24 Jun CyberRat Lab Report #2: Shaping the Bar Press Response

CyberRat Lab Report #2: Shaping the Bar Press Response

Student’s Name

Department of Applied Behavior Analysis, Russell Sage College

ABA 501: Introduction to Behavior Analysis

Professor’s Name

Date

CyberRat Lab Report #2

Strategy

This section should be at least 200 words in length, and written entirely in past tense. This report is a description of what you did, not what you will do. In this section you will describe the strategy you developed before beginning the experiment. Do not include anything about what actually happened in your session, just your original plan. Be sure to write it as a plan (e.g., “First I planned to ….) and not as a list of steps that you did complete. It should be obvious to your reader that this is only a plan and you may or may not have implemented the plan as written. Your plan must include a shaping procedure.

Clearly specify your terminal behavior (bar press) and provide a definition. Include criterion for mastery. Specify and define each approximation or “step” that you planned to reinforce. Indicate how many times you planned to deliver reinforcement at each step before moving to the next and/or other criteria you planned to use to decide when to move to the next step. Write this in a step-by-step manner, in enough detail that someone else could easily implement your strategy after having read it.

Results

Sessions

This section should be at least 300 words in length. You should describe the actual process you ended up using to shape this behavior. Remember that in the previous section you discussed what you planned to do. This should be a clear description of what you actually did. Describe your session in a clear, step by step manner. At each step describe what you did and what the rat did. Be specific. Instead of writing that you reinforced a certain response several LAB 2 times, you want to include a specific number. If you conducted more than one session, you should thoroughly describe each session.

If you needed to modify your plan to get to your goal, explain how you modified it and why. Be sure to state the total number of reinforcers delivered and the total time it took to train the subject. Note the point at which the mastery criterion was reached.

Discussion

This section should be at least 300 words in length. You should comment on the training process. Discuss how you think the magazine training affected your rat’s performance and why. Do you think it was sufficiently trained prior to your conducting the shaping experiment? Why or why not? Be sure to discuss the significance of magazine training in sufficient detail that your instructor can determine that you fully understand it. Use behavioral language. Explain the two purposes of magazine training, and why you needed this to effectively shape behavior.

If you varied from your original plan, describe why it was necessary and what you would do differently for future shaping assignments. If you had difficulty (e.g., needing to repeat a session and/or select a new rat), fully discuss what you saw when reviewing the videos of your session and what mistakes you identified. Talk also about what you would do differently if you were to conduct this experiment again.

The discussion section is more than a conclusion. You should analyze your strategy and process, along with its dependence on magazine training, in detail. This is where your instructor will determine the extent to which you have understood the principles we have focused on for this experiment. Demonstrate what you learned.

,

This experiment is called Cyber Rat (google it)

This paper is about the magazine training lab.

Please follow attached document for the template to complete paper!

Use Info Below to complete assignment.

I only need three sections done:

Strategy, Results, and Discussion section

*As detailed as possible*

The info Below is for the strategy paragraph:

· Strategy: 200 Words

· Operational definition of lever press

· Bar/Lever Press: Any instance where the rat rears up on his hind legs and puts its paws on the lever and presses down the lever

· Steps with definition

· Criteria- 

· How you PLAN to advance

· Only your PLAN write as such

· Goal: 20 presses in 2 minutes

Initial plan:

*If the rat at any point, presses or puts paw on the lever extra (four extra drops of water) reinforcement will be provided*

*At any point throughout the experiment, if the rat rears up on its back legs close to the lever reinforcement will be provided (2 Times)*

1. Whenever the rat is in close proximity to the lever (reinforce with 2 drops)

2. Once the rat completes step 1, 5x consecutively. We will proceed to the next step.

3. Step 1 will be put in extinction. The rat will be reinforced with 2 drops when its nose is on the lever. 

4. Once the rat completes step 3, 5x consecutively, we will move on to the next step.

5. Whenever the rat touches the bar with his paw, we can reinforce 2x, 

6. Once this happens 5x consecutively, we will proceed to the next step. 

7. The rat stands on its hind legs and presses the bar down. Step five goes into extinction. We reinforce 2x. 

20x within 2 minutes – success 

Results section:

· Results: 300 Words

· Step-by-step description of your strategy

· Adaptions to plan

· Number of reinforcers 

· Amount of time to meet goal

· Describe all rats (different sessions/procedures) 

· Intital procedure and one it was successful

· Write in past tense only

Hours Water Deprivation: 25

1. Reinforcement is provided 3x when the rat is orientated towards the bar (5x)

2. Orienting towards bar is on extinction; Reinforcement is provided 3x when the rat’s nose is near the bar (5x)

a. If rat rears up on back legs in bar corner reinforce 1x

3 .  Rat’s nose close to the bar is on extinctions; Reinforce nose at bar 2x (5x)

a. If rat rears up on back legs in bar corner reinforce 1×4. Putting nose to bar goes on extinction; Reinforcement is provided 2x when paw in near 

the bar (5x)

a. Extinction: rat rearing up on back legs in bar corner

 5. Paw near the bar is on extinction; Reinforcement is provided 1x when paw touches bar 

(5x)

 6. Paw touching lever is on extinction; Reinforcement is provided 1x when the rat pushes 

down bar 

a. 20x within 2 minutes – success 

b. Success at 52 minutes 

Made some mistakes reinforcing when i shouldn’t have

Might have made the rat take longer to be successful

· Discussion section:

300 Words

· How did you do?

· Overall how it went

· Training process NOT step by steps

· Discuss important of magazine Training

· Variations on plan 

· Remember its purpose and use that in the assessment

· And how it affected the rat’s performance and session overall

· Was your rat sufficiently magazine trained?

· Difficulties

·

· Discussion: I started off with the paragraph. Please finish.

Magazine training was essential for the effective shaping of bar presses. By pairing a neutral stimulus (click) with a primary reinforcer (water), we trained the rat to receive reinforcement contingent on going to the dipper. Doing so allowed for the click to become a discriminative stimulus (sD). This was important to establish before shaping so the rat could receive reinforcement contingent on a successive approximation.