• Menu
  • Skip to right header navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to secondary navigation
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

College Magazine

College Life, Dating, Career & Campus Advice

  • Colleges
    • College Guides
    • College Rankings
    • Campus Life
      • Academics
      • Dating
      • Freshman Year
      • Health
      • Social Change
      • Party
  • Majors
    • All Majors
    • Most Popular Majors
    • Choosing a Major
  • Intern
    • Internship Directory
    • How to Get an Internship
    • How to Write a Resume
    • How to Write a Cover Letter
    • How to Interview
    • How to Network
    • Career 101
    • Find Your Passion Career
  • Money
    • How to Make Money
    • How to Save Money
    • How to Get a Job
    • Credit Cards 101
    • FAFSA
    • Ramen Project
  • Travel
    • Study Abroad
    • College Spring Break
    • How to Travel Cheap
    • Things to Do
  • Shop
    • Writer Course
    • College Magazine Shop
    • Gift Guides
    • College Packing List
  • Find your college or university
  • Colleges
    • College Guides
    • College Rankings
    • Campus Life
      • Academics
      • Dating
      • Freshman Year
      • Health
      • Social Change
      • Party
  • Majors
    • All Majors
    • Most Popular Majors
    • Choosing a Major
  • Intern
    • Internship Directory
    • How to Get an Internship
    • How to Write a Resume
    • How to Write a Cover Letter
    • How to Interview
    • How to Network
    • Career 101
    • Find Your Passion Career
  • Money
    • How to Make Money
    • How to Save Money
    • How to Get a Job
    • Credit Cards 101
    • FAFSA
    • Ramen Project
  • Travel
    • Study Abroad
    • College Spring Break
    • How to Travel Cheap
    • Things to Do
  • Shop
    • Writer Course
    • College Magazine Shop
    • Gift Guides
    • College Packing List
  • Find your college or university
  • About Us
  • Team
  • Write
  • Apply
  • Privacy Policy
  • Sign Up
  • Advertise
  • My Account
  • Cart

You are here: Home / Life / My Dumb Lab Rat

My Dumb Lab Rat

June 12, 2018 //  by Cheyenne Curling

Shares14FacebookTweet

I had to personally train a rat to press a bar. In my Intro to Psych class, we set up metal boxes with only a bar with a treat tray next to it and a glass window. When the rat pressed the bar or we pressed a button, a treat would fall into the tray. The lab used pretty basic conditioning and 99 percent of the rats pressed the bar by the end of the two weeks. We each paired up and visited our rat every day for two weeks. All we had to do was press the button every time she got near the bar until she understood she should press it herself.

Easy enough, right? Wrong.

We got our rat, nicknamed her Mozzy (short for Mozzerella) and we visited her every day. She seemed to warm up to us and got in and out of the box easily.

But she never pressed the bar.

Listen, we did everything we could, okay? We fed her the exact amount she was supposed to be fed. We held her gently so she wouldn’t be afraid. We dimmed the lights since rats are nocturnal.

Nothing.

Nothing!

She slept. She turned her back to the lever.

We trained her to get into the transfer bucket just fine. She saw what the other rats were doing and she seemed to understand that we would give her treats if she went near the lever.

Oh, she knew what she was doing, that little punk. She may not have had any idea of the anxiety she was causing us to have but if she did, then those cute red eyes truly represented her devilishness. She probably laughed about it with the twenty other rats who actually did what they were supposed to.

I finally understood why rats eat their young.

Matt, our rat TA, tried to help us as much as he could. He taught us any tricks he knew to get Mozzy to cooperate.

Still, nothing.

At the end of the two weeks we had a “Rat Parade” where everyone showed off how well they trained their rat. We went in the order of success. The first rat had gotten to press the bar 300 times in 15 minutes. All fifteen other rats were just as successful.

And then there was Mozzy.

Matt waited until everyone else had left to bring Mozzy out. She performed just as well as she had the last two weeks: not at all.

