Puppet On A String (A Haiku)

Puppet on a string
In the hands of another
Lacks autonomy

Marionettes from the Swedish Cottage Marionette Theatre, New York, USA production of “Cinderella Samba” (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Rat In A Box

Craving for another fix
Addicted to the bait
The rat that Skinner once foretold
Comes early, never late

And presses all the buttons
For pellets one by one
No care that she’s predictable
So long she has won

Won the reward she wants to win
The feather in her hat
With belly filled to oversized
Yet branded on her back

But in actual reality
She is a rat in box
Responding just as she is bid
Until fed to the fox!

English: Skinner box (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Positive Reinforcement

Let me tell you how it is
The game of true rewards
Responding to a stimulus
To gain like and applaud

It stimulates the synapses
And animates them so
The neural kick deep in the brain
Excited in the flow

The flow of prizes and pure praise
A hearty pack on back
That says to mind, “Go do again!”
Addicted right on track

To want more of this good thing
The smiling, happy way
That motivates us to go on
In dopamine display

And so in cyclic pleasure
The pattern does repeat
With pleasure sensors all alert
To raise the old heart beat!

And lest our conscious knowledge
We’re putty in the hand
Of positive reinforcement
Moulded like grains of sand

No fingers were hurt in the making of this picture (Photo credit: Kerri Lee Smith)

Sonnet To The Skinner’s Box

Behold the world a skinner’s box so vast
With those who learn to press the buttons so
To get rewards and pleasantries at last
And operate conditionally as they go
Like rats all trained to cleverly respond
To incentives that reward each in turn
For acting in a way that forms the bond
That says do this and you’ll get what you yearn
And yet does this remove autonomy
When in the wrong hands takes away free will
Where harnessing of such mentality
Means doing just to get and have the thrill
       Still as a toolkit used responsibly
       The world is motivated with this key

Conditioning Fish

So it seems that it’s possible
To condition certain fish
To come when they are beckoned by
A ‘bell’ they reminisce

And they’ll even press a lever
For reward of extra food
At certain times of day or night
When this has been imbued

So the question that is begging
Is are they just like mice
To train in some laboratories
With clinical device

For apparently it’s been shown
Our fish can be so foxed
By training them to come when called
In a fishy Skinner’s box

Want to know what this is all about?  Why not click these links and find out more:

Fish Memories Last For Months, say Scientists

Goldfish Memory Minimyth