Dentists - Doctors - Inventors - Medicine - Science
Mar. 11, 1952 - Rats Pick Out Objects': San Antonio, Texas: Educated white rats are playing important roles in research at the School of Aviation Medicine, Randolph Air Force Base. Dr. Paul A. Fields, in the dept. of experimental psychology has found some select rodents so smart he has been able to teach them to pick out pictures. Dr. Field has designed this college classroom. There is a platform divided by a small moat, On one side stands a row of five panels, each bearing a picture. If the rat jumps at the right panel it collapses and his reward is a morsel of food. If he jumps at one of the four wrong panels, he gets, bump on the snout. The rat is first taught to jump; next he is given two panels from which to choose, then tires, four and finally five. Photo shows the machine in which the pictures are placed, rat panel and the pictures placed in the panels
