Midterm Review Flashcards
Define classical conditioning. Provide an husbandry based example
Classical conditioning- animal responds to a stimulus. Not under conscious control of the animal’s brain. Manipulating things in the environment to condition the animal to respond in a certain way. Ivan Pavlov was the first to implement this in his dog experiment.
Define operant conditioning. Provide an husbandry based example
Operant conditioning: The animal consciously does a behavior in order to achieve a desired outcome or avoid an undesirable outcome. The animal operates on its environment.
What are 2 possible causes for the development of superstitious behavior? Provide husbandry based examples.
- Trainer accidently reinforces an added behavior in joint of the one they are cueing for.
- Animal consistently offers a behavior when not cued, because it is occasionally reinforced. If it is accidently reinforced once, or even if often cued and reinforced, animal keeps offering the behavior.
What are pro’s and con’s of modelling as a training technique? Give a example of when you would use modelling to train a husbandry behavior.
Pros- ability to physically adjust the animal to exactly what position you want.
Cons- animal may resist being handled, not always a feasible option (if animal is protected contact only)
What is a husbandry behavior? Provide 3 examples of trained husbandry behaviors used in a zoo setting.
A husbandry behavior is anything the animal is trained to do that enables them to participate in their own care.
- Blood draw
- Open mouth for teeth exams
- Switching enclosures for maintaining habitat cleanliness.
Define what contextual shift is. When training an animal for a medical husbandry behavior inside their enclosure, will the behavior be reliable if moved to the vet’s office if the animal has never been to the vet’s office before? Why?
Contextual shift- When an animal’s behavior may need to be refreshed/re-taught when cued for it in different contexts, i.e. new environment, more/less people present, free/protected contact, etc.
The behavior will likely be somewhat unreliable because the animal is asked for the behavior in a whole new environment they have never been in before. The visuals, smells, sights, and context just shifted, which affects how the animal responds to the cue for the behavior, especially if the animal has only been doing the behavior in one single context for the entirety of the behavior.
Define what is shaping in animal training? List 2 shaping techniques, defining what they are and providing examples of their use with a husbandry behavior in a zoo setting.
Shaping- using small steps to work your way up to teaching an animal the whole, complete behavior.
What are reinforcement schedules? Discuss 2 possible reinforcement schedules. Provide examples for when you would use each schedule when working a husbandry based behavior and why.
Reinforcement schedules are different ways that you can reinforce your animal. It can affect the timing of when you reinforce, how often, and with what.
1. Continuous reinforcement schedule- the animal is reinforced every time for every correctly performed behavior.
What factors influence how quickly an animal habituates to a new stimuli? Discuss 3 factors with examples applied to a husbandry based behavior.
- how often they are exposed to it and how long:
- how they are introduced to it and how it affects them
- the animal’s past history
What are 2 possible reasons a extinct behavior may reoccur? Provide examples.
- Temporal ‘breaks’ between extinction and re-cueing behavior lead to increase in offering behavior
- Renewal: When a change in the context cues during extinction lead to the recovery of the behavior.
What is the one stick rule, and how does is apply to training husbandry based behaviors? Based on assigned reading, how should this be applied when training a medical behavior? Do you agree with the one stick rule? How you would maintain a costly medical behavior?
The one stick rule is only sticking the animal with a needle one time. If you don’t get blood/fluid/etc on the first stick, you cannot stick the animal again after that one time. It applies to training husbandry based behaviors because it has to do with injections which is a part of husbandry.
From the animals perspective, what is the difference between an LRS and an intermittent reinforcement schedule? Could either situation be confused for extinction?
LRS- Opportunity for reinforcement/trying again is still present, just there is a short few seconds stop until that opportunity is presented again
Intermittent reinforcement schedule- Reinforcement may not have come this time that I did the correct behavior but it may come next time so I’m going to try again and do the behavior again.
What is the importance of continuity (timing) in making learned associations? When establishing a relationship between a US and CS, how much time do you have between presenting each stimulus to make the association?
Timing is important when making learned associations because of how the animal’s brain works. When establishing a relationship between an US and a CS, you have to be as instantaneous as possible in order for the association to be made. This is because superstitious behaviors/confusion may occur otherwise if there is a significant time difference.
