Goodbye for now...

    Logan and I returned today to hang out with Despereaux while we worked on our blogs and chatted about our experience with training. Since Des had done such a great job over the last days of training, I brought her a treat- Fruit Loops! At first she was hesitant, but quickly realized how yummy they were and ate them right up!
    Training Despereaux over the last few weeks had its ups and downs. There were definitely some days that I did not want to have to watch her push a bar for 30 minutes and other times where I realized how smart of an animal she really is. Overall, I enjoyed this project a lot. It was neat to see how Despereaux learned over time and I became quit attached to her without even realizing it! I really enjoyed working with a live animal rather than virtual programs because it gave be a better sense of how learning works by using a hands on method. I learned so much from manually shaping Despereaux and watching her learn to press the bar multiple times as we increased the schedules. I also enjoyed having the responsibility to take care of her throughout the weeks of the project.
    One aspect of this project I did not enjoy was Sniffy. I did not learn much from the program in comparison to live rat training. It was time consuming and felt more like busy work than a beneficial assignment. In the future I do not think it is worth the money for students to buy the software and complete the trainings using Sniffy.
    One misconception I had going into the project was that my rat would completely comply to everything I wanted her to do and would always be focused and on task. I quickly realized that she was an animal and would learn at her own pace rather than my own. I became frustrated when she was falling behind the other rats and even did extra training sessions to try to catch her up and increase the schedules as far as I could.
    Overall this was one of my favorite assignments I have had in any class at BSC. I learned a lot and enjoyed playing with Despereaux! I am already looking forward to starting the next project of training Des!

Enjoying her treat! 

Wrapping Things Up

Graphical representation of Despereaux's learning based on the different schedule types. 

Despereaux's target weight (90% body weight) was 205g. 

Extinction

Goal: The goal of these two days was to decrease Despereaux's behavior of pressing the bar until it was eventually extinguished. We wanted to get Des back to her behaviors from the first time she was placed in the box. 

Procedure: We used the "extinction" program that did not reward her for any number of bar presses. Despereaux was placed in the box for 30 minutes without any form of reward or reinforcement. 

Observations and Discussion:

     These were the days I looked forward to the least. I already knew how upset Despereaux would become when she was no longer rewarded for the behavior we worked so hard to get her to perform. Like any other day she immediately went to the bar and began pressing. She would press several times and then check the magazine for her reward and then return to the bar to keep pressing. It was honestly really hard to watch her do this because I felt terrible that she was not receiving any kind of reward and it was difficult to see her frustration. In the first 5 minutes she pressed the bar 76 times. In the next 5 minutes she decreased to 68 presses and continued to decrease to 29 and then 18 presses over 5 minute intervals. For the time period of 20-25 minutes she had 69 presses and 44 in the last 5 minutes of training. There were signs of an extinction burst because she was very spastic and would press the bar 10+ times in a row as if angry. 

Monday (10/7)

     We continued extinction on Tuesday because she was not successful on Monday, but had similar results. She showed an immediate extinction burst in the first 5 minutes with 55 presses. In the 5-10 minute interval she had 0 presses, so we thought she was catching on, but she ended up having a total of 88 presses by the end of the 30 minute session. In between bar presses she would bathe more frequently and sniffed in the left corner a lot. Her presses were also more deliberate and she really emphasized them by pressing very hard.
     I think another day or two of extinction would have completely gotten rid of her bar pressing behavior, but she definitely made improvements from Day 1 to Day 2. 

Tuesday (10/8)

The dark line is Day1 (Monday) and the light line is Day 2 (Tuesday). 

Differences Between Despereaux and Sniffy

     Both Despereaux and Sniffy had several things in common even though one was alive and the other was virtual. Des and Sniffy were both highly capable of learning and responded similarly to the various schedules. Magazine training and shaping were different in each, but the FR schedules were quit similar. Extinction was also a similar experience, although it did not take as long for Sniffy's behavior to become extinct as it did for Despereaux.

    Magazine training was much easier in the Sniffy program than with Despereaux. I do not know if it was just because of the box problems we had in the beginning, but Des took several days of training to even realize the association of the sound/light with food in the magazine.

     I found it much harder to shape Despereaux than Sniffy. Sniffy did not get as distracted or take up so much time with grooming as Des did, and it was much more difficult to keep Despereaux on task. Sniffy was also set to do each step in succession, but with Des she sometimes had to go backwards a little before moving forward.

    From a learning standpoint, I gained the most knowledge from Despereaux. It was much easier for me to see Pryor and Chance's ideas of learning put to use in a live animal than a computer program. It was also more clear that distractions in the room could alter Despereaux's performance, and that could not be seen in Sniffy. I also had a stronger connection to Despereaux and really wanted her to succeed each day of training. These feelings were not the same with Sniffy and I was honestly just glad to have that part of the project done as early as possible.

    I personally do not think I gained much knowledge from Sniffy and would not recommend the program for future classes. It was very time consuming and did not add much of anything to my training of Despereaux. I found the program repetitive and frustrating because it was not as hands on as training a live rat.

Above is a comparison of the FR5 schedule for Sniffy (left) and Des (right). As you can see, both are similar in that they were rewarded at similar intervals over time. 

FR10 Schedule

Goal: The goal was for Despereaux to press the bar ten times to receive one reward. 

Procedure: We used the "FR10" program. 

Observations and Discussion: 

     After yesterday's success I was excited to move on to the FR10 schedule. I knew that this would be the last training day before extinction of the behavior, so I was hoping Despereaux would continue to show progress in her learning. Overall she performed well, with 392 bar presses, but she seemed to be more distracted than she had been in previous days. As seen on the cumulative record, she had a few times where she did not press the bar for several minutes. During these times she would groom, sniff, or just sit in the corner of the box. 

     This FR10 schedule was the furthest we were able to train her with the time constraints. Over the course of the training Despereaux made vast improvements in the number of times she would press the bar. On FR1 she only had an average of 45 bar presses per 30 minute session, and in FR10 she had almost 400! She also decreased grooming and other distracting behaviors as time went on.

Sunday (10/6)

FR7 Schedule

Goal: The goal was for Despereaux to press the bar 7 times to receive 1 reward. 

Procedure: We used the "FR7" program. 

Observations and Discussion:

     Despereaux blew me away today with her responsiveness to the FR7 schedule. She had her most successful day to date and pushed the bar a total of 392 times during the session! Des stayed on task for the entire session and only had a few moments of grooming and sniffing. For the most part she pressed the bar continuously until she heard the buzz of the machine and at that point would dart to the magazine and then return right back to the bar.

Saturday (10/5)

FR5 Schedule

Goal: The goal of this session was to have Despereaux press the bar five times to receive one reward.

Procedure:We used the "FR5" program. 

Observations and Discussion:

     As you can see from the cumulative record, Despereaux did really well with the FR5 schedule! She seems to understand that pressing the bar many times results in a reward and appears to be willing to press it as many times as it takes. She continues to use her head and paws to push the bar. Despereaux also will press the bar several times, check the magazine, and then continue pushing until she hears the buzz of the machine. Her grooming is at a minimum and she rarely sits in the left corner sniffing anymore.

Friday (10/4)