Menu Home Headlines Features Research / Projects Science Expo Gallery Links |
Victor Jiang This experiment aimed to demonstrate the biological concepts of imprinting, conditioning, negative reinforcements, and disassociation. The test subject was a young lasiodora parahybana captive, it was bred and raised into a juvenile currently at five inches. This species of terrestrial tarantula has a reputation for aggression in captivity. However, by training it with an object since it was young (before its viciousness kicks in), it will recognize the training object as it grows (imprinting), disassociate larger objects with danger, and condition itself to believe that every time it strikes at an larger object, it is tapped back (also negative reinforcements). In the experiment, a spoon was used on the tarantula since it was around a half-inch large. During the experiment, it showed almost no aggression towards the spoon and none at all towards my hand (I picked it up often to show critics at the exposition). The control group was composed of expert accounts of the animal’s normal behavior and a spiderling of pseudotheraphosa apophysis. The accounts gave it the powerful reputation and the young spiderling was quick to rear up in threat. This proves, at least to a good extent, the success of the experiment and the four values of animal behavior discussed earlier. Tarantulas are helpful to humans in that their venom is an ingredient in treatments for Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s. Their venom can also be used as an anti-blood clotting agent. Getting tarantulas to become docile and approachable is the first step in getting their cooperation in the field of medical science. |