Marine mammal training

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A California sea lion holds a training device during a US Navy harbor patrol swim. US Navy 030212-N-3783H-007 Zak, a 375-pound California sea lion moves through the water with a training device during one of the harbor patrol training swim.jpg
A California sea lion holds a training device during a US Navy harbor patrol swim.

Marine mammal training refers to the training and caretaking of various marine mammals, including dolphins, orcas (killer whales), sea lions, and walruses. This discipline involves teaching these animals behaviors for purposes such as performing in shows, scientific research, military operations, or health and enrichment. Caretaking elements include ensuring the animals' proper diet, habitat maintenance, and health monitoring.

Contents

Methodology

Operant conditioning employs two kinds of reinforcement to instruct animals in performing behaviors: Primary reinforcement, which involves unconditioned rewards such as food, and secondary reinforcement, which includes learned rewards that teach reinforcing properties through their connection to primary reinforcers. Examples of secondary reinforcers include tactile interaction, such as petting or grooming from trainers, or engagement with enrichment tools, such as balls. [1] The timeliness of reinforcement must be immediate for the animal to recognize the correct behavior. Trainers facilitate this through a bridging stimulus—a signal indicating the animal has performed the desired action correctly. Common forms of bridging stimuli include whistling sounds, usage of training clickers, or visual cues like hand gestures. These stimuli serve as a bridge between the behavior's execution and the receipt of a reward, enabling immediate feedback that enhances learning speed and focus, particularly when direct reinforcement is not feasible. [2]

Shaping is a gradual method of teaching through successive steps, allowing the achievement of complex behaviors. Trainers use distinct signals to denote specific behaviors, guiding animals toward the desired response. In cases where an animal either fails to respond or exhibits an incorrect behavior, trainers employ a technique known as the Least Reinforcing Stimulus (LRS), wherein they pause for three seconds before attempting the signal again. It is similar to a "time-out". [3] This approach emphasizes the avoidance of coercion and punishment, adhering to a philosophy of positive reinforcement and patience in animal training. [4]

History of Marine Mammal Training

Applied animal training employs many of the behavioral training techniques described by B.F. Skinner, who developed an experimental analysis of behavior through the use of rats and pigeons in operant chambers. During Skinner's pigeon project, he and a team of graduate students, including Marian and Keller Breland, [5] trained pigeons to use screens to steer missiles to hit a target. [6] However, this project was never operational. After this project, Skinner and the Breland couple were interested in potential applications of behavioral technology and operant principles. In 1944, the Brelands opened a business called Animal Behavior Enterprises (ABE) on a farm they purchased. They used operant conditioning techniques to train various animals for commercials, advertisements, and entertainment purposes. In 1950, the two opened a tourist attraction in Hot Springs, Arkansas known as the I.Q. Zoo. [7] This zoo featured exhibits where trained animals would demonstrate many different behaviors, from dropping small balls into a hoop to hitting balls with bats on a miniature baseball field, and much more. [8] In 1951, the Brelands wrote an article titled "A Field of Applied Animal Psychology", where they proposed that modern behavioral science and professional animal training be brought together through applied animal psychology. [9] In the late 1950s into the early 1960s, they promoted and patented a dog and clicker training program called Master Mind. [10]

through the 1950s-1960s, the Brelands and ABE adapted operant methods to use with marine mammals and began a training program at Marine Studios. The program included training and developing new behaviors, staff training in operant methods, and prop design. When working with a dolphin named Splash, the Brelands were able to precisely shape and control behavior by using bridging stimuli. In 1955, the couple wrote the first operant training manual for dolphins, which included general principles such as stimulus, bridging, shaping, differentiation, extinction, props, and schedules of reinforcement. It also included individual act instructions such as descriptions of act goals, target behaviors, signaling instructions, specific training directions, and various potential educational or promotional uses for trained dolphins. ABE started the use of training logs to systematize and standardize training and to track the animals' progress. They scripted and created shows and taught others how to train using operant technology. Other marine parks that use operant training can be traced back to the ABE and the spread of behavioral technology, which helped the marine animal training industry to grow rapidly. [11]

