Psychology of Learning Blog

The graph above represents the amount of times Habibti pressed the lever throughout the project. On the X axis, we have the number of FR training sessions Habibti did, and the Y axis has the amount of lever presses in the session. The graph above shows the amount of times Habibti pushed the lever per 5 minutes during her extinction trials. The chart above shows the amount of times Habibti pushed the lever per 30 minutes during her FR training. The chart above is David and I keeping track of Habibti's weight throughout the project. We wanted to make sure that Habibti was at a healthy weight during her diet.

I loved getting to hold a rat which is something I did not expect at the beginning of the class. I had never held a rat before, but I really enjoyed being around Habibti and watch her move around in the operant box. I do not have any complaints about the project. I thought it was well structured and very adaptable to our work schedules. The only improvement I would make would be turn the blog post of each FR schedule into one big summary about the project. It was hard trying not to repeat myself making a blog for 15 different sessions when the only thing that changed was the number of pushes it took to get reinforcement. I overcame all my misconceptions about rats. I learned they can be adorable and soft and can learn very quick.

Overall, David and I did not experience any major problems with training Habibti. Our schedules would conflict with feeding on occasion but communicating with each other helped keep us on top of feeding and taking care of Habibti. Another problem we had was trying to weigh Habibti in the metal bowl. When we first tried to weigh her with Dr. Trench, Habibti jumped out of the bowl and barricaded herself behind the trash cans in the corner of the room. After Habibti tried to make a run for it several more times, Dr. Trench gave David and I a plastic bowl to put her in while we weighed her. Other than that, the training sessions went smoothly and Habibti did a good job of going through each FR schedule.

David and I put Habibti on the extinction protocol again for the last training session and this time she only pushed the lever 276 times. Habibti was active in the beginning trying to get food but quickly lost interest after the first 10 to 15 minutes of the session. Both training sessions showed instances of extinction burst. Habibti would stop then push the lever a bunch of times in a row then would stop and groom herself for a few minutes then try again before stopping altogether. The second day of extinction showed some spontaneous recovery at first, but once Habibti realized she would not get food she stopped interacting with the lever.

David and I are going to put Habibti on the extinction session now that she has consistently hit over 1,000 lever pushes on FR20. Habibti began pushing the lever as soon as she got into the operant box but never received any reinforcement. She pushed the lever 784 times and did not receive any pellets which confused her. Habibti would push then stop and wander around the box then go back to push the lever. Her interactions with the lever were very inconsistent throughout the extinction session.

And on the third day, Habibti hit 1,238 lever pushes and received 61 pellets on her final FR training day! Now that Habibti has consistently shown that she can press the lever, it is time for David and I to put her on extinction training.

Habibti was put on FR20 again and she got 1,255 lever pushes and received 62 pellets the second time around. Habibti upped her number of lever pushes by 100 and kept pushing the lever until she heard food drop in the feeder! David and I are going to put her on FR20 one more time to see how she does the third time.

Habibti pushed the lever 1,131 times and got 56 pellets her first day of FR20 training. Habibti would push the lever around 10 to 12 times then check the feeder and would go back to pushing when she realized there was no food left. David and I are going to see how she does on FR20 again tomorrow.

Habibti pushed the lever 891 times and received 49 pellets of food on her FR18 schedule. Habibti pushed the lever until she food then went back to get more food. David and I are going to put Habibti on the FR18 schedule.

Habibti pushed the lever 858 times and received 57 pellets of food on her FR15 schedule. Habibti pushed the lever until she food then went back to get more food. David and I believe Habibti is ready for FR18.

Habibti pushed the lever 670 times and received 55 pellets of food on her FR12 schedule. Habibti continued to push the lever until she got food dropped in her feeder. David and I are going to put Habibti on FR15 for the next training session.

Habibti pushed the lever 562 times and received 56 pellets on the FR10 schedule which is another increase from her last FR schedule. Habibti constantly pushed the lever and got her food throughout the training session. David and I are going to keep increasing Habibti’s FR schedule until she starts to show a decrease. Next session will be FR12.

Today David and I put Habibti on the FR7 schedule because she did so well with the FR5 schedule. Habibti pushed the lever 531 times and received 75 pellets! Habibti has done a great job of sticking with the desired behavior of pushing the lever to get food. David and I are going to put her on FR10 for the next training session because her lever presses keep increasing.

Habibti adjusted well to the increased schedule and pushed the lever 427 times to receive 85 pellets. She still went to the lever before getting her five presses, but she was very consistent in her interactions with the lever.

Habibti went up to FR3 and pushed the lever 302 times and received 100 pellets which is a slight decrease compared to her last training session. Habibti interaction with the lever was spontaneous, but not low enough to keep her at FR3 for another training session. David and I are going to put her on FR5 for the next training session.

Habibti did very well for her first fixed ratio training session. She pushed the lever 323 times and received 151 pellets! Habibti went straight to the lever when she got in the box, but after her first push she would go to the feeder to collect food. Habibti did not quite understand that she had to push it twice to get food, but she understood it by the end.

Habibti’s FR1 training session got off to a very fast and switched her to FR2 after the first five minutes of her FR1 training session. David and I forgot to record her results of FR1, but the graph will show Habibti’s number of responses.

  Habibti was quick at learning that the lever had something to do with food delivery. In her first shaping she pushed the lever 9 times to get her own pellets, so David and I did not need to shape her behavior much in the middle of training session. We did one shaping sessions for 30 minutes. During the shaping sessions we gave Habibti reinforcement every time she was next to the lever or had her paws on the lever. David and I had to be careful not to reinforce her going under the lever, which she did on multiple occasions, because we did not want her to push up on the lever and get no reward. Habibti did well with the manual shaping, so we decided to put her in FR2 for the next session!

Habibti was magazine trained within the first 5 minutes of being in the operant box! My criteria for determining Habibti was magazine trained was when she realized that food came out of the feeder and waitied by it to recieve more food. Habibti's magazine training was similar to the discussion Mikayla had with David and I on what to look for when Habibti was finally magazine trained. Once Habibti realized food came out of the feeder, she began to claw at the feeder to try and get more food.