[From Rick Marken (960305.1500)]
1. I need some references. Could someone send me the reference to the Science
article on "catching a fly ball"? Also, if Avery is listening, could I get
any references to that "bee flight" tester in Australia? I'm looking for
references to behavioral experiments that are good examples of testing for
controlled variables so any references to other research that qualifies would
be most welcome.
2. Has anyone read Dennett's "Darwin's Dangerous Idea"? What was Darwin's
dangerous idea?
3. Bruce Abbott (960305.1700 EST)
I already have good reason to think that it [pellets/sec] is not
[controlled], but will test for it anyway.
I have a feeling pellets/sec (or something like it) is controlled, but
relative to what is usually a (slowly) varying reference.
My suspicion is that the rat would like to be eating pellets at some
(usually fairly high) rate during "meals" and that this rate cannot be
achieved via leverpressing.
Right. That's a problem. The rat might be trying to control pellets/sec and
can't because it's reference setting for this variable is too high. If this
turns out to be the case you might want to try giving the rats a little more
"ad libitum" access to food, so they're reference for food input isn't so
high when they enter a test session.
Best
Rick