But Of Course: My Tablet Broke The Day Before I Fly To ASP!

I noticed a hairline crack on my tablet yesterday but thought nothing of the crack. As the day progresses, I noticed that the crack starts getting larger and larger, and towards the end of my research day today, it already took over one third of the screen and the tablet is not responding to touch anymore. Obviously this is no good because if a touch screen is not responding to touch then what good is it? By the time I got back to my hotel, my whole tablet screen had cracked!

Of course, this is happening THE DAY BEFORE I FLY OUT TO A CONFERENCE TO SHOW MY APPARATUS! /RageTyping

After scouring the whole Research Triangle Park (RTP) area to replace a tablet, I  finally found one at a Verizon store. It was their very last tablet of that model. Of course it is more than $100 more expensive than the one I bought from Best Buy (or online) but I'm running short on time and I really needed it ASAP.

This isn't the first time my apparatus parts malfunctioned, but this one is more pressing and there isn't anything I can do to fix it except to replace it. However, I feel validated with the decision to use only Android products because SMARTA (my apparatus) is meant to be built relatively cheap. The Android tablet I'm using costs about $200 to $300ish whereas an iPad would cost about $600 (the total of how much you would pay to build SMARTA).

As if I'm not having a shitty Monday yet, the AC in my hotel room crapped out and I had to move to a different room. There were only 2 rooms available in the whole hotel and they are both "smoking room". Normally I'd bitch about having to sleep in a "smoking room" but I think being able to be in room with AC when the temperature outside is at around 90 degrees trumps all.

Someone or something is really testing me today ...

I got this fortune inside a fortune cookie from dinner today. I think it's apropos.

Extinction Burst: Throwing Tantrums When There Are No More Free Handouts

Extinction and extinction burst graph from study.com

In psychology, an "extinction" is the gradual decrease of a behavior. When an animal is operantly conditioned (for example, given a food reward to reinforce behavior), reinforced behavior will gradually decrease when that behavior is no longer reinforced with a reward. At the onset of "extinction", an animal will exhibit something call "extinction burst". An extinction burst is when an animal frantically and erratically exhibit reinforced behavior with increased frequency and eventually that behavior decreases and becomes "extinct". I assume it's called "extinction burst" due to a burst of reinforced behavior prior to extinction. Extinction burst is evolutionarily beneficial as animals that exhibit extinction burst is increasing the reinforced behavior for a positive outcome as opposed to those that gives up (extinction without extinction burst). These are important concepts to remember when you train animals. But obviously, these are text book definitions.

Textbook definitions be like ...

I'm writing about this because I am currently experiencing extinction burst with my lemurs. It has been about 4 weeks since I have started training them. Aside from my one star student (Good job, Halley!) all my other lemurs are either starting to associate touching the screen or approaching the apparatus for a food reward. Those that are reinforced to touch the screen for a food reward are currently being shaped (refining their behavior) to touch the red square on the screen for a food reward. However, this requires the lemur to understand that by merely touching the screen will no longer be reinforced and that only touching the red square will a food reward be given.

This new development in cognitive test has given these lemurs much anguish and despair. If you know ruffed lemurs, you know how dramatic they can become. Have you seen those sad face? When their arms and legs are outstretched as if they are saying "FML......". Yea, I've seen it.

Imagine this is a ruffed lemur instead of a sloth

Some of these lemurs are currently exhibiting extinction burst. They are swiping or tapping frantically at the screen while staring at the apparatus chute expecting a food reward. We know that, based on this series of behavior, these lemurs are operantly conditioned by food reward to touch the screen. Shaping them to target the red box instead of any surface of the screen is resulting in some lemurs exhibiting extinction burst. They look like they are throwing tantrums because there are no more free handouts. Compared to previous weeks where they get a food reward for just staring at the apparatus or approaching it.

A black-and-white ruffed lemur. He's just over it.

And to be quite honest, only half of these lemurs are exhibiting extinction burst while the other half are slowly getting shaped to target the red box. Although it is interesting to note that all the lemurs that I am currently training are black-and-white ruffed lemurs. What I would do for these red ruffed lemurs to be exhibiting extinction burst but instead they are herp derping their way into realizing that approaching my apparatus gives them a food reward.

