Fagen et al.
(elephant learning)
Asim Masood
asimmm196@[Link]
+923002626209
BACKGROUND
Secondary positive reinforcement (SPR) is a training technique in which
a secondary reinforcer is used initially, and then followed with a primary
positive reinforcer
SPR training will be used in the study by Fagen in order to teach
elephants to reliably and voluntarily engage in trunk washing in a
manner designed by the researcher in order to maintain their well-being
SPR has been used successfully with many animal species such as
pandas and antelopes
The Nepalese government in 2011 introduced annual TB (tuberculosis)
testing of captive elephants to reduce transmission, hence causing
researchers to develop new training techniques using positive
reinforcement with the hope that the elephants would participate
voluntarily, reducing stress
Previously, in Nepal, punishment was used to train elephants, such as the
elephants being prodded with sharp bamboo sticks called kochas, but
mahouts (a person who works with, rides, and tends to elephants)
PSYCHOLOGY BEING INVESTIGATED
Operant conditioning: a process of learning through positive reinforcement, negative
reinforcement, and/or punishment
Positive reinforcer: a reward for displaying a certain behaviour
Primary and Secondary reinforcers: A primary reinforcer is a reward that is given and it
fulfills basic biological needs, whereas secondary reinforcers are rewards that are given
that do not cause a natural response of desiring them, but instead, an individual learns
to desire these rewards
Punishment: A form of operant conditioning where behaviours are learned through an
undesired stimulus such as pain or fear
Secondary positive reinforcement (SPR) is a training technique in which a secondary
reinforcer is used initially, and then followed with a primary positive reinforcer
AIM
To test if free-contact, traditionally trained elephants can be trained to
participate in a trunk wash by using positive reinforcement
To investigate whether SPR could be used to train elephants to
voluntarily complete a trunk wash to allow elephants to be tested for TB
METHOD AND DESIGN
Research Method Technique:
Controlled Observation: conducted at the stables where
the elephants lived where they were chained, rather than
in the wild
Structured Observation: through the use of a behavioural
checklist to see how successfully the elephants were in
completing various trunk wash behaviours
SAMPLE
5 female elephants (four juvenile and one adult)
Housed in the same elephant stable in Nepal
Juveniles were aged between 5 to 7 years, and were born at the stable
The adult elephant was estimated to be around 50 years old
These elephants were selected over others as they showed to be more docile,
not currently pregnant or looking after a calf, and their mahouts were willing to
take part in the study as well
All elephants were traditionally trained with no prior experience of SPR
They spent most of the day grazing in the jungle under the control of the
mahouts, and the rest of the day leg-chained in a stable with freedom to
move 6 – 8 feet
Their diet included fresh grasses, grain and nutritional supplements and
were given access to water at a river during grazing hours
Sampling method: opportunity sample
PROCEDURE
The elephants were trained through SPR where chopped bananas were
used as the primary reinforcer and a short whistle blow was the
secondary reinforcer
Training was conducted during indoor sessions, which was from 7:30 AM
to 10 AM, and 4 PM to 7 PM
Training was conducted by a trainer with a mahout present for safety,
who stood to the side and would not speak to the elephants or signal to
them in any way
No elephant went longer than two days without a training session
If an elephant chose to turn or walk away from the trainer, they would not have
to take part in a session
The purpose of the SPR training was to teach the elephants to perform a
voluntary trunk wash according to several steps (listed in a behavioural
checklist), in which they would actively move their trunks in response to a
cue/signal
Training for the trunk wash required the elephant to put the end of her trunk in
the trainer’s hand, allow the trainer to instill saline or sterile water into the trunk,
lift the trunk upwards so the fluid ran to the base of the trunk, and hold the fluid
there before lowering the tip of the trunk into a collection container and
blowing the sample out
All of these steps had to be performed smoothly in this exact order so
that none of the fluid was lost on the ground and the elephant would not
drink it
Training began by teaching the elephants the link between the primary
and the secondary reinforcer (classical conditioning)
This was done by repeatedly pairing the whistle blow (marker) with a
follow-up banana (reward)
After establishing this marker-reward relationship, elephants were taught using
the following three methods:
1. Capture: This method is used for behaviours that animals show spontaneously
without any prior training, and when the animal displays this particular behaviour, it
is then ‘captured’ by repeatedly marking it with a reward
