Sniffy Pro - The Virtual Rat is a computer software program as well as a laboratory textbook developed to serve as an alternative teaching tool to be used in introductory courses on the Experimental Analysis of Behavior, especially the laboratory activities that usually employ rats as experimental subjects and Skinner boxes as apparatuses. The main goal of this paper was to analyze Sniffy Pro regarding its adequacy as a learning resource. According to the authors of Sniffy Pro, this software would be attractive because it applies technology to a teaching setting, by its low cost, by its ease of use and by the time it saves. However, the present analysis of Sniffy Pro's conception, content, structure, as well as ethical issues, allows one to conclude that its use as a teaching tool is likely to impair the student's learning.
Sniffy Pro; laboratory activities; learnig resource