Sniffy the Virtual Rat, Lite Version

The new Lite Version of the famous Sniffy software simulates the elementary phenomena of operant and classical conditioning that are discussed in courses on the Psychology of Learning and in Introductory Psychology courses. Sniffy, a realistic digital rat in an operant chamber (Skinner Box), gives students hands-on experience setting up and conducting experiments. Users begin by training Sniffy to press a bar to obtain food and progress to studying reinforcement schedules and simple classical conditioning. In addition, a series of "Mind Windows" enable students to visualize how Sniffy's experiences in the Skinner Box produce the psychological changes that their textbooks discuss in connection with the phenomena simulated. The Sniffy, Lite Version CD-ROM comes packaged in the front of a brief, hands-on Lab Manual that walks users through the steps that they need to follow to set up a wide variety of operant and classical conditioning experiments that closely resemble experiments discussed in learning texts.

Tom Alloway was trained by Winifred Hill at Northwestern University and is an expert in animal behavior, specifically ants, as well as operant and classical conditioning. He's the former chair at UT-Mississauga.

Greg Wilson runs his own software company and created the first version of Sniffy over 10 years ago.

Jeff Graham was trained in cognitive psychology and neural network models of memory. He teaches the computer component of introductory psychology at University of Toronto at Mississauga with over 1500 students per year.