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Artist trained rats to take selfies to make a point about social media
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Re: Artist trained rats to take selfies to make a point about social media
#32When I was.a kid, I "learned" from some authority (TV? book?) that cats and dogs could not recognize process two dimensional images, and that a TV was therefore just visual noise to them.
Same here. Obviously this is not true. A ton of "science" taught to kids through seemingly legitimate channels is in fact just the off the cuff intuitions of some thoroughly average adult, and adults on average tend to be staggeringly uninformed on most topics. EDIT: And even more so for history.
It may have been true during the days of CRTs. I have had a lot of pets and don't remember any of them showing interest in the televisions whatsoever, other than a source of warmth. And that is definitely no longer true.
Re: Artist trained rats to take selfies to make a point about social media
#33[flagged]
For me it will not be tired until we’re not addicted to social media anymore
Re: Artist trained rats to take selfies to make a point about social media
#34[flagged]
[deleted]
Re: Artist trained rats to take selfies to make a point about social media
#35[flagged]
> I think that in the event of an apocalypse these people will be my competitors for resources and then I feel joy in my soul I read this in Dwight Shrute's voice
Hahahaha perhaps it's from exactly that.. I did finish watching 5 episodes of the US The office a few mins before I wrote this!! GREAT catch!!
Re: Artist trained rats to take selfies to make a point about social media
#36When I was.a kid, I "learned" from some authority (TV? book?) that cats and dogs could not recognize process two dimensional images, and that a TV was therefore just visual noise to them.
It is very easy (and amusing) to prove this wrong by playing a video of birds / fish / other wild animals and let your cat watch :)
Sure, now it is very easy. But back then animals rarely reacted to CRT tvs
Re: Artist trained rats to take selfies to make a point about social media
#37The connection to selfies is really weak. Its just classical conditioning. The stimulus is the food not the selfie taking, and the continued pressing of the selfie button without food is conditioned response.
>> After the rats were trained to push the level for sugar, Lignier changed the experiment's parameters. Sometimes taking a picture would yield a piece of sugar, and sometimes would not.
And this part is using an extinction schedule. When you provide a reward for a behavior consistently and then take away the reward (extinction), the behavior tends to stop immediately. By randomizing the reward and maybe gradually decreasing the frequency you have a much better chance that the behavior will persist without the reward. Because he did this we can't really be sure the selfies are their own reward, since the rats may have been simply trained to push a button.
Re: Artist trained rats to take selfies to make a point about social media
#38Re: Artist trained rats to take selfies to make a point about social media
#39Earlier quoted context omitted.
Same here. Obviously this is not true. A ton of "science" taught to kids through seemingly legitimate channels is in fact just the off the cuff intuitions of some thoroughly average adult, and adults on average tend to be staggeringly uninformed on most topics. EDIT: And even more so for history.
It may have been true during the days of CRTs. I have had a lot of pets and don't remember any of them showing interest in the televisions whatsoever, other than a source of warmth. And that is definitely no longer true.
The observable non-reaction was true, what was not true was the cause, which is the low frame rate.
This is the problem with this kind of thing so often, people observe something and an explanation that sounds completely logical gets spread around.
Re: Artist trained rats to take selfies to make a point about social media
#40Earlier quoted context omitted.
Isn't basic conditioning the point the artist is attempting to make? I interpreted the project as pointing out that social media uses fundamentally similar reward mechanisms as we use in training animals
Yes, and I'm saying I'm finding his point weak. It is a old and well know experiment and the social-media-is-a-skinnerbox talking point is as old as social media. I find the selfie angle tacked on without adding or illuminating the subject further. The work doesn't work for me. But I appreciate the cute rat photos.
This is an odd comment to me.
It's like saying "people have been painting realistic portraits of women for centuries, Leonardo, and this one doesn't add anything or illuminate the subject of portrait-taking further. Still, I appreciate her ambiguous smile."