Le Lemuriens Sont "Comme Ci, Comme Ça"

I ended up not blogging for the past few days because there aren't a lot to talk about except the same monotonous routine with training these lemurs. It is by all means not boring, just same old, same old. I also don't want to jinx something so keep your eyes peeled.

My sample size is dwindling as I soon realize that there is a learning curve amongst species and unfortunately I only have 2 star students. However, I am not giving up on them in the entirety, but I'd like to move my star students into testing phase as soon as possible because who cares about failing students. Amirite? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

There's a parallel to be drawn about my apparatus and Common Core but this is neither here nor there because I am not a teacher and I only train non human primates (unless you count my husband).

I had to do some re-adjustment with the size of my stimuli after running a few testing trials this week. Thank goodness my husband can get it done in a matter of minutes! You might think you are 100% prepared but when you actually work with your subjects, you'll notice that YOU ARE NOT PREPARED.

On a related note, I am so glad I was able to upgrade my Android tablet (part of my apparatus) to Lollipop because the lemurs were doing more than touching the screen. They were swiping on places they are not supposed to and that brings up the menu window or different tabs. Being able to upgrade to Lollipop will make it possible to lock the screen, so doesn't matter where the lemurs touch or swipe, the program will not tab out.

More training next week! And I might have a research assistant ...

May I Have Your Attention Please?

This is Week 3 at Duke Lemur Center. I had big things planned for this week in my "Things Raymond Wants To Accomplish" list. In reality, it is far more mundane. Not an animal trainer myself (not applied, anyway), but I had thought that training lemurs would be a much quicker endeavor than teaching snails to spell out "YASSS MAMA". Apparently not.

Within the subjects that I am working with, it seems that most of them will take a long time to train. I have lucked out that a pair of lemurs I am working with learned really fast and had gotten a grasp of what I want them to do in my trials. Most of them, not so much. There is a pair of lemurs that I have been training for 2 weeks and they are still learning that the black box inside the enclosure gives them a delicious treat. They still hiss and growl at the box though, and often times will mind their business before returning to the box expecting to find treats.

I wouldn't say I am frustrated because frustration is a useless emotion and useless things are, well, useless. I'll have to say that I sorta expected this and I have already drafted a back up plan before I even fly down here. Back up plan aside, I notice that most of the downtime when I'm training these lemurs is to get them to pay attention.

My initial fear with this experiment was that the lemurs will not be interested in apparatus. However, it isn't so. Each subject's first session with the apparatus was them running towards the box to investigate. Getting them to sustain their attention to the task at hand is the problem. Some of these lemurs would sniff around the box, sit on top of it, run up and around the enclosure before sitting in front of the box for a few seconds (that's the time when I have to positively reinforce them) before moving away again. Training them to associate looking at the box for a food reward seems to be hard enough, let alone reinforcing them that eventually they have to touch the box for a food reward. I find myself oftentimes dispensing food reward just to attract them to come back to the box. But if you want your food reward, you HAVE TO ACTUALLY DO THINGS!

Back to the grind tomorrow ... with hope.

Week 2: Lemur Training

My lemurs are learning. Some of them are learning fast and some of them are barely getting a hang of it. I have already started testing phase with two lemurs because they have learned to use the apparatus. Any progress is good progress, I guess.

I understand that not all lemurs will have the same performance rate and I accept the fact that some may never learn. My biggest fear is that I will have a small sample size and that all of them are dichromats.

I flew back to NYC for the weekend to see my husband and cats. I have missed them very much. I am grateful that I am about an hour away by plane and I can fly back to see them whenever I want.

Looking forward to work with new individuals next week. It's always interesting to see how they explore a novel object (my apparatus) and how they respond to it.

Raymond Vagell: Current Research

My master’s thesis project is on color vision in ruffed lemurs (Varecia spp.) with Dr. Andrea Baden. My research project will be conducted at the Duke Lemur Center in Durham, North Carolina, where I will be training and running behavioral trials. Using multi-field approaches, I am trying to answer my research questions by incorporating computer programming, robotics, psychophysics, and animal training. I built a subject-mediated automatic remote testing apparatus (SMARTA) to test the Varecia spp. that I will train subjects to use before running trials to test whether they can perceive and discriminate the color red. I will also take blood samples from my subjects to extract genomic DNA for genetic analyses in the Primate Molecular Ecology Lab (PMEL) at Hunter College. I hope that this research can further elucidate whether color vision genotypes in Varecia spp. are expressed phenotypically.

