Training Days 14 and 15: Extinction

Days 14 and 15 were spent putting Anne through the extinction phase. Anne was frustrated and confused to say the least and it was difficult to watch her continuously press the lever with no positive reinforcement from the chocolate pellets. Day 14, Anne hit the lever a total of 473 times in 25 minutes. What was most impressive though was the number of presses she had within 2 minutes of being in the operant conditioning box. Anne had hit the lever 125 times in 2 minutes! This is a great example of an extinction burst! She kept pressing the lever in hope the next lever press would have a different result and provide her with a treat. We did not do a good job tracking the number of responses she had throughout the session but took a long break starting about 17 minutes until we finally called it quits at about 25 minutes.

Day 15, Anne only hit the lever 106 times over a 30 minute session. Anne showed evidence of spontaneous revcovery in which she hit the lever 68 times in the first 12 minutes. The following 14 minutes, Anne only hit the lever seven times in 14 minutes. Oddly enough, within the last few minutes Anne hit 31 times in hopes a new behavior (like chewing the bar or light) would result in treats.