Shaping - Day 3 & 4

I continued Shaping on Day 3 and Day 4 of training. 

Day 3 - Shaping
September 21, 2012

The training session began at 8:29 and lasted the full 30 minutes until 8:59.  Monica pressed the bar 38 times and I reinforced other behaviors 76 times for a total of 114 pellets.  My goal for this shaping session was to have Monica either sniffing the top of the bar or putting her paws on it.  She fulfilled my goal and pressed the bar 38 times, so I was pleased with the training session.

Day 4 - Shaping & FR1
September 24, 2012

Goal:

My goal for this day was to complete shaping and finish the FR1 schedule.  I wanted Monica to press the bar on her own more than I pressed the hand switch. 

Procedure:

This session began at 8:29 and lasted for 22 minutes and 35 seconds.  At the beginning of the session, I reinforced her behavior when she put her paws on the bar and when she came down over the bar.  The operant box automatically reinforced her every time she pressed the bar.

Results:

At the conclusion of the session, I had reinforced her 24 times, and she had pressed the bar 71 times.  Monica was more distracted than usual, spending a great deal of time sniffing around the operant box. 

Discussion:

I was very excited to see this improvement in her behavior.  She was conscientiously pressing the bar on her own and moving towards the magazine to receive her reinforcement.

I am surprised how quickly Monica learned to press the bar.  In only four days, she had gone from a nervous little rat sniffing around the corners of the box and grooming herself (Dr. Trench told me this could be a nervous behavior) to preforming the bar pressing behavior in order to be reinforced. 

My experience shaping Monica was similar to how it was described in class and the book.  I made a series of tasks in my head that I mentioned earlier (turn head, sniff bar, sniff top of bar, come down over bar, paws on bar, press bar).  She moved back and forth between some of the more advanced shaping tasks.  From reading in Pryor and listening in class, I expected this behavior.  I knew that her behavior was not random when she repeated sniffed the top of the bar and put her hands on it.  In previous sessions after Monica ate a pellet, she would usually look out of the box or stick her nose in the corner, but I noticed that she was learning when she went directly back to sniffing the bar or putting her paws on it in anticipation of another pellet.