Shelley Batts is a Neuroscience PhD candidate at the University of Michigan. She studies hair cell regeneration in the cochlea, and is trying to finish that quixotic quest called 'thesis.' She lies awake at night pondering how science intersects with politics, culture, policy, money, medicine, and religion in an attempt to be more than just a niche scientist sitting in the oh-so-lovely ivory tower. Follow me and my parrot, Pepper, on our quest to finish my PhD, land a post-doc, and stay sane.
Steve Higgins is a psychology graduate student at an online university. He hopes that the three weeks and $29.95 that he is spending on his Ph.D. will get him a job at a Tier 1 research university. Do online universities have postdocs? Ok...just kidding, Steve is really a Ph.D. Candidate in Psychology at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign studying high level vision. You know... stuff like scene & object perception.
While not an official contributer to 'Of Two Minds,' Shelley's sidekick is an African Grey parrot named Pepper. His heros are Irene Pepperberg, Alex, and Rachel Carson. He spends his time learning Mandarin and writing the Great American novel.
"Those who dwell, as scientists or laymen, among the beauties and mysteries of the earth, are never alone or weary of life." ~Rachel Carson
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Category: Birds • Psychology • Weird
Posted on: April 7, 2008 1:39 PM, by Steve Higgins
This is clearly false advertising. I don't see any pinging going on. This seems more like Pigeons playing pong.
BF Skinner trains two pigeons to perform a chain of behaviors for the classroom demonstration. As a result, pigeons engage in a competition, the so-called "pigeon Ping Pong". Narrated by B.F. Skinner.
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Comments
Nice find. I heard about this experiment in class, and spent quite a bit trying to find a video (unsuccessfully).
Posted by: Johan | April 7, 2008 5:04 PM
Hey, where are their paddles? ;-)
There are a few more videos here, too:
http://www.bfskinner.org/video_audio.html
Posted by: Sandra | April 8, 2008 11:46 PM
Wasn't Pong invented after this video?
Posted by: bernarda | April 12, 2008 8:13 AM
if it was the skinner foundation should sue for copyright infringement ;)
Posted by: Steve Higgins | April 13, 2008 12:23 PM