Dr. Andre Fenton, a neuroscientist at SUNY Downstate Medical Center, believed long-term memory (LTM) could be created by shocking a mouse. He created a place avoidance task to test his hypothesis. Mice were shocked when they entered the “shock zone”, a very specific area of the platform, to induce learning and in effect create a LTM. The movement of mice was documented clearly illustrating avoidance of the shock zone. To stop mice from remembering the shock zone by smell and sight, they would rotate the platform, but keep the shock zone in the same location. Once mice had ‘learned’ the location of the shock zone, the shock was turned off and the mice continued to avoid the shock zone.
What are the independent and dependent variables, as well as the control and experimental groups?