Shaping Day 1

Last week, Princess Fi-B had her very first day of Shaping! It was an exciting day for both myself and my partner, EP. Our goal was for Fi-B to form an association between the bar and the presentation of food. Our training plan for the day was to reinforce Fi-B each time she was on the right side of the operant box near the food hopper. We also reinforced her when she reared up above the bar.

Fortunately, she remembered her magazine training and responded to the sound of the hopper delivering food. This training session began at 3:35 pm. Although there were many periods of grooming and sniffing and exploring, she still continued to respond to the sound of the hopper. Within a few short minutes of being in the box, she learned that rearing up over the lever equaled a reward. Additionally, she recognized that being around the lever equaled a reward. EP and I had a proud parent moment when she found the lever! We were so ecstatic because she pressed the lever 8 consecutive times within less than 30 seconds. Here, she was associating pushing the lever with a reinforcement. At the end of the 30 minute training session, Fi-B had pushed the bar 47 times for 66 total rewards. I could not be more pleased with her progress!

For our next training session, we will continue shaping Fi-B by strengthening the association between the bar and the delivery of food.

Magazine Training

To magazine train Princess Fi-B, she needed to find the food hopper. Then, she had to associate the sound of the hopper with the presentation of a food pellet. We began this by consistently reinforcing her each time she was near the hopper. Once she found it, we reinforced her each time she took her head out of the food hopper.

We were assisted by our TA Madeline and began this session at 3:02 pm. At first, Fi-B was a very curious rat. She thoroughly explored every corner of the operant box before making her way to the food hopper. She also reared up quite a bit along the sides of the box. There were many periods of grooming and sniffing around as well. I expected all of these things to happen based on what I learned from completing the Sniffy program. Princess Fi-B had quite a few funny moments. My favorite was when she would try to stick her head into the hopper to grab the food held in the chamber. Her body would twist and turn in every direction trying to reach it. By the end of the 30 minute training session, Princess Fi-B seemed to catch on to the idea.

We will begin shaping Fi-B during our next training session.

Sniffy, the Virtual Rat

To learn the basics of magazine training and shaping, we used the computer program, Sniffy. First, I had to magazine train the virtual rat. The rat is magazine trained when there is an association between the sound of the magazine (where the food pellets are distributed from) and the distribution of food in the hopper. Here, the primary reinforcer is the presentation of food. During magazine training, I rewarded him each time he was near the hopper. This also introduced a "secondary reinforcer," the sound the hopper makes when presenting food. It took approximately 30 minutes for Sniffy to fully associate the sound with the presentation of food in the hopper.

(Above is the graph from my magazine training of Sniffy.)

After Sniffy was magazine trained, I began shaping him to push the lever above the hopper. By pushing the lever, food was presented to Sniffy. This process took many steps as Sniffy cannot immediately learn this behavior. I gradually trained him to stay in the back corner by reinforcing him when he was in the correct area. Then, I started reinforcing him each time he reared up near the bar. Eventually, Sniffy pressed the bar, though it took about an hour for this particular behavior to be learned.

(This is a snippet of the cumulative record for shaping Sniffy.)

The next step was to put Sniffy on a reinforcement schedule. I chose a VR5, or variable ratio. Here, Sniffy would need to push the bar on average 5 times in order to receive one reinforcement. At first, he got very frustrated. He would press the bar once, maybe twice, and then check the hopper for food. It was confusing for him in the beginning as he didn't quite understand why there wasn't food in the hopper even though he pushed the bar. Soon after, he learned that he had to push it multiple times to receive a reinforcement. The behavior became more concrete when he associated the sound of the food pellet dropping in the hopper with after pushing the bar x amount of times. He would push the bar until he heard the pellet drop, then eat the pellet and continue the behavior.

(This is a snippet of the cumulative record for the VR5 schedule.)

(This is a snippet of the cumulative record of Sniffy's extinction.)

The virtual rat was very helpful in determining how difficult it may be in shaping a live rat to perform a specific behavior.

First Impressions

Last Wednesday was the first day I met our rat, Princess Fi-B, and I could not be more nervous. One of the most appealing aspects of PY 408 was the fact that we get to train our own rat. However when the official day came, I had a difficult time. When I think of rats, I picture the creepy, black and hideous-looking rodents that you may see scurrying around some witches cupboard. Fortunately, our rats are Long-Evans rats. They are black and white with cute (yes I said cute) pink ears and a pink nose. The first day, I was too scared to hold her, but I was able to pet her. Surprisingly, her fur was silky soft. I left that lab period proud of myself and looking forward to the next time I could visit her.

My partner, EP, and I have been visiting Princess Fi-B for about 20 minutes each day so that she is accustomed to being held by humans. Today was the first day that I held her. She was a bit skittish at first, but that was most likely because she could sense my anticipation. The tail still weirded me out a bit; however, overall she was fairly calm and I enjoyed finally holding her. EP and I had a little photoshoot with her so I've posted a picture below. I'm looking forward to tomorrow as it is the first day we will begin to work with them!