Editing Telegraph key (section)

== Non-telegraphic keys ==
Simple telegraph-like keys were long used to control the flow of electricity in laboratory tests of electrical circuits. Often, these were simple "strap" keys, in which a bend in the key lever provided the key's spring action.

Telegraph-like keys were once used in the study of [[operant conditioning]] with [[pigeon]]s. Starting in the 1940s, initiated by [[B. F. Skinner]] at [[Harvard University]], the keys were mounted vertically behind a small circular hole about the height of a pigeon's beak in the front wall of an [[operant conditioning chamber]]. Electromechanical recording equipment detected the closing of the switch whenever the pigeon pecked the key. Depending on the psychological questions being investigated, keypecks might have resulted in the presentation of food or other stimuli.