Magazine Training

Pictured below: Bennie retrieves a chocolate pellet from the operant box delivery chute.

Q1) What is magazine training?

A1) Magazine training is the training required for an animal to familiarize themselves with the mechanism that delivers its reinforcer (psychologydictionary.org). In this case, it is the training Bennie needs to recognize that her food pellet comes from a delivery chute in her operant box. It also involves her recognizing the light flash and noise produced by the delivery chute signal a food pellet is now available.

Q2) How many minutes did this take?

A2) It took a total of 12 minutes to magazine train Bennie.

Q3) What was your criteria for determining she was magazine trained?

A3) I determined that Bennie was magazine trained when she walked toward to the delivery chute and ate her pellet within three seconds of the pellet dropping.

Q4) What did you notice about her behavior during this process?

A4) I noticed that Bennie's behavior was modified gradually, not instantly. It took time for Bennie to investigate the delivery chute. It took more time for her to recognize the signals that indicate a pellet is available. Instead of being clueless and then instantly knowledgable, Bennie steadily learned how her environment functions.

Q5) Was this similar to the book/class discussion of magazine training? Why or why not?

A5) Bennies magazine training was similar to our class discussion. Us students were informed that we would need to be patient in training our rats. We were told that while we could not communicate verbally with our rats, we could gradually teach them by reinforcing behaviors we wanted and encouraging exploration.