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.