LEARNING APPROACH-Fagen et al. (Elephant learning)

Question 1

Describe the background of the study

Answer 1

• Traditional mahouts would use negative reinforcement/ aversive stimuli (punishments) to train elephants
• These methods were seen as harmful so the study decided to use rewards instead.
• the target behaviour was a “trunk wash”
• SPR training was used and this had the secondary reinforcer to be associated with the primary reinforcer.

Question 2

what terms in the study was being tested (Psychology being investigated)

Answer 2

-operant conditioning
-punishment
-behavioural shaping &chaining
-secondary positive reinforcement
-primary and secondary reinforcer

Question 3

what is operant conditioning

Answer 3

a process of learning through positive reinforcement, negative reinforcement and/or punishment
- Behaviours are reinforced through rewards and behaviours that are punished become less likely

Question 4

primary vs secondary reinforcers

Answer 4

Primary- rewards given to fulfil a biological need e.g food
Secondary- rewards that are given that do not cause a natural response to desire them however are learnt to be desired

Question 5

what is the aim of secondary positive reinforcement

Answer 5

a secondary reinforcer is reinforced by a neutral stimuli (whistle) which is consistently followed by a primary reinforcer which is often food

Question 6

what are the advantages of SPR training

Answer 6

-safer conditions for handlers
-increased creativity and choice for animals
-less stressful sample collection
-open to veterinary procedures that may cause pain
-reduced need for anaesthesia

Question 7

what main disease were the trainers trying to investigate from the elephants

Answer 7

-Tuberculosis

Question 8

what was the aim of the study

Answer 8

To determine the effectiveness of SPR training free-contact elephants to voluntarily participate in a truck wash for the purpose of TB testing

Question 9

Features of the sample

Answer 9

-5 elephants
-all female
-4 were juvenile and 1 adult
-ages ranged 5-7 years old and 50 years
-all elephants were docile
-no previous training with SPR
-same elephant stable in Nepal

Question 10

what was the primary and secondary reinforcer of the study

Answer 10

primary- chopped banana
secondary- a whistle blow

Question 11

what were the training session times

Answer 11

7:30am- 10:00am
4:00pm-7:00pm

Question 12

how is this training distinguished from the USAHA Elephant TB subcommittee

Answer 12

The method in the actual study is more active as it requires the elephants to actively move their trunk in the required position themselves by a cue

Question 13

How did the trainers pair up the reinforcers

Answer 13

After every whistle blow, chopped banana was immediately followed up

Question 14

what are the training tools/techniques of this study

Answer 14

-capture
-shaping
-lure

Question 15

CAPTURE:

Answer 15

A useful technique that captures a natural behaviour by repeatedly rewarding it.

Question 16

LURE:

Answer 16

Through strategic placement of the reward, a wanted body position is reached

Question 17

SHAPING:

Answer 17

The tendency to use positive reinforcement on successful approximation on the goal behaviour

Question 18

What is behavioural chaining

Answer 18

This enables separately trained behaviours to be performed in succession in response to cues. Rewards are therefore presented until the chain is completed.

Question 19

describe TRUNK HERE:

Answer 19

The elephant placed her trunk on the trainers palm to receive the saline solution via the lure method by placing the chopped banana on the trainers palm
This was further shaped by only giving the banana after the trunk was placed on the trainers palm

Question 20

describe TRUNK UP:

Answer 20

this involves the elephant. lifting her trunk up with the solution so that it may reach the base of her trunk. This was lured with banana being placed above the elephants forehead while it was shaped for increasing height

Question 21

describe BUCKET:

Answer 21

Here the end of the trunk as lured to the bottom of a bucket by a banana in order to prepare for blow

Question 22

describe BLOW INTO BUCKET:

Answer 22

The elephants would give a strong exhale of the solution and this was captured as its a natural process to exhale however it was shaped to bring out more force.

Question 23

describe HOLD STEADY:

Answer 23

Here the elephants would hold the previous position from BLOW and this was done through shaping to increase the time of the position being held. Here the primary reinforcer was given after completing the hold with a hand cue.

Question 24

Why was the verbal cue not in English nor Nepali

Answer 24

This was because they are monosyllabic and should be distinctive in order for the elephants to not recognise it when the mahouts converse with it.

