Still Trying to Shape Penelope...

It has been over a week of shaping Penelope, and frustration is setting in. I feel like I have tried everything that I could think of, and she isn't making very many improvements. She has pressed the bar on accident a couple of times, and it has been the highlight of my time. I thought I had a breakthrough one day when she pressed the bar 14 times. I was ecstatic. However, disappointment returned the next day when she was no longer interested in the bar or the food pellets.

I began reinforcing her any time she was away from the typical corner that she liked to chill in. I think this only confused her, but she did stay away from that corner for a few days. I think she is equally frustrated with me. On a bright note, every time I take her out of the operant box, she climbs up and sits on my shoulder. I then bend over, and she jumps from my shoulder into her cage. If all else fails, I think I have taught my rat how to do a cannonball into her cage. Pretty cool to me.

Here is a list of the schedule she was on and how many reinforcements/bar presses Penelope had in the course of her time training.

Day 1	2/22/16	Shaping 1 Lever	28.40 minutes	2 bar presses	45 reinforcements
Day 2	2/23/16	Shaping 1 Lever	29 minutes	0 bar presses	49 reinforcements
Day 3	2/24/16	Shaping 1 Lever	27.30 minutes	0 bar presses	39 reinforcements
Day 4	2/25/16	Shaping 1 Lever	30 minutes	1 bar press	47 reinforcements
Day 5	2/26/16	Shaping 1 Lever	30 minutes	3 bar presses	40 reinforcements
Day 6	2/29/16	Shaping 1 Lever	30 minutes	0 bar presses	46 reinforcements
Day 7	3/1/16	Shaping 1 Lever	30 minutes	0 bar presses	38 reinforcements
Day 8	3/2/16	Shaping 1 Lever	30 minutes	1 bar press	34 reinforcements
Day 9	3/3/16	Shaping 1 Lever	30 minutes	3 bar presses	43 reinforcements
Day 10	3/4/16	Shaping 1 Lever	30 minutes	0 bar presses	42 reinforcements
Day 11	3/7/16	Shaping 1 Lever	30 minutes	0 bar presses	47 reinforcements
Day 12	3/8/16	Shaping 1 Lever	30 minutes	0 bar presses	55 reinforcements
Day 13	3/9/16	Shaping 1 Lever	30 minutes	4 bar presses	52 reinforcements
Day 14	3/10/16	Shaping 1 Lever	30 minutes	14 bar presses	33 reinforcements
Day 15	3/11/16	Shaping 1 Lever	30 minutes	2 bar presses	36 reinforcements

As you can see, Penelope pressed the bar a total of 30 times in 15 training sessions. I believe that about half of those were accidents in which she had no idea that she was being rewarded for pressing the bar. For this reason, I did not put Penelope through extinction. I did not believe that this was necessary because there was not a learned behavior to extinct. I also do not have any cumulative records because for the most part, there was nothing to record. 

Here is a video of Penelope's typical activities in the operant box.