Psychology 201, Spring 2006



Psychology 201

Ethics in Animal Research – Case Studies

Each group of students will constitute an Institutional Review Board for the Protection of Animal Subjects. You should review each of the following studies in terms of each of the situations listed below:

A) Describe all ethical issues the committee should consider in determining if the study should be approved.

B) Note that there may be information you need that is not provided in the brief descriptions provided. List any questions you would like to ask the investigators.

C) Decide as a committee if you would approve the study as described.

D) If your committee decides the study cannot be conducted in its present form, describe the changes that should be made.

Case Study #1

Henry F. Harlow wanted to study the mechanisms by which newborn rhesus monkeys bond to their mothers. These infants are highly dependent on their mothers for nutrition, protection, comfort and socialization. What exactly, though, was the basis of the bond? Was it primarily a matter of nutrition, a function of an innate suckling instinct, an innate need to touch and cling, or something else? These questions have parallels in human development, and Harlow thought primate development might shed some light on them.

To examine the nature of infant attachment to its mother, Harlow removed eight monkeys from their mothers immediately after birth and placed them in cages with access to two mother surrogates. One mother surrogate was constructed from wood and covered with terrycloth, and the second was constructed of wire. The baby monkeys nursed from bottles hidden in the surrogates, four from the cloth surrogate and four from the wire surrogate. A heating pad in the neutral part of the cage was also available to the infants.

The animals were studied for 165 days. Most preferred to spend time with the cloth surrogate no matter how they obtained their feedings. Harlow took the findings to mean that a nutritional theory of attachment was insufficient to explain the nature of bonding by the infant rhesus to its mother. He further tested this by introducing challenges to the monkeys that would provoke fear. In these challenges, the infant monkeys took refuge with the cloth monkey. Other studies seemed to confirm the importance of the cloth surrogate – but not the wire surrogate – to the monkeys.

Case Study #2

In a 1984 article in the journal Animal Behavior, two Northern Ireland scientists, Robert W. Elwood and Malcomb C. Ostenmeyer, reported their findings on factors that influence adult male rodents to kill young of their own species. Various hypotheses exist on why they do this, but presumably it gives them an advantage in perpetuating their own genes.

Elwood and Ostenmeyer wanted to know whether they could identify factors that promoted or inhibited this behavior. It had been suggested that copulation with a female mouse was an inhibitor, and the two men tested this hypothesis. They put sexually naïve (never mated) adult male mice alone in cages and introduced live newborns into those cages. They identified male mice that repeatedly killed the infants and used them in a series of experiments. Males that ignored the newborns were not used for further study.

The researchers introduced the killer mice to females for copulation and tested the males for infanticidal behavior on three occasions: before the experiment, on the day of copulation, and eighteen days after copulation. Copulation by itself did not inhibit the males from killing young mice placed into the cage. However, if the males were allowed to cohabit with the females, they were less inclined to that behavior. During the entire study, the adult males killed 87 newborn mice.

Case Study #3

In the early 1980’s, Thomas Gennarelli, a professor at the University of Pennsylvania, was studying the effect of head injuries on baboons. His goal was to identify an animal model in which to study physiological and anatomical effects of head trauma in humans.

Baboons were first treated with PCP, a dissociative drug also known as angel dust, to make them easier to restrain. They were then treated with nitrous oxide, but this was withdrawn up to one hour before the intervention, because the animals had to be conscious just before the injury and general anesthesia would have rendered some of the tests meaningless. The researchers said they would administer more nitrous oxide if the experiments went “awry.”

The animals were strapped to tables and fitted with monitors, and their heads were cemented inside a helmet. A hydraulic piston then suddenly twisted or jolted their heads. The device could simulate 2000 times the force of gravity. The monkeys were typically comatose and paralyzed after the intervention, although some died. The surviving animals were sustained for 2 months, at which point they were sacrificed and the effect of their injuries on their brains was studied.

Case Study #4

R. Alen and Beatrix Gardiner acquired a young female chimpanzee, named Washoe, to test its ability to acquire American Sign Language (ASL), which is used by the deaf. Earlier attempts in instruction had not been successful, but the Gardiners wanted to study the extent to which the animal might learn signs and gestures. The Gardiners taught the chimp as parents might teach human children: to use human utensils while eating, to dress, to play with toys, and to use the toilet. Washoe was given considerable human attention and did not interact with other chimpanzees. The Gardiners used ASL in front of her as much as possible. By the time Washoe was about 4 years old, she was able to use approximately 132 signs.

At 5 years of age Washoe was moved to the Institute for Primate Studies at the University of Oklahoma, where she was introduced to other chimps who had been taught to sign. The goal was to determine whether the chimps used signs when communicating among themselves, which they did to some extent.

Eventually Washoe delivered a baby, but it died. Shortly afterward, she was given the baby of another chimp to see whether she would teach it to sign. The researchers made sure never to sign in front of the baby, but Washoe and the other chimps did. Eventually, the baby acquired approximately 51 signs.

Washoe and her baby were later moved to another housing facility at Central Washington University where they joined three other signing chimpanzees the Gardiners had raised. The animals continue to be used in observational and noninvasive studies for language and behavior. Other signing chimpanzees were ultimately sent to biomedical research facilities or wildlife centers where little or no attention was given to their abilities to communicate.

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