My Final Post

Although training Peaches was a lot of work and took a good amount of time I really did enjoy it.  When her training was finished I had this huge sense of accomplishment, she was so successful with her training reaching FR10 in the fixed ratio schedule of reinforcement and VR10 in the variable ratio schedule of reinforcement.  As she accomplished each level I realized that the reason she was so successful was because of the foundation we created during shaping.  Pryor explains how important shaping is with her rules, but I was really able to see this by training Peaches.  I wasn't just reading about how reinforcements affect an animal's behavior, I was able to see if first hand through Peaches.  By going through this experience I felt that I got a full understanding of what I was learning by being able to relate the information back to examples with Peaches' training.  I also really liked working with a partner, if I had questions I had someone that was there to help me understand the situation.  If Peaches did something crazy I had a person who was there to witness it.  Megan made an awesome partner and trainer, it was a give and take partnership that ultimately led to the successful training of Peaches.

This experience did take a lot of time, but it was more of a benefit to my learning than a negative one.  The most surprising part of this experience was how far Peaches was able to go in both of her reinforcement schedules.  I never imagined that I would be so proud of a little rat!  Even though we had to spend two days on a couple of levels, Peaches never fell behind in her training. She even showed new behaviors towards the end of her VR reinforcement schedule like rolling over and climbing and hanging on the house light of the operant box.  This experience is the best way to really understand what this class is about and shows us the best way to train an animal, not to mention it gives you a great sense of achievement!  I'm going to miss working with Peaches!

Peaches vs. Sniffy

Overall shaping Sniffy took much longer than shaping Peaches, but reinforcing Peaches behavior in comparison to Sniffy took much longer.

Magazine Training:

The difference between magazine training Sniffy and Peaches was the amount of time it took.  Sniffy took a much longer time to magazine train compared to Peaches.  For Sniffy I was never sure if I was reinforcing her behavior at the right time and it took about 45 minutes to fully magazine train her.  It was much easier to see when Peaches' behavior needed to be reinforced in order for her to realize that the magazine sound meant there was a pellet of food in the food hopper.

Shaping differences:

When shaping Sniffy it took me a couple of hours because I wasn't sure if I was doing it the right way.  I had to take baby steps meaning that in the beginning I would reinforce Sniffy when she would rear up against the back wall of the operant box.  Once she was rearing closer to the lever she would get a reinforcement and at times she would press the lever herself.  Soon her bar-sound association grew and she began to realize that if she pressed the lever she would get a pellet of food.  I would have to reinforce at times, but eventually Sniffy was pressing it consistently.  After she was pressing the lever by herself, I just had to wait for her to be fully shaped and that part took the longest time because "fully shaped" for Sniffy was making sure that the bar-sound association and the action strength bars were at the max level.  

For shaping Peaches, it took a two sessions (1 hour total) to fully shape her to press the lever in order for her to be reinforced.  Megan and I didn't have to wait for bars to be at their max level in order to successfully move on to a reinforcement schedule.  We had to figure it out by ourselves and if Peaches wasn't fully shaped than she couldn't move on to the fixed ratio schedule of reinforcement.  It was much easier to see when Peaches was shaped compared to when Sniffy was shaped.  Through Peaches behavior Megan and I could see that she had developed a strong bar-sound association, for Sniffy I had to wait for the bars to reach their max level.

Peaches Cumulative Record for FR5 (Peaches had to press the lever 5 times in order to get a reinforcement)

Strength of each experience:

Training Sniffy really helped in getting an understanding of what to look for in trying to successfully train Peaches, our live rat.  With Sniffy, although it was a computer program, it allowed me to see what works for training and what doesn't.  I knew that taking baby steps was very important, especially when shaping the rat to press the lever to get reinforced.  With Peaches I was able to experience everything that Pryor talks about in her book.  I was able to see how important it was to know her "rules of shaping."  Everything we learned in class from Skinner and Thorndike we were able to adapt to our own rat and see how important reinforcement can be in learning a behavior.

