Not Quite Love at First Sight

These past few weeks have been interesting, nonetheless, with EP and our talented rat, Fi-B. I mentioned in my first ever blog post that I was hesitant to hold Fi-B. Well that hasn't really changed. I can say that my apprehensions have improved and I am able to hold her for a few, short minutes. The pictures below depict one of our most recent training sessions. The picture on the left shows my rejection of Fi-B's attempt at a kiss. The picture on the right shows her crawling up my shoulder - I wasn't too happy about that one.

Overall, I enjoyed this experience. I felt accomplished to see Fi-B learn the behavior so quickly. I was practically fascinated to see her learn to press the bar almost immediately during FR 1 as I expected this behavior to take at least a week. Additionally, I was impressed with how smart she was. Though EP and I may be a bit biased to our rat, she really is a true star! She probably could have her own tv show on TLC - Fi-B: The Princess Rat.

Our rat seemed to be one of the more well-behaved rats in our class. As the reinforcement schedules increased, she increasingly became more concerned with what was going on outside of the operant box than with actually pressing the bar. Thus, EP and I resorted to placing the front door on the box to hide any distractions.

There were only two aspects of this project that I disliked. One was the food deprivation. I, myself, love food. I constantly snack throughout the day. Fi-B, however, does not have this luxury. She relies on EP and myself for her food. It was almost torturing to see her lunge at the placement of food in her cage. She must have been so hungry! The other aspect that I didn't particularly like was extinction. It was heartbreaking to see her so frustrated. At times she would tap on the front window. I imagined her saying, "get me out of here" or "please reinforce my behavior!" I felt terrible to see her like that. I am glad this part is over. I cannot think of any improvements that can be made to this experience. I can only say that I wish I had gotten closer to my rat.

In conclusion, I do believe I gained quite a bit from this experience. It was great to be able to apply what we learn in class and physically see the results. I look forward to (hopefully) completing another experiment with Fi-B in the future.