Primary Assay — Rat
Operant Conditioning (Skinner Box)
Rattus norvegicus
Lever-pressing or nose-poking for reinforcement under various schedules. Foundation of behavioral pharmacology and addiction research. Rats are preferred over mice for operant tasks due to more reliable responding.
Quantitative Output
Measured Parameters
Every parameter is automatically tracked frame-by-frame in the ConductVision pipeline for Rattus norvegicus.
| Parameter | Unit | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Response rate | presses/min | Lever presses per unit time |
| Breakpoint | ratio | Highest effort ratio completed (progressive ratio) |
| Post-reinforcement pause | s | Delay after reward before next press |
| Discrimination accuracy | % | Correct responding to S+ vs S- |
| Acquisition trials | count | Trials to reach criterion performance |
| Inter-response time | s | Time between consecutive responses |
References
Citations for Operant Conditioning (Skinner Box)
- Skinner BF. (1938). The Behavior of Organisms. Appleton-Century-Crofts.
- Richardson NR, Roberts DC. (1996). Progressive ratio schedules in drug self-administration studies in rats. Psychopharmacology (Berl), 128(2), 139-149. PMID: 8956374
Compatible Equipment
Hardware for Rat Research
Open Field Maze (rat size)
OFT locomotion and anxiety
Elevated Plus Maze (rat)
Anxiety screening
Morris Water Maze (150-180 cm)
Spatial learning
Radial Arm Maze (8-arm)
Reference and working memory
Operant Conditioning Chamber
Reinforcement learning, addiction
Social Interaction Arena
Social behavior
Y-Maze (rat)
Spontaneous alternation
Passive Avoidance Chamber
Aversive memory
PPI Startle Chamber
Sensorimotor gating
Related Assays
Other Rat Primary Assays
03
Open Field Test
Rattus norvegicus
Same principle as mouse OFT but with larger arena (typically 100×100 cm). Rats produce richer behavioral repertoires inc…
03
Elevated Plus Maze
Rattus norvegicus
Larger version for rats (50 cm arm length). Rats show more robust open arm avoidance than mice, making this the preferre…
03
Morris Water Maze
Rattus norvegicus
Originally developed for rats (Morris, 1984). Larger pool (150-180 cm diameter). Rats are stronger swimmers and show mor…
Run Operant Conditioning (Skinner Box) on ConductVision
Our team will configure the protocol, camera rig, and analysis pipeline for your rat facility.
