The End

I really enjoyed working with my rat, Nala, throughout this experience. I love animals, but I did not think that working with a rat would be much fun. By the end of the training experience, I found myself looking forward to going to see Nala. I enjoyed observing her behavior throughout training. It was interesting to watch her learn things. You can see the moment that something clicks and that was a rewarding part of training. The only thing that I did not enjoy about the experience was that Nala did not learn to press the bar. This is not something that can be controlled for or improved upon. However, it would have been nice to see her complete the assignment. I wish that we had more time to work on the assignment. I would have liked to have continued to train Nala to see if she could eventually learn to press the lever. I was surprised by how smart Nala was. Before this experience, I did not think that rats were very intelligent animals. They seem like pretty simple creatures. Watching Nala learn things throughout training changed that. By the second day of me going in to feed Nala on my own, she knew when it was time to get food. She also learned very quickly that she could climb out of the cage when I wasn't paying close attention. Overall, this was a fun, unique experience that I am glad to have been a part of.

Nala vs Sniffy

Sniffy was much easier to train than a live rat. Sniffy's magazine training took about 15 minutes while Nala's training took 30 minutes. Sniffy's shaping took around an hour to complete. Nala did not complete shaping during thirteen 30 minute sessions. Magazine training went about the same for Sniffy and Nala. Nala would go near the magazine opening and be rewarded. She, like Sniffy, made the connection between the sound and the food. Shaping was very different for Nala. Sniffy's shaping did not take long. He went to the area with the bar much more frequently. Sniffy also immediately knew to press on the bar instead of just touching the bar. Nala did not go in the area with the bar a lot during the first half of training. She also did not rear up over the bar as much as Sniffy did. Once she learned to touch the bar, she did not know to press it like Sniffy did.

I think that I learned the basics of what training a rat in an operant box would be like from Sniffy. I think it was beneficial to practice timing reinforcements on Sniffy. The environment was also very controlled in the virtual world which allowed it to be easier to see what was happening. I learned a lot about how animals learn in different ways just like people do by training a live rat. You really get to see how much patience it takes to train someone/something a brand new behavior. I would recommend doing both the virtual rat training and the live rat training. They show both sides of the training experience, the perfect plan and the real world plan. I think that the two processes complimented each other and were mutually beneficial to me as a student.

Challenges

One challenge that Nala and I had was keeping her focused during a training session. As stated in previous posts, Nala was over excited in the operant box and did not want to eat the pellets or go near the bar. She would explore the box for the majority of the training time and pellets would pile up because she was not interested in eating them. After training with Dr. Trench, she said that I was training correctly. Nala was just an easily distracted rat who was a little skittish in the box. I tried to remedy this issue by putting the cover on the operant box to block out potential distractors. Looking back I wish I would have noticed her nervous behavior earlier. If I had gone to Dr. Trench sooner, I would have used the door to the operant box sooner. This extra time may have been what Nala needed to learn to press the bar. Nala seemed much more at ease after she got used to the cover being on the front of the box.

Nala's Diet Plan

This chart follows Nala's weight throughout her training. She was kept around 90% of her body weight (199g) to make the food pellets more reinforcing during training. After her training is over she will resume free feed where she will be able to eat as much as she wants. Napa's free feed began on 3/16.

No FR Schedules or Extinction

After 14 days of training, Nala never made it past shaping. She made significant progress during the last few sessions. She was putting her paws on the bar and biting the bar. She also made the connection that when she touched the bar with her paw she got a food pellet. She would place her paw on the bar and then turn her head expectantly toward the magazine opening waiting for food. However, she did not press the bar at all the last few sessions. Therefore, she was never put on a FR schedule. Nala also does not need to go through extinction (where you "un-train" a behavior) because she never learned to press the bar on her own. I believe that if given more time Nala would be able to learn to press the bar. Unfortunately our training time ran out.

Shaping with the Door

Goal: Block out some of the distractors to help Nala focus on pressing the bar.

