Of Mice, Moles, and Men (Ladies Too!) Tell Us About YOUR Animal Encounters -- Pets, Pests, And Everything In-Between!

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Tazzo

Active member
Jul 21, 2024
142
110
43
#61
(Also written in The Cheesiest Thread in the World.)

In one of my "basic" behavioral psychology classes, we each were assigned a white lab rat with red eyes and a body that was about 2/3 the length of my forearm, with a long pink tail that hung off my wrist.

I was MORTIFIED the first day of class. The instructor was like, "Ok, go get your rat," and I FROZE.

I called the little guy Squeak because I must have squeezed him a little too hard out of sheer anxiety, and the poor little thing let out a few squeaks to save his life.

After that, I brought in a pair of rubber gloves -- I was the only student to do so; yes, I'm a big chicken -- but at least I found it bearable.

And I must have loosened up my grip, because I never heard Squeak squeak again in my presence.

@Tazzo asked some questions about this:



The class was mandatory for my undergrad degree, which was Behavioral Psychology. At the graduate level, they use pigeons.

In this class, you worked with a rat in a Skinner Box (named after the guy who came up with it):


View attachment 274790

I am seeing horrifying pictures of Skinner boxes on the internet with electrified shock floors -- PLEASE NOTE THAT OUR BOXES DID NOT HAVE THIS, and the rats were NOT shocked or harmed in any way.

The purpose is to learn about the effect of reinforcement and how it shapes behavior. The rats are water-deprived for 24 hours (which has been claimed does not hurt them), and you have control of an outside lever that sends a dipper through the box with a drink of water (box designs vary, this was similar but not exact to the ones we used.)

The rat eventually learns that if it does certain things, it will get a drink of water. At the end of the class, you have to show that you have reinforced your rat into doing a string of something like 5 behaviors before getting a drink of water.

For instance, my demonstration was something like Squeak having to wait for the ring of a bell, pull a chain, turn in a circle, wait for a light to come on, then press a lever in the box -- and then he got his drink of water.

Everyone asked me how I got him to turn in a circle. I had noticed in our sessions, Squeak would just do this naturally, and I started giving him drinks of water. Pretty soon, the poor little guy was twirling himself dizzy trying to get those drinks! This is the exact same thing they do at SeaWorld -- all the leaps, jumps, and twirls are natural behaviors that have been shaped through reinforcement.

Why bother studying this?

A very simple case study was of a young girl who had a persistent cough with no known medical origin or solution. It was eventually found that the cough was bringing her a plethora of attention from everyone around her. Once this was under control and the excessive attention stopped, so did the coughing.

This was just a very basic case of basic principles -- but you can see how and why science is trying to apply this to human behaviors.
Good that you explained where the name came from for that box.. It sounded kinda cruel. But even for the family name, there must have been someone at somepoint who was a skinner tho.. o_O


Interesting study you had, about behaviour.
Like Squeak, my dog also learned, unfortunately, to beg by pressing her muzzle on my leg.. She started doing that herself but she just looked too cute not to give her something as a reward for it. She might have trained me instead..



My stories includes mice as usual :LOL:

When I got my driving licence, I used to drive my dad's Nissan Sunny. Once I backed it out of the carage and then saw something on the rearview mirror. There was mouse jumping on the hat rack (?? We call it hat rack.. what an earth do you call the ledge under the back window? At front there is dashboard, but what it is on the back of a sedan?), and then it came to the front and went under the dashboard and I thought it might come under the pedals. I was scared I would crush it by hitting the break pedal (what a silly thought I had). I left the car real quick, and of course, the princess I was, yelled my dad to come and get rid of that mouse :ROFL::ROFL: which propably already had left the car.

After that, I was highly suspicious if the mouse would come back and was carefully checking the mirror and all the interior eachtime I went to that car. My friend also crocheted a mouse for me to put in that car. I even used it in my current car. My friends' kids used to love it when they were babies, maybe that is why it lost an ear at somepoint and its nose got quite crooked and chewed up.. 🐭


Mice have also done a many food stashes and nests in cars. My C5 had some chewed up wires along the way.. Maybe that was a reason why it burned down one night after my brother almost "sold" it to his friend. But also, it was a Citroen, electric problems were not new to me, so I don't know if I can blame the mice :sneaky:

My current car has not been free of mice either, they made a nest in the bonnet soundproofing mat, that I still haven't gotten a replacement for.
 

