A Mobile Interface using Android® Devices for Operant Laboratory Courses

Abstract

Microcontroller input/output boards communicating with computers have been used for controlling operant conditioning chambers. Although these interfaces can be used in laboratory courses that accompany lectures on behavior analysis, in many universities classrooms equipped with computers are limited. Use of smartphones and tablets has increased in recent years and, because of the processing capacities of such devices, they could replace computers where resources are limited. This paper describes the use of an Arduino® Uno microcontroller board in combination with Android® devices, as a wireless, portable, and inexpensive interface for laboratory courses on operant conditioning. The interface consists of a free Android® application that communicates with an operant chamber using Bluetooth to generate basic schedules of reinforcement and store real-time data for subsequent analysis.