Getting Despereaux in "Shape"

     Goal: After spending an additional day making sure Despereaux knew the association between the light/sound and her reinforcement being delivered in the magazine (with the help of Dr. Trench), Logan and I set off to shape her to press the bar to deliver the reinforcement herself.


     Procedure: We used the program "Manual Shape" which allowed us control of dispensing pellets using a hand switch. Before we began we outlined a few small steps that we would reinforce before she ultimately pressed the bar. Keeping Pryor's ideas at heart, we decided to reinforce as follows:

                         1. Des was in the back right corner of the box.

                         2. Des reared up in the back right corner of the box. 

                         3. Des put her nose above the bar.

                         4. Des touched the bar with one paw.

                         5. Des touched the bar with two paws.

                         6. Des pushed the bar.
    We also decided that no matter what, we needed to train Despereaux in the same box every day. It was evident that she became much more distracted by the scents in the other box than her original one and her distraction was compromising her learning.


     Observations and Discussion: Overall, shaping Despereaux took longer than I expected due to operant box problems and her frequently becoming distracted or uninterested. We manually shaped Despereaux for a total of 4 days (30 minutes each day) before we felt confident in placing her on the Fixed Ratio 1 (FR1) schedule. Shaping a live rat was different that what I thought it would be after reading the text. I was not expected Des to be so unfocused and distracted and did not think grooming would be as frequent as it was. It helped to have the steps outlined in advance because in the moment it is hard to distinguish when exactly to reinforce and when to move to the next step.

    On the first day of shaping (9/23), we focused on the first three steps listed above and by the end of the training session Despereaux was doing a fairly good job of placing her nose above the bar. She received 65 reinforcements for her behaviors over a 30min time period and pressed the bar 1 time. It appeared that she was beginning to learn at this point! 

   

Monday (9/23)

     On the second day of shaping, Despereaux was really beginning to catch on. We began the session by reinforcing her each time she placed her nose above the bar. After several minutes she was doing really well with this, so we began shaping her for rearing up over the bar. This was a little harder for her to catch on to, but she eventually did. We ended the session with her placing a paw on the bar without actually pressing it. Although she seemed to do better today, her behavior was still sporadic and she continued to groom quit a lot in between reinforcements. 

Tuesday (9/24)

     Training continued on Wednesday with Logan and I optimistic with Despereaux continuing on to a consistent FR1 schedule. I was beginning to become discouraged because so many other groups were ahead of us and I felt like Des was not learning as quickly as the other rats. However, Despereaux showed some improvements throughout the session. Although she still became distracted by smelling and grooming, she consistently placed her head above the bar and placed her paws on the bar most of the time. She even pressed the bar once!!

Wednesday (9/25)

      On Thursday, Despereaux had her most successful day yet! She recognizes that reinforcements occur when she is near the bar and when she presses it. We still had to do some shaping for the first 10 minutes of the session, but by the end she was pressing the bar. Logan and I got a kick out of her because she tries to do the least amount of work to get her reward and would barely touch the bar with her paw before scurrying to the magazine to look for her pellet. By the end of the session she had 18 bar presses- her largest number to date! I am really optimistic about the rest of training now.

Thursday (9/26)

   

Sniffy- Magazine Training and Shaping

      Before beginning actual training with Despereaux, I completed virtual rat training using the Sniffy Lite software program. I spent time magazine training Sniffy and getting her to form the association between the light/sound in the box and food being delivered into the magazine. Once Sniffy knew where and when the pellet was dispensed I began to shape her to press the bar. To do this I would reinforce her first when she was in the back of the box. I then began to reinforce her rearing up in the back and then when she touched the bar. Next I would only reinforce a bar press and eventually she began to learn that a bar press dispensed a pellet. The program then took over from there and I sat back and watched Sniffy learn! It took about 30min for the program to say she was shaped and on a continuous reinforcement schedule. 

A screen shot of Sniffy in her operant box.

The cumulative record from shaping Sniffy. Each dash mark shows a pellet being dispensed. 

Cumulative record of Sniffy on an FR1 schedule.

     Once Sniffy was completing the continuous reinforcement schedule (FR1, seen above) consistently, I reloaded the program and placed her on FR2. I then proceeded to move on to FR3 and FR5 after adequate time and Sniffy had adjusted to the new schedule- about 20 min. As seen in the cumulative records below, Sniffy quickly adjusted to the increase in work for the same amount of reinforcement. 

A screen shot of the Sniffy workstation.

     By completing the training with Sniffy prior to training Despereaux, I gained more confidence and knowledge of how magazine training and shaping occur. It gave me a better insight to the importance of the first several training sessions and helped in determining the small steps to use while training Despereaux. Using a schedule rather than manually shaping was a lot easier and smoother because Sniffy immediately received the reinforcement without my added reflex time. Sniffy was easily able to adjust and the cumulative records show a consistent pattern of responses. In shaping, Sniffy started out slowly and then increased in responses as she learned, while in a schedule she responded consistently.

