Day 14 - FR20

Time: 29:14
Protocol ID: 26 (FR20)
Event 1 Total: 404
Reinforcement Total: 20 +10 Bonus
Goal: 400+ bar presses; Press bar 10 consecutive times
Goal Reached: Yes; Yes (13 times)

Before I had even closed the lid on the box, Rat was at it pressing the bar.

As with the last session, I am going to "jackpot" Rat, although I will not be quite as liberal as I was last session. By doing this, I am continuously reinforcing her for every 20th bar press and also placing her on a variable (very subjective) schedule for double reinforcement. This, I hypothesize, will cut down on PRP times.

4:45 - The amount of time spent exploring the magazine has increased over last session. She has also started chewing (to the point of being audible) the magazine.

6:00 - Crossed the 100 bar-press mark; PRPs are lasting mere seconds (5-10)

12:32 - Crossed the 200 bar-press mark; time exploring magazine has decreased; PRPs increased to 10-15 seconds

17:27 - She is continuing to transfer her weight quickly from side to side and press the bar with each paw at a time. Unfortunately, she generally only presses the bar 5-6 times in a row, although she has pressed it far more on occasion. She is also pressing the bar much harder, as I can see the entire mechanism on the back of the operant box move occasionally (and not just the bar).

20:00 - Crossed the 300 bar-press mark; PRP times are down again to roughly 10 seconds.

21:50 - Her actions are much quicker and she will groom herself, look into the magazine, turn her attention away from the wall with the bar and magazine, etc. for only a second or two.

22:00-24:30 - A campus policeman came into the room and was asking questions and put his face close to the box. Rat immediately froze for ~15 seconds before wondering the box and not going near either the bar or the magazine. Within 20 seconds after he left, she was back to pressing the bar.

27:45 - PRPs are increasing to roughly 15-20 seconds again. The event with the campus policeman must have really distracted her because her behavior has slowed.

28:55 - Crossed the 400 bar-press mark

Again, I am impressed at Rat's progress. She has accomplished far more than I would have expected, and although I only gave her an extra day of training, she has exhausted the Graphic State program's highest and most stringent protocol. WELL DONE, RAT! I'm not looking forward to extincting you just yet; it'll be a shame to watch your steep learning curve dramatically stop (and not by your own abilities).

After the training session, when I went to weigh and feed Rat, I noticed the behavior of the rats was much different, especially among those on "free feed." Then I noticed what they were doing; they were breaking off small portions of food and burying it as best they could. This survival instinct was amazing to watch since it is so controllable in a lab.