-source operant chamber based on the Arduino microcontroller platform, which can be used to train mice to respond for sucrose solution or other liquid reinforcers. The apparatus contains two nose pokes, a drinking well, and a solenoid-controlled liquid delivery system. ROBucket can run fixed ratio and progressive ratio training schedules, and can be programmed to run more complicated behavioral paradigms. Additional features such as motion sensing and video tracking can be added to the operant chamber through the array of widely available Arduino-compatible sensors. The design files and programming code are open source and available online for others to use.
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ISSN:1554-3528
1554-3528
DOI:10.3758/s13428-015-0603-2