Procedure: I placed Nala in the operant box. I then placed the door to the front of the box in it's place. At first, Nala seemed slightly frightened by having the door on. She was agitated and running around the operant box trying to find a way out. After the first few minutes, she seemed to settle down. I then proceeded to shape Nala by my original plan. Throughout the 30 minute session Nala seemed less distracted.

Results: Nala did not press the bar during the session. However, Nala seemed less distracted and continued to go the corner with the bar in it until the very end of the session. Nala also seemed more interested in the bar during this session. She was sniffing the bar and investigating the corner with the bar more frequently. Nala was reinforced 55 times throughout the session.

Discussion: I believe that the door on the operant box has helped with Nala's progress. Her endurance in staying on task was greatly increased. She seemed less agitated and more focused throughout the session. I am hopeful that training with the door from here on out will help Nala's progression toward pressing the bar.

This is the door that goes on the front of the operant box. As you can see it blocks out most of the distractors for Nala while she is in the box while still allowing me to be able to see inside. 

Training with Dr. Trench

Goal: After having several training days with Nala not go well, I decided to seek help from my professor. Dr. Trench asked me to describe what problems I had been having and then came to sit in on the train session with me.

Procedure: I went about the training session as usual. I wiped the operant box down and the placed Nala inside. Dr. Trench observed and helped train Nala during the 30 minute session. Nala pressed the bar once, but it was an accidental press. After approximately 15 minutes, Nala started to become uninterested in the bar. She found the front left corner of the operant box and spent the majority of the remaining time sniffing and exploring the corner. 

Results: Nala only pressed the bar one time during the 30 minute session. She also did not want to eat the pellets after about half of the session was done. Several pellets piled up because she would not eat them. 

Discussion: After watching Nala during a training session, Dr. Trench suggested that I put the door on the operant box. The door blocks out most of the sound and the line of sight into the room for Nala. There is a small window that the trainer can look through to see into the box. Dr. Trench said that Nala just seemed a little over excited and nervous in the box. This may be causing her to not want to eat the pellets. It also may contribute to the fact that Nala wants to explore the box more than she wants to get food pellets. The rats sit in a small box all day with nothing to do. The new environment that the operant box presents could be causing Nala to become easily distracted and unfocused on the task at hand. 

Shaping Nala Part 2-5

Goal: Continue to shape Nala until she is pressing the bar on her own.

Procedure: Over the next two sessions, I continued with the same procedure from the previous shaping session. I rewarded Nala when she was near the bar. I then rewarded Nala when she touched/bit/sniffed the bar. 

Results: Nala did not press the bar at all during these two training days. Nala would be interested in the corner with the bar in it for about the first 10 minutes of the session. After the first 10 minutes, Nala seemed disinterested in the food pellets. She found the front left corner of the box to be very interesting and would stay in the corner sniffing for most of the remaining time. This continued for the next three training sessions. 

Discussion: It seems like Nala is not interested in the food pellets. After the first few minutes, Nala did not go to the hopper to get the pellet out. She would go to the opening and sniff around without eating the pellet. I would reinforce her for another behavior and the pellets would pile up because she was not eating. I think that I may need to reduce the amount of food that she is eating. Her weight has stayed within 5 grams of her target weight (199 g). However, the target weight is 90% of her body weight. I may need to try to get Nala to 85% of her body weight in order for the pellets to become reinforcing. The shaping has been more difficult than I imagined it would be after reading the book and the discussion we had in class. I thought that Nala would be more focused and that if I was reinforcing her she would catch on. Actually putting the tools that we learned into action is more difficult than it sounds.

Shaping Nala Part 1

Goal: To shape Nala. Shaping will conclude when Nala has begun pressing the bar on her own in order to receive a food pellet.

Procedure: Nala has been magazine trained. She has learned that the sound and light in the operant box mean food when activated. I have devised a shaping plan for Nala. First I will reward her for getting near the bar. Then I will reward her for touching/sniffing/biting the bar. I will also reward Nala for rearing up over the bar as she comes down on top of the bar. Today was Nala's first day of shaping and her second day in the operant box. She explored the box for the majority of the session. She occasionally got near the bar and was rewarded. However, she did not press the bar like she did during her first session. She also did not spend a lot of time in the section of the operant box with the bar.

