We have set the goal today at a minimum of 300 bar presses. This means that she will continue to get at least 60 reinforcements before we are ready to move on to the next schedule.
Procedure:
We cleaned the cage then placed our rat in the cage. Once she was in the cage we placed the shield on and observed her actions.
Results:
Today she only pressed the lever 273 times. Her rate of bar presses was about the same through the session today except for minute 14 to minute 20. She seemed to just stop and go sit in the corner for about six minutes. During that time she was sniffing and grooming herself. After her six minute break she returned to pressing lever.
Discussion:
We believe that if she had not taken the six minute break that she would have mastered this schedule but as it is we plan on continuing her on this schedule for at least one more day. She seems to be getting frustrated at some points and just stopping instead of continuing onward. Tomorrow we will attempt to master FR 5 so that we can then move on to FR 7. We debated about going ahead on to FR 7 but after discussing the possible drawbacks we realized we could do more harm than good if she was not ready.
Cumulative Record
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