2. Lure: For those behaviours that are not natural for an animal, the lure method can
be used where the animal is initially drawn or ‘lured’ into a wanted body position
by strategic placement of a reward. This body position is then rewarded
3. Shaping: After starting either capture or lure, the training continues with the animal
being rewarded incrementally only for the ‘best’ behaviours (closer to the goal),
for e.g. initially being rewarded for blowing fluid near the bucket, but eventually,
only rewarded for accurate behaviours such as blowing fluid into the bucket,
hence ‘shaping’ it to become more accurate over time
Behavioural Role in the trunk wash Description Method
Task
Trunk here To allow for saline or Elephant places end Lure (chopped banana
water to be instilled in of trunk in trainer’s placed in trainer’s hand)
trunk hand
Trunk up To allow saline or water Elephant lifts trunk
Lure and Shaping (trainer lifts
to run to the base of upwards chopped banana above
the trunk head so elephant reaches
trunk upwards)
Bucket To allow placement of Elephant places end Lure (chopped banana
trunk into bucket ready of trunk in bucket placed at bottom of bucket)
to exhale
Blow To exhale the sample Elephant exhales Capture and Shaping (wait for
for collection through trunk into natural exhale and reward it,
bucket then shape it with further
reward for more forceful
exhales)
Steady To allow the elephant Elephant holds the Shaping (extending the period
to hold and position for position they have of time the position or
the required amount of previously been behaviour was held for with a
time asked to do reward)
There were three other tasks (targeting, trunk down, and trunk out) that were
initially introduced, but later discarded as they were not deemed essential for
the trunk wash
Trunk down refers to the trunk held in a relaxed position with the trunk hanging
loose toward the ground
Trunk out refers to the trunk being held stretched outward, approximately
parallel to the ground
Targeting refers to the elephant moving such that the center of the forehead
makes contact with the end of a targeting stick placed at the height of the
forehead
Once the elephant performed the individual behavioural tasks, each
task was then paired with a verbal cue
This would be a one-syllable word with no meaning (in either English or
Nepali), in order to avoid having any meaning to either the elephants or
the mahouts
Once these basic behaviours were learned by the elephants, the trainers
proceeded to try and get the elephants to perform these behaviours in a
sequence in response to cues
This process is referred to as behavioural chaining (a process that allows
separately trained behaviours to be performed in a sequence in
response to cues)
The idea behind this process is that once a behavior is learned to be
strongly associated with the primary reinforcer, the behavior itself
becomes a reinforcer for the behavior that precedes it
As a result, by completing the first behaviour of the sequence, the animal
would then perform the second behaviour correctly in order to receive
the reward
Separate behavioural tasks were initially paired, beginning with bucket and
blow, and then combined in longer sequences until they formed the entire
trunk wash procedure
The trainer also introduced the use of a syringe to the trunk-here position where
the syringe was gradually brought closer to the elephant’s trunk, then touching
it, then inserted, then inserted with increasing amounts of fluid (starting from 1 to
15ml) until the elephant tolerated the full 60ml required for sample collection
This process was done incrementally so as to desensitize the elephant to the
syringe
Along with this, counterconditioning was done to teach the elephants to
associate the syringe with the arrival of a reward (chopped banana)
In other words, this means that the researcher were attempting to
gradually allow the elephant to reduce or remove any fear it may have
towards the syringe
As a control, the elephants were offered water to drink before each
training session so that they wouldn’t drink the saline, however, one
particular elephant preferred drinking saline and rejected the drinking
water, so was switched to a water solution for the behavioural task
No particular time limit was put on each stage of the training process, as
each elephant had different rates of learning
Data was collected by recording session times by having an assistant
record the length of each training session in minutes, starting from when
the first cue was offered and ending when after the elephant’s response
to the last cue offered
If a session was not timed properly or accurately due to lack of
personnel, the missing data would be replaced with mean minutes per
session for that individual elephant
Number of offers were also recorded with an assistant tallying the total
number of times the elephant was given a cue for a certain behaviour
Performance tests began after Session 10, where a test was administered
to each elephant approximately every 5 sessions (after Sessions 10, 15, 20
etc.)
