Rats Agility Lab Report

Hunter McMillian April LoNano Samantha Matson Julia Fergus The Effect of Varying Music on Rats’ Agility Hypothesis: The music will affect the speed and agility of the rats, Lakeesha and Lisa Korty. The up tempo songs will most increase the speed of the rats. The mid tempo songs will slightly increase the speed of the rats, and the slower songs will not have a noticeable effect on the rats typical speed. Background: As stated, the rats’ names are Lakeesha and Lisa Korty. In another group’s experiment, these same rats were used to test their memory. However, that had no effect on this experiment as experimentation for the other group had long concluded. Materials List: Digital Timer CD with eight different songs CD Player Construction Paper Made “U” Shaped Maze Food for Rats (fresh fruits, dried fruits, etc.) Writing Utensil Paper Procedure: In this experiment, eight different songs with varying genres were played. Lisa Korty would be set in the Construction Paper Made Maze as the first song was played. Her time would be recorded. Next, the same song played but with Lakeesha being set down in the maze as the music started. This same process occurred until all eight songs were played and both of the rats’ times were recorded. Rats Response to Songs Data: Song Key-1. The Casualties – Tomorrow Belongs to Us 2. Paul Potts – Nessun Dorma 3. The Killers – Mr. Brightside (Techno Remix) 4. Alanis Morrisette – Hand in My Pocket 5. Beethoven – Moonlight Sonata 6. Banda El Mexicano – El Mariachi Loco 7. Jackson 5 – Rockin’ Robin 8. Joan Jett & The Black Hearts – I Love Rock and Roll

Song 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 1 2 3 4

Date – Apr.3rd, 09 ““ ““ ““ ““ ““ ““ ““ ““ Apr. 9th, 09 ““ ““ ““ ““ ““ ““ Apr. 10th, 09 ““ ““ ““ ““ ““ ““ ““ ““ ““ ““ May. 1st, 09 ““ ““ ““ ““ ““ ““ ““ ““ ““ ““ ““ ““

Lisa Korty 6 secs. Jumped Out Jumped Out 8 secs. Jumped Out 2 secs. Jumped Out Jumped Out

Lakeesha 9 secs. Jumped Out 44 secs. 9 secs. Jumped Out Jumped Out 27 secs. 52 secs.

Jumped Out Jumped Out 3 secs. JO @ 1 sec. JO @ 3 secs. 9 secs.

Jumped Out Jumped Out JO @ 18 secs. 4 secs. JO @ 7 secs. JO @ 9 secs.

2 secs. JO @ 7 secs. JO @ ? 7 secs. JO @ 3 secs. JO @ 2 secs. 5 secs. 3 secs. JO @ 2 secs. 3 secs.

5 secs. 14 secs. JO @ 8 secs. 2 secs. JO @ 9 secs. 4 secs. 4 secs. JO @ 6 secs. 2 secs. 8 secs.

3 secs. 3 secs. JO @ 4 secs. JO @ 2 secs. JO @ 12 secs. 2 secs. 2 secs. JO @ 1 sec. 5 secs. JO @ 8 secs. JO @ 2 secs. 3 secs.

12 secs. 2 secs. JO @ 7 secs. 2 secs. JO @ 10 secs. 2 secs. JO @ 26 secs. JO @ 7 secs. JO @ 2 secs. JO @ 5 secs. JO @ 7 secs. 2 secs.

5 6 7 8 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

““ ““ May. 13th, 09 ““ ““ ““ ““ ““ ““ ““ ““ ““ ““

3 secs. 6 secs.

5 secs. JO @ 4 secs.

7 sec. JO @ 2 secs. JO @ 3 secs. JO @ 6 secs. 4 secs. JO @ 2 secs. JO @ 4 secs 12 secs JO @ 3 secs. JO @ 7 secs.

2 secs. JO @ 4 secs. JO @ 4 secs. JO @ 2 secs. JO @ 9 secs. JO @ 2 secs. JO @ 4 secs. JO @ 2 secs. JO @ 2 secs. 2 secs.

Data Analysis: The data showed that with the more aggressive songs such as, Tomorrow Belongs to Us by The Casualties, the rats tended to stay in our “U” shaped concoction longer than expected. It appears that with the mid tempo song, Hand in My Pocket by Alanis Morrisette, the rats seemed to jump out less frequently than they did with the other songs. It can be noted that overall, the rats jumped out of our concoction more than it stayed in and actually got the end of the “U” shape. It can also be noted that towards the later part of the experiment, the rats tended to jump out more frequently than on our first few runs. As seen in the chart, Lakeesha jumped out eight times consecutively on May 13th, 2009. An additional note that is on April 9th, 2009 the group began recording the time that each rat jumped out so that more hard data would exist in regards to the agility of these rats. Also, it can be seen that some days only six songs were used. This was simply because time ran out at the end of the class period. However, the songs not played on those particular days were included in the next date that the experiment was run. Conclusion: The hypothesis that the music will affect the agility of rats was correct as show by our data. However, the second part of our hypothesis was incorrect as the correlation between the rats speed and the song being played were inconsistent from trial run to trial run. On some days, the rat’s speed time would prove the second part of our hypothesis correct while other days it would not and which an inconsistent such as that, the second part of our hypothesis can simply not be deemed correct.

Possible Sources of Error:

The largest error that our group did not consider at the start of the experiment would be the fact that the rats jumped out of our concoction and most disappointingly, they frequently did so. If our group were to redo the experiment, higher walls would be implemented in our “U” shaped design. Due to this flaw, the conclusion was not as precise as it could have been.