Fagen et Al Flashcards
State the aim of the study by Fagen.
To investigate whether secondary positive reinforcement could be used to train elephants to voluntarily complete the trash to allow them to be tested for TB.
Describe the research method of the study by Fagen.
- Observational study.
- Controlled observation .
- Structured observation.
What type of data was collected in the study by Fagen?
- Minutes of training.
- Number of offers made for each training task.
- Success rate for each task in performance test.
Describe the sample used in the study.
- 5 female elephants.
- 4 juvenile, aged 5-7.
- 1 adult at least 50 years old.
- Young elephants were all born in captivity and housed in the same stable in Nepal.
- Were chosen as they were all relatively tame, none were pregnant and their mahouts were happy to take part.
- Had no previous experience with secondary positive reinforcement training.
Describe the housing of the elephants.
- Elephants went to graze in the jungle between 5 am to 7 am and 10:30 am to 4 pm every day.
- Were leg chained to post in open stalls for the remaining time.
- Leg chains were loosen enough for the elephant to walk around slightly.
- Their diet consisted of fresh grasses and Dhana.
- The elephants had access to the river water during their grazing time
Explain the procedure of training the elephants.
- The mahouts we present in all sessions to maintain the trainer safety but did not interfere.
- Elephants clearly indicate a preference to not participate by walking to the other side of the stall during sessions.
- They were trained in the morning (7:30-10am) and/or afternoon (4-7pm).
- The sessions dependent on the availability of the mahouts but were never more than two days apart.
Describe the complete trunk wash.
- Put the trunk into the trainers hand so saline water can be inserted.
- Lift the trunk and hold so fluid can flow into the base of the trunk.
- Lower the trunk and bucket.
- Blow into bucket to remove the fluid.
- hold steady as a final behaviour to mark the end of the sequence.
Explain what is meant by capturing.
Waiting for the animal to naturally perform a behaviour and then capture it by marking it with a reward.
Explain what is meant by luring.
An animal is learned into a certain body position by placing a reward in a certain place.
Explain what is meant by shaping.
- After starting either capture or lure, rewards are given for the behaviours that are the closest to the gold behaviour.
- Their behaviours are shaped to become more accurate overtime.
Explain what is meant by a secondary reinforcer.
- Trainers taught the elephants to associate the sound of a whistle with the arrival of chopped bananas (primary reinforcer).
- The whistle could be used to reward behaviour immediately helping the elephant quickly learn the association between their behaviour and the reward.
Explain how verbal cues and behavioural chaining were used.
- Trainers introduced one syllable verbal cues to prompt the elephant once they had successfully learned all five behaviours.
- Cues were non-words.
- Behavioural chaining was used to encourage the elephants to perform the five behaviours in order.
- Starting with just two behaviours, the elephants were only rewarded if they completed the behaviours in the correct order.
- Gradually behaviours were added until the elephant could perform all five in order.
Explain the desensitisation process of the syringe and sample fluid.
- The syringe was only introduced when the elephants learn the trunk wash behaviours.
- The was an aversive stimulus.
- The trainers gradually brought it closer to the elephant trunk, rewarding them with banana until they were happy to have the syringe touch their trunk.
- Once the elephants were able to tolerate the syringe touching the side of their trunk, the trainer graduate encouraged them to accept it being placed inside slowly injecting droplets of fluid.
- Fluid increased gradually from 1 to 15 to the full 60 ml.
State the measured variables.
- Minutes of training: from the point the elephant was offered her first cue to her response to the last cue.
- Number of offers made by the trainer to the elephant.
- Success rate for each behaviour and each sequence: was tested after every fifth sessions starting from the 10th.
State the results of the study by Fagen.
- The 4 juvenile elephant all learned the full trunk wash between 25 to 35 sessions.
- The overall training time for these elephants was 367 minutes.
- Elephants 2 and 4 never mastered the trunk study behaviour except as part of the full trunk wash.
- Elephant 5 on the trunk as she failed to learn the full sequence in the available time and was never fully desensitised to the syringe.
- Elephant 5 the overall mean to 378.
State the conclusion of the study by Fagen.
Concluded that secondary positive reinforcement is effective for training juvenile, traditionally trained elephants to voluntarily and reliably participate in a trunk wash.
State the psychology being investigated in the study.
- Operant conditioning and positive reinforcement.
- Primary and secondary reinforcements.
- Shaping and behavioural chaining.