The reason for starting the tests after Session 10 is to allow the elephants
to go through enough sessions to understand the training methodology
before they could start learning the basic behavioural tasks
At each test session, elephants were tested on all previous behaviours
they were taught, with a passing score being 80% at least (8 correct out
of 10 offers)
To operationalize a behavioural response as qualifying for ‘passing’, it had to be “of
sufficient quality to function in a trunk wash” and was subjectively determined by the
trainer
If the elephant received at least an 80% success rate for a sequence of tasks, this was
considered a ‘pass’ for the entire sequence (e.g. trunk-here behaviour into the trunk-up
behaviour into the bucket), and each individual behaviour in the sequence was then
given a passing score as well, and the training would be considered complete
The ‘steady’ and ‘trunk down’ behaviours were tested separately as the trunk down
behaviour was not necessary for the full trunk wash, and the steady behaviour included
three positions, one of which was the trunk down behaviour
If an elephant failed to pass on a sequence of behaviours, each task or shorter
sequences were retested to determine the point of failure
CONTROLS
All elephants went through the same training process of SPR
A behavioural checklist was used to record specific behaviours
The trunk down behaviour, although not necessary to the full trunk wash,
was still used as a control method
All elephants received the same reward (chopped banana)
All elephants were offered drinking water before switching to the saline
solution for the behavioural task
RESULTS
The four juvenile elephants all successfully learned the trunk wash,
however, the adult elephant (Elephant 5) did not and had a total
training time of 424 minutes
Elephant 2 passed her final test only after 25 training sessions of a mean
duration of 10.29 minutes (total training time 257 minutes)
Elephant 1 passed her test after 30 training sessions with a mean
duration of 12.42 minutes (total training time 373 minutes)
Elephant 3 and 4 passed their tests after 35 training sessions with mean
durations of 13.27 minutes and 11.11 minutes respectively (total training
time 389 minutes and 451 minutes respectively)
Elephant 5 was never tested on the trunk wash as she did not learn all the
necessary components, and this could be attributed to factors such as her
being older, and likely had some visual impairment, and trunk weakness. She
was also reported as being distracted and impatient during the last week of the
study, and also had a foot abscess during this period. Finally, a calf from
another stable occasionally also interrupted her training sessions by entering her
training area
Furthermore, Elephant 5 never passed the ‘blow into bucket’, ‘desensitization to
syringe’ and ‘steady’ tests
Elephants 2 and 4 also never passed their ‘steady’ tests despite being able to
pass their full trunk-wash tests
Another important point to note is that some behavioural tasks were
more difficult than others, such as the trunk-here task required more
offers/cues than the bucket or blow-into-bucket tasks
The mean success rate of all elephants gradually improved from 39%
after 10 sessions of training, to 89% after 35 sessions of training
CONCLUSION
Juvenile and free-contact, traditionally trained elephants can be
trained to participate in a trunk wash using only SPR training
SPR training can be carried out with the voluntary participation of
elephants, avoiding punishment, in order to produce reliable results
NATURE VS NURTURE DEBATE
The study supports the nurture side of the debate as the elephants went
through a training process in order to learn how to voluntarily implement
the trunk wash behaviours, through the use of operant conditioning
(positive reinforcement specifically)
However, one elephant in particular, the adult elephant, failed to learn
the trunk wash behaviour, and this could be attributed to natural factors
such as her age, trunk weakness, or even visual impairments
INDIVIDUAL VS SITUATIONAL DEBATE
The study supports the situational explanation as the elephants were
taught the trunk wash behaviour by being placed in various situations
involving SPR, in which they gradually learned each specific behaviour,
and were able to eventually learn the entirety of the trunk wash
technique
The study also supports the individual explanation as the time taken for
each elephant to learn was different, and this was due to the learning
ability of each individual elephant, as some were quicker to learn
certain behaviours than others. The adult elephant, or example, was
unable to learn the trunk wash technique at all, perhaps due to her age,
as opposed to the juvenile elephants, who did learn the technique
APPLICATION TO EVERYDAY LIFE
The findings of the study are useful to train elephants to maintain their
health and well-being through a safe and effective trunk wash
technique that is not built around punishment, but rather, positive
reinforcement, and this can help them reduce the risk of diseases such
as TB
