Now that this experience is over, I almost don't know what to do with myself. I'll admit that I originally thought this project would be time-consuming and a little boring, which wasn't something I was looking forward to. I was excited about getting a rat (finally, an excuse to get a pet!!), but that was pretty much it.
But thankfully, this entire project exceeded my expectations entirely. Having an opportunity to train my own living rat was a great way to teach myself the concepts we discussed in class, plus it gave me something to talk about when I give campus tours!! But really- I ended up loving this project. I can't wait to teach Lilly more tricks (I'm thinking maybe an obstacle course?), and I know I'll use these concepts of positive reinforcement and extinction in the real world.
Overall, there aren't many things I'd change about the project. In fact, I probably wouldn't change anything. I really liked doing this blog instead of having to write an entire paper, especially because I could add pictures and videos. I also liked how our training times were staggered to prevent the rats from getting distracted by the other boxes. Although it was sometimes inconvenient for me to train at 3:30PM everyday, or I didn't feel like training at that time, it helped me a lot to just go to Stephens and get it done. I'd definitely recommend keeping the staggered times!!
Above all else, this was a project about caring- caring for an animal, and caring enough to train them to do something extraordinary. I definitely have a new respect for the researchers that work with lab rats on a daily basis. I'll miss all the fun I had with Lilly, but I can't wait to teach her new tricks in the future!
Tuesday, October 9, 2012
Lilly vs. Sniffy: Comparing a Live Rat with a Virtual Rat
Shaping a live rat is very different from shaping a virtual rat. For one thing, the virtual rat doesn't poop everywhere, which is always nice. Also, the time it takes to shape Sniffy was significantly less than shaping Lilly. When working with Sniffy, it took about 60-70 minutes to complete shaping. With Lilly, it took 4 days, or about 120 minutes of training time. That's almost twice as long!!
In addition, magazine training Sniffy was much easier than magazine training Lilly. It seemed to me that Sniffy quickly understood the rewards from the food hopper, while it took my live rat almost an entire training session to learn the connection. In addition, Sniffy would always go immediately to the food hopper after hearing the sound of the magazine; in training Lilly, she would often wait a few seconds before going to get her treat. I think my biggest issue with Sniffy is that the realism is pretty low. The graphics aren't very good, and the time it takes to train the virtual rat is a lot less than the time it takes to train a real rat. For example, in the Sniffy program you can fast-forward and speed up the training process, which is definitely something that does NOT happen in real life. But other than the realism issue, I generally enjoyed the Sniffy program.
I think from a learning standpoint, the biggest strength was being able to place Sniffy on a different reinforcement schedule than Lilly. And as I mentioned earlier, I would highly recommend using both the virtual and the live rat for class. I was also able to connect many of the concepts from class to training both rats, and I know I wouldn't have learned as much if I had only trained Sniffy. So although sometimes Sniffy can be time-consuming to work with, I found that using both rats was highly beneficial to my learning.
In addition, magazine training Sniffy was much easier than magazine training Lilly. It seemed to me that Sniffy quickly understood the rewards from the food hopper, while it took my live rat almost an entire training session to learn the connection. In addition, Sniffy would always go immediately to the food hopper after hearing the sound of the magazine; in training Lilly, she would often wait a few seconds before going to get her treat. I think my biggest issue with Sniffy is that the realism is pretty low. The graphics aren't very good, and the time it takes to train the virtual rat is a lot less than the time it takes to train a real rat. For example, in the Sniffy program you can fast-forward and speed up the training process, which is definitely something that does NOT happen in real life. But other than the realism issue, I generally enjoyed the Sniffy program.
I think from a learning standpoint, the biggest strength was being able to place Sniffy on a different reinforcement schedule than Lilly. And as I mentioned earlier, I would highly recommend using both the virtual and the live rat for class. I was also able to connect many of the concepts from class to training both rats, and I know I wouldn't have learned as much if I had only trained Sniffy. So although sometimes Sniffy can be time-consuming to work with, I found that using both rats was highly beneficial to my learning.