After fifteen minutes of her almost pressing the bar (probably just to mock us) we gave up. We put her away, said goodbye, and left little Mozzy with the other rats.

We got a good grade, because we documented Mozzy and her misadventures as well as we could. Still, our adopted rat child let us down.

Shares14FacebookTweet

Filed Under: Life

About Cheyenne Curling

You May Also Like

Top 10 Weird Scholarships You Can’t Miss

cultural identity and language

Language Abilities Don’t Define Your Cultural Identity, Unless?

How I Turned My Personal Journals into a Published Book

15 Alcohol-Free Activities for a Friday Night In

Reflecting on Fall 2020: How to Recover from One of the Hardest Semesters

How to Make Money From Home Without Taking Off Your PJs

15 COVID-19 Safe Ways to Celebrate the Holidays in 2020

Top 10 COVID-19 Safe Activities to Do Near Fresno, California

Breaking the Binary: My Journey into Identifying as Non-Binary

The Döner Project: My Berlin Budget as a College Student

CM’s Guide to the Print and Digital Journalism Major

Away from Home and Feeling Gross: Being Sick My Freshman Year

A Tale of Two Twin Flames

movies to binge over winter break

Battling Boredom: 10 Movies to Binge Over Winter Break

Being an Asian-American: Learning to Accept Both Halves of Myself

How to Become a Published Poet

ADHD or the Enemy? At Least My College Helped Me

berkeley outdoors

10 COVID-19 Friendly Things to Do in Berkeley, California

Top 10 DIY Gifts for Your BFF

Christmas

10 Gifts For Parents That They Want But Haven’t Asked For

friend group dressed up as Big Hero Six characters

Animation Nerds Unite: 10 Gifts for Animation Lovers

gifts for your girl squad

10 Gifts Your Girl Squad Can’t Live Without

10 Virtual Gifts for Your BFF that Will Make Them Love You Forever

Real News: 10 Gifts for the Future Journalist in Your Life

Previous Post: «the office changing your major Why Would You Ever Change Your Major?
Next Post: 16 Cheap AF Places to Go Before You Start #Adulting cheap places to travel»

Primary Sidebar



Trending Posts

70

Top 10 Weird Scholarships You Can’t Miss

62

10 St. John’s University Finals Activities to Help You De-Stress

60

24 Ways My 2020 Survival Guide Turned into 2021 Lifestyle Habits

55

The Ultimate Auburn University Bucket List: 21 Things to Do Before Graduating

mental health
32

Pandemic and Academic Blues: Being Aware of Your Mental Health

Featured Chapter: St. John’s University

Footer

logo

College Magazine is the national daily guide to campus life. Our articles for college students feature university rankings of U.S. colleges, college guides, academic advice, college prep, career advice, student health and collegiate dating tips.

Written by students for students, by a team of journalists from universities nationwide, we’re on the pulse of the college experience.

  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Pinterest
  • RSS
  • Twitter

Colleges

  • College Guides
  • College Rankings
  • Campus life
  • Academics
  • Dating
  • Freshmen Year
  • Health
  • Party

Majors

  • All College Majors
  • Most Popular Majors
  • Choosing a Major

Intern

  • Internships Directory
  • How to Write a Resume
  • How to Write a Cover Letter
  • How to Interview
  • How to Get an Internship
  • How to Network

Money

  • How to Make Money
  • How to Save Money
  • How to Get a Job
  • Credit Cards 101
  • College Loans

Travel

  • Study Abroad
  • College Spring Break
  • How to Travel Cheap
  • Things to Do

Shop

  • College Packing List
  • Gift Guides
  • About Us
  • Team
  • Write
  • Apply
  • Privacy Policy
  • Sign Up
  • Advertise
  • My Account
  • Cart

Copyright © 2021 College Magazine · All Rights Reserved · Powered by BizBudding Inc.