Morris Water Maze Rat Observation Report

The theory being described is operational which was based on how learning can affect the latency of the rats. This theory was measured through the Morris Water maze and the video monitor. Also, the number of annulus crossing showed the operational definition of persistence. Kim and colleagues selected female and male rats from a brewer. The independent variable was the diet of the rat’s mother’s. The dependent variable was the latency for locating the platform. Group PF and C were the controls. The rats were kept in in a climate controlled cage with lighting. All the rats were kept together until the female became pregnant. After that the females were moved to separate cages. Then the female rats were randomly assigned to Groups E, PF and C. Group E was based on a liquid diet with 36 percent of ethanol and included 21 rats. …show more content…
PF group was fed a sugar substance which was substituted for alcohol and this group was fed the same amount of food in grams as group E. Group C pregnant females was fed feed regular rat food and water. The mother’s raised the pup until they reached 22 days old. The pups were considered the participants in the experiment. The experiment also included a visual discrimination task and the Morris Water maze learning task. The Morris water maze was large 180 by 60 v centimeter high tank. The tank was filled to a 22 centimeter with water and nontoxic white paint. The maze included a circular platform and it was opaque because it was 3 to 4 centimeter below the surface. The features of the research room was same throughout the experiment and represented visual cues as guidance. The rat was placed in the maze and swam until the platform was found. Once the platform was found it was considered a treat to the rat’s because they could stop swimming. But the rat couldn’t see the submerged platform which had to be located in space. The rat was then placed in the water again to locate the platform and be timed. The researched monitored the rats through a video which enabled them to make observations without the rats noticing The 59th trial the researchers made the platform visible to the rat’s which tested if the rats were not able to respond to the visual stimuli in the maze. The 60th trial the platform was removed and rats had one minute to search for it. This trial measured how many times the rat swam over the area where the platform was located. The permanent record of rat’s swimming by a using a piece of paper over the video monitor and tracing the image with a marker. The success was called annulus crossing and the rats scored correct each time they passed where the platform used to be. Among the three groups of rats there was no difference in the amount of live or born offspring. Group E and PF pup weighed less. However Group C did catch up within a few days. Group PF weighted less than both groups however on day caught up to the other groups. In this experiment the rat mothers were randomly assigned to a group which meant there was of being in any group. The other random process was among the liter of the pups only