Final Results

I have included a final weight/food chart, a bar graph indicating average bar presses per session, and a line graph exhibiting Tortellini's behavioral progression:

                                                

                                        

This has been such an enjoyable experience to be able to have during my undergraduate career. I am typically not excited about class projects, but this project has been so much fun. I even made a new friend--Tortellini! I honestly enjoyed every aspect of this project, so I have no complaints. It was incredibly surprising to see the rats press the bar from FR1 all the way up to FR20. The only challenge Tortellini and I experienced was keeping her attention on training. I had previously mentioned that I would have added another day of whichever schedule she did not train long for, but she was getting such a high number of bar presses. So I just kept increasing her FR schedule until we reached 20. I was also surprised at the relationship I built with Tortellini. If I knelt down by her cage, and my friend knelt down on the other side of her cage, she would always climb onto my shoulder instead of my friend's. I truly believe that Tortellini knows who I am, and I would have never thought that a rat could determine who its owner was. 
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Extinction: Days 1 & 2

The goal of today's session was to cease Tortellini's behavior of bar pressing. Extinction is done by not reinforcing the rat after it has performed the previously rewarded behavior. On the first day of extinction, Tortellini seemed extremely frustrated. As expected, she kept biting the lever and using more aggression to press it. Within the first minute of not receiving any rewards, she had already pressed the bar about 92 times. At around 8 minutes Tortellini had another extinction burst, where she kept pressing the lever at an intense rate. Her cumulative records indicate spontaneous recovery at about 22 minutes, where she pressed the lever 4 more times. Towards the end of the session she began to wander around the box, often waiting in the corner close to me.

Tortellini's frustration during extinction

Day 1: Extinction Cumulative Records

On the second day of extinction, Tortellini did not press the bar as many times as the first day. It was definitely apparent that she was beginning to understand she was not going to get rewarded anymore, thus there was no point in pressing the lever. Remember that on day 1 of extinction, Tortellini pressed the bar about 92 times within the first minute--today Tortellini pressed the bar about 92 times within the first 14 minutes. This shows progress since her behavior of pressing the bar is declining. Tortellini's cumulative record for day 2 also shows that she did not have an extinction burst or spontaneous recovery after those 14 minutes. On both extinction days, the number of bar presses were recorded every 5 minutes until 30 minutes was reached. 

Day 2: Extinction Cumulative Records

Table showing the number of bar presses per every 5 minutes on days 1 & 2 of extinction

Fixed Ratio Schedule: FR20

The goal for today's training session was for Tortellini to press the lever 20 times before receiving a treat. I don't think she was a fan of FR20. There were multiple times when she would press it 15 times, get frustrated, and then walk away. She still continued to bite the bar and search around it as if something was wrong with it. She also continued to use her back paws as leverage against the wall to press the bar with more intensity. Today's session lasted for 22.43 minutes, which is her longest session since magazine training. I was pleased with the length of her session, but her number of bar presses did decrease from FR15. On FR20 she pressed the bar 987 times, which is still a high number. I was just hoping she would press it more times than she did on FR15. 

FR20 Cumulative Records

Fixed Ratio Schedule: FR15

Today's goal was for Tortellini to press the bar 15 times in order to receive a reward. This training session was pretty much like the FR12 session. 3 more bar presses did not seem to make a difference in Tortellini's behavior or performance. She continues to show frustration through biting the lever and moving quickly around the lever as if she was trying to figure out what was wrong with it. This session lasted 18.46 minutes, which is longer than most of her sessions. Tortellini pressed the bar a total of 1046 times. I was expecting this number to be higher than her FR12 results. Maybe she becomes physically tired by having to press the lever so many times. It will be interesting to see whether she continues the pattern of growth or declination during FR20. 

FR15 Cumulative Records

Fixed Ratio Schedule: FR12

The goal of this session was for Tortellini to press the bar 12 times before being reinforced with a sugar pellet. She continues to exhibit behaviors that resemble frustration, such as biting the lever from all different angles. Despite her apparent frustration, she still manages to press the bar a substantial amount of times. Tortellini also continues to struggle maintaining her attention on training. This session lasted 19.36 minutes. If a session is much shorter than 30 minutes, you are supposed to train again on that same FR schedule. However, I hesitate to do that because Tortellini still presses the bar so many times. For example, during this session she pressed the bar 1052 times! If a rat is pressing a bar 1052 times, then I think it is appropriate to move on to a higher level! Tortellini is really doing a great job though--I am extremely impressed by her. 

FR12 Cumulative Records

Fixed Ratio Schedule: FR10

The goal of today's training session is for Tortellini to press the lever 10 times before getting a sugar pellet. So far this is the highest schedule I have put her on, so I was worried that she would struggle and become frustrated. However, she did a great job besides her short attention span. She may just be experiencing satiation from receiving so many reinforcements at the beginning. Her cumulative records for FR10 show when she began to slow down around 11 minutes. She lasted 15.07 minutes on this schedule before she quit pressing the bar completely. Tortellini pressed the bar 749 times on FR10. She is consistently exhibiting an increase in bar presses every time I move her up a level, which is right on track. 

FR10 Cumulative Records

Fixed Ratio Schedule: FR7

The goal of today's training session was for Tortellini to press the bar 7 times in order to receive a treat. This session was very similar to her session training on FR5, except she lost interest even quicker this time and she exhibited more aggression. Tortellini has begun to place one of her paws on the side of the box in order to gain some leverage to press the bar (shown in video). She also shows a lot more movement around the bar in comparison to when she only had to press it once for a reward. I have noticed on her cumulative records that she tends to press the bar a lot in the beginning, thus receive a lot of treats early on during the session. I am wondering if she becomes satiated due to the fast rate and frequency she is receiving sugar pellets. Today Tortellini only trained for 15.07 minutes; however, in that short amount of time she pressed the bar 664 times. This is by far the most bar presses Tortellini has performed yet. 

FR7 Cumulative Records

Fixed Ratio Schedule: FR5

The goal of this schedule was for Tortellini to press the bar 5 times before receiving a sugar pellet. At first, she would press the bar twice and check the hopper. Then she would press the bar 3 times and check the hopper. At this point she seemed agitated, just like she did when I added another level to her training. As expected, she would bite on the bar and sniff it. Eventually she just kept pressing the lever until she heard a sugar pellet being released. 

I have not encountered any challenged or issues while training Tortellini other than the fact that she becomes uninterested quickly. This session lasted 17.12 minutes before she became bored. When she is uninterested in training, she walks over towards me and just sits in the corner watching me, waiting for me to get her out. Today she pressed the bar 449 times, which is still remarkable. 

FR5 Cumulative Records

Fixed Ratio Schedule: FR3

The goal of the FR3 schedule was for Tortellini to press the bar 3 times before receiving a reward. As anticipated, she seemed frustrated when she pressed the bar twice, and no reward appeared. Tortellini showed her frustration through biting the lever. She did not always press the bar 3 times consecutively, but eventually she did press it quickly 3 times in a row. Tortellini was more interested in training for a longer period today--she made it to 24.40 minutes, which is long compared to the rest of her training sessions. I wanted Tortellini to at least press the bar 300 times, and she pressed it 467 times! Tortellini did a great job this training session. 

FR3 Cumulative Records

Fixed Ratio Schedule: FR2

The goal of the FR 2 schedule was for Tortellini to press the lever twice before receiving a reinforcement. At first Tortellini would press the lever once and then check the hopper, which would be empty. She would show behaviors such as biting the lever as if she was trying to figure out what was wrong with it. So when she pressed it again, she got reinforced since this is a total of two presses.  I was not sure whether she completely understood that she had to press the lever twice to get a reward because she could press it once, then walk around, and then press it again. I feel like the FR 2 schedule would have been more effective if the two presses had to be made within a certain time frame. However, towards the end she began pressing it twice every time before checking the hopper. Tortellini seems to get bored or uninterested really quickly. This training session only lasted 17.02 minutes because I could not regain her interest back to the lever. Tortellini pressed the bar 240 times, which was impressive. 

FR2 Cumulative Records

Shaping: Day 2

Previously, I made sure that Tortellini was successfully magazine trained--she pressed the bar on her own 3 times, but it seemed to be an accident. Today I began the process of shaping Tortellini. The goal of this process was for the rat to make an association between pressing the lever and receiving a reward. Magazine training seemed to have taught Tortellini where to remain in the operant box. She rarely walked around to the other side of the box, which I heard was lucky. Today when I placed her into the operant box, she immediately walked towards the hopper and sniffed it. I typically rewarded her every time she walked towards the lever, just as I did with Sniffy. Tortellini would often stand on her hind legs, and sniff the light above the lever. I gave her a sugar pellet every time she came back down over the lever in order to reinforce this motion. I also reinforced her every time she sniffed the lever and made contact with it. She would often place one hand onto the lever (pictured below), so I reinforced this motion as well until she placed both hands onto the lever. 

