But but but....what? how? Why does he know what to DO???

[holly_evolving]

Comments

[wolf-nd-shadows.livejournal.com]

do you really want to know how?

[holly-evolving.livejournal.com]

Here's the thing...whether he's memorized the course, or is following commands, or is going through the obstacles based on what seems most logical to him, it's still way more that I ever knew a mouse was capable of. Even if he's following some marker that we can't see from the camera angle. I'll be boggled no matter what, so, yeah. I want to know.

[wolf-nd-shadows.livejournal.com]

mice and rats are commonly used in psychology learning experiments because they can be so easily trained. The mouse was most probably trained to do each task individually with a food reward for the completion of each task. After each task was learned, he was taught to do multiple tasks for the food rewards. They are hard to see, but there are markers on the course, so one of the tasks was probably to follow the markers.
I don't know how long it took to train the mouse. It looks like a home project with a personal pet, so barring any psychological problems on the part of the owner, this was probably a means to interact with his pet more, which acted as a form of affection which may have actually increased the mouse's presentation of ability.
btw, fair warning, never ask me how magicians do their tricks...

[holly-evolving.livejournal.com]

Ah, yes. I often put the words, "Operant conditioning means that given enough time and popcorn, you can get a pigeon to do anything," into B.F. Skinner's mouth. I guess this is the same thing, but it's still awesome. Such a tiny brain processes so much!