Billyd

Senior Member
May 8, 2014
5,297
1,714
113
#62
Some years ago, I found what looked like mouse droppings in my car. I cleaned it out, no mouse, so I wrote it off as a temporary thing. A few weeks later, the droppings reappeared. I cleaned it out again, no mouse, so I wrote it off again. This thing repeated several times until I noticed droppings on the floor of the coat closet floor. When I moved the coats out of the closet, I solved my problem. My raincoat lining was shedding little pieces of its lining.
 
Apr 29, 2012
1,269
886
113
#63
1038.jpg

I got this shot in a state park. I had spent several hour wlking through the park looking for some really mundane to practice a new editting program - trying to recoup my losses from motorcycle races. While heading out I suddenly heard movement in some scrub palms. Those froms sound like bamboo sticks hitting each other just not very loud. I froze mid step as I knew what it was. Slowly one of these little guys cam in view. I took a few shots being very careful not to spook him. Eventually I got over me fear of spooking them and ended up sitting on the ground while 4 of these babies scurried all around me. To get a proper camera angle I ended up setting my camera on the ground and shooting blind. This shot is one of the best and a copy in on my wall.

These were babies with a body about 4 inches long. They tolerated me because they had not yet learned to fear. After about a 1/2 hour I got up to leave and took about 3 steps and momma ran out from another scrub palm. She had been keeping an eye on thing the whole time.

Below is the photo I was searching for.
2025.jpg

It was a good day and one I'll remember a long time.
 
Jul 3, 2015
63,640
32,270
113
#64


I got this shot in a state park. I had spent several hour wlking through the park looking for some really mundane to practice a new editting program - trying to recoup my losses from motorcycle races. While heading out I suddenly heard movement in some scrub palms. Those froms sound like bamboo sticks hitting each other just not very loud. I froze mid step as I knew what it was. Slowly one of these little guys cam in view. I took a few shots being very careful not to spook him. Eventually I got over me fear of spooking them and ended up sitting on the ground while 4 of these babies scurried all around me. To get a proper camera angle I ended up setting my camera on the ground and shooting blind. This shot is one of the best and a copy in on my wall.

These were babies with a body about 4 inches long. They tolerated me because they had not yet learned to fear. After about a 1/2 hour I got up to leave and took about 3 steps and momma ran out from another scrub palm. She had been keeping an eye on thing the whole time.

Below is the photo I was searching for.
View attachment 275596

It was a good day and one I'll remember a long time.
That is adorable!!! (Much cuter than a motorcycle by far LOL)
 

seoulsearch

OutWrite Trouble
May 23, 2009
17,319
6,187
113
#65
View attachment 275595

I got this shot in a state park. I had spent several hour wlking through the park looking for some really mundane to practice a new editting program - trying to recoup my losses from motorcycle races. While heading out I suddenly heard movement in some scrub palms. Those froms sound like bamboo sticks hitting each other just not very loud. I froze mid step as I knew what it was. Slowly one of these little guys cam in view. I took a few shots being very careful not to spook him. Eventually I got over me fear of spooking them and ended up sitting on the ground while 4 of these babies scurried all around me. To get a proper camera angle I ended up setting my camera on the ground and shooting blind. This shot is one of the best and a copy in on my wall.

These were babies with a body about 4 inches long. They tolerated me because they had not yet learned to fear. After about a 1/2 hour I got up to leave and took about 3 steps and momma ran out from another scrub palm. She had been keeping an eye on thing the whole time.

Below is the photo I was searching for.
View attachment 275596

It was a good day and one I'll remember a long time.
You definitely have a God-given gift for photography, @oldman!

The picture of the armadillo made me smile through and through! :D

Thank you so much for sharing these with us! 💖