Question 25

what was the 1st theory of behavioural chaining in the study

Answer 25

They saw that one behaviour acted as a reinforcer for the next behaviour and the next follows up until a rewards is given

Question 26

How were desensitisation and counterconditioning methods made less aversive

Answer 26

They paired this with a reward with the elephant associating the syringe with the banana

Question 27

How is the saline solution inserted in the trunk here position

Answer 27

-The trunk tip was placed on the palm and the syringe was gradually introduced into the nostril of the trunk tip. Increasing amounts were made from 1-15mL up until the full 60mL

Question 28

what type of observation was it

Answer 28

• structured observation
• non-participant observation

Question 29

How was data collected during session times

Answer 29

-Here the trainer would time the first cue that was offered till the elephants response to the last cue

Question 30

How was data collected during number of offers

Answer 30

Trainer would count the number of offers/cues given to the elephant for a particular behaviour

Question 31

How was data collected by performance tests and how was passing operationalised

Answer 31

This were retests done after every 5 sessions. This started after session 10 and they would test all previous behaviours learnt with a passing score of 80%
it had to be of “sufficient quality to function in a trunk wash” which was left up to the trainer

Question 32

Which behaviour was excluded from the sequence and was separately tested

Answer 32

TRUNK DOWN: Holding the trunk down and relaxing it

Question 33

How was data analysed for qualitative or quantitative

Answer 33

Qualitative data- descriptive techniques
Quantitative data- Calculations were created/ performance scores/ tests

Question 34

state the results of each elephant (timing) and the number of sessions it took

Answer 34

E 1- 30 sessions, 12 mins
E2- 25 sessions, 10 mins
E3- 35 sessions , 13 mins
E4- 35 sessions , 11 mins

Question 35

How was the relative difficulty of a specific position reflected and which position had the highest and which had the lowest

Answer 35

-It was reflected by the number of offers given prior to first receiving a passing score on the associated behaviour on the performance test .
TRUNK HERE had the highest relative difficulty (295 offers)
BLOW had the lowest relative difficulty (54 offers)

Question 36

what was the mean total training time and mean training time for each session

Answer 36

-TOTAL: 378 min
-EACH session: 12mins

Question 37

the elephants mean success rate increased from what to what

Answer 37

-39% to 89.3%

Question 38

What was the conclusion

Answer 38

-It is possible to train free contact, traditionally trained elephants from Nepal who have no prior experience with SPR to voluntarily participate in a trunk wash with the use of SPR
-SPR is efficient and a useful tool for veterinary procedures and improves behavioural management

Question 39

Strengths???

Answer 39

-because it was a controlled observation study, by using the same observation schedule it could test for reliability
-limited influence of demand characteristics as the mahouts were encouraged to not give any signals as well as the verbal cues being monosyllabic
-use of both quantitative and qualitative analysis

Question 40

Weaknesses???

Answer 40

-Hard to generalise
-presence of distractions
-hard to test for reliability due to the observation schedule fitting the individual preferences for each elephant
-subjective observations as it was only one observer

Question 41

Give examples of distractions towards the elephants

Answer 41

-other animals were present
-tourists
-training time was before meal time

Question 42

What could’ve cause a lack of results to adult Elephant

Answer 42

-age
-visual impairment
-trunk weakness
-distractions ( a calf kept wondering into her stall during training)

Question 43

How was lack of ecological validity shown

Answer 43

-Elephants were chained
-fed nutritional supplements
-water taking was in time intervals
-specific times to eat food

Question 44

Ethical strengths

Answer 44

• The small sample size of elephants was ethical
• no punishment were used
• were fed adequately and roamed around the stall with other elephants
• rewards were given (chopped banana)
• aversive stimuli: the syringe may have been an aversive stimuli however was counterconditioned
• all chained during training sessions

Question 45

what influences of individual differences between the elephants had on results of this study

Answer 45

-the learning ability- some took longer/ shorter time to learn a specific behaviour
-personality- some elephants were more patient than others with some taking a much shorter number of training sessions than others.
- health matters such as for elephant 5 who had trunk weakness

Question 46

what were the advantages of use of animals in this study

Answer 46

-The animals were not wild and were already in captivity making it easier as they were familiar with the handlers
- Training was done for several weeks on a daily basis and would have been impractical for humans
-motivating humans with on-going trials may be harder than with the animals ; food `
- ethichs were maintained

Question 47

How does the study support the nurture based approach

Answer 47

Operant conditioning- It showed that human training shaped elephants behaviour through rewards and trunk washing isn’t an automated activity for elephants and had to be learnt and reinforced.

Question 48

Positive reinforcement VS Negative reinforcement

Answer 48

Positive- This is when the target behaviour is learnt by something desirable ( reward) e.g given chopped banana after lifting trunk up

Negative reinforcement- When a negative stimuli has been removed as a reward which leads to the desired behaviour being done. e.g elephant is prodded with a stick until it raises its trunk.

Question 49

How could the SPR training not only affect animals but impact society as well

Answer 49

ANIMALS- avoid aversive stimuli, improve their wellbeing, reduced need for anaesthesia
SOCIETY- Safer sample collection reducing any accidents resulting from elephants becoming aggressive.
- The training of getting a trunk wash could identify infected elephants, reducing spread of TB onto society.