The world's first oceanarium, Marine Studios, was located in St. Augustine, Florida, and opened on June 23, 1938. This park was originally designed as an underwater movie studio, educational facility, and marine research center, but it became a popular tourist attraction. Park visitors could watch marine animals from an observation deck or through the clear walls of the saltwater pools. Atlantic bottlenose dolphins were featured in the first major dolphin attraction, named the Top Deck Show. Personnel used a form of shaping by requiring the dolphins to perform varying and increasingly higher jumps. Personnel would hold fish over the water and dolphins would leap into the air and take fish out of their hands or their mouth. [12]

Marine Studios hired a former sea lion trainer from the Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus named Adolf Frohn to train the dolphins to play with inner tubes on command. Frohn had no previous experience working with dolphins. He worked with a two-year-old male dolphin named Flippy beginning in September 1949. Frohn first worked to familiarize Flippy with his presence and grow comfortable accepting handfed food. The trainer did so by rowing a small boat around the lagoon to stay near the young dolphin. Flippy learned six tricks: honking a bulb horn, ringing a bell, raising a flag, retrieving and catching a ball, pulling a surfboard ridden by a woman or dog, and jumping through a hoop. Marine Studios announced the world's first trained dolphin to the public in February 1951. Frohn kept his training methods secretive, intentionally not keeping training records, method instructions, or allowing assistants to participate in training. He used positive reinforcement and believed in the importance of a trusting, patient, and affectionate relationship between a trainer and an animal. [13]

The rising popularity of marine mammal attractions led to the creation of additional parks such as Sea Life Park Hawaii and SeaWorld. Sea Life Park was opened in 1963 and was founded by Taylor Allderdice Pryor and her first husband. Pryor used Ronald Turner's operant training manual for dolphins and was able to train dolphins and teach training staff about operant conditioning. These methods were applied to training Spinner, Kiko, and Pacific bottlenose dolphins. Pryor's writings about her experiences played a major role in the spread of the use of operant psychology in animal training. SeaWorld was founded by George Millay, Ken Norris, and other investors. In 1964, Millay hired Kent Burgess, who was from ABE, to be SeaWorld's Director of Animal Training. Burgess used his experience from Marineland of the Pacific and Marine Studios to apply behavioral training in a structured system that included behavioral record-keeping, manuals, and courses that train in behavioral psychology. Burgess used operant psychology to train a killer whale named Shamu. After two months of training, Shamu performed in shows for the public regularly. These shows included behaviors such as opening her mouth to have her teeth brushed and examined, showing her fluke reflexes, having her heart checked, kissing her doctor on the cheek, and jumping to a target 15 feet in the air. The training program that Burgess implemented was valid, reliable, and efficient in all animal acts. The animal's behavior was the focus at Sea World through the use of operant psychology instead of the trainer's skill. [14]

Schooling for Marine Mammal Training

University of Alaska Fairbanks, University of California Santa Cruz, California State University, Cornell University, University of Delaware, Duke University, University of Hawaii at Manoa, and University of Maine are a few universities that offer schooling for marine mammal training. [15] Most of these schools provide a schooling program with field experiences integrated with classroom and laboratory courses. [16] While a bachelor's degree is not mandatory for this career, it is more beneficial to have at least a 4-year degree.

Most marine mammal trainers earn their degrees in marine biology, psychology, and/or animal behavior (ethology). Though formal education is very important, it is often better to learn and become familiar with marine mammal behaviors through first-hand experience, under the guidance of an experienced trainer.

International Marine Animal Trainers' Association

The International Marine Animal Trainers' Association (IMATA), established in 1972, is an organization dedicated to fostering communication, professionalism, and cooperation among individuals engaged in the service of marine life. Its mission encompasses the exchange of information and expertise related to the care, training, and conservation of marine animals, with a strong emphasis on ethical practices and the enhancement of animal welfare. [17]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">B. F. Skinner</span> American psychologist and social philosopher (1904–1990)

Burrhus Frederic Skinner was an American psychologist, behaviorist, inventor, and social philosopher. He was the Edgar Pierce Professor of Psychology at Harvard University from 1958 until his retirement in 1974.

