2. MICE, MUSIC, & MAZES

3. We have been running mice through mazes since we figured out they both started with M, which was quite a bit after the mice themselves figured it out. But why? At first it was just for entertainment and a sporting event where washers could be made and money lost and won. But then we figured out we could run experiments on then and learn something about behavior. Then we discovered we might actually learn something about learning itself and how different treatments might affect the mouse (or mice) and their performance in the maze. Does the length of the maze matter? Does the type of cheese used matter? Is there any cheese at all? And what about music? Do mice enjoy music? What genre do the listen to? Which genre gets them through the maze?

4. To investigate the effects of music on mice and their ability to run through and complete a maze (sans cheese), we very carefully selected 120 mice. The total number of mice was determined by Keeping in mind that we wanted to reduce the effects of any extraneous variables. we made it a point to select thirty mice from each of the main lab mice varieties: black, brown, cream, and white. We also knew that we were going to use five music genres: bluegrass, classical, jazz, pop, and rap. Thus our minimum number of mice were twenty, short of the thirty required for study validity and short of the desired number of observations needed for the study. the fact that we also wanted to minimize the variable of sex fostered the decision to randomly select three males and three females of each color of mice. Thus, through a random but structured system, we gathered and ordered 120 mice, three of each sex of each color per music genre. This can be seen in the starburst chart to the left (along with their eventual maze-time improvements), and on the next few slides in the related data tables. Our methodology was simple. First, we run the mice through a maze. Second, we have the mice listen to a specific genre of music for one hour. Then, the mice run through the maze again. We repeat the process one hour of music and then maze until five trials are complete. Each time, including the initial run, the time is recorded in seconds.

9. As we look at the genres more closely, taking an interest in the color of the mice and the sex, we can examine the averages of the three mice in each specific category: music genre / mice color / sex. In this examination, as shown in the side-by-side column chart above, only one category reaches the 70% mark: Female brown mice listening to pop music. Looking a little further down the scale, we see that the female mice topped 50% eight times, twice in each music genre with only classical music not making the mark. Male mice only crossed fifty percent once in the jazz and rap genres and twice in pop. Dropping the mark yet again, to 30%, we see females reaching an average 30% improvement in maze run-time in 15 out of 20 possibilities. Males exhibit a maze run-time improvement of over 30% only 12 out of 20 opportunities. Analyzing the data according to the side-by-side Column chart further would suggest that female Mice made significantly higher gains from listening to music than male mice by approximately 20%. Pop music would seem to be the most effective genre for both sexes, followed about equally by bluegrass and rap and then jazz by female mice, and followed about equally by classical, rap, and blugrass by male mice. Jazz seems to produce the least run-time improvement for male mice while classical appears to produce the least run-time improvement for female mice.

10. Eliminating the color of the mice for a closer look at the response to each genre of music according to sex. We aggregate the averages for each music genre to generate a single but representative value. The top chart examines the run-time improvement by music genre by sex. The bottom chart examines the run-time improvement by sex by music genre. in the bar charts to the left, and as suggested by the previous column chart, we see clearly that the pop music genre produces the greatest time decrease in both male and female mice with both sexes exhibiting over a 40% decrease in run-time. However, the sexes’ response to the music genres diverge afterward. For female mice, in descending order of run-time improvement, the music genres are Pop, Rap, Bluegrass, Jazz, and classical. For Male mice, in descending order of run-time improvement, the music genres are Pop, Classical, Rap, Bluegrass, and Jazz. It is interesting to note that female run-time improvement is significantly better than male run-time improvement in four of the five music genres—the one exception being classical in which males improve significantly over females. The two-way chart below gives the specific values for the bar charts to the left.

11. To get the truest picture of genre and overall run-time improvement in the mice, regardless of sex or color, we need only to examine the infographic of pie charts to the left. In these pie charts, we see that run-time improvements under 0%--meaning that the mice actually required more time to complete the maze than required before the experiment is coded in black. Improvements of 0% % are coded in Yellow. Improvements of 25% % are coded in brown. Improvements of 50% % are coded in blue. And Improvements of 75% and over are coded in green. In this examination, the jazz pie chart stands out due to the proportion in black representing the mice that took longer to solve the maze than before the experiment started. It would be easy to mistake, according to the pie charts, that Rap has a more positive influence on run-time improvement than the other genres due to the fact that the blue 50 – 74.99% wedge is larger than in any other pie chart; however, the rap pie also contains the second largest black wedge. Pop, on the other hand, has a blue wedge that is about halve the pie, has no black wedge, and is the only pie to contain a green wedge which represents the only mice exhibiting a run-time improvement greater than 75% (77.16%).

12. Data supports a conclusion that the pop music genre has the greatest positive influence on the improvement of run-time of mice through a maze. This is interesting in the fact that pop is diminutive form of popular. Popular music is so called because it is the widest listened to genre. The Classical and bluegrass genres indicated positive influences on mice run-time, but they had the least positive influence according to the data. These two genres of music are not very popular amongst music listeners, and it appears a correspondence among mice. The rap genre is often seen as a young person genre though it has been around for around forty years. But it is also seen as a polarizing genre of music. Again, this seems to correlate with the data. It would also appear, according to the data, that female mice exhibited higher run-time improvement gains from music being played in between maze runs. The mouse with the 77.16% run-time improvement was a female brown mouse listening to pop music. However, there are challenges to the research. The research sample is small. It would be better to reproduce the experiment with a larger sample, at least fifty mice of each sex of each color in each category instead of three. Another concern is that of music genre. bluegrass is not a dominant music genre. Classical and jazz are not as popular as they once were. Pop and rap are appropriate as dominate music genres, but country might have been a better option than bluegrass and could have influenced the outcome. Also, the experiment did not use a control group. The control group would help to rule out the simple improvement of the mice learning the maze and help reduce the influence of other variables such as sex, color, and age, which was not commented on in this study.