Training Session One: Magazine Training Tessa

Goal: 
To magazine train (develop an association between the food hopper/magazine and the delivery of reinforcement in the Operant Box) Tessa the rat. My goal is to condition Tessa to consistently approach the food hopper after hearing the sound of the pellet dropping into the hopper and seeing the light in the box flash on/off.

Procedure:
My rat was deprived to approximately 87% of her original body weight before beginning training. On the training day, Tessa weighed approximately 200 grams, only one gram below her target weight. Training sessions are scheduled to begin at 3:00 PM each day, but may be delayed to 3:30 PM on Thursdays due to scheduling conflicts. On the first day of training, I worked with Dr. Trench to magazine train Tessa. I used the manual reinforcement trigger to deliver a pellet to the food magazine. Once Tessa ate the pellet, I immediately delivered another reinforcement. Reinforcements were delivered consistently for the duration of the training session. Magazine training was performed for 21 minutes, consisting of 69 manual reinforcements and 28 bar-press reinforcements. Shaping was roughly performed during this period to teach Tessa to associate bar-presses and the delivery of reinforcement.

Results:
Tessa consistently returned to the food magazine whenever reinforcement was delivered. She developed a strong association between the sound of pellet deliver, the flickering of the light, and delivery of reinforcement in the food magazine. She was also able to develop a slight association between the bar-pressing behavior and reinforcement.

Discussion:
Tessa displayed a wide variety of behaviors which allowed for some shaping to occur during the magazine training session. Consistent reinforcement delivery was important in maintaining Tessa's attention on the food magazine. The session was ended prematurely when Tessa appeared to be satiated. This occurred after the successful delivery of 69 manual reinforcements, as well as an astounding 28 bar-presses.

Magazine training of Tessa resembles magazine training as discussed in lecture. I found it easiest to reinforce Tessa immediately after receiving a reinforcement, and this seemed to encourage her to spend time around the magazine. Whenever she would travel away from the magazine, it was simple to get her to return: all I had to do was deliver another reinforcement. Soon, she was associating the sound of the food hopper with the delivery of reinforcement.

The shaping procedure will be further discussed in the discussion of Training Session Two.
  
Training Session One was performed on September 19th at 3:00 PM.