Results: Nala did not press the bar during the 30 minutes session. She explored the box, but did not seemed interested in the food pellets or the bar.

Discussion: Nala did not press the bar today. However, it was her first day of shaping and I did not expect for her to pick up on pressing the bar in one 30 minute session. I think the new environment caused Nala to be over excited and somewhat skittish. I am hoping that after some more time in the box she will become less distracted and be able to focus on the task while training.

This is the operant box that Nala is training in. 

Magazine Training Nala

Goal:

To magazine train Nala. I aim for Nala to create an associate between hearing the noise of the magazine and receiving food. The sound of the magazine device will become a secondary reinforcer that will allow for further training. I hope to see Nala approach the magazine opening every time I click the hand switch by the end of the session.

Procedure:

Nala has been food deprived for the past few days. I have gotten her to approximately 90% of her body weight. She started at 221g and now weighs 203g, a few grams above her target weight of 199g. Dr. Trench, my professor for Learning and Behavior, accompanied me in the first training session. The first day of training I reinforced Nala when she was near the magazine opening. I waited for her to move away slightly before pressing the hand switch again to release another food pellet. This continued on for the rest of the 30 minute session. By the end of the session Nala was reliably going to the magazine opening soon after a pellet had been release which left me confident that she had made an association between the magazine noise and receiving a food pellet. For the 28 minutes that Nala was in the operant box she was presented with 45 food reinforcements and pressed with bar 1 time.  

Results:

By the end of the session, Nala was reliably going to the magazine opening to eat within a few seconds of a pellet being released. This lead to me to believe that Nala was magazine trained.

Discussion:

The criteria I used to determine if Nala was magazine trained was the time in which it took her to go to the magazine opening to eat the food after the pellet had been released. By the end of the session, she was going to the opening to eat within a few seconds of the food being released. I noticed that Nala was more easily distracted than Sniffy the virtual rat. She took more time to explore the box or groom herself. Nala also seemed more frightened of the new environment than Sniffy did. Nala's magazine training was similar to the book/class discussion. We discussed in class how the live rats would take more time to explore and be more distracted than one would assume.

Sniffy the Virtual Rat

Sniffy is a program that allows you to virtually train a rat in an operant box. The program starts with magazine training. This occurs when Sniffy begins to associate the clicking sound and the light with receiving food. Magazine training for Sniffy did not take very long. Altogether it took about 20 minutes to have Sniffy reliably going to the magazine opening after hearing the noise the machine makes. After Sniffy was completely magazine trained, we moved on to shaping. The goal for shaping Sniffy was to have him press the bar in the operant box in order to receive food on his own. Shaping took longer than magazine training. I spent approximately an hour shaping Sniffy and it looked like this:

Shaping-
I reinforced Sniffy when he moved into the quadrant of the box with the bar in it. Then I reinforced Sniffy when he bumped/sniffed/bit/put paws on the bar. Eventually Sniffy pressed the bar on his own several times and began to press the bar reliably on his own to get food. Shaping was finished.

After completing Sniffy's shaping, I put him on a FR4 schedule. Sniffy seemed more focused during the schedule training than during shaping. He moved a lot quicker to the bar and seemed to pick up on the fact that he had to press it 4 times to get food.

Sniffy was then put on an extinction schedule. Extinction is "unlearning" a behavior. Sniffy pressed the bar throughout the session but was not rewarded at all. Extinction took about 40 minutes for Sniffy. He seemed slightly agitated through the process. 

After completing Sniffy's training and extinction, I feel slightly more prepared to train Nala (my live rat). I feel like I have a better understanding of how the process of training works. I also feel as if I will be able to make a better plan for shaping Nala now that I have shaped Sniffy. I have a better understanding of what behaviors to look for during the process. However, I do not think that training a live rat will be as easy as Sniffy turned out to be. I think Nala will prove to be a bit more difficult.