Fagen Et Al (Procedure) Flashcards
Describe the stages in this procedure:
- Reinforcement
- Capture, lure, shaping method
- Behavioural tasks
- Behavioural chaining
- Desensitation
Define postive reinforcement
- Involves rewarding a desirable behaviour
- To increase the likilihood it will be repeated
- A form of operant conditioning
Define Secondary Positive Reinforcement training
- A type of postive reinforcement training method
- Which involves a secondary reinforcer (like a sound marker) being used
- Which is then followed by the adminsitration of a primary (positive) reinforcer like food.
- In which the animals are conditioned to build an association between
- Following conditioning, the marker will be used to reward the desired behaviour. But to maintain this assoication food rewards are given at intervals.
Define Primary reinforcer
- Naturally occuring rewards that fulfil biological needs (food, sleep)
Define Secondary reinforcers
- Rewards associated with primary reinforcers that have to be learnt
Why were sound markers used?
- Better than using food on its own
- As the marker can indicate precisely to the animal when it has correctly perfomed the desired behaviour
What was the primary and secondary reinforcers used?
- Primary reinforcer=Chopped banana
- Secondary reinforcer= Short whistle blow
Describe the training sessions generally
- Conducted in indoor sessions
- 1 Morning session (7:30-10AM)
- 1 AfterNoon Session (4:00pm-7:00pm)
- Trainer and mahout present (for safety)
- Mahouts stood by the elephant without speaking/signalling to them.
- No elephant went more than 2 days without training
- Elephants walked/ turned away from the trainer to indicate they did not wnat to enagage in the session
2.Capture, lure, shaping method:
- After establishing the marker-reward relationships.
- The elephants were tarined using 3 methods
Capture method definition
- Waiting for the animal to perform a behaviour naturally
- Then capturing it with a reward
Lure method definition
- The animal is lured into a certain body position
- By placing a reward in a certain place
- For non-natural behaviours
Shaping method
- Rewards are only adminstered for behaviours incrementally closer to the desired/goal behaviour
What were the 5 behavioural tasks in training
- Trunk here
- Trunk up
- Bucket
- Blow
- Steady
1Describe Trunk here task
- Elephant places end of trunk in trainers hand
- To allow the saline to be instilled into trunk
- Lure method- Chopped banana placed in trainers hand
2Describe Trunk up task
- Elephant raises trunk upwards
- To allow the saline solution to run to the base of the trunk
- Lure/ Shaping; Trainer lifts chopped banana above elephant’s head so it raises trunk
3Describe bucket task
- Elephant places end of trunk in bucket
- To allow placement of trunk in bucket (ready for exhale)
- Lure; Chopped banana at the buttom of bucket
4Describe the Blow task
- Elephant exhales through trunk into bucket
- To exhale the sample for collection
- Capture/shaping: Wait for natural exhales and rewards and shape with further rewards fro more forceful exhales
5: Describe the steady task
- Elephant holds position they’ve been previously asked to do.
- To SHOW the elephant could hold ANY position for the required amount of time
- Shaping (Extending the time the position was held for with a reward
There were 5 behavioural tasks but 3 other tasks where abandoned what were they?
- Targeting
- Trunk down
- Trunk out
- Discarded halfway through training as they were unneccessary
What happened after the individual behavioural tasks were completed?
*** The tasks were paired with a verbal cue **
* One syllable word (no meaning in English/Nepali to avoid having any meaning to the elephants/mahouts)
4.Behavioural chaining
- First, The trainers put the behaviours together in small sequences (behavioural chaining)
- This technqiue meant that correctly performing the 1st behaviour in a sequence earned the animal the chance to perfom the 2nd behaviour correctly and thus gain a reward.
- Seperate behavioural tasks were first paired and then put together in longer sequences until the full trunk wash was done.
5.Desensitisation
- The syringe was introduced incrementally using desensitisation
- The syringe was introduced in the trunk here position and across the repeitions of the trunk wash sequence
- First gradually to the trunk, touching the trunk, inserted, increasing fluid until the elephant tolerated the full 60ml required for the sample collection
How did the reseachers avoid the elephants drinking the saline solution?
- They were offerred drinks before each training session
One elephant preferred preffered drining saline after rjeecting the drinking water. How was this problem fixed/
- Switched to a water solution for the behavioural task
Data collection
- No time limits for the training stage instead this was determined by the individual sucess of the elephants
- The training plans varied according to each elephants needs
- After session 10: Each elephant was teseted on previously taught behaviours
- The passing score was 80%. 8/10 correct cues.
- Once the WHOLE sequence was passed at a rate of 80% or HIGHER the training was complete
What did the assisstant record? (Data collection)
- An assistant recorded the length of each training session in MINUTES
- An assistant recorded the number of times the elephant was given a behavioural cue
It important in terms of validity that the mahouts did not assist with training. This meant..
- Mahouts did not speak/signal to the elephants
- The verbal cues were designed to be distinctive from any other cues used with the elephants
How was the primary reinforcer and secondary reinforcer paired?
- A short whistle blow is presented with the banana
- The whistle alerts the elephant that they are recieving the banana as they have performed the desired behaviour
- This pairing is used every time the elephant is rewarded
