fagen et al (elephant learning

Question 2

psychology being investigated

Answer 2

operant conditioning and positive reinforcement
primary and secondary reinforcement
shaping and chaining

Question 3

define operant conditioning

Answer 3

operant conditioning refers to the type of learning in an organism where the consequences after an action determine if it is more or less likely to perform it again. can be manipulated through reinforcement and punishment

Question 4

primary and secondary reinforcement in the study

Answer 4

correct trunk position rewarded with chopped banana primary
whistle while banana given secondary

Question 5

shaping and chaining

Answer 5

rewarding only behaviour that is close to or is target behaviour
chaining:combining multiple singular actions into a sequence for the trunk wash

Question 6

aim of fagen et al

Answer 6

to determine the feasibility of SPR training on free contact, traditional elephants to participate in trunk wash voluntarily

Question 7

sample

Answer 7

opportunity
5 female
4 juvenile 1 adult in 50s
natural environment
selection of individuals based on docility, mahouts, lack of pregnancy or current calf

no changes made to standard husbandry conditions, no changes made to grazing, chaining and water

Question 8

research methodology

Answer 8

structured observation with longitudinal design

Question 9

timings of training

Answer 9

7:30 am to 10am and 4pm to 7pm

not all elephants trained every session, but no elephant went without 2 days of training

Question 10

could elephants refuse to participate

Answer 10

yes their chain was 6 to 8 ft allowed sufficient room to turn away or walk away

Question 11

what was the required behaviour

Answer 11

elephant must put the ventral aspect of the tip of her trunk gently on the trainers hand, allow the trainer to instill saline with a syringe, lift trunk up so fluid runs to base, hold fluid, and blow fluid out into the bucket

Question 12

training steps

Answer 12

1. teach elephants to bridge primary and secondary reinforcers, through repetitive pairing
2. capture: naturally occuring behaviours are waited for by the trainer then captured through rewarding
3. lure: reward placed strategically to require elephant to position body to access it.
4. shaping: relies on natural variation in quality of behaviours, only best rewarded

Question 13

trained behaviors

Answer 13

1. trunk here
2. trunk up
3. bucket
4. blow
5. steady
6. syringe
7. blow into bucket
8. trunk down
9. trunk out
10. targeting

Question 14

trunk here

Answer 14

elephant places end of her trunk gently on trainers hand to allow instillation of saline water
trained using lure, rewarded only when ventral aspect of tip was placed

Question 15

trunk up

Answer 15

lift trunk to allow saline to run down lure used and shaped to increase height

Question 16

bucket

Answer 16

elephant places distal end of trunk in bucket in preparation to blow

Question 17

blow

Answer 17

strong exhale to blow solution, captured and shaped behaviour

Question 18

steady

Answer 18

holds position previously instructed, no hand cue, just maintenance of action hand cue

Question 19

syringe

Answer 19

elephant holds trunk still as trainer gets syringe closer and closer to trunk, until syringe is places inside distal end of trunk and 60ml instilled

Question 20

trunk down

Answer 20

relaxed position hanging downwards

Question 21

trunk out

Answer 21

trunk stretched out parallel to floor

Question 22

targeting

Answer 22

elephant moves to place the center of its forehead to make contact with end of targeting stick

Question 23

what kind of cues were individual tasks paired with

Answer 23

monosyllabic verbal cues, that very a distinct sound made to mean nothing in english or nepali

Question 24

which 3 behaviours were abandoned

Answer 24

trunk down, targeting and trunk out

Question 25

how was sample fluid introduced

Answer 25

through desensitisation and counterconditioning, reward was used to make make potentially negative experience less aversive

started with 0.9% saline and given water earlier to avoid drinking solution

Question 26

data collection parameters

Answer 26

session times
number of offers
performance tests

Question 27

session times

Answer 27

assistant timed it to the mminute
missing data substituted with average time of individual adult

Question 28

number of offers

Answer 28

assistant tallied total number of times elephant given a cue for a certain behaviour

Question 29

performance tests

Answer 29

after session 10, every 5 sessions approx a performance test
all previous behaviours tested and required to have a passing score of 80%

passing qualification “being sufficient quality to function in trunk wash” subjectively scored

if an elephant failed a sequence of behaviours, shorter sequences to determine point of failure

calculated by mean and standard error

Question 30

results

Answer 30

4 juvenile elephants successfully learnt trunk wash, elephant 5 did not

Question 31

conclusion

Answer 31

it is feasible to train juvenile, free contact traditionally trained elephants with no prior experience of SPR in Nepal to participate in trunk wash procedure voluntarily

elephants performance increased from 39% after session 10 to 90% after 35v sessions

Question 32

training sessions

Answer 32

elephant 2 passed final test with 25 training sessions, 10.29 min avg and 257 total training time

elephant 1 30 sessions, avg 12.42 min, total 373min

elephant 3 35 sessions 13.27avg min, total 389 min

elephant 4 35 sessions 11.11 min, 451min

elephant 5 not tested on trunk wash, 424 min total

378 mean

Question 33

what behaviours did elephant 5 not pass

Answer 33

blow into bucket, desensitisation to syringe and steady

Question 34

which elephants didnt pass steady

Answer 34

elephant 2 and 4

Question 35

strengths

Answer 35

1. distress- ethical
   able to walk away if they didnt want to participate, helped reduce distress of elephants, as well was risk to mahout and trainer who could be hurt if elephant became uncooperative
2. reliability
   using a behavioral checklist
   exact operational definitions for each behaviour, increased reliability of observers decisions of fail and pass
3. validity
   no additional cues from mahouts
   important as it mean chnage in elephant was due to secondary positive reinforcement
   helps prove spr is successful
4. generalising to everyday life
   data is naturalistic setting,many distracting noises, tourists, increases scological validity, can be done in zoos and safaris

Question 36

weaknesses

Answer 36

1.validity
behavioural checklist
operational definition of steady was to be able to hold position in various different positions. elephants were successful in steady for trunk up and trunk here but not trunk down, obtaining only a 70% accuracy while the pass standard was 80%
this is important as the operational definition of steady did not reflect elephants true ability of 2 positions

2. total training time(validity)
   total training time included behaviours not part of the trunk wash, eg 4 elephants trained on trunk out, then realised not necessary, total train time not accurate of actual time it took to learn behaviour
3. objectivity
   measurement of success and failure despite operational definition required subjective interpretation of observer, they checked whether it was good enough for successful trunk wash, not just whether it matche dthe description or not. trainer may have been biased or another observer may have rated differently, lack of inter observer reliability
4. small sample
   difficult to generalise, specifically lack of males and adults
   elephant 5 could not be generalised to adults because she had a abscess on foot which made her unfocused, probably had impaired vision and/or trunk weakness

Question 37

issues and debates

Answer 37

individual vs situational explanation
elephant 5 only one who couldn’t learn, individual difference, older, health issues,

situational, trainers could have responded differently, aspects of environment were also different, young calf distracting her

Question 38

application to everyday life

Answer 38

fegen et al developed a relatively safe and effective was of training elephants to cooperate during critical veterinary procedures. it can easily be adopted to teach other behaviours, this reduces need for manual restraint, drugs, decreases stress and improves well being of animals