Jiggle Platform

Studies 2 and 3 will make use of a piece of equipment (shown to the right) colloquially called a "jiggle platform". The platform consists of a heavy plexi base over which a metal triangular plate is mounted. The triangular plate rests on three ball bearings, allowing the plate to rotate in the horizontal plane a small amount. A metal pin projects through a hole drilled in the plate. When at rest the pin sits in the middle of the hole. However, when the plate moves the sides of the hole contact the pin, closing an electrical circuit. When this circuit is closed a counter is incremented by one (the counter is shown at the lower right of the picture). There is also a screw set flush with the top of the triangular plate. By tightening or loosening the screw the sensitivity of the jiggle platform to movement can be adjusted.

To use the jiggle platform to record the movement of a rat you place a container (here a "Heth box", see picture to the right) on top of the triangular platform. When the rat is put in the box his movements will cause the triangular platform to jiggle, thereby closing the circuit and resulting in the incrementing of the counter. The jiggle platform shown here was constructed in by Issac Link, one of the technicians in the Psychology Shop. The platform runs on 24V wall current.