4.2 Fagen et al (Elephant learning)

Question 1

Psychology being investigated

Answer 1

operant conditioning
positive reinforces and negative reinforcers
secondary reinforcers have to be learned, associated with primary reinforcers
punishment
Learning trunk-washing through positive reinforcement improves the psychological well-being of elephants (tuberculosis)
SPR training

Question 2

What is operant conditioning?

Answer 2

learning through the consequences of our actions

Question 3

What is a positive reinforcer?

Answer 3

a reward for behaviour that fulfils a biological need is known as a primary positive reinforcer. A stimulus that is associated with primary reinforcers can also be learned and is known as a secondary reinforcer

Question 4

What is positive reinforcement?

Answer 4

a form of operant conditioning. It involves rewarding desirable behaviour to encourage it to be repeated.

Question 5

What is SPR training?

Answer 5

secondary positive reinforcement (SPR) training
training in which a secondary reinforcer such as a sound marker is used and then followed by the administration of a primary positive reinforcer (typ[ically food)

Question 6

Aim

Answer 6

To investigate whether free-contact, traditionally trained elephants can be trained to participate in a trunk wash by using positive reinforcement

Question 7

Research Method And Design

Answer 7

Controlled observation
(used behavioural checklist so could be considered a structured observation)

Question 8

Sample and sampling technique

Answer 8

5 female elephants
4 juvenile (5-7 years)
1 adult (50)
all gentle/ tame (docile) , not pregnant or taking care of a child
the mahouts had to be willing to take part
none of the elephants had previous experience with SPR

Question 9

Name the primary and secondary reinforcer used in this study

Answer 9

Primary-
Chopped bananas
Secondary-
Short whistle blow

Question 10

What were the three methods the elephants of teaching trunk washing?

Answer 10

1. Capture: waiting for the animal to perform the behaviour naturally then ‘capturing’ it by marking it with a reward
2. Lure: for non-natural behaviours, an animal is ‘lured’ into a certain body position by placing a reward in a certain place
3. Shaping: after starting either capture or lure, rewards are then only given for the behaviours that are ‘best’

Question 11

Name the 5 behavioural tasks and give a description

Answer 11

pg.135 Cambridge

Question 12

Describe the procedure

Answer 12

pg.136 Cambridge
pg,121 Hodder

Question 13

What were the measured variables?

Answer 13

1. length of each training in minutes from the first cue to the last cue
2. number of times the elephant was given a cue or ‘offer’ for behaviour

After session 10, every 5 session the elephants were tested on previously taught behaviours, 80% was the passing score

Question 14

What is behavioural chaining?

Answer 14

a process that allows separately trained behaviours to be performed in sequence in response to cues

Question 15

Results

Answer 15

The four juvenile elephants learned the full trunk wash in 25-35 sessions. Mean duration 12 minutes, overall training time 367 minutes

Elephant 5 failed to learn the sequence

The most difficult behaviour to learn was trunk hear, 295 offers
Least difficult blow into the bucket, 54 offers

Question 16

Methodological strengths

Answer 16

behavioural checklist- detailed descriptions increased the reliability

no additional cues from mahouts- increased validity as mahouts did not influence secondary reinforcement

quantitative data- objective analysis

good ecological validity because it happened in the natural environment with similar distractions like tourists or noise- can be done in other zoos

Question 17

Methodological weaknesses

Answer 17

subjective when the observers had to decide if the behaviour was successful or failed- bias, angle not quite right

small sample size, all female, captive- not generalisable

Question 18

Ethical issues

Answer 18

right to withdraw- could move away if did not want to train
adequate food, shelter, could socialise, well treated
study helped with captive management of elephants- enable tuberculosis to be diagnosed quckly

Question 19

Real-life application

Answer 19

safe and efficient way of training captive elephants to cooperate in critical veterinary procedures

training through positive reinforcement will improve psychological wellbeing of the animals that are used in psychological studies