Operant conditioning, also called instrumental conditioning, is a learning process where voluntary behaviors are modified by association with the addition of reward or aversive stimuli. The frequency or duration of the behavior may increase through reinforcement or decrease through punishment or extinction.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Operant conditioning chamber</span> Laboratory apparatus used to study animal behavior

An operant conditioning chamber is a laboratory apparatus used to study animal behavior. The operant conditioning chamber was created by B. F. Skinner while he was a graduate student at Harvard University. The chamber can be used to study both operant conditioning and classical conditioning.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Reinforcement</span> Consequence affecting an organisms future behavior

In behavioral psychology, reinforcement refers to consequences that increase the likelihood of an organism's future behavior, typically in the presence of a particular antecedent stimulus. For example, a rat can be trained to push a lever to receive food whenever a light is turned on. In this example, the light is the antecedent stimulus, the lever pushing is the operant behavior, and the food is the reinforcer. Likewise, a student that receives attention and praise when answering a teacher's question will be more likely to answer future questions in class. The teacher's question is the antecedent, the student's response is the behavior, and the praise and attention are the reinforcements.

The experimental analysis of behavior is a science that studies the behavior of individuals across a variety of species. A key early scientist was B. F. Skinner who discovered operant behavior, reinforcers, secondary reinforcers, contingencies of reinforcement, stimulus control, shaping, intermittent schedules, discrimination, and generalization. A central method was the examination of functional relations between environment and behavior, as opposed to hypothetico-deductive learning theory that had grown up in the comparative psychology of the 1920–1950 period. Skinner's approach was characterized by observation of measurable behavior which could be predicted and controlled. It owed its early success to the effectiveness of Skinner's procedures of operant conditioning, both in the laboratory and in behavior therapy.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Animal cognition</span> Intelligence of non-human animals

Animal cognition encompasses the mental capacities of non-human animals including insect cognition. The study of animal conditioning and learning used in this field was developed from comparative psychology. It has also been strongly influenced by research in ethology, behavioral ecology, and evolutionary psychology; the alternative name cognitive ethology is sometimes used. Many behaviors associated with the term animal intelligence are also subsumed within animal cognition.

Behaviorism is a systematic approach to understand the behavior of humans and other animals. It assumes that behavior is either a reflex evoked by the pairing of certain antecedent stimuli in the environment, or a consequence of that individual's history, including especially reinforcement and punishment contingencies, together with the individual's current motivational state and controlling stimuli. Although behaviorists generally accept the important role of heredity in determining behavior, they focus primarily on environmental events. The cognitive revolution of the late 20th century largely replaced behaviorism as an explanatory theory with cognitive psychology, which unlike behaviorism examines internal mental states.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Clicker training</span> Animal training method

Clicker training is a positive reinforcement animal training method based on a bridging stimulus in operant conditioning. The system uses conditioned reinforcers, which a trainer can deliver more quickly and more precisely than primary reinforcers such as food. The term "clicker" comes from a small metal cricket noisemaker adapted from a child's toy that the trainer uses to precisely mark the desired behavior. When training a new behavior, the clicker helps the animal to quickly identify the precise behavior that results in the treat. The technique is popular with dog trainers, but can be used for all kinds of domestic and wild animals.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dog training</span> Practice of teaching behaviors to dogs

Dog training is a kind of animal training, the application of behavior analysis which uses the environmental events of antecedents and consequences to modify the dog behavior, either for it to assist in specific activities or undertake particular tasks, or for it to participate effectively in contemporary domestic life. While training dogs for specific roles dates back to Roman times at least, the training of dogs to be compatible household pets developed with suburbanization in the 1950s.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Animal training</span> Teaching animals specific responses to specific conditions or stimuli

Animal training is the act of teaching animals specific responses to specific conditions or stimuli. Training may be for purposes such as companionship, detection, protection, and entertainment. The type of training an animal receives will vary depending on the training method used, and the purpose for training the animal. For example, a seeing eye dog will be trained to achieve a different goal than a wild animal in a circus.

