Guinea Pig Project - Introduction
Guinea Pigs
Guinea pigs are loveable pets that anyone from a young age can enjoy:
There are many fascinating things about guinea pigs ranging from their sounds, the way they look and the simple way that these skittish prey animals live with each other and us.
Guinea pigs can live anywhere from 8-10 years and can also reproduce very quickly, and it is equally important to either have them spayed or neutered to avoid having over reproduction.
Did you know that guinea pigs have many different hair types? Even though all of these guinea pigs have similar colors, their hair all grows in different ways and lengths.
Study 1
Title: Cognitive Psychology Study A GUINEA PIG’S IMMOBILITY RESPONSE TO SOUND
Guinea pigs have an immobility response as a way to detect potential threats in their given environment.
Some examples of things that will cause a guinea pig to freeze are a car horn or loud noise on the tv.
While this adaptation may have helped them in the wild, it now serves as a reminder of a protective instinct from the past.
2 groups of 77-db and 47-db show IR on a graph to Tone or No Tone playing
Study 2
Title: Recognition of Modified Conditioning Sounds by Competitively Trained Guinea Pigs
Did you know that a guinea pig can recognize sounds that it hears frequently? A CS like a plastic bag or even the sound of a fridge opening can trigger a recognition of that stimulus by a guinea pig, which is identifiable by a head tilt up, ear raises, or noise production.
Also, guinea pigs are a lot easier to study, at least when it comes to hearing research because of their cochlea’s are of easily accessible size for researchers to observe.
Study 3
Title: The cocktail party problem: What is it? How can it be solved? And why should animal behaviorists study it?
The cocktail party effect can be best described as the ability to ignore certain sounds or incoming information to decipher a more important message from one or multiple people.
While this is seen in humans, there have been other cases where it has also been seen in dogs, cats, bats, and even guinea pigs.
It is important to know that guinea pigs are conditioned to sound because just like other animals you may have in your home, guinea pigs are highly sensitive to it!
