"That's what I meant. Look, you punish a guinea pig when it does something wrong, if you're trying to teach it some trick or other; I mean, suppose you want to determine its intelligence, you give it a problem, and if it does the thing wrong it gets a shock, maybe, or a bat on the nose. That stool was punishment. If you hadn't crashed the rocket," he said to Mrs. Full, "it might have given you a reward."
"Maybe some food," said Villa.
"Here's another angle," said Watkins, who obviously knew something about lab work. "They may be trying to give us neuroses. Scientists induce neuroses in all kinds of critters, by punishment and complex problems and—"
"What is that?" asked Villa.
"Neuroses?" Watkins rubbed his chin. "Well, say they want to make an animal nervous, anxious, worried." Villa nodded.
"You mean they might be trying to drive us mad?" said the woman in a high scared voice.
"I doubt it," said Calvin Full.
"They might be," said Watkins.
"Then let's get out of here," said his wife. She went trotting to the wall. "Didn't anyone shove a barrier into this?"
"I forgot," said Full. She gave him a dirty look.