Fixed Ratio 1

Fixed Ratio 1 Day 1:

Date: 9/25/13                                                                   

Start Time: 1:47                                                            

End Time: 2:17                                                           

Session Duration: 30:00                                               

Number of Bar Presses: 77                                                

Number of Rewards: 77                                             

Snickerpuss’ Weight: 214 grams

Fixed Ratio 1 Day 2:
Date: 9/26/13                                                                   

Start Time: 1:53                                                            

End Time: 2:23                                                            

Session Duration: 30:00                                               

Number of Bar Presses: 107                                                

Number of Rewards: 107                                                

Snickerpuss’ Weight: 209 grams                                    

Goal:

Our goal was to train Snickerpuss to respond on a Fixed Ratio 1 schedule. On the FR-1 schedule Nicky would be rewarded for every time she pressed the lever. We would consider Nicky to have successfully learned this reinforcement schedule if she achieved 60 lever presses (one per 30 seconds of training).

Procedure:
FR-1 Day 1:

Nicky weighed 214 grams, 5 grams over her target weight, on the day of training.

For the fifth day of training, we put Nicky on an FR-1 schedule, which would reward her for each lever press. Once inside the operant box, we only had to observe Nicky’s behavior since we no longer had to manually reinforce her as we did during shaping.

FR-1 Day 2:

Nicky weighed 209 grams, exactly her target weight, on the day of training.

For the sixth day of training, we put Nicky on an FR-1 schedule, which would reward her for each lever press. Once inside the operant box, we only had to observe Nicky’s behavior since we no longer had to manually reinforce her as we did during shaping.

Results:
FR-1 Day 1:
        Nicky pressed the lever 77 times during our 30 minute training session. Nicky’s rate of responding was much better today than in her previous shaping training sessions. We considered Nicky to have learned to respond on an FR-1 schedule based on her rate of responding. To ensure Nicky has mastered the FR-1 schedule and the concept of reinforcement for lever presses, we will do one more day of FR-1 training before moving on to partial reinforcement schedules.

FR-1 Day 2:

Nicky pressed the lever 107 times during our 30 minute training session. Nicky’s rate of responding was much better today than in her previous FR-1 training session. We again considered Nicky to have learned to respond on an FR-1 schedule based on her rate of responding and will move on to an FR-2 schedule in the next training session.

Discussion:

            During Nicky's FR-1 training sessions, the effects of shaping were noticeable. Once we put Nicky in the operant box, she immediately began pressing the lever and looking for rewards. There was very little frustration behavior, which is likely due to the continuous reinforcement schedule. Nicky’s energy level also seemed high on both days, but this also could have been a result of the continuous reinforcement and diminished frustration behavior. Since Nicky successfully learned the FR-1 schedule of reinforcement during these training sessions, we will move on to the FR-2 schedule in our next training session.

A video of Nicky during FR-1 training.