Visiting professor backs free speech movement
By CHERYL BOWMAN and KITTY TRENERRY
"If the students of this generation are tomorrow's leaders, the world is saved," said Leopoldo Chiappo, vice president of Cayetano Heredia, a private Peruvian university at Lima.
Chiappo, professor of psychology, is traveling from New York to California on an Eisenhower Exchange Fellowship viewing American campus life. Monday he visited the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences at KU.
A friend of students, Chiappo believes that the Mario Savio Free Speech movement at the University of California at Berkeley is the greatest thing that ever happened in the history of the United States because of the idealism and concern behind it.
Many experiments using such animals as rats and pigeons are conducted at the KU Psychological Laboratory, and are evaluated and written up in journals. The studies are basically centered around the effects of different things upon the capacity to learn. Reinforcements, stimuli which increase the probability of a response, are applied to the animals and the different rates of learning are charted.
Rats become children in experiments
The easiest way to explain the different types of reinforcements is by imagining a pigeon in a cage with a button which, when pushed, produces grain for the pigeon. If the chicken receives grain every time he pecks it is referred to as the continual type. If he receives grain at certain timed intervals regardless of the number of pecks, it is called the interval type. If grain is received every certain amount of pecks, it is called the ratio type.
By RICH HALPERN
If you ever hear someone say,
"Kids are just like rats," he may
not be meaning it as an insult.
IT IS ALSO important to determine the time it takes for the pigeon to forget what he has learned with each different type. This is known as the rate of extinction."
Rats are the subjects of many different experiments. In one experiment, one group of rats were sent running over surfaces with many different textures. The other group ran over only one type of surface. From this, it was found that those in the first group were slower to reach their maximum speed, but their maximum was higher than that of the other group.
Electrodes are embedded into the brains of some rats to determine the effects of shock on different parts of the brain. Thus, the effects of certain parts of the brain upon such activities as eating can be found. Chemicals also are applied to the brain for study.
"To be aware is good for the students." said Chippo.
Placing a rat in what is called a "skinner box" opens the door to many related experiments. The rat is usually placed in a box with a light and a metal grid through which electricity can flow. A thirsty rat can be taught that when he pushes a certain button he gets water. Among other things, the rat can be taught to escape shock by pressing the button or avoid shock by noticing an indicator light and then pressing the button.
His praise of the Savio movement stems from similar movements in his own country. In 1919 the Reforma Universaria movement was taking place in Peru. This was a social-political movement of the students to reform the university. That movement spread the same feelings for social justice that are now appearing in the '60's in the Renoviation Universaria movement.
"A university is not a factory of degrees and credits, but a center to change society. The students should keep aware of political and social affairs, but remember that they are students," said Chiappo.
"To be as powerful as the United States is a danger to the world, but if today's students have this power, then the world is saved. This idea is not very well known to the people of Peru. They often confuse it with communist interference.
"I like very much the Peace Corps, Vista and the War against Poverty," said Chiappo. "American youth are more concerned with the solution of the world's social injustices than of their own economic problems."
Bret Waller officially became director of the KU Museum of Art on July 1.
Waller heads Art Museum
By TERRI ELLIS
Waller, who has been with the museum for three years, did his undergraduate work at the Kansas City Art Institute. He received his master's from the University. He also traveled to Norway on a Fulbright Grant, where he spent one year studying museum operations and the history of art.
Waller is taking the place of Miss Marilyn Stokstad, who is spending the summer in Spain.
Miss Stokstad is doing research on Santiago to Compostello. This includes work and study on the Romanesque portions of the cathedrals.
Summer Kansan Friday, July 7,1967
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