Magazine Training Shirley

Goal:

To magazine train our rat, meaning, associating the sound of the lever and the light to a reward in the magazine tray. Shirley should check the magazine tray every time she hears the lever and sees the light flash when I press the hand switch; if she does this then she is properly trained.

Procedure:

Before we began magazine training we food deprived Shirley to approximately 80% of her original body weight. Her target weight was 208 grams and Shirley weighed in at 206.7 grams on September 17th, which was her first day of training. We deprived her of food so that she would be motivated for food rewards during training. Two days before we trained we introduced the chocolate pellets into her diet so that she would eat them from the magazine when she was rewarded. On the first day of training, Dr. Trench helped my partner (Carolyn) and I magazine train Shirley. We started the training session at 2:30 p.m. and ended after 20 minutes and 45 seconds. Carolyn was in charge of the hand switch today and delivered the sugar pellets to Shirley. When Shirley was first placed in the box Carolyn delivered a sugar pellet and waited for her to go to the magazine tray and eat it. Eventually Shirley walked over to the tray and ate the food, as soon as she left Carolyn delivered another pellet. This continued for a few minutes but Shirley picked up on the association very quickly. It only took between 10-15 minutes for Shirley to associate the sound of the lever and the light to the reward. After this we began shaping her to press the bar. Shirley began to press the bar during magazine training- she pressed the bar 21 times during the session and Carolyn pressed the hand switch 46 times during the entire session. Shirley received 67 reinforcements during the 21 minutes and 45 seconds.

Results:

At first when Carolyn would press the switch when Shirley was on the opposite corner of the cage she would not respond to the magazine noise. It did not take long, however, for Shirley to come quickly to the magazine tray after Carolyn pressed the hand switch, no matter where she was in the cage.

Discussion:

We decided that Shirley was magazine trained when she would come over to the magazine tray after Carolyn pressed the hand switch each time. Also we decided that Shirley was magazine trained when she began to press the bar on her own that day and respond to the sound and the light by checking for a reward. We also noted that Shirley was not responding to the signals of the hand switch at random, because she would check the magazine tray every time Carolyn would press the hand switch. At the very beginning of magazine training, Shirley did not check the magazine tray frequently. After she made the connection, though, her behavior changed and she would become more eager and hurry to the tray. We noticed that Shirley was a very active rat. She would rear up in the middle of the cage to check out the ceiling she would also rear up in every corner and near the light in the cage to get a sense of her surroundings. Shirley was a fast learner and was very engaged in what was happening. I believe that magazine training her was so quick because she was so active and curious about what was happening and how she got more food. After she was rewarded with several pellets she began to stick her head inside of the magazine and twist her body around to try and push herself inside to see if she could get more food. Shirley was eager to receive a chocolate pellet and was trying anything she could to make that happen. Shirley's magazine training was similar to the class discussion. We went through all of the steps of conditioning her to associate the sound and light (stimuli/ secondary reinforcer) to the chocolate pellet (primary reinforcer).

 

The chocolate pellets Shirley received after she learned to associate the sound of the lever and the light to the food. 

The food hopper pictured above is where the chocolate pellets were released to.