A NEW SHOCK GRID FOR RATS.
Brass tubes spaced nine-eighths of an inch apart make a safer, cheaper rat shock grid.
01Research in Context
What this study did
The paper shows how to build a better shock grid for rats. It swaps the old metal bars for brass tubes spaced a little farther apart.
No animals were tested. The author just explains the new design and why it beats older grids.
What they found
There are no data. The author only says the new grid is safer, cheaper, and less likely to break.
How this fits with other research
KAPLAN et al. (1965) did the same thing for dogs. They built a new force lever instead of a shock floor. Both papers give shop notes, not results.
Hart et al. (1968) moved from pain to reward. They showed an intra-oral sugar tube works as a reinforcer for rats. Dinsmoor (1958) set up the hardware; the 1968 team showed you can use gear to deliver consequences.
Hawley et al. (2004) also tweaked procedure, but for thinning reinforcers in DRA. All three papers share one theme: small build changes can make lab work smoother.
Why it matters
You probably will never shock a client, but the idea still helps. Good apparatus saves time and money. When you design a token board, data sheet, or sensory item, copy the same mindset: make it sturdy, cheap, and easy to fix. Test once, then use it forever.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
A NEW SHOCK GRID FOR RATS1The conventional shock grid used for rats consists of 1/8-inch brass rods set in the side walls of the box at intervals of 1/2 to 3/4 inch.A few months ago, I substituted a grid composed of sections of 5/8-inch, outside-diameter brass tubing spaced at 9/8 inch from center to center and running from one end of the box to the other rather than crosswise.This reduced the number of electrodes in the box from fourteen to six (five for the grid, one for the walls and bar).The polarity alternating system and associated wiring can now be made smaller and less ex- pensive, and the percentage of time the current is flowing between any two electrodes may be increased.Biting and grasping of the grid are eliminated, and the flatter surface seems to provide better and more stable electrical contact.The thicker tubing apparently discourages attempts to escape through the grid, which is now visually closed, and the gradually rounded surface serves to prevent the rat from lacerating its nose in the process.The tubing itself provides structural rigidity for a removable grid.In several hundreds of hours of exposure to variable-interval escape schedules, a relatively rigorous test condition, the rats have discovered no new means of avoiding the shock.
Journal of the experimental analysis of behavior, 1958 · doi:10.1901/jeab.1958.1-182