SCIENTISTS CONDUCTING PSYCHOLOGICAL STUDIES OF DIFFERENT ANIMALS

A number of experiments are now being carried on on the top floor of Boylston Hall under the supervision of Dr. M. H. Elliott, of the Department of Psychology. These conducting the experiments are using rats, guinea pigs, cats and squirrels. The investigations have already been in operation for over a year.

One experiment, being conducted by Ellis Spear III 2G, is an attempt to study the formation of conditioned reflexes, with special references to the intensity and duration of both the conditioned stimulus and the unconditioned stimulus. The particular reflex in question is one which occurs in connection with the breathing curve of guinea pigs. Dr. Morgan Upton noted, a few years ago, that when a guinea pig is stimulated with a small electric spark a sharp rise in the breathing curve takes place. Mr. Spear hopes to condition this reflex to a 1000 cycle note, and to study the formation of this with special reference to the above mentioned conditions.

Fiber Tube For Pig

He has constructed a fiber tube, into which the guinea pig may craw!; one end of the tube opening into an ordinary dynamic radio loudspeaker. On one side of the tube is a door, through which a little drum may be placed, and as the pig breathes pressure causes the drum to contract, raising and lowering a pointer which marks on a revolving smoked drum. This apparatus is rather amusing, for the guinea pig crawls into it without any encouragement, and once inside never attempts to move. When the experimenting is over, one merely points the tube toward the light and the pig will crawl out.

W. H. Stavsky, tutor in Animal Psychology is conducting an experiment in an attempt to investigate the orientation of different animal forms in a field of gravitational force. A rat or a guinea pig is placed upon an inclined plane in a position parallel to the base of the plane. The animal is negatively geotropic, that is, it naturally tends to climb up when placed upon a sloping surface.

When the animal is placed upon the plane in a position parallel to the base, the gravitational pull upon the two sides of the body is different. This differential effect produces a torque; which occurs as the animal starts to climb upward and is mechanically turned around until he reaches a position where the pull becomes the same on the two sides of the body. Here the torque disappears, and the animal can now proceed forward in a straight line. This line or path the animal takes forms an acute angle with the base of the plane and the magnitude of this angle varies with the magnitude of the slope of the plane. The animal's behavior can be expressed in terms of a mathematical equation. It is possible to vary the conditions by increasing or decreasing the gravitational pull.

Attaching weights to the animal increases the pull, while attaching a hydrogen-filled balloon decreases the gravitational effect. The results of the experiment enable the investigator to glean some information of the different nervous mechanisms that enable the animal to discriminate the changes that are exerted upon it by the changing gravitational forces.

These experiments in geotropism were first started by W. J. Crozier, Professor of Physiology and have been developed in a rather elaborate manner by him and his students.