Tortellini placing one paw on the lever

This process took about 16.20 minutes total. After 8 minutes Tortellini began to lose interest in training, but I reinforced her in hopes of regaining her interest. She then continued to train for about 8 more minutes. I manually reinforced her 11 times to get her attention, but she pressed the bar on her own 148 times. This process of shaping was a lot quicker than I thought it would be. The book made me think that shaping was going to take a long time, and it may for some people, but it did not take long at all for Tortellini. She must be a smart one!

FR1 Cumulative Records

Magazine Training: Day 1

Some Background: To begin the process of training Tortellini, I placed her on a diet that would result in her weighing 90% of her original weight. Her original weight measured 221g; therefore, her target weight was 199g. Food deprivation encourages the rats to work harder for their treats. I continued to weigh and feed Tortellini every day, keeping her weight as close to 199g as possible. Two days before beginning magazine training, I mixed the sugar pellets in with her typical food that way she would get used to them before training. 

Magazine Training: Today's goal was for Tortellini to make an association between the sound of a treat being released into the hopper and where this hopper was located in the operant box. When I first released Tortellini into the operant box, she moved around and sniffed the ground. She also expressed some curiosity about the light because she would often stand on her hind legs, and sniff the light above the lever. Tortellini learned pretty quickly that the hopper was where to get food. To make sure that she understood the reward system, I would press the reinforcement button when she was on the other side of the cage not paying attention to the hopper. When she immediately reacted to the sound of the sugar pellet being released into the hopper and consumed it, I knew she was successfully magazine trained. This process took a total of 30 minutes. During this training session, Tortellini actually pressed the lever 3 times on her own. This process was very similar to magazine training Sniffy; however, Tortellini learned significantly faster than Sniffy did. I definitely recommend using both the live and virtual rats because the virtual rat prepares you for training the live rat. 

Tortellini showing interest in the lever

Sniffy: The Virtual Rat

I had a relatively difficult time with magazine training Sniffy. I reinforced Sniffy with a treat every time he got near the lever. This process took about an hour and a half. Once Sniffy began to remain in the general area of the lever, I began the process of shaping. I reinforced Sniffy every time he stood up and descended down onto the lever. That was the motion I wanted Sniffy to learn because I thought he would press the lever when he was lowering himself. I also reinforced Sniffy every time he showed an interest in the lever, including sniffing and even touching it. It was really important to pay close attention to Sniffy because I had to reinforce him immediately in order for him to make the association between pressing the lever and receiving a treat. I probably spent a total of two hours magazine training and shaping Sniffy. 

Once Sniffy was consistently pressing the lever, I placed her on a variable ratio (VR) schedule. On this schedule, Sniffy walked around the operant box less than when he was shaping. Sniffy was constantly pressing the lever as opposed to getting near the lever and aimlessly wandering around. I can definitely see how this program will prepare me to train my real rat through magazine training and shaping.

VR 1 & 2 Cumulative Record

VR 3 & 4 Cumulative Record

VR 5 & 6 Cumulative Record                                                                 

VR 6 & Extinction Cumulative Record                        

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Meet Tortellini!

Before meeting Tortellini, I had always thought that rats were pests, scheming of ways to invade homes and damage property. However, after my first encounter with Tortellini, my previous disposition of rats changed. First of all, I chose the name Tortellini because I am Italian, and she was quite plump, just like Tortellini pasta. 

It was evident that we were equally curious and fearful of each other. But I did not want her to fear me -- I wanted to make Tortellini feel as comfortable with me as possible. She paused and crouched down as I picked her up. Surprisingly, she did not try to run away from me. Tortellini was incredibly soft, and I loved when she wrapped her little paws around my finger (as shown in the picture)! My only struggle with Tortellini is when she wraps her tail around me. Hopefully this is something that I will get used to. Almost immediately she began crawling up towards my shoulder. I guess this will be her perching spot. We are definitely going to be friends!

The progression of Leah and Tortellini's friendship                                                                                             

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