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Show Take Note: 5 Monday, March 5,2007 Free salsa dancing lessons. Every Tuesday at 7:30 p.m. in HPER 102. j. IE LIFE 797-1769 features@statesman.usu.edu ; Don't sign your life away This summer my husband attended an Army school for 10 weeks at Camp Williams. We went hunting for apartments a month before we needed to move in and found a nice apartment complex in Draper. It was one of the cheaper ones at $688 a month." Of course, that doesn't include the $100-a-month fee for a short-term contract - we would only be Holly Mitchell st thaey irneg for three months. So every month we were paying $788 for Keep the a one Change bedroom dii&cc u^u.cdu apartment w i t h windows that didn't open, * cigarette smoke seeping in ****«£ from next door, and a main*"W ; tenance man with a golden elephant head glued to the front of his golf cart. Three months went by and we were glad to move back to Logan. My parents came up tti with a trailer to pack up our stuff. This was the first time we realized we were dealing with idiots. We pulled away from the apartment complex and were headed down the road when J-l we got a phone call. "Hi Shane. You hit a carport with your trailer. You'll need to come back and file a police report," the lady on the phone said. It was the secretary at the apartment complex. Completely oblivious to "* 1 what she was talking about, we told her we hadn't hit anything. • •II She said she would call back when she knew more BY SI IANNON K. JOHNSON about the situation. Staff Writer A few minutes later she called back to tell us that it was a mistake and the carport hen checking into a hotel, a clean room and toilet paper well as the neighboring home. The inn stanas wim IUUI mujr i w « i « i ; i :i ^ had been hit on the other side ing buildings, and owners are currently renovating the neighboring .-. '.'. folded to a point can be expected, but when guests of the complex - too far away home to add another 13 rooms. •/ ) ^ check into the Anniversary Inn, they can count on havfrom our apartment to be us. With 21 rooms and 20 themes, tjiere is a room designed for tastes :'jv ing an entirely different experience. "Oh, and you didn't give us from Swiss Family Robinson to Aphrodite's Palace. The newest room is The main building, located at 169 E. Center Street in 60 days notice that you were called Arabian Nights, which took more than 6 months to decorate. -; £' Logan, was built in 1896. It became a boarding house, moving out," she said. and in 1905, it was purchased by the Thatcher family, We didn't think much of later sold and made into the Anniversary Inn. The main house harbors her last comment then. Who •ANNIVERSARY I N N a gift shop and the front desk as well as a few of the themed rooms. cares, they weren't going to see page 8 The carriage house, behind the main building, is a part of the inn as charge us for their stupid carport that we didn't nit and we were finally moving out. No more smoke and no more golden elephant head. A few weeks later, we got a closing statement in the mail. It said, "Rent due through 60 day notice. Balance due from resident: $1,620.74." When we signed the threeBY ADKICNNC WINCCAR The lab lasts for three weeks. month lease to live in the Staff Writer They come every day from 5:30 to apartment we told them the 6:20 p.m. to train the rats. Leavitt exact day we would be leavFourteen students gather in the said students in the lab are supposed ing - August 30. We gave them large gray barn located in the TSC to get the rat to perform at least nine 90 days notice, but that wasn't parking lot. They train rats to persets of behaviors. good enough. They needed us form various tasks including pressing Some of the students are training to write it on a Post-it Note so a lever, holding onto a bar and pushtheir rats to perform abstract tasks. they could remember. ing a ball. The goal is to teach stuCalbimonte said, "Right now we're So my husband called dents about one branch of psycholog- teaching our rat to hold on to a bar them and talked to them. Then ical theory, behaviorism. Psychology that's hanging in the chamber. Then I called them and yelled at 1400 is an introductory course to we turn on the light. Then he presses them. But it was no use. They behaviorism taught by Carl Cheney. the bar at least 10 times. After that, had a contract with our sigHeather Malmberg, a senior in he goes and gets his reinforcement of nature at the bottom that said psychology, is a lab assistant for the a little pinch of water. we would give them 60 days class. She assists the students in Students are able to train the rats notice. training their rats and makes sure by giving them reinforcement for To some, $1,620.74 is a the rats stay healthy. behaviors they want the rat to do. drop in the bucket, but we are She said, "I take care of the rats so Malmberg said water is the reincollege students. none of them die." forcement. So we set the bill aside and She said the goal of the class is to She said, "Within the 'operant 1 forgot about it for a while. If take the principles students learn in chamber is a little lever the rats can you let anything simmer for 1400 and apply them to training rats press that gives them water." a while, it usually won't feel through conditioning and behavior By rewarding the rat with water quite so bad. Then, it came modification. after a certain number of lever pressto the point that we had to Student Carlos Calbimonte, a Rachel Schufi/mrachs&'cc.usu.edu es, the rat is more likely to press the face it. My husband called freshman in psychology, said, "I'm STACI LEAVITT IS A STUDENT IN PSYCHOLOGY 1 4 0 0 , an introductory class where students have to teach rats how to do varilever more times in succession. the office, and to our surhaving fun with the lab. The fun part ous tasks. Leavitt is a freshman majoring in psychology. In order to make water reinforcprise, they were now chargis playing around with the rat. We ing for the rats, they need to be ing us $333.67. Someone had named him Charlie. deprived of it. Malmberg said, "That said, "They enjoy this lab so much. ally see it on a live animal. "My least moved into our apartment 13; "He's a funny little rat with white way they'll work for water when For anybody who's taken the lab, it's favorite part of the class is that it's days after we moved out and fur and red eyes," he said. they're in the chamber. They get food, probably one of the highlights in psy- not the most interesting," she said. would be paying rent - so they Staci Leavitt, another freshman don't worry about that. We're not chology in general." Calbimonte said he thinks the were charging us for those 13, in psychology, said, "Our rat is a slow starving them as well, because they Check out t h e inn — "•^l* Students train rats in psych class starter. But he gets it after awhile and does very well. He is on experiment five out of nine." would die." Malmberg said the coolest part about her job is the students. She Leavitt said the lab is more interesting than the class because you can actually apply the concepts that learned from the class and actu- class is very interesting. He said he • RAT TRAINING see page 8 • CONTRACTS see page 8 j • |