DISSECTING THE CONDITIONED PECKING RESPONSE - AN INTEGRATED SYSTEM FOR THE ANALYSIS OF PECKING RESPONSE PARAMETERS

The conventional pecking response key, although an excellent transduce r of response rate, can provide minimal information on the topography, coordination, or localization of conditioned pecking. We describe the hardware and software components of a system that, in addition to rec ording response rates, permits simultaneous ''on-line'' monitoring of head acceleration, jaw movement, terminal peck location, and duration of pecking response. Head movements are monitored with a miniature acc elerometer, jaw movements with a magnetosensitive transducer, and peck location with modified touch screen technology. Initial experiments w ith the system suggest that ii will be useful in studies of response d ifferentiation, acquisition and maintenance of complex discriminations , and interaction of conditioned and unconditioned stimuli in the cont rol of pecking response probability and response topography.