Furthermore, other animals can also be taught certain behaviours or
techniques through SPR and operant conditioning, without the need for
having to make the animal go through any distress
USE OF ANIMALS IN
PSYCHOLOGICAL RESEARCH
There is no evidence that the elephants were harmed in any way during the
study, and most of the ethical guidelines that apply to animals were
maintained
The training process was conducted over a number of weeks and involved
training almost daily, which would have been impractical to achieve with
human participants, which is why the use of a elephants made more practical
sense
The results of the study were useful to understand that elephants can learn to
voluntarily apply a trunk wash technique that would be beneficial to their well-
being
EVALUATION
RELIABILITY
Strength: The study has high levels of controls as it was a controlled
observation, for example, the SPR training process was the same for all
participants, all elephants were rewarded with the same reward of a
chopped banana, and a behavioural checklist was used to record the
behaviours that were required to be learned by the elephants. This
makes the procedure highly standardized and easy to replicate in order
to test for reliability
Weakness: The training time for the elephants was not standardized and
was subject to each individual elephant’s learning ability, and this may
reduce the reliability of the study
VALIDITY
Strength: The verbal cues that were used did not mean anything specific
in either English or Nepali, and this was important to ensure that it would
not lead to any demand characteristics from the elephants, as some
specific words that they or the mahouts may have understood, could
have affected their learning
Strength: The mahouts were also instructed to not signal to or speak to
the elephants, and this would ensure that there were not additional
possible cues or signal from the mahouts that could have influenced the
behaviour of the elephants, who the mahouts knew very well
VALIDITY
Weakness: There is an element of subjectivity as the researchers had to
assess how accurately the elephants were displaying the behaviours,
and this could be subject to researcher bias, as perhaps in some cases,
an elephant may not have displayed the correct angle for a particular
behaviour which may have not allowed all the fluid to be used, but the
researcher may have mistakenly interpreted it as being completely
correct, which can lower validity
GENERALISABILITY
Weakness: The sample was small of just 5 elephants, one of whom was
an adult. They were all part of one stable in Nepal, and therefore, the
findings cannot be applied to a wider population of elephants,
particularly adult elephants, as there was only one elephant
representing adult elephants, and had a trunk weakness, abscess in the
foot, as well as visual impairments, and perhaps the learning abilities of
other adult elephants may have been very different, but were not being
represented, hence making the generalisability of the study very low
ECOLOGICAL VALIDITY
Strength: The study was conducted in a setting that was close to the
natural environment of the elephants, as there were many other
elephants around as well in other stables, and other animals
Weakness: However, it was a controlled observation, and the animals
were being made to go through a specific sequence of trunk wash
behaviours which was not natural, but rather, something that was taught
to them through SPR, and this is not something elephants would normally
experience in their natural every day lives in the jungle, hence the study
lacks mundane realism
ETHICS
Strength:
Numbers: The study used a small sample of only 5 elephants in the procedure
Pain and distress: There was no evidence that the animals went through any
physical or emotional distress
Reward: The elephants were rewarded with a chopped banana for displaying the
desired behaviour
Aversive Stimuli: The syringe may have been a stimulus the elephants might have
been afraid of, but through counterconditioning, they were taught to associate it
with a reward
Deprivation: The elephants were not deprived of any of their basic needs like food
or water
Housing: The elephants were housed in the same stable with their mahouts present
who they were comfortable around, and were only leg-chained with enough
space to move around, and that too only during the duration they weren’t being
tested
DATA
Strength: The study collected quantitative data which is objective and
numerical and allows for comparisons to be made, for example, the
mean duration in minutes and total number of trials it took for each
elephant to complete the task was calculated which allows us to
determine which elephants were able to learn faster than others
OBSERVATION
Strength: The procedure was a controlled observation which means the
study had high levels of controls which allows the procedure to be
standardized and easy to replicate for reliability (refer to points on
reliability)
Strength: The study used a structured observation with the use of a
checklist which is also standardized and can be replicated to test for
reliability