I would recommend continuing to use both Sniffy and the real rat.  Sniffy, although it was a computer program, was able to prepare me to see what training a live rat would be like.  I felt much more prepared by completing the Sniffy program, but it also didn't seem fully realistic which is why I enjoyed training Peaches.  With Peaches I was able to compare and contrast things that I had learned in class and the Pryor readings.

Weight Chart

Here is a weight chart showing how much Peaches weighed on a daily basis and how much she was fed depending on her weight.  Her target weight and explanations for the amount of food provided to her are in bold.

Picture of her actual weight chart:

Extinction

Our Goal:
On October 4, our goal was to extinct the previously reinforced behavior of pressing the lever.

Extinction means that a previously reinforced behavior is never followed by reinforcers, therefore the overall effect is to reduce the frequency of the learned behavior.

Procedure:
The extinction session started at 8:47 A.M and lasted 30 minutes.  Peaches weighed 210.4 grams, 2.4 grams below her target weight.  She pressed the lever a total of 314 times and received 0 reinforcements.

Results:

Within the first minute of the session Peaches pressed the lever 39 times meaning she experienced an extinction burst, an immediate effect of extinction which entails an abrupt increase in behavior.  Megan and I counted the number of times Peaches' pressed the lever every 5 minutes of the 30 minute session.  After 10 minutes and 165 lever presses, Peaches began climbing the operant box and hanging on to the house light.  After 15 minutes, Peaches rolled over, a behavior she had shown in previous VR sessions.  By the end of the session, Peaches would walk past the lever and not press it.

Peaches During Extinction

 (This video displays Peaches continuously pressing the lever, pausing to see if a reinforcement has appeared then continuing to press the lever again.  When she sees that no reinforcement appears she presses the lever more vigorously.)

Peaches Climbing the Box 

(This video shows Peaches climbing the wall of the operant box and hanging onto the house light, which is placed above the food hopper.  You can see Peaches even try to climb on the ceiling of the operant box, but she reaches too far and falls.)

Extinction Graph

(This graph shows how many times Peaches pressed the lever every 5 minutes during the session.  It starts at a high number, decreasing, increasing and gradually decreasing in the second half of the session.)

Cumulative Record of Extinction

(From this picture you can see the extinction burst Peaches experienced at the beginning of the session)

Discussion:

Through out the session, Megan and I measured the number of times Peaches pressed the lever every 5 minutes of the 30 minute session.  As the session went on, Peaches gradually began to press the lever less frequently.  Therefore, the extinction session was successful.  It might have been more successful if we had continued extinction for a second day and gotten to the point where Peaches was pressing the lever no more than 5 times every minute.

VR7 and VR10

Our Goal:
On October 2, our goal was to put Peaches on the VR7 reinforcement schedule.  On October 3, our goal was to put Peaches on the VR10 reinforcement schedule.

In a variable ratio schedule of reinforcement, instead of providing a reinforcer when a behavior has occurred a fixed number of times, it makes it possible to vary the requirement around some average.  For example, instead of reinforcing every fifth lever press, it might reinforce after the second, the eighth, the sixth, the forth, or so on.

Procedure:
On October 2, the session started at 8:47 A.M and lasted 25 minutes and 8 seconds.  Peaches pressed the lever 651 times and she received 93 reinforcements.  She weighed 216.8 grams, 4.8 grams above her target weight.

On October 3, the VR10 session started at 8:43 A.M and lasted 30 minutes.  Peaches pressed the lever 893 times and received 89 reinforcements.  She weighed 216 grams, 4 grams above her target weight.  

Results:
In the VR7 session, Peaches went into the operant box she headed straight to the food hopper, she then moved to the lever.  She pressed the lever rapidly and continued pressing it till she heard the magazine sound.  In between long series of presses she would stop and look at the food hopper for a reinforcement, then would continue pressing the lever at a rapid pace limiting the number of PRPs (post-reinforcement pauses).  One problem we were still dealing with is having to manually provide reinforcements because the magazine wouldn't do it when it rotated.  Peaches also exhibited a new behavior, rolling over.  She would grab onto the food hopper and twist her body so that she could look up the food hopper where the pellet would drop, then she would roll over so that she was back on her paws.

Peaches Learning VR7 (In this video, you can see Peaches pressing the lever very rapidly then pausing to check the hopper then continuing to press in order to get reinforcement.  You can also see me manually providing a reinforcement to Peaches)

During the VR10 session, Peaches explored the box before heading in the direction of the food hopper and lever.  She experienced very rapid run rates, she would press the lever multiple times if no reinforcement was provided she would press the lever more rapidly until she heard the magazine.  There was an absence of PRPs (post-reinforcement pauses).  Once again, the magazine wouldn't always release pellets therefore we had to manually provide them.

Peaches Learning the VR10 schedule

VR10 Schedule (In this video, you can see Peaches pressing the lever rapidly, checking the hopper then continuing to press the lever at a more rapid rate.  You can also see me having to manually provide Peaches with a reinforcement)

Cumulative Record for VR7

Cumulative Record for VR10

Discussion:

For both sessions, Peaches continued to press the lever until she was reinforced.  Even if there was no reinforcement, she would press the lever at a more rapid rate until she was reinforced.  Peaches progressed very rapidly through this schedule of reinforcement, we never had to spend more than one day on the same level.  Through this schedule, Peaches PRPs began to appear less and less.  It was as if she would get frustrated if she had pressed the lever for a certain number of times and not get reinforced she would press the lever even more rapidly thinking that it would provide a reinforcement faster.  She even showed us a new behavior, rolling over.

Something New...VR3 and VR5

Our Goal:
On September 30, our original goal was to put Peaches on a VR5 reinforcement schedule, but we realized that we needed to put her on a VR3 schedule first in order for her to get use to this new schedule.  On October 1, our goal was to put Peaches on a VR5 reinforcement schedule.

In a variable ratio schedule of reinforcement, instead of providing a reinforcer when a behavior has occurred a fixed number of times, it makes it possible to vary the requirement around some average.  For example, instead of reinforcing every fifth lever press, it might reinforce after the second, the eighth, the sixth, the forth, or so on.  So in a VR5 schedule, reinforcement might occur after one to ten lever presses, but the overall average will be one reinforcement for every five presses.

Procedure:
On September 30, VR5 session started at 8:47 A.M, after we realized the light above the lever was not on we put her on a VR3 schedule so she could get used to it.  The VR3 session started at 9 A.M and lasted 21 minutes.  Peaches pressed the lever 286 times and received 95 reinforcements.  She weighed 217.7 grams, 5.7 grams above her target weight.

On October 1, the VR5 session started at 8:52 A.M and lasted 22 minutes and 17 seconds.  Peaches pressed the lever 496 times and received 99 reinforcements.  She weighed 220 grams, 8 grams above her target weight.

Results:
During the VR3 session, Peaches immediately had a quick rapid run rate, pressing the bar until the magazine was heard.  When she was pressing the lever, she would look up at the light above it and it wasn't on (which is why we switched her from VR5 to VR3).  Megan and I needed her to get used to pressing the lever without having to look at the light above it.  The house light would blink when the magazine went off so after a couple minutes in the operant box she began to focus on that instead.  She continued to have long PRPs (post-reinforcement pauses), just like in the last couple of session on the FR schedule.  Her longest PRP was when we switched her from the VR5 to VR3 schedule, but once she was reinforced she began to continuously press the lever in order to get more reinforcements.

Peaches During VR3

For the VR5 session when she was placed in the operant box, Peaches immediately went to the lever and began pressing it rapidly until she heard the sound of the magazine.  While she was pressing she would place her head on the lever and keep it there for a couple of seconds then begin to press the lever with her paws again.  Megan and I weren't sure why this was happening, but we believe that she might be doing it as a way to apply more pressure to the bar hoping that it would provide a reinforcement.  During the session we ran into a little problem, when Peaches had pressed the lever enough times to get a reinforcement, the magazine sound would go off but no food pellet would appear.  When Megan and I realized this, we began to listen to the "ping" of the food pellet and if we didn't hear it we would have to manually turn the magazine in order to reinforce Peaches.  This could have been an issue because the sound of the magazine and the food pellet dropping weren't happening at the same time, which is what Peaches was used to.  It ended up not effecting Peaches, because even after the reinforcement was in the food hopper she continued to press the lever.  Another thing Peaches was doing today was pressing the lever twice and then would go to the food hopper to see if there was a reinforcement waiting for her.  If there wasn't a reinforcement there, Peaches would immediately go back to the lever and begin pressing it until she heard the magazine.  Megan and I thought this might have something to do with Dr. Trench using her for an example on September 30th for one of her classes and put her on an FR2 schedule.

Peaches Learning VR5

VR5 schedule (you can see Megan having to manually provide Peaches with a reinforcement)

Cumulative Record for VR3

Cumulative Record for VR5

Discussion:
Both days of training were successful.  Although we ran into a few issues, once we realized that the light above the lever that would flash on the FR schedule wasn't working we moved her from the VR5 schedule to the VR3 schedule so she could get used to it.  Today she didn't even look at the light above the lever, she focused on the house light that would flash when she was reinforced.  For the VR3 schedule she seemed to take much longer PRPs compared to when she was on VR5, but that could be due to the fact that she was getting used to the new schedule.  Even with the issues we faced, Peaches seemed to be able to adjust to the variable ratio schedule of reinforcement.

FR10 (Graphs of presses/reinforcements per FR session)

Our Goal:
Today, our goal was to put Peaches on a FR10 schedule of reinforcement. (This is also her last day of fixed ratio schedule of reinforcement before we move her to variable schedule of reinforcement.)

A fixed ratio schedule is a reinforcement schedule in which a behavior is reinforced when it occurs a fixed number of times.  Therefore, Peaches has to press the lever at least 10 times before receiving a reinforcement.

Procedure:
The session started at 8:38 A.M and lasted 30 minutes.  This was the longest session so far in Peaches training.  Peaches pressed the lever 717 times and received 72 reinforcements.  She weighed 213.5 grams, 1.5 grams above her target weight.

Results:

Peaches successfully learned the FR10 schedule of reinforcement. Peaches had very rapid run rates, which is the time between the end of the last post-reinforcement pause and a reinforcement.  In her post-reinforcement pauses, which were longer compared to the previous sessions, she was rearing all over the box.  She would jump and try and climb out of the box because it was taking so long for her to get a reinforcement.  Peaches would go under and on top of the lever to see if that would give her a reinforcement faster.  Megan and I could see this desperation of having to get a reinforcement in her behavior more today than the previous sessions.

Peaches Trying to Get Out of Box

Peaches during FR10 schedule

(you can see her rearing around the box and how quickly she presses the lever in order to reach the reinforcement rate)

Cumulative Record for FR10

Discussion:

Peaches was more active during the entire training session, but during her run rates she was consistently pressing the lever in order to get a reinforcement.  Watching Peaches trying to get 10 lever presses was difficult for Megan and I because we didn't want Peaches to think that we didn't love her or want to reward her, but when we realized that we can't portray how we feel onto our rat. 

The fixed ratio schedule of reinforcement is complete so next week we move on to a variable schedule of reinforcement to see how Peaches will do on a different reinforcement schedule.  Peaches did incredibly well today!  Good Job Peaches!

Graph of Number of Presses per Training Session (FR Schedule)

Graph of Number of Reinforcements per Training Session (FR Schedule)