Member-only story
I Taught Roberta to Push a Car off a Cliff
There is power in reinforcement.
Behavior change is a key variable in improving mood, and as a psychologist, I have extensive training in this area.
I first learned how to alter behavior in one of my favorite undergraduate courses, Behavior Modification. I loved learning about ways to influence behavior, and I was particularly fascinated by operant conditioning. The use of reinforcement or punishment to increase or decrease behavior is a simple, yet powerful concept.
The highlight of this class was practicing operant conditioning with Roberta, my lab rat.
When I first heard I would be assigned a rat, I pictured a mouse. A cute, furry, little mouse. Instead, it was just as the instructor described — a rat. A large, white one with pink eyes and an incredibly long tail.
Frankly, she was somewhat terrifying to me. I imagine I was a little scary to her too.
Our class assignment was to train Roberta “to do something amazing.” That was a vague task, and my lab partner and I weren’t sure where to begin. We started by just watching her.
After removing Roberta’s house (a nicely decorated shoebox), we let her explore the large lab table. We wanted to see what behavior was natural to her, hoping that might trigger some creative juices.
She began sniffing and exploring the area, occasionally looking over the edge of the table. We joked that the table must feel like looking over a huge cliff to her. That was the creative spark we needed!
Over the next several hours, we formulated a multi-step task which would be our semester project. Roberta would push a car off a cliff.
We constructed a cardboard staircase with a long slide on the end. The plan was to have Roberta walk up the six stairs and push the car down the slide. It would fly off the table (“cliff”) and crash. She would run down the stairs, scurry to the edge of the table, and peer over the cliff’s edge at the destroyed car. Her final act would be to bow to the “audience” before returning to her home.
My lab partner and I immediately set to work on our plan, feeling positive we would finish this 12 week project early. Our confidence…