Shaping is a conditioning paradigm used primarily in the experimental analysis of behavior. The method used is differential reinforcement of successive approximations. It was introduced by B. F. Skinner with pigeons and extended to dogs, dolphins, humans and other species. In shaping, the form of an existing response is gradually changed across successive trials towards a desired target behavior by reinforcing exact segments of behavior. Skinner's explanation of shaping was this:

We first give the bird food when it turns slightly in the direction of the spot from any part of the cage. This increases the frequency of such behavior. We then withhold reinforcement until a slight movement is made toward the spot. This again alters the general distribution of behavior without producing a new unit. We continue by reinforcing positions successively closer to the spot, then by reinforcing only when the head is moved slightly forward, and finally only when the beak actually makes contact with the spot. ... The original probability of the response in its final form is very low; in some cases it may even be zero. In this way we can build complicated operants which would never appear in the repertoire of the organism otherwise. By reinforcing a series of successive approximations, we bring a rare response to a very high probability in a short time. ... The total act of turning toward the spot from any point in the box, walking toward it, raising the head, and striking the spot may seem to be a functionally coherent unit of behavior; but it is constructed by a continual process of differential reinforcement from undifferentiated behavior, just as the sculptor shapes his figure from a lump of clay.

Louis Herman was an American marine biologist. He was a researcher of dolphin sensory abilities, dolphin cognition, and humpback whales. He was professor in the Department of Psychology and a cooperating faculty member of the Department of Oceanography at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa. He founded the Kewalo Basin Marine Mammal Laboratory (KBMML) in Honolulu, Hawaii in 1970 to study bottlenose dolphin perception, cognition, and communication. In 1975, he pioneered the scientific study of the annual winter migration of humpback whales into Hawaiian waters. Together with Adam Pack, he founded The Dolphin Institute in 1993, a non-profit corporation dedicated to dolphins and whales through education, research, and conservation.

Instinctive drift, alternately known as instinctual drift, is the tendency of an animal to revert to unconscious and automatic behaviour that interferes with learned behaviour from operant conditioning. Instinctive drift was coined by Keller and Marian Breland, former students of B.F. Skinner at the University of Minnesota, describing the phenomenon as "a clear and utter failure of conditioning theory." B.F. Skinner was an American psychologist and father of operant conditioning, which is a learning strategy that teaches the performance of an action either through reinforcement or punishment. It is through the association of the behaviour and the reward or consequence that follows that depicts whether an animal will maintain a behaviour, or if it will become extinct. Instinctive drift is a phenomenon where such conditioning erodes and an animal reverts to its natural behaviour.

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...errors are not necessary for learning to occur. Errors are not a function of learning or vice versa nor are they blamed on the learner. Errors are a function of poor analysis of behavior, a poorly designed shaping program, moving too fast from step to step in the program, and the lack of the prerequisite behavior necessary for success in the program.

In behavioral psychology, stimulus control is a phenomenon in operant conditioning that occurs when an organism behaves in one way in the presence of a given stimulus and another way in its absence. A stimulus that modifies behavior in this manner is either a discriminative stimulus or stimulus delta. For example, the presence of a stop sign at a traffic intersection alerts the driver to stop driving and increases the probability that braking behavior occurs. Stimulus control does not force behavior to occur, as it is a direct result of historical reinforcement contingencies, as opposed to reflexive behavior elicited through classical conditioning.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Charles Ferster</span>

Charles Bohris Ferster was an American behavioral psychologist. A pioneer of applied behavior analysis, he developed errorless learning and was a colleague of B.F. Skinner's at Harvard University, co-authoring the book Schedules of Reinforcement (1957).

Discrimination learning is defined in psychology as the ability to respond differently to different stimuli. This type of learning is used in studies regarding operant and classical conditioning. Operant conditioning involves the modification of a behavior by means of reinforcement or punishment. In this way, a discriminative stimulