Animal Studies By TV

Press, Volume CV, Issue 31027, 5 April 1966, Page 1

Animal Studies By TV

Closed-circuit television for the remote observation of animal behaviour has been introduced in the psychology department of the University of Canterbury at Ham. It is expected that the unit will also be used by sociologists and clinical psychologists in the department for the demonstration of interviews to classes.

Mr J. S. Pollard, lecturer in charge of this work, believes that television for education in this field has more convincing advantages than in any other. “It is not a toy; it is a tool,” he said. In the new animal house at Bam, the psychology depart-

ment has one monkey. 20 ferrets, 200 rats, three wallabies, one kea, and hundreds of woodlice. snails, maggots, worms, and other invertebrates. Direct observation of their behaviour may be disturbed by the presence of a research worker; it certainly is by the presence of a whole class.

Remote observation by television overcomes this problem with animals, children, and psychiatric patients; with such inaccessible centres of interest as nests, and with sterile material. Observations can also be made in the dark, using infra-red sensitive cameras.

Television is also being used with the camera in the lecture room itself to enlarge material too small to be seen in detail by a large class. The psychology department is already using television also for long-term expertx

ments where the cameras run continuously. Eventually it hopes also to have a video-tape recorder to preserve observations for immediate play-back at any speed, for detailed analysis, or for the examination of any segment which may be photographed by stall camera and kept for future use. Already the department is using television for several hours a week for both teaching and research. Mr Pollard said staff were certain that the uses of the equipment would grow enormously In the photograph Mr A. M. Lysons, a research student, is placing a rat in a simple maze to study its memory, while the television camera transmits the picture to a nearby room where a lecturer can talk, point, and answer questions without disturbing the animal.