FR-3 and FR-5

Goal (1): To start Shirley on an FR-3 schedule, meaning that after 3 consecutive presses on the bar Shirley would receive a reinforcement.
Goal (2): To start Shirley on an FR-5 schedule, meaning that after 5 consecutive presses on the bar Shirley would receive a reinforcement.

Procedure- An FR schedule is also known as a Fixed Ratio schedule. This means that after a certain number of responses (in this case 3 and 5) the behavior will be reinforced. Today's FR- 3 session started at 2:30 p.m. and lasted 30 minutes. Shirley weighed 215.5 grams (on both days of FR-3) and which is 7.5 grams above her goal weight. Shirley was to press the bar down 3 consecutive times in order to receive her reinforcement. The total training session resulted in 97 food presentations (290 bar presses). The second day of FR-3 resulted in 83 food presentations (250 bar presses).
The FR-5 training session was only one day long and started at 2:30 p.m. as well and lasted 30 minutes. Shirley weighed 216.5 grams and which is 8.5 grams above her goal weight. Shirley was to press the bar down 5 consecutive times in order to receive her reinforcement. The total training session resulted in 53 food presentations (267 bar presses).

Results and Discussion:

On the training day that Shirley was on the FR-3 schedule she was placed in the box and again went directly to the bar and started pressing. She kept pressing the bar down two times and checking the food hopper for a pellet. It took her a little while to catch on to pressing the bar down 3 times in order to receive a pellet, the same way she did for the FR-2 schedule. However, she did catch on faster to pressing three times in a row before checking the hopper than on the previous schedule. Sometimes during this training session she would press the bar down only one time and then leave and roam around the cage for a little while before returning to finish and getting a reward. This was the first time that she had done this. Usually Shirley works hard to get a reward, so this behavior was somewhat unusual for her. Later on into the session, however, Shirley would get a burst of energy and run to the bar and press down as much as she could before getting a reward. Because this behavior was so strange and Shirley was still not pressing three times consecutively, Carolyn and I decided to put her on an FR-3 schedule for a second day to see if her behavior changed. On the second day of FR-3 Shirley is much more engaged with the bar and presses it three times in a row more consistently. Although, she did not press as many times in the second day as the first her behavior was much more normal and she did receive a large amount of pellets. After the second day Carolyn and I decided Shirley would be fine to move on to FR-5.

In FR-5 Shirley went straight to the bar and pressed it multiple times with in the first few minutes of the session. With this schedule Shirley now presses the bar as many times consecutively as she can before receiving a reward. Carolyn and I asked Dr. Trench about this behavior and found out that it was normal for the rats to check the food hopper for their reward in-between presses in the normal schedule.  Had we known this we probably would not have held Shirley back on the FR-2 and FR-3 schedules. On the FR-5 schedule Shirley pressed the bar down over 100 times with in the first five minutes of training. Today she is also starting to show what looks like aggression toward the bar. She presses down vigorously and uses her teeth at some points which is something she has not been doing. I am thinking that this could be a sign of frustration for not being rewarded as frequently as she was in the past schedules.

FR-2 day 1 and 2

Goal:
To place Shirley on a FR-2 schedule. The purpose of this schedule is to have Shirley press the bar two consecutive times before she is rewarded with a chocolate pellet.

Procedure: Day 1
An FR schedule is also known as a Fixed Ratio schedule. This means that after a certain number of responses (in this case 2) the behavior will be reinforced. Todays session started at 2:30 p.m. and lasted 22 minutes. Shirley weighed 217.3 grams which is 9.3 grams above her goal weight. Shirley was to press the bar down two consecutive times in order to receive her reinforcement. I pressed the hand switch one time at the very beginning of the session to remind her that pressing the bar would result in a chocolate pellet. The total training session resulted in 113 food presentations (225 bar presses) not including the initial pellet that I presented to her.
The session on day 2 began at 2:30 p.m. and lasted 25 minutes. Shirley weighed 224.2 grams which is 16.2 grams above her goal weight. Shirley again needed to press the bar two consecutive times in order to receive a reward. There was no need to remind Shirley to press the bar- as soon as she was placed in the box she began to press the bar. This training session resulted in 86 food presentations (171 bar presses).


Results and Discussion:
Shirley was placed in the box on day one and after the first food presentation remembered that she needed to press the bar in order to receive food. She remembered very quickly that she had to press the bar down in order to receive a reward. However, many times she would press the bar down one time and check the hopper for a pellet and then when she realized there was not one she would go back to the bar and press it again, which would result in the presentation of the pellet. Shirley would also hold the bar down after one press and then check the food hopper, which made me wonder if she actually understood that she needed to press the bar down two times. Her routine on the first day would be to press, look in the hopper, press again, and then eat the pellet. Also she would press the bar, then hold it down for a second or two, then check the hopper and go back to the bar when there was nothing in there. It took her a little while to start pressing the bar down two times in a row before checking for pellets, however it was not consistent. She was more intrigued by the bar today and spent more time with it than during the previous days of training, and I was thinking this could be due to the fact that it is not rewarding her every time and therefore she is trying to figure out what is going on. Her behavior today was also a little bit crazy- she was literally jumping at the wall at one point during the session, which looked like she was trying to escape. I was not sure if this was a sign of frustration or if she was beginning to get satiated and therefore this was a sign of boredom (because it was occurring near the end of the session). This session only lasted 22 minutes because she was losing interest with the bar and was beginning to show signs of satiation. She would go to the front left corner and sit or sniff for a few minutes after pressing the bar in the beginning, but now the period of time she was spending in the corner was getting longer. We thought it would be best to quit while we were ahead today.

