Commentary on Cyberrat

Comments on the software review by Roger D. Ray (see record 2013-44787-012). This commentary on the development of CyberRat points out that 1) CyberRat is an excellent educational alternative to a live rat in cases where instruction of basic operant conditioning principles cannot be carried out with live animals due to a lack of laboratory facilities, 2) CyberRat simulates a live rat very nicely as long as one expects no more than demonstrations of basic operant behavior principles (i.e., CyberRat is not suited for research into operant behavior), 3) neither a Kantorian interbehavioral analysis nor a Skinnerian functional analysis is sufficient for CyberRat to work, yet a combination of both types of analysis is in fact necessary for CyberRat to emit an adequate and realistic flow of operant behavior interceded by other (non-reinforced) behavior, 4) CyberRat has developed to the point where it certainly provides a near perfect illusion of being a single animal that quite realistically demonstrates basic operant conditioning phenomena embedded in a flow of natural behaviors. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved)