Problem
Read through the manual's description of what Shaping is, and how to design a shaping experiment with Sniffy.
Go through the instructions for Shaping Sniffy to roll (Exercise 47) very carefully. You will be starting with the MagTrain file included in the program's sample files.
Note that this exercise takes about an hour to complete fully. This will require you to focus on Sniffy's behaviors and reinforce him manually with the space bar, each time he performs the desired behavior.
Make a note of the time when you start, and how much time it took you to fully train Sniffy. Run the experiment as described in the manual.
Save your file under a new name. You will need this file for next week's lab.
1. Answer the following questions in a Word document:
2. How long, approximately, did it take you to fully train Sniffy to roll?
3. What was the hardest part about shaping Sniffy's behavior?
4. Why was it important to start with the MagTrain file for this Shaping exercise?
5. How hard would it be to train a rat to roll around an operant chamber in real life? How would that be different from using the Sniffy program?
6. Copy and paste your bar graph into your document. Referring to your bar graph, how do we know that Sniffy is fully trained to roll?