The Usability Of My Apparatus

You don't really hear about "usability" when talking about animal researcher as well as animal enrichment. Usability is the ease and learnability of human-made objects. Much is known and researched on when it comes to the usability of human-made objects intended for humans. Take for example, the usability of a door. Doors with a handle is instinctually something you pull. Doors without a handle but a flat metal plate is instinctually something you push. But how do we arrive to that conclusion?

Doors with handles. Do you push or pull? Why?

It's all about usability research and a lot of testing on potential subjects. You gather as many relevant info as you can, use those knowledge to build an object and then have your subjects use those objects while you observe them. This is how you would test your prototype. I wasn't lucky enough to test the usability of my apparatus with the ruffed lemurs before I brought the apparatus down to Duke Lemur Center. However, I have enough data to help me designing and execute my apparatus. Information such as their height when sitting on the ground, what height is their eye level, as well as the best way to stop these lemurs from perching on the apparatus so that they do not pee or poo on the apparatus.

SPOILER ALERT: They are still perching on the apparatus but they are considerate enough to not pee or poo on it ... yet.

However, watching these lemurs use my apparatus for the past 2 weeks has given me valuable information. There are some many variables that go into play on how they learn and utilize my apparatus. Differences in ages and amongst individuals are evident. I won't divulge more into this, but I think it is something interesting to look into as well as important for animal enrichments.

Some of you might be wondering. How do I know this? Well, someone very close to my life is a usability researcher so naturally I have inherited some advice and knowledge from him.

Craisin Acceleration: Why Size and Weight Matter

For a few days, the food rewards inside my apparatus was not dispensing properly. I had wondered what the problem was and like a good scientist that I am, I wrote down all my hypotheses and tested them.

The food reward is too sticky thus sticking to the cup: It was definitely not that the food reward is too sticky. Almost all of them would fall out of the cups.

The distance of cup to chute was too far, therefore the food reward is falling outside of the chute: Wasn't the distance of cup to chute either, although I thought initially it was so as this apparatus was designed with small grapes in mind, not craisins. The food reward was falling into the chute most of the time but there are a few times when it would fall after it passes the chute. It's not a significant reason why the food reward is not dispensing properly.

However, I had an Aha! moment when I realized that the food rewards that didn't get dispensed properly are small pieces of craisins. WEIGHT! It was weight. I need to have craisins that have enough mass to fall from the cup as soon as it drops down and accelerate into the chute. I bought some "whole craisins" which are basically craisins from whole large cranberries instead of varying sizes. I'm happy to report that the food rewards have been dispensing properly today.

Size and weight do matter when it comes to being dispensed properly in my apparatus. Have I mentioned how much they LOVE craisins?

Week 1 at Duke Lemur Center

My training with the lemurs is progressing beautifully. There are already some individuals that have went past the exploration phase and are learning to use the apparatus to get a food reward. Of course, much like the universe, you have the ones that are ahead of the learning curve and ones that are way below. It's important to remember though, that sometimes animals that don't learn certain behaviors or tasks doesn't necessarily means that they are not good learners. An "easy" task or behavior for humans might be hard for animals because it might need a complicated cognitive reasoning or sometimes an animal just doesn't have the attention span to learn something. Although some of my lemurs are still exploring and unsure of the apparatus, I am confident that it is only a matter of time that they'll learn to use it. I just hope it doesn't take months hehe.

Today is Friday and it's the end of my first week at the lemur center. Everything is working smoothly. There were some issues with the apparatus (and no doubt will continue to surface) but I am glad I was able to troubleshoot it ASAP. This weekend is Memorial Day weekend and the lemur center is closed on Monday. I'll have a long weekend and a short training week before I fly back to NYC for the weekend.

Retail therapy. I need a personal shopping assistant and a driver and I'm all set.

