Rat Basketball

The Final Four Rat Basketball Tournament

Professors in the Wofford College Psychology Department go out of their way to ensure that their courses are both academically superior and fun! One example of how our courses have included fun activities is the Final Four Rat Basketball Championship. The tournament was the culmination of three months of training carried out by Wofford psychology students enrolled in Dr. Reid's course, Learning & Adaptive Behavior, as part of its laboratory component. Eleven rats were trained to play one-on-one basketball in a miniature court, and the top four rats made it to the Final Four Rat Basketball Tournament.  The competition was televised by two TV stations (NBC News and CBS News) and covered in newspapers. Later, CBS News distributed the footage to its affiliate stations from Canada to Venezuela.

The Associated Press distributed the newspaper article first published by the Spartanburg Herald-Journal across the eastern half of the United States. Brief clips of our tournament were shown on the Today Show.

You can watch two brief 1-3 minute film clips below:

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