Fagen Et Al (Evaluation/ Issues and debates)

Question 1

Nature explanations

Answer 1

• The adult elephant did not sucessfully learn teh trunk wahsing procedure whislst the juveniles did
• This could have been due to her age (in her 50s)
• Aging can lead to many impariments in cognitive ability such as memeory, attension, the ability to learn new tasks and information.

Question 2

Define nature

Answer 2

The chaarcteristics we are born with or develop out of teh natural maturation process

Question 3

Define Nurture

Answer 3

• The characteristics we develop as a result of learning

Question 4

Nurture explanations

Answer 4

• The trainers shaped the elephants behaviour through postive reinforcement. (adminsitering food rewards)
• Thus the perfomamce of the trunk wash was a learned behaviour through postive reinforcement

Question 5

Define situational

Answer 5

• Behaviours influenced by the external enviroment

Question 6

Situational explanations

Answer 6

• It was the situation of the consistent application of postive reinforcement/ SPR training adminstered by the trainers
• That led to the behavioural changes of the juvenile elephants (learnt the proceduree)

Question 7

Individual explanations definition

Answer 7

• Behaviours that are influenced by factors within the person

Question 8

Indiviudal explanations

Answer 8

• Not all of the elephants sucessfuly completed all of the tasks at the same rates
• This may have been caused by indiviudal differences like differing persoanlities (wilingness to learn) or differing cognitive abilities

Question 9

Evaluate the ethics of the research

Answer 9

1. HOUSING: Met the requirements for suitable housing. Could graze freely for the majority of teh day. Natural diet of fresh grass, grain, nutritional supplements. Able to socialise with the other elephants in the jungle
2. RIGHT TO WITHDRAW: Elephants could choose not to engage with a session by turning/ walking away from the trainer
3. Protection from harm: No evidence that the elephants were harmed/distressed by the procedure
4. Number of animals: Minimal number of animals used who already were bred in captivity/ had experince in training
5. Reward, deprivition and aversive stimuli: Reward used rather than punishment

Question 10

Explain the practical issues when working with animals

Answer 10

1. It was easy to require the sample as the elphants were already in captivity/familar with handlers
2. The training too place over several weeks (impractical with humans unlikely to give up time)
3. The elephants were motivated by intermittent food rewards (harder to motivate humans)
4. Training tassk were tailored to the indiviudal needs of elephants

Question 11

Describe 2 real world applications of the study

Answer 11

• The study showed postive reinforcement techniques could be used to obtain trunk wash samples (as most of the elephants were sucessfuly trained to give an accuate/sufficent sample)
• Accurate TB testing can help both elephants and humans, As the disease is transmissable between species.