Oh I went shopping today. I couldn't resist some retail therapy and I think I deserve it. First, I went to Southpoint Mall (The Streets at Southpoint). I bought a nice pair of Sperry shoes (so comfy!) and some shorts at Brooks Brothers (I love Brooks Brothers). Later, I went to my favorite gourmet grocery store, Southern Season. Cause you know, I'm fancy ;)

All in all, today was a good day.

Apparatus, Assemble!

This beautiful mural greets you as you enters the Duke Lemur Center. Tonga Soa!

Today was exciting because I get to put something in practice after fussing around with the concept, prototype, and then the product for almost a year. I am, of course, talking about my apparatus that I built. If you have been following my posts, you'll know what I am talking about.

NOTE: If you are interested in learning more about my apparatus, I will be presenting a poster about it at ASP 2015 in Bend, Oregon. I usually have the poster up the same day or a day after so if you can't make it to ASP, please keep an eye on it in this blog.

I brought all the pieces of my apparatus to the research center and assembled them there. Took me about 30 minutes and I'm getting much more proficient judging from all the times I've dismantled and assemble the apparatus back again. Everything is in place. Nothing is broken. Everything works as intended. There were some hiccups, but then again, as I said in my previous post, no matter how much you try to test a products you will always run into some hiccups when you finally use it as intended.

1. My USB wire doesn't seem to want to connect between an Android device to a Macbook. Still haven't figured out why this is happening but I figured out an alternative to route my data to where it needs to go.
2. Some of the location has no WiFi connection so my apparatus cannot communicate to Google spreadsheet. No matter. I figured out how to work around that as well.
3. My grapes are getting stuck on my conveyer belt cups. We ended up opting for craisins. It'll be smaller and the lemurs can eat it quick enough to focus and get back to the tests.

You know what? I'm too blessed to be stressed (that's actually what my mug says). As long as you are quick thinking, there is nothing you can't do.

My apparatus and me.

After assembling my apparatus, I did a walk through of all the enclosures where I will be doing my training and testing. Also got to meet most of my subjects (inside voice: squeeee! they are soooo cuuuuutteeee!!!) and figuring out what location is best to put my apparatus in.

Before I left, I signed a few waivers and one of them was about not posting any photos or videos before getting a release from the research center so, sorry y'all. No backstage photos. If I ever take any pictures and it is cleared by the research center then I will definitely post it here. If not, sorry. Rules are rules.

I return tomorrow to the research center to start my training. Stay tuned!

Thanks for touching my big black box

Prototypes are meant to be rigorously tested but sometimes you won't catch any problems until you have finish building your product. That is why it is also important to test a product before putting it to use. I have been building and testing the prototype to my apparatus for a good 6 months now. I had recently put together the finished product (the first one shattered but let's not stress about that). Before I bring it down to the Duke Lemur Center to test it on the lemurs, I enlisted a few willing human subjects to come over my apartment to test the apparatus. All in all, it went well. Although it's much easier to tell a human to do something than a lemur. I anticipate training these lemurs for at least 2 weeks before they have any idea what I want them to do. Thanks to those that came over and touch my big black box!

'Coz Ru, it's made from black acrylic.

It helped a lot to see the apparatus in action. Sometimes if you test your own product, there are some inherent biases that influence the way you see and evaluate something. Having someone else do the testing can give you a sense on how something appears to someone else, which is important, because eventually your product will be used by others people (or lemurs).

My buddy Harry the hamadryas also helped me test my apparatus. He is going to be my research buddy when I'm in Durham, North Carolina so you'll see a lot of him. It seems like he had no problem doing the task at all! Let's hope the lemurs won't have any problems as well.

Harry testing the structural integrity of the apparatus.

Harry testing the apparatus. He approves.

Well, I guess my apparatus is good to go! Again, thanks to those that dropped by and helped me run a few trials. Guess what? This apparatus actually can be taken apart and lay flat for easy transport. I plan on checking it as a luggage when I fly to Durham on Saturday so my first stress is to anticipate retrieving this apparatus in one piece. Y'all pray for me!

For those that are interested in this apparatus, I will be presenting a poster on it at ASP 2015 in Bend, Oregon. Looking forward to answer questions and chat about it.