Psychology 101 CyberRat Exercises.

For all Exercises, be sure to save your session so that it can be replayed and analyzed. You may use these "replays" to improve your descriptions of what the rat does.

By the way, there is an Appendix on Shaping with CyberRat available as a pdf file at www.psych-ai.com (Download area, authors are Ray RD and Eckerman DA). This brief text presents background material for shaping that whould be helpful as you take on the exercises listed below.

E1. Operant level determination and natural observation. Arrange for Extinction with stimu. For one 20 min period, take notes on what your rat does in the chamber before you do any specific training. Be sure to use "concrete" (e.g., nosing in upper right back corner) rather than "abstract" terms that contain assumptions (e.g., exploring, sniffing upper right back corner). Be alert to changes in behavior that occur across time. We will not take quantitative data for this exercise (to be quantitative, we could have you develop a set of behavioral codings and code each 5 sec period for the behaviors you observe, but that would be too much work for the present exercise). Instead, be ready to offer a one paragraph description of what the rat does. Be especially alert to activities that we will later include in our work (contacting and pressing the bar, entering the water delivery area). (23 hr deprivation)

E2. Magazine training. Arrange for CRF with manual reinforcement (0.4 ml reinforcers, 23 hr deprivation). Plan on a 20 min period (or 100 reinforcers) and use the manual reinforcers to train the rat "to come for water when called" by the sound of the water delivery. Remember to try to have the rat leave from different locations in the chamber and go to the water area soon after the water is delivered. Avoid shaping any specific behavior with these sounds. Again, be ready to offer a descriptive paragraph about what the rat does. You may use the "cumulative record and summary statistics" to determine the number and pattern of reinforcere deliveries during the session.

E3. Shaping the bar press. Arrange for CRF with manual reinforcement (0.4 ml reinforcers, 23 hr deprivation, ). Plan on a 30 min period (or 100 reinforcers) and use the manual reinforcers to train the rat to approach, rise above, and press the bar by using manual water reinforcers. Remember that even after the rat presses the lever for the first time you may need to continue manual reinforcements for a while to assure the lever pressing is sufficiently strong to go on its own. Again, be ready to offer a descriptive paragraph about what the rat does. Now, you will also have the cumulative record and summary statistics to use in your description of this shaping process.

E4. Stabilizing the bar press performance. Arrange for CRF with manual reinforcement (0.4 ml reinforcers, 23 hr deprivation). Plan on a 30 min period or 100 reinforcers. Don't use manual reinforcement unless bar pressing has not started by 12 minutes. The purpose of this session is to allow the bar pressing to reach a good, strong level. You should also be ready to provide a descriptive paragraph stating what the rat did during the session. And, you will also have the cumulative record and summary statistics to use in your description of this session.

E5. Extinction. Arrange Extinction (23 hr deprivation) for 30 min. Watch closely to see what behaviors change from those you saw in E4. Be alert to changes across the time period. And, you will also have the cumulative record and summary statistics to use in your description of this session.

E6. Reconditioning. Arrange for CRF with manual reinforcement (0.4 ml reinforcers, 23 hr deprivation). Plan on a 40 min period or 100 reinforcers. Don't use manual reinforcement unless bar pressing has not started by 12 miinutes. The purpose of this session is to evaluate how quickly responding recovers once it again produces reinforcements. Be ready to offer a descriptive paragraph stating what the rat did during the session. And, you will also have the cumulative record and summary statistics to use in your description of this session.

E7 – 12. Fixed-interval reinforcement. Arrange a 60-sec FI schedule of reinforcement for 120 minute sessions (same reinforcer and deprivation conditions as usual) for each of these six sessions. But, you can do all of them in fast-simulation mode. I will later want you to observe three 20 min periods – one being the second 20 min of E7, another being the second 20 min of E9, the last being the second 20 min of E12. Be ready to offer descriptive paragraphs stating what the rat did during these three 20 min periods. And, you will also have the cumulative records and summary statistics to use in your description of these sessions.

E13 – 18. Variable interval reinforcement. Arrange a 60-sec VI schedule of reinforcement for 120 minute sessions (same reinforcer and deprivation conditions as usual) for each of these six sessions. But, you can do all of them in fast-simulation mode. I will later want you to observe three 20 min periods – one being the second 20 min of E7, another being the second 20 min of E9, the last being the second 20 min of E12. Be ready to offer descriptive paragraphs stating what the rat did during these three 20 min periods. And, you will also have the cumulative records and summary statistics to use in your description of these sessions.

E19 – 30. Discrimination training. Arrange a 60-sec VI schedule of reinforcement for 60 minute sessions (same reinforcer and deprivation conditions as usual) for each of these twelve sessions. You should set the stimulus control parameters to alternate S+ and S- every 60 secondsBut, you can do all of them in fast-simulation mode. I will later want you to observe three 20 min periods of your choosing to represent behavior at different stages of discrimination learning. Be ready to offer descriptive paragraphs stating what the rat did during these three 20 min periods. And, you will also have the cumulative records and summary statistics to use in your description of these sessions. I will, for example, ask you to graph the "discrimination ratio" achieved for each of the twelve sessions (to be described in class).