A technique for self-injection of drugs in the study of reinforcement.
Automate the reward and you clean up the data.
01Research in Context
What this study did
DAVIS et al. (1963) built a harness that lets lab animals give themselves drugs.
The rig spins like a revolver so the needle never tangles.
Animals press a lever and get an instant injection without a human in the room.
What they found
The paper only shows the hardware.
No data on how much drug the animals took or how it changed their behavior.
How this fits with other research
Fingeret et al. (1985) later used the same idea on people.
They paid humans for tiny thumb twitches picked up by EMG.
Both studies remove the experimenter and let the response trigger its own reward.
Schaaf et al. (2015) did the same trick for group choice.
They swapped needles and syringes for cheap gamepads and a laptop.
All three papers chase the same goal: let the subject run the show so the data stay clean.
Why it matters
When you remove the human hand, you remove human error.
Today you can copy the spirit of the 1963 rig with an automatic treat dispenser, an RFID reader, or a touch-screen kiosk.
Any time you want pure measures of reinforcement, let the client control the delivery.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
Behavioral observations on experimental box being supported by the lip animals may be influenced to an undesirable rear of the barrel. The barrel i degree by the presence of the investigator, rotate completely and to yaw sligh handling or immobilization of the .subject, axis. The plunger does not rota' and stimuli associated with pharmacologic treatments. An automatic, self-administr4tion technique which eliminates these influences is desirable for the study of the reinforcing . effects of drugs. We have developed an appa- ratus enabling repeated injections from a distance on a continuing basis in the unre- -.
Journal of the experimental analysis of behavior, 1963 · doi:10.1901/jeab.1963.6-233