Sniffy the Virtual Rat

When I first opened the Sniffy program, I honestly thought it would be a waste of time. I was eager to dive right in to training my live rat that I didn't want to waste my time training a rat on my computer. Boy, I was wrong about that. Training sniffy really helped me have a visual of the training process of an animal. It helped me know what to look for in my live rat, and I actually really enjoyed seeing Sniffy progress through the shaping process.

Magazine training for Sniffy was very simple. It only took about 15 minutes to do before he had the association between the noise and the food.


Shaping Sniffy to press the bar took a lot longer than I thought it would. I started by reinforcing him every time he stood on his hind legs while facing the back wall. Eventually, I only reinforced that behavior when he was over the hopper. After a couple minutes of that, he started consistently pressing the bar. He would press it multiple times in a row, then he would rear up like he didn't completely know that he only has to press the bar. After reinforcing only the bar pressing, he got the hang of it. He got to where he would press the bar over 10 times in a row.


I then put Sniffy on a Variable Interval schedule to where he would only be reinforced once he pressed the bar after 5 seconds passed (VI5''). I could tell he didn't really like this very much. Toward the end, he would press the bar then walk around the cage before he pressed the bar again. He had a routine down, and he kept doing this for a while.


Sniffy did not like extinction at all. He was going crazy trying to press the bar and was getting agitated when nothing came out. After a while, he stopped pressing the bar as much. Eventually, he stopped the behavior altogether.

Penelope Starts Magazine Training

Goal:

The goal of Penelope's first training session was to condition her to realize that food appears once the light flashes and a pellet drops into the food magazine. This is referred to as magazine training. In this session, I am trying to get Penelope to go eat the pellet every time one is dispensed.

Procedure:

Penelope was brought down to 90% of her body weight over the past week in order for her to be more willing to work for a reward (in this case, she will be rewarded with a sugary food pellet). The two days prior to her first session, I introduced these food pellets to her so she would get used to the taste and grow to like them. Penelope successfully reached her target weight by the first day of training and now weighs 204.5 grams. Our sessions begin at 3:00 P.M. each day.

Results:

On day 1 of training, I could tell she was very nervous. When I first put her in the operant box, she immediately began sniffing everything and walking in circles. I delivered a pellet as soon as I put her in the box, hoping that she would eventually make her way to the food magazine and see the food in there. After sniffing for a couple of minutes, she made her way to the food magazine and ate the food. Once she pulled her head out of the food magazine, I gave her another pellet, hoping she would notice the light that comes on and the noise it makes when a pellet is given. After about 10 minutes of this, I believe she figured it out. Every time I pressed the button to administer a pellet, she would make her way over to eat it in 35-50 seconds.

I also began shaping Penelope toward the end of the session, after I thought she figured out magazine training. Every time she turned her head to the left after pulling out of the food magazine, I gave her a  pellet. I do not think she learned this in the first session, but it was a good start.

On day 1, Penelope was in the operant box for 24 minutes. She had 3 bar presses, and I gave her 37 pellets. She was on shaping 1 lever.

Discussion:

I believe Penelope has made the connection between the light/sound and the dispensing of food. I do not think she made the connection between the bar and the food though. I will continue shaping tomorrow, now that she is aware that she gets rewarded with food.

Meeting Penelope

Today marks my first ever encounter with a live rat. Initially, I only saw rats as pests. I've never even come close to holding a rat before, so this was a new experience for me. I was really excited to meet my rat, and it was a good experience. After holding my rat for the first time, I decided that rats are more than just pests. I think they could be good pets if they were given a chance.
When I first picked up my rat, I was scared that I would hurt her. She was a lot smaller than I expected. Holding her for the first time went very smoothly, and she was very active. She tried to crawl over my shoulder and down my back. Once I got through the first experience of holding a rat, I am no longer nervous at all about it.
I decided to name my rat Penelope, and I am excited to see Penelope's progress through this class. I think Penelope and I have already bonded well. I find myself excited to go visit her every day.

Penelope's first photo shoot.