Purpose
Cognitive test battery for rats.
Written for the University of Cambridge.
The battery includes:
Software requirements
Requires Whisker v2.7 or greater (www.whiskercontrol.com).
Data storage
| • | Text-based output to disk. |
| • | ODBC data storage to a database (supplied). |
Author
Rudolf Cardinal (rudolf@pobox.com).
Some configuration/code changes to ID/ED task by John Earl (August 2005).
Acknowledgements
Thanks to Mike Aitken, Shibley Rahman, and Hannah Clarke for helpful discussions regarding the PAL and and reversal learning tasks.
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Technical Services Ltd
Revision history
| • | 19 June 2003. Started (version 0.1). |
| • | 26 June 2003. Finished (version 0.1). Released within the University of Cambridge. |
| • | 6 Aug 2003: Version 0.2 (interim release with known bugs). In the process of updating to version 0.3. Short lifespan, within U of C only. |
| • | 7 Aug 2003. Version 0.3: tasks altered to be primarily two-alternative choice tasks, enabling use of IR beams as well as touchscreen. Miscellaneous bugfixes. |
| • | 12 Jan 2004. Version 0.4: writes version number and compilation date to summary file; new summary statistics for reversal learning; new correction procedure ("VeryHarsh") for reversal learning. |
| • | 22 Nov 2003. Version 0.5: change in method of centring stimuli; fixed bug (couldn't edit first point in a polygon list) |
| • | 5 July 2004. Version 0.6: improved end-of-task on-screen display for reversal learning. |
| • | 24 October 2004. Version 0.7: recording of all events; auditory discriminations; audiovisual ID/ED task; more status information for reversal task; new correction procedure (ANTIBIAS_NONCORRECTIONLIMIT) for reversal task. |
| • | 9 Dec 2004. Version 0.8. Improved bitmap centring function. N-pair discrimination tasks (visual, auditory) have an option to finish when X trials from the last Y are performed correctly. |
| • | 8 Feb 2005. Version 0.9. Bugfixes: (1) traylight could remain on between modules; (2) config version number reading was wrong; (3) minor errors fixed in manual. |
| • | 21 Feb 2005. Version 1.0. Bugfixes: quasi-random selection procedures in NPair/NPairAuditory crashed. |
| • | 1 May 2005. Version 1.1. Able to specify only the stimuli that will actually be required in the ID/ED task. |
| • | 29 June 2005. Version 1.2. Bugfix: facility to trigger trials on a particular event was missing in the audiovisual ID/ED task. |
| • | August 2005. Version 1.3. Some configuration/code changes to ID/ED task by John Earl. |
| • | 8 March 2007. Version 1.4. Easier compilation for users. |
| • | 12 Jan 2009. Version 2.0. Server default changed from "loopback" to "localhost" (Windows Vista compatibility and more general standardization). |