How were Sniffy and Jubilee different?

At the very beginning of this semester, we started training with a computer program called Sniffy. In a couple previous posts I compared and contrasted Sniffy to Jubes, but here is a summary.


Magazine Training-
I tried to be pretty consistent with rewarding Jubilee the same way I rewarded Sniffy, but I tended to be a little strict and I became a little more nervous that I wasn't doing it right with Jubes. I was a little more hesitant with her. I mean you can start a new file with Sniffy, and you can't really press "new file" with a live rat.


Shaping -
With Jubilee this took a couple more sessions than with Sniffy, she learned a little slower than the virtual rat. It only took about an hour to shape Sniffy, which I guess would be two training sessions with Jubilee. Sniffy the virtual rat caught on much faster to the area, the wall, the lever, and then the action of pressing the lever than Jubes did.

 I loved having the Sniffy software as a resource. It gave me practice at magazine training and shaping before actually doing the real thing which made me much more confident going into training Jubes. I learned that all rats are different, and even a computer software can never predict how an animal will respond and what exactly it will take, I mean they are animals! I would definately recommend using both the software and the live rat in future classes because it just gives you that extra push and a little experience that I wouldn't have had. I never had experience with training an animal this way, and even though I have been taking psychology for 6 years now an have been learning about "Learning" having both resources gave me that extra edge and understanding.