Magazine Training Ratna: Training Session 1

Training Session 1 performed 2/24/2016 @ 1:30 PM.

 Goal: Magazine train Ratna so she develops an association between the magazine, aka the food hopper, and the reinforcement. My main goal is to condition Ratna’s behavior so that after she sees the light in the operant box flash on/off and hears the pellet drop into the food hopper she approaches the food hopper in a systematic manner. 

Procedure: The week before I began training Ratna, she was food deprived to approximately 90% of her original body weight. Ratna originally weighed approximately 221 grams, but after a week of food deprivation she reached her target weight of 199 grams on training day. My training sessions are scheduled to usually last from 4-4:30 PM five days a week, however my first training session started at 1:30 because I worked with Dr. Trench my first time training Ratna. As pictured below, this is the operant box I will be using to train Ratna. It is very similar to the one I used to train Sniffy the Virtual Rat. To deliver a chocolate pellet to the magazine, I had to used a manual trigger. To begin with I delivered one pellet and as soon as Ratna ate one, I gave her another one. Throughout the duration of training session, that lasted approximately 21 minutes long, I gave Ratna reinforcements constantly. Shaping was starting to be performed during this training period but was not fully completed. In total, Ratna pressed the bar 3 times on her own, and I gave 47 manual reinforcements. 

Operant Box (left pic)/ Pellet Dispenser & Manual Trigger( right pic).

Results: One observation I noticed was that when reinforcement was delivered, Ratna consistently would go to the food magazine. In turn, the results of magazine training was complete because Ratna developed a strong association between the light turning on and off & sound of the pellet with receiving the food pellet reinforcement in the magazine. She also developed a minimal association between pressing the bar and receiving an reinforcement.

Discussion: Overall, Ratna maintained good attention when I was training her. She did illustrate a variety of behaviors such as scratching her nose or tail, walking around the box, jumping up in different regions, and even sticking her head in the hopper. However, whenever I did give her a reinforcement she went immediately to the hopper. If she did wander off from the hopper, it was very easy to bring her back by providing a reinforcement. Shaping was slightly achieved towards the middle and end of the session. Ratna began sniffing the bar and did press the bar a few times.  Overall, magazine training Ratna was similar to how we learned about the concept in class and how I trained Sniffy. Ratna picked up the association between the sound of the pellet and the on/off light to the reinforcement of the food. Tomorrow, I intend to work more on shaping Ratna to press the bar.