This paper describes how to use tardigrades to demonstrate habituation. This experiment is designed for students with any level of experience or training in conditioning live organisms. In this experiment, tardigrades are desensitized to repeated physical touch. Tardigrades are placed under a microscope and poked with a probe until the strength of their response decreases to the point where there is no reaction for 10 consecutive trials. Once the habituation criteria are reached, a new stimulus is presented as a dishabituation control to ensure the subject responds appropriately to the new stimuli. Dishabituation is essential to show that the original response is still present even when a different stimulus is used to evoke that response. This experiment is easy to perform, does not require a lot of time or tools, and the effects are easily observed. We have added discussion questions and future research ideas to aid instructors in the classroom.

This project focuses on the use of robots to increase student interest in comparative psychology. Robots facilitate the development of critical thinking skills, problem solving ability, and apparatus design. Moreover, as behavioral apparatuses become more sophisticated, the use of robots can help increase the interactions between comparative psychologists and engineers. We provide details on how to construct a robotic squirrel. Our squirrel is a ground-based motion robot driven at variable speeds utilizing slip steering. It supports an on-board video system to record and monitor various behavioral patterns of small animals, primarily squirrels in this project, from a distance. It also includes an audio system, which can record and playback sounds to the animals, and a simple robot arm-like structure with two degree of freedom controlled by servos. An Android smart phone application was developed to control the motion and speed of the robot and other operational controls in the system, such as record, playback control, and movement of the robot arm. We suggest that robots can be used as a source for independent projects, be incorporated into a class lecture on behavioral apparatuses, and/or be designed as a class project.

The Laboratory of Comparative Psychology and Behavioral Biology at Oklahoma State University has been developing comparative psychology teaching exercises for over 30 years. In this paper, we provide suggestions for using the dwarf octopus (Octopus joubini) to teach students about the importance of observation, and the relationship of observation in the creation of ethograms and experimental design. Throughout this paper, students learn how to properly make an observation of a novel animal, create an ethogram, and conduct an experiment. We present a sample observation activity and three additional experiments, during which students will observe and record behaviors and environmental conditions. Students learn saltwater tank upkeep, time management, creation and coding of operational definitions, attention to changes in animal behavior, and the experimental process. These observation studies allow students to observe and record behavioral data to understand comparative psychology and experimental design.