Sniffy Magazine Training Experiment

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Magazine Training Ryan Smith University of LaVerne 04/25/2014 Abstract Magazine training is the training required for the animal in an experiment to become familiar with the mechanism which delivers the reinforcer in operant conditioning. In this experiment, Sniffy is trained to associate the sound of the magazine (the food delivery device) with the actual food. This will help Sniffy to associate between the sound of the food pellet-dispensing mechanism and the fact that a pellet of food is available. Introduction Operant conditioning is run by a series of rewards, punishments, and reinforcements; both positive and negative. What is used to train Sniffy is positive reinforcements. Reinforcements are pleasant consequences used to continue behavior. In the experiment, when Sniffy pressed the bar and/or lever, the operant chamber rewarded him with a food pellet. Because the food was a primary reinforcement for Sniffy, it increased his behavior of continuously pressing the bar overtime. The secondary reinforcer used in the experiment was the magazine sound that…show more content…
Then, he had to associate the sound of the hopper with the presentation of a food pellet. I began this by consistently reinforcing him each time he was near the hopper. Once he found it, I reinforced him each time he took his head out of the food hopper. I began my experiment at 2:10 p.m. At first, Sniffy was a very curious rat. He thoroughly explored every corner of the operant box before making his way to the food hopper. He also reared up quite a bit along the sides of the box. There were many periods of grooming and sniffing around as well. I expected all of these things to happen based on previous experiments with Sniffy. There were many funny moments as well as frustrating moments. By the end of the 30 minute training session, Princess Fi-B seemed to catch on to the

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