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