| Abstract: | Behavioral control is almost always less than perfect. Rate of response is rarely as constant as it could be even when the greatest care is given to experimental procedures. Experimenters should always attempt to identify the causes of variation. Some fluctuations in response rate will be random, i.e., sometimes positive and sometimes negative, usually small but occasionally large. Digital filters are objective methods for reducing or eliminating such unsystematic “noise” components while preserving the systematic changes in response rate under study. Digital filters function in a manner that is strictly analogous to electronic filters. The major purpose of this technical note is to describe digital filters and to provide an example of their usage. |
