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Post by Nicklaus Wilcher on Apr 5, 2016 15:39:57 GMT
I was also in the group that put the scents on the roaches directly. I think we need to find a balance between a scent transfer method that makes the roaches react too frenetically and one that does not get them to react at all. I like the idea of a diluted solution and the banana/strawberry extract, and the Q-tip method.
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Post by caroline on Apr 8, 2016 7:43:04 GMT
Hi, I like the maze idea from charles.
We have already started training our roaches, the only problem we have is habituation... Any ideas on how we can get the roaches to be habituated to a certain taste? We thought just placing them in a glass box that contains a food source that is flavored with vannila for 3 or more days, would get them habituated... Any advice???
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dineo
New Member
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Post by dineo on Apr 11, 2016 14:18:30 GMT
We decided to test their olfactory behavior to see if it can induce social behavior. We placed one demonstrator roach in a cage with an apple piece that was soaked in vanilla extract, an the other roach in a cage with an apple that was soaked in mint extract. In the cages we also placed an object that allows the cockroaches to hide in for a more dark environment.we tried to habituate the roaches to these flavors before sending them back to their different populations.we then going to take individuals from each population, introduce them to both flavors to see if they too will go to the same flavor as their demonstrator or they will choose a different flavor, before habituating the roaches we starved them to increase their appetite. after we isolated the demonstrator roaches,they seemed agitated by the environment,they didn't eat the food sources and . We increased the sample size to three in each cage they seemed to be more active. so i would say they have settled and are used to the environment and the food sources. And Fortunately both the mint and vanilla flavored apples were eaten, though it seems they have preference for the vanilla flavor. we can now go to the next stage and introduce the demonstrators back to the population. i also like the q-tip method and also interested in the maze one to see how long they take to get to the food source.
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Post by caroline on Apr 13, 2016 18:49:07 GMT
Dineo, I know we meet regularly, however, why not have digital discussions when they are accesible? So ,after we incresed the sample size, the roaches became more active and ate the food sources (In your words " they have settled and are used to the environment and the food sources "), does it mean that the population size has an influence on habituation?
Any thougts fellow Animal behaviour students? Input?
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dineo
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Post by dineo on Apr 18, 2016 10:56:07 GMT
i would it does,personal opinion though
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Post by caroline on Apr 20, 2016 15:16:37 GMT
Thanks for the reply, I think it does too, plus our roach study indicates such behaviour, I wonder how it would work out in humans though???
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