Viking_Yearbook_66

EXPERIMENTAL PSYCHOLOCY The basement in an old apartment house is not usually anything special, but to the Psychology Department, the basement of Frances Manor is a dream come true. The Psychology Depart- ment, one of PSC's oldest, faced a space crisis in developing an adequate program in experi- mental and physiological psychology until fall, 1965. Rats, cats, and professors were jumbled together in a cramped room of an ugly little house by State Hall. Rat cages, cat cages, bookcases, an operating table, and several desks in one room plus having to do cat experimentation in a broom closet placed a strain on the professors. Last fall when they acquired the new space, the psychology professors went after a grant to provide equipment needed to make experi- mental psychology a laboratory science. They were awarded the grant. The basement of Frances Manor was remodeled into two class- rooms, a workshop, ? darkroom, an operating room for cat-rat surgery/ rooms for animal experi- mentation, and, last but not least, rooms with some of the poshest quarters for cats and rats in this locality. There are even automated cages which clean themselves, feed and water their inhabitants according to a computerized schedule. The grant filled the empty rooms with thousands of dollars worth of equipment including the cages,surgical equipment,a polygraph, darkroom apparatus, machine tools, and a microprojector. 182 ]--