We decided to place Shirley on a FR-2 schedule again today even though she was rewarded over 60 times yesterday because we were not sure whether or not it was ok if she was not pressing the bar down twice before checking the food hopper. We thought that if she had a little more practice at this schedule then she would pick up on pressing it twice. In fact, she did press it twice before checking the hopper more frequently today. After being placed in the box, Shirley went straight to the bar and started pressing it down. Towards the end of the session she was pressing the bar down three times in a row which was a sign to us that she was ready to move on to an FR-3 schedule the next day. This training day did result in less food presentations, even though the session lasted longer than the previous day. Towards the end of today she was also going back to the front left corner of the box and sitting for long periods of time. After 25 minutes she was not frequently pressing the bar and we thought it would be best to end the session and move on to a new schedule tomorrow.

Shirley sitting in the front left corner of the box far away from the bar. This is her favorite spot to sniff.

Shaping Shirley- Day 3

Goal:
Today's goal is to finish shaping, meaning that Shirley will have made the association between the bar and the food.

Procedure:
Shirley weighed 210.4 grams which is 2.4 grams above her goal weight. We followed the same procedure as the previous days. Today Shirley was placed in the box and reinforced each time she would:

1. Enter the quadrant with the lever

2. then as she would approach the lever

3. come down over the lever

4. as she would turn toward the lever

These were the steps we used to train Shirley throughout this process. With these steps she will eventually learn to press the bar on her own by associating the press with a chocolate reward.

Results and Discussion:
Today we continued shaping Shirley. We were able to move back into our original box today (box 1), and that seems to have really made a difference. Carolyn is the trainer today since I was the trainer yesterday. As soon as we put Shirley in the box Carolyn pressed the hand switch and gave Shirley a few "freebie" pellets to remind her of her reward. As soon as she got the freebie pellets Shirley pressed down on the bar 1 time. She is was far more responsive today and very engaged in the shaping process. Carolyn rewarded Shirley for coming down over the bar and very soon into the session Shirley was pressing the bar down and rewarding herself consistently. After five minutes into the session Carolyn was no longer having to reinforce Shirley, she was completely reinforcing herself. At first Shirley would press down on the bar and hold it down for a few seconds, eventually however, she would press down on the bar quickly and immediately turn toward the hopper for food. We were confident that Shirley was shaped and ready to move onto the next schedule of reinforcement after she reinforced herself over 60 times 17 minutes into the session. It seems today that Shirley's lack of interest in training was due to being in a different box. Today Shirley was much more active and displayed behaviors that were similar to the first day of training. I think Shirley is a fast learner and picked up on the shaping procedures easily. Shirley was trained to press the bar by being reinforced for certain behaviors including, being in the same quadrant as the bar, then being close to the bar, then turning toward the bar when leaving the food hopper, coming down over the bar after rearing, and lastly touching the bar. After reinforcing her for these particular behaviors she associated pressing down on the bar to giving her chocolate. I believe that Shirley would have been shaped in less than three days had we not switched boxes on the second day. Overall, this was a similar process to what was discussed in class. We were going to have to follow certain "baby" steps and reinforce each one of them to get . We reinforced approximations of the desired behavior (pressing) which was then repeated by Shirley in order to receive the reinforcement. We were able to mold Shirley's behavior and have her do something that would not have been found in nature.

Shirley pressing the lever on her own! 

Shaping Shirley- Day 2

Goal:

To finish shaping Shirley and to have her pressing the bar on her own more than 60 times during the 30 minute training session.

Procedure: Shirley weighed 205.0 grams which is 3 grams below her goal weight. Today Shirley was placed in the box and reinforced. Each time she would:

1. Enter the quadrant with the lever
2. then as she would approach the lever
3. come down over the lever
4. as she would turn toward the lever

These were the steps we used to train Shirley throughout this process. With these steps she will eventually learn to press the bar on her own by associating the press with a chocolate reward.

Shirley turning toward the lever would receive a reinforcement for following one of the steps

Results and Discussion: 

Today was our second day of shaping Shirley to press the bar for a reward. I was in charge of controlling her rewards with the hand switch today since Carolyn handled it the first day. We decided that it was best to take turns shaping would both get the full experience. Today we placed her in box 4 instead of box 1 because that box was already in use by another group. Shirley was immediately placed in the box and I pressed the hand switch to remind her that she receives rewards in the magazine tray as well as being rewarded for correct behavior. After I released the pellet she sniffed around the box and eventually made her way to the magazine to eat the pellet. She did not seem to be as interested in the chocolate as she was the other day. I assumed that she was just being slower because there had been a day in between our original training session and today. Shirley was very disengaged during the shaping process today and was more interested in sniffing the cage and rearing up around the corners than receiving pellets. It was a struggle to get her to come down over the bar which she had been doing rather frequently the first day. Because she was not as active as the first day Carolyn and I decided it was best to back track on some of the shaping skills from the previous day. I reinforced her moving into the quadrant of the cage with the bar in it, the same as the first day. I eventually got her to rear up over the bar and was able to reinforce her coming down over the bar. However, throughout the entire training session Shirley did not make much progress. She did press the bar when she got in the cage but after the first few times she was no longer pressing the bar, which made me think that her pressing was just by random chance and not actual learning. At first Carolyn and I questioned Shirley's abilities but then decided that the box might be the problem. The session lasted 30 minutes and Shirley reinforced herself only 3 times the entire session and I reinforced her 57 times. Even though Shirley had received 60 reinforcements during this training session we decided it was best that she continue shaping for another day at least because she made such little progress during this session. It seems that she has not yet made the association between pressing the bar down and receiving a reward.

Shaping Shirley- Day 1

Goal:
To begin to shape (reinforcement of successive approximations of a desired behavior) Shirley to press the bar in the cage down in order to receive a reward from the magazine.

Procedure:
Carolyn and I began shaping Shirley the same day that we were magazine training her. Because Shirley caught on to magazine training so quickly there were a few minutes left in the session for Dr. Trench to help us begin to shape as well. Shaping began about half way through the training session (between 2:40 p.m. and 2:45 p.m.) and lasted until the end of the session at 2:51 p.m. Carolyn was still in charge of the hand switch and reinforcements. Carolyn started to reward Shirley every time she got near the bar, then every time she turned left from the magazine tray, and eventually every time she would come down over the bar after rearing up to check out the light.

Results:
We were not able to fully shape Shirley today due to lack of time. Every time Carolyn would press the hand switch Shirley would check for her reward but she was showing very few signs of returning to the  bar in order to receive another reward.

Discussion:
Because Shirley was not immediately returning to the bar or area near the bar after receiving her reinforcement indicated that she was not fully associating the bar with the reward. We were only able to shape Shirley for about 5 to 10 minutes which is no where near enough time to shape completely. She did press the bar on her own 21 times, but because it seemed like random pressing and we could not determine that to be due to her understanding the association we did not consider her fully shaped, but to be on the right track. She did seem to be learning easily and I think that if we would have been able to continue the session for a while longer she may have been even closer to being completely shaped.

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. 

Sniffy the Virtual Rat

Sniffy is a virtual rat that we are supposed to magazine train and shape to bar press before we start training our live rat, Shirley. Magazine training Sniffy did not take as long as I thought it would and made things a lot clearer in my mind about what magazine training our live rat would actually look like.  Magazine training sniffy was very easy and took only about fifteen or twenty minutes to get him to associate the sound of the bar with receiving the pellets. Shaping Sniffy to press the bar was more difficult and took longer than it did to magazine train him. Sniffy progressed fairly quickly at first during shaping. He learned to rear and repeated that action many times and seemed to pick up the fact that he needed to press the lever to receive food fairly easily. It was not until the action bar on the graph and the sound association bar reached over a quarter of the way that it became frustrating. Sniffy seemed to have bar pressing understood (pushing the bar in rapid succession 8- 10 times) according to the book. However, it took him a while to actually push past the last step and reach the max. Every time Sniffy would rear back and not press the bar his bars on the graph would decrease slightly. However, his rearing back occasionally did not seem unnatural or due to the fact that he was not trained fully like the program was telling me. It took a good amount of time (probably closer to 45 minutes or and hour) to actually get Sniffy to the maximum potential on the bar graph so that the program determined him fully trained.

After training Sniffy, I do feel more prepared now to train Shirley. I think that training Sniffy virtually gave me a more concrete understanding of what was actually going to be happening in the box. When just discussing the process in class it I had an unclear picture and imagined it being much more complicated than it actually is. I found the Sniffy very helpful for me considering I am a visual learner and having examples I can see and practice with help me understand better and achieve my goals better as well.

I put Sniffy on a Fixed interval schedule (FI-10) after shaping him. Sniffy seemed to get somewhat frustrated at first when the pellet would not be given to him when he pressed the bar. When he did not get a pellet but wanted one he would press the bar rapidly and ferociously a few times before giving up.  Before, during shaping, Sniffy would press the bar in succession but not with so much aggression towards the lever. After a few minutes he figured out that if he waited long enough he would eventually receive a pellet.

Sniffy On FI-10

Bar Press Graph