Time to get in Shape

Shaping involves molding a subject, by using very small, incremental steps, to reach the target goal.  I will slowly positively reinforce Ruby, giving her a pellet to shape her behavior toward the pressing the bar in her operant box. After she has made the realization that reinforcement comes from the food magazine and that the reinforcement is given when she does something favorable, I will have to give her reinforcement the closer she gets to pressing the bar.

Over-all goal for Shaping: Gradually reward Ruby for acts that will eventually lead her to receive reinforcement on her own by pressing a bar that distributes the chocolate pellet (reinforcer).

Goal for Shaping Days 1-3: To successfully reinforce Ruby every time she is near the bar then raising  the criteria the more she associates the bar with reinforcement.

Procedure :  I will begin by rewarding Ruby every time she consumes the reinforcement then looks to the left (where the bar is located) . I will then raise the criteria to where Ruby will receive a reinforcement when rearing up anywhere in the front half of the box.  Following, I will reinforce Ruby anytime she rears up over the bar (even if she doesn't touch it). Finally, I'll reinforce Ruby only when she touches the bar. Hopefully, she is able to press the bar on her own to receive reinforcement.

Shaping Day 1

Ruby is finally magazine trained. We had a rough time getting there, but she can finally make the association between the light and sound of the pellet dropping. Today we took baby steps until Ruby began touching the bar. I started to reward her every time she was near the bar and also every time she would rear up. This may seem to be a strange behavior to reward, but in order to actually press the bar to receive the food on her own, Ruby must exert some force by rearing. By the end of the session Ruby put her paws on the bar 4 times.

Shaping Day 2

Ruby pressed the bar 14 times today! After such a difficult time magazine training, I am very surprised that Ruby was shaping better than magazine training. I reinforced her only when she reared up over the bar or touched the bar with some part of her body. However, the majority of Ruby's bar presses were a result of her jumping on the bar with her hind legs while holding onto the light. Since the part of the goal of training is to get Ruby to press the bar with her paws, this isn't exactly ideal but I am definitely glad she is making progress.

Shaping Day 3

I am relieved that Ruby has gotten progressively better each day that I have trained her. Today she pressed the bar 19 times and the majority of them were with her paws. I honestly think she would have done much better had I not reinforced her almost every time she touched the bar with her paws. Ideally, during the shaping of Ruby, I would only manually reward her every 30 seconds. However, I just got so excited that she was touching the bar with her paws that I would reward her every time she did it. I kinda backtracked at the end by rewarding her when she would rear up and touch the bar even when she barely touched it. I think it is more important that Ruby actually be able to learn the technique properly and not just be rewarded every time she lightly pressed the bar.