Students train rats in psych class
Fourteen students gather in the large gray barn located in the TSC parking lot. They train rats to perform various tasks including pressing a lever, holding onto a bar and pushing a ball. The goal is to teach students about one branch of psychological theory, behaviorism. Psychology 1400 is an introductory course to behaviorism taught by Carl Cheney.
Heather Malmberg, a senior in psychology, is a lab assistant for the class. She assists the students in training their rats and makes sure the rats stay healthy.
She said, “I take care of the rats so none of them die.”
She said the goal of the class is to take the principles students learn in 1400 and apply them to training rats through conditioning and behavior modification.
Student Carlos Calbimonte, a freshman in psychology, said, “I’m having fun with the lab. The fun part is playing around with the rat. We named him Charlie.
“He’s a funny little rat with white fur and red eyes,” he said.
Staci Leavitt, another freshman in psychology, said, “Our rat is a slow starter. But he gets it after awhile and does very well. He is on experiment five out of nine.”
The lab lasts for three weeks. They come every day from 5:30 to 6:20 p.m. to train the rats. Leavitt said students in the lab are supposed to get the rat to perform at least nine sets of behaviors.
Some of the students are training their rats to perform abstract tasks.
Calbimonte said, “Right now we’re teaching our rat to hold on to a bar that’s hanging in the chamber. Then we turn on the light. Then he presses the bar at least 10 times. After that, he goes and gets his reinforcement of a little pinch of water.
Students are able to train the rats by giving them reinforcement for behaviors they want the rat to do. Malmberg said water is the reinforcement.
She said, “Within the ‘operant chamber’ is a little lever the rats can press that gives them water.”
By rewarding the rat with water after a certain number of lever presses, the rat is more likely to press the lever more times in succession.
In order to make water reinforcing for the rats, they need to be deprived of it. Malmberg said, “That way they’ll work for water when they’re in the chamber. They get food, don’t worry about that. We’re not starving them as well, because they would die.”
Malmberg said the coolest part about her job is the students. She said, “They enjoy this lab so much. For anybody who’s taken the lab, it’s probably one of the highlights in psychology in general.”
Leavitt said the lab is more interesting than the class because you can actually apply the concepts that learned from the class and actually see it on a live animal. “My least favorite part of the class is that it’s not the most interesting,” she said.
Calbimonte said he thinks the class is very interesting. He said he likes the way Cheney teaches.
“You learn the material a lot more by applying the concepts,” Calbimonte said.
Behaviorism can be applied in multiple areas of life, as well as be helpful in changing and improving behavior. Malmberg said it can help a person improve study habits, train a pet, gain better parenting skills, train roommates to do the dishes and teach children with autism.
-apwinegar@cc.usu.edu