     After running several schedules, I placed Sniffy on extinction where she did not receive reinforcement for pressing the bar. The cumulative record below shows how she continued to press the bar, but did not receive a reward. After time, she stopped pressing the bar as often and eventually stopped entirely.

The extinction of bar pressing.

Let the (magazine) training begin!

         Wednesday marked the first day of training for Despereaux! She made it down to her target weight (90% body weight- 205g) and seemed eager to begin learning.

Goal: The goal of these training sessions were to allow Despereaux to acclimate to the new environment of the conditioning box and to become familiar with the magazine where she will receive her rewards (pellets).  Magazine training is a type of classical conditioning where the association between the light and sound in the box corresponds with receiving a pellet in the magazine.

 


Procedure: We placed Despereaux in the box and allowed her time to explore. After a few minutes we gave her one pellet in the magazine using a manual clicker. Once she ate it we gave her another immediately when she pulled her head out of the magazine. We continued to reinforce her with a pellet each time she would pull her head out, but still stay by the magazine.


Observations & Discussion:  When we first placed her in the lab box, she sniffed around and explored ever crevice of the container before heading to the magazine. She immediately began licking the magazine to get all of the leftover chocolate flavored dust from the pellets. She then stuck her entire head in the magazine and continued this behavior several times. Logan and I became concerned with Despereaux's behavior about halfway through the training on Wednesday (Day 1) because she would not pull her head out and kept biting the metal surrounding the magazine. My first thought was that the pellets were not falling into the bottom, but we could see them dropping down through the clear part of the food apparatus. It was obvious that Des was highly frustrated and by the end of the 22 minute training session I was frustrated too because I thought this meant she would be a really hard rat to train and that we were going to have a lot of problems.
        Since her frantic behaviors had increased so dramatically throughout the training, we (Maddie helped!) took apart the box and checked the pellet dispenser. We quickly realized that the pellets were being released and falling, but had been jammed at the top of the magazine. No wonder Despereaux was trying so hard to get her whole body in the magazine- the pellets were stuck at the top and she could smell them!! Relieved, we decided to try the training session again and it went so much better than before!! Despereaux did so well and within 9 minutes had already had 60+ pellets.
      Overall it was a great training day for Despereaux. It was good for Logan and I to experience a problematic behavior from her early in training so we know how to fix it more time efficiently in the future.

Wednesday (9/18): Attempt 2- Des formed a strong association between the sound and food being dispensed. Each tick mark is where she was reinforced with a pellet. 

        On Thursday we returned to train Despereaux and hoped to move on to shaping and eventually establish the FR1 schedule. However, our box was occupied and due to time constraints we had to use a different box. Despereaux did not have a productive day and did not improve during the session.

Thursday (9/19): Despereaux performed well at times, but was too distracted to call it a productive day.

     On Friday we returned hoping for a more productive day. Things were looking hopeful when she immediately went to the magazine; however, Despereaux quickly lost interest and began grooming in the back corner. She then took interest in sniffing the cage and became very distracted, so Logan and I removed the wood chip tray. Des's behavior changed and she just sat in the corner for the rest of the training session. We tried to get her back on track by giving pellets every few minutes, but that did not seem to help. At this point we contacted Dr. Trench and explained our situation and she recommended taking the weekend off from training and starting again on Monday with her guidance.

Friday (9/20): Despereaux was highly distracted and the tick marks seen were mainly to try to get her back on track. 

Becoming More Acquainted

Today I revisited Despereaux during our lab time and spent some more quality time holding her. I already love her and I think she is becoming more comfortable with me! Dr. Trench furthered explained the details of our project and it made me even more excited to begin training next week. Before starting to shape Despereaux, Logan and I have to get Despereaux down to her target weight (90% of her current weight) using slight food deprivation. We begin to train Despereaux next Wednesday and will continue to train daily after that. 

First Impressions

Last Wednesday was my first time to meet Despereaux and I was so excited! I have always loved animals; however, I had never held a rat before and was a little nervous to begin with. In the past I thought of rats as gross and filthy animals, but the rats we are using (Long-Evans) are quite clean and friendly. Logan and I thought long and hard about the perfect name for our furry friend, and decided on Despereaux because it was cute and friendly. I did not hesitate to scoop Despereaux right up to become acquainted with her. Logan, my lab partner, was a little more hesitant and I think Despereaux sensed her nervousness because she pooped on Logan! She is overall well-mannered and did not seem to mind being held for the short period of time. I am excited to get to work with a live rat and look forward to training her in the weeks to come!