From Cage to Classroom: Animal Testing and Behaviorist Educational Film

Abstract

ABSTRACT:This essay analyzes the behavioral psychologist Neal E. Miller's 1948 educational film, Motivation and Reward in Learning, as a pivotal example of the overhaul of educational media in the wake of animal experiments into behavioral psychology during the mid-twentieth century. Drawing from historical research and close analysis of the formal components of the film, this essay reveals the impact of the animal laboratory as a vital site where films were produced and where the effects of spectatorship were tested. Ultimately, it concludes that the onscreen animals in films like Motivation and Reward in Learning reflected the intended experience of their viewers, both of whom had their motivations and actions managed by their manufactured settings of the laboratory and the screen.