Learned Behaviors
Prologue
Sango-sama
Draft Version: October 21, 2002
Author's note: How many people can I irritate by continuing to post teasers...and not actually continue the fics I've started... Frankly, I don't want to know. I really have started a lot of writing on several pieces...I just haven't been satisfied with it. So please give me a little time! ^_^ I also think this premise may have been used before, but I couldn't locate it, so I'm sorry I can't credit anyone who came in with this idea before...if someone did. ^_^; Curse my shoddy memory!
Other Announcements: 1) I run the Sango/Miroku shrine, Hits and Near Kisses at http://www.catwho.net/sango/
I am always looking for more additions in the fan art and fan fiction sections. If you write here for the pairing (doesn't have to be exclusively them, but they must have a major role), I'd greatly appreciate if you could contribute!
2) I've also set up a group that will give fan fiction awards. We will vote on awards to be given out, but you must be part of the group in order to vote or nominate fics. http://groups.yahoo.com/group/iyfanguild
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Textbook information in italics
*****
Kagome sighed as she lazily flipped the page of her Biology Textbook, half-lidded eyes regarding the blurry words on the page with growing indifference. Science wasn't nearly as bad as Math...but she'd rather take history any day of the week. With as much as she stayed here in the Warring States period, she could probably tell her teacher a thing or two...
Her head was propped up on one hand and the textbook balanced in the other as she lay out on her open sleeping bag. It was the early hours of the morning and Kagome was trying desperately to keep up with her studies and so here she was half-awake with her nose crammed into one of the heavier textbooks in her bag. The sun had just barely risen over the horizon, giving her just enough light to read the kanji.
...he experimented to see if some sort of outside stimulus could produce the same result in the dog. He started by ringing a bell at the same time he served food to the animal. After a while he would ring the bell without serving any food to the dog. When it heard a bell ring, the dog would produce saliva, even when no food was presented to it. Pavlov concluded that this was a learned response. It was, therefore, a conditioned response. If the bell was rung too often without the production of food, the dog would stop salivating...
'Food,' her mind whispered, bowing to the power of suggestion...or perhaps just the loud growling of her stomach. She grimaced, sitting up and pressing a hand over her stomach. 'I just can't study on an empty stomach...'
She mindfully looked around the makeshift camp; if someone else was up they'd probably want some food as well. Sango, Shippou, and Kirara still lie sleeping on the blanket beside her and Miroku was still dozing at the base of the tree Inuyasha had been sleeping in. Inuyasha himself was nowhere to be seen.
'Maybe he's out finding something for breakfast,' she smiled lightly, staring aimlessly out into the thick woods that surrounded the camp. 'That would be nice. Not likely...but nice.'
Sighing, she resigned herself to digging through her pack. 'Ramen...ramen...ramen...candy...bottled water...ramen...' She frowned, sticking her hand down to the bottom of the bag for some elusive item, particularly something that wasn't ramen. But she came up empty-handed. 'I guess ramen will have to do for now...at least we have one Chicken flavored left.'
Only the embers remained of the past night's fire, but it hadn't taken much effort to get enough flame to heat the water. She settled her small kettle over the tongue of flame and waited for the water to boil. The heavy text was hefted onto her lap so she could read quietly until the kettle whistled.
She was still engrossed in her reading when Inuyasha returned.
Looking up quickly to verify that it was him and not some other half demon, she gestured to the kettle. "Can you get that?" Just as quickly, her nose was back in the book.
"In 1903, Pavlov published his findings, giving detailed descriptions of what stimulus produces the strongest and most durable response. Pavlov concluded that animals need to develop conditioned reflexes in order to adapt and survive in the real world, which is always changing..."
He grunted an affirmative, before tugging the kettle from the fire and filling up the styrofoam cup.
Kagome placed a hand out, ready to receive her food only to be jarred out of her reading stupor by a slurping sound.
Her hand still extended she glared at him in shock. "Inuyasha!" she reprimanded loudly, waking the rest of the group. "That was mine!"
His eyes had widened; he bit down on the noodles in his mouth mid-slurp. With guilt marring his amber eyes, he offered her the half-empty cup. "I...I'm sorry..."
"Just..." She forced a deep breath, making her features soften slightly. He did look sorry about it, but she was still irritated. "Just make me another one..."
Pavlov also claimed that his new theory of modifying behavior by conditioned response could be applied to humans...
Kagome stopped, her eyes jumping back to re-read that passage. 'Modifying behavior?'
Her eyebrow lifted, before her ominous glare fell upon her rather gluttonous travel companion. 'If it could be applied to humans, couldn't it also be applied to hanyou?' She was still smirking when Inuyasha apprehensively handed her a new cup of the warm noodles.
He had a sinking feeling that whatever she had in mind would be a helluva lot more trouble than if she would just 'sit' him.