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| This is one of Lilly's cumulative records from being on an FR12 schedule. She hit the lever over 900 times that day. |
Lilly's Virtual Friend: A Post on Sniffy
As part of this course, we also had to train a virtual rat named Sniffy. Although he wasn't nearly as exciting as the real thing, it was excellent practice for magazine training and shaping Lilly. The process of magazine training and shaping also went by a lot more quickly with Sniffy than with my live rat. With Sniffy, it only took a little over an hour to shape, while it took several days to shape Lilly. In addition, after finishing the shaping of Sniffy, I decided to put it on a VI schedule. This was schedule was obviously different from shaping, especially because Sniffy pressed the bar on a more regular schedule than he did during shaping.
One positive of working with Sniffy is that I got some good training tips for Lilly. For example, I learned that it's helpful to reward your rat when they rear up over the lever, because that teaches them that they should be over it in order to push down. Also, because I put Lilly on an advanced FR schedule, I put Sniffy on a VI schedule. It was interesting to see the differences between the two schedules, and I enjoyed having the opportunity to see a different kind of training schedule. I would definitely recommend using both the live and virtual rat for future classes- it's a great opportunity to learn new ways of training, and it helps immensely with training the live rat.
One positive of working with Sniffy is that I got some good training tips for Lilly. For example, I learned that it's helpful to reward your rat when they rear up over the lever, because that teaches them that they should be over it in order to push down. Also, because I put Lilly on an advanced FR schedule, I put Sniffy on a VI schedule. It was interesting to see the differences between the two schedules, and I enjoyed having the opportunity to see a different kind of training schedule. I would definitely recommend using both the live and virtual rat for future classes- it's a great opportunity to learn new ways of training, and it helps immensely with training the live rat.
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| This is a picture of Sniffy, after I finished the shaping process. You can see from the graph that Sniffy fully understands the association between sound and food. |
Chart Depicting Lilly's Responses
| Responses During Training | ||
| Day | Responses | |
| Magazine Training | 3 | |
| Shaping Day 1 | 9 | |
| Shaping Day 2 | 17 | |
| Shaping Day 3 | 39 | |
| Shaping Day 4 | 72 | |
| FR2 | 134 | |
| FR3 | 285 | |
| FR5 | 469 | |
| FR7 | 286 | |
| FR7 | 183 | |
| FR10 | 744 | |
| FR12 | 970 | |
| FR15 | 615 | |
| FR20 | 681 | |
| Extinction Day 1 | 175.6 | |
| Extinction Day 2 | 48.75 |
Sunday, October 7, 2012
Lilly's Weight Chart
| Weight Chart | ||
| Target Weight: 215 grams | ||
| Date | Weight | Food |
| 9/12/2012 | 247 grams | 2.6 grams |
| 13-Sep | 233 | 2.3 |
| 14-Sep | 220 | 2.4 |
| 15-Sep | 222 | 3.3 |
| 16-Sep | 219 | 3.1 |
| 17-Sep | 210 | 4 |
| 18-Sep | 205 | 6.8 |
| 19-Sep | 210 | 5.6 |
| 20-Sep | 216 | 5.7 |
| 21-Sep | 211 | 9.3 |
| 22-Sep | 210 | 13.9 |
| 23-Sep | 229 | 3 |
| 24-Sep | 215 | 6.6 |
| 25-Sep | 225 | 3.3 |
| 26-Sep | 219 | 3.4 |
| 27-Sep | 217 | 3.3 |
| 28-Sep | 210 | 3.5 |
| 29-Sep | 209 | 4.4 |
| 30-Sep | 212 | 4.6 |
| 1-Oct | 217 | 3.9 |
| 2-Oct | 212 | 4.2 |
| 3-Oct | 210 | 4.3 |
| 4-Oct | 214 | Free Feed |
Extinction: Sometimes Life is Unfair
Today was the second day of extinction for Lilly, and I'll tell you this: she was NOT a fan. The goal of the second day was to drastically reduce the number of times Lilly actually pressed the bar, because she had learned that engaging in bar pressing would no longer provide rewards. On the first day of extinction, Lilly still consistently tried to press the bar, although it was at a much lower rate. By the time we got to our second session, you can see from the graph that she had drastically reduced her bar-pressing.
When Lilly first understood that she wasn't going to get anymore treats, she began exhibiting some really interesting behaviors. First, she started pressing the bar like her life depended on it, which was an excellent example of an extinction burst. I could see that she was frustrated, and her behavior mirrored that frustration. After Lilly attempted to press the bar so many times, she took a little break and started biting on the plastic front of the cage, which was a behavior I hadn't observed in her before. She also started jumping at the light over the bar, as if she thought it would give her a treat if she did something to it. In addition, the number of times she pressed the bar decreased significantly as the session went on. After about 25 minutes of the session, she had almost completely stopped pressing the bar. Today, she's only pressed the bar 51 times in eight minutes (so far) which is a huge decline from her earlier records. I eventually terminated the training session after 23 minutes, because she hadn't pressed the bar in quite some time. I think Lilly might be getting the message- no more treats for her! Although I'm sure she didn't like it, I enjoyed watching her try a variety of behaviors to receive treats again. The graph of responses demonstrates her drastic decline in lever-pressing behavior, and you can see how much her behavior changed, especially on the second day. Sometimes life is rough for a rat!
When Lilly first understood that she wasn't going to get anymore treats, she began exhibiting some really interesting behaviors. First, she started pressing the bar like her life depended on it, which was an excellent example of an extinction burst. I could see that she was frustrated, and her behavior mirrored that frustration. After Lilly attempted to press the bar so many times, she took a little break and started biting on the plastic front of the cage, which was a behavior I hadn't observed in her before. She also started jumping at the light over the bar, as if she thought it would give her a treat if she did something to it. In addition, the number of times she pressed the bar decreased significantly as the session went on. After about 25 minutes of the session, she had almost completely stopped pressing the bar. Today, she's only pressed the bar 51 times in eight minutes (so far) which is a huge decline from her earlier records. I eventually terminated the training session after 23 minutes, because she hadn't pressed the bar in quite some time. I think Lilly might be getting the message- no more treats for her! Although I'm sure she didn't like it, I enjoyed watching her try a variety of behaviors to receive treats again. The graph of responses demonstrates her drastic decline in lever-pressing behavior, and you can see how much her behavior changed, especially on the second day. Sometimes life is rough for a rat!
| Extinction | ||
| Extinction Day 1 | ||
| 5 Minutes | 98 | |
| 10 Minutes | 165 | |
| 15 Minutes | 194 | |
| 20 Minutes | 198 | |
| 25 Minutes | 223 | |
| Extinction Day 2 | ||
| 5 Minutes | 42 | |
| 10 Minutes | 51 | |
| 15 Minutes | 51 | |
| 20 Minutes | 51 |
Lilly's FR Schedule(s)
Lilly and I spent a great deal of time on the FR schedule. Once we reached the FR10 stage, I decided that I wanted to continue to go upwards. The highest schedule we attained was the FR20 schedule, and I was so proud of Lilly for hanging in that long! I enjoyed going up to a higher level, because it really demonstrated the concept of stretching the ratio. We discussed it in class, but it wasn't until I actually did it myself that I really understood it. She consistently pressed the bar over 600 times at every session once we started the FR12 schedule, which was really cool to watch. You can see in the chart depicting response times (which is in another blog post) to see how much she pressed the bar, and see how the higher up we got in the FR sessions, the more Lilly pressed the bar. She also became more consistent in how often she pressed the bar. For example, when we first started the sessions Lilly was very hesitant and tentative about pressing the bar, even if I manually rewarded her to increase her interest. But as we got further along, she put a lot of time into pressing it, and would press it multiple times in a row until she received a reward. It seemed to me that she had learned it would take more effort to get a treat, and that made her put more work into pressing the bar. However, the fact that we went up to an FR20 schedule made extinction reeeeeeeally difficult when the time came... but more on that later! During our FR sessions, Lilly was about 5 grams underweight, and I theorize this might have contributed to her excessive motivation to press the bar. Either way, as you'll see in the chart documenting her average responses, Lilly was always eager to engage in pressing the bar. The goal of these FR sessions was to increase the number of times Lilly pressed the bar, and I firmly believe we achieved that goal.
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