Magazine Training Snickerpuss

Date: 9/18/13

Start Time: 2:06

End Time: 2:26

Session Duration: 20:00

Number of Bar Presses: 16

Total Number of Reinforcements: 60

Snickerpuss’ Weight: 207 grams

Goal:

          Our goal was to magazine train Snickerpuss, which involves classically conditioning an association between the sound of the food magazine and the delivery of a reward. Magazine training is essential to our later goals of shaping and reinforcement schedules.

Procedure:

          Snickerpuss was food deprived to approximately 90% of her starting weight, going from 232 grams to 207 grams, 2 grams below her target weight. Daily training sessions will start at 2:00 PM.

          On day 1 of training, we used the hand switch to deliver rewards to Snickerpuss to condition an association with the sound of the food hopper and the reward. We began by allowing Snickerpuss to explore the operant box and delivering food pellets at random time intervals, waiting for her to go eat her reward before delivering another. We gradually began to reinforce Nicky for being close to the food hopper and then close to the lever. We considered magazine training to be a success when Snickerpuss did not hesitate to go to the food hopper when she heard the sound of the food dispenser. Magazine training lasted 20 minutes.

Results:

          Nicky pressed the lever 16 times and we manually reinforced her behavior 44 times, for a total of 60 reinforcements for the training session. We considered magazine training to be a success after 30 minutes because Nicky was quick to respond to the sound of the food dispenser.

Discussion:

            Nicky was quick to associate the sound of the food magazine and a reward. We noted that Nicky’s behavior was similar to that of Sniffy, the virtual rat, except that Nicky seemed more prone to switch between behaviors rapidly. There was a fair amount of self-grooming, which may be a frustration response, and some rearing up in the middle of the cage. Nicky is an energetic rat, which will hopefully make training go smoothly, since she seems to not run out of energy.