Training Day 10: FR20 Reached!

    After ten days of hard work, Bennie's training paid off. She reached her goal of FR20. Beginning the training session on FR18, Bennie and pressed the lever 877 times. Then, after switching to FR20, she pressed the lever 488 times. Overall, I expect that Bennie's response curve will look like a normal distribution curve. 

    I trained Bennie for an additional day so she could spend a full training period on FR20. During that time, she pushed the lever 1038 times in 25 minutes and 39 seconds. I was and am so proud of Bennie for completing her training so well. To my knowledge, Bennie was the first rat to reach FR20 (achieved on September 25). I partially credit this to Bennie's intelligence—but also my decision to train her over most weekends. The consistent training likely helped solidify Bennie's behavior in the operant box.

Included here is a link to Bennie working on her FR20 schedule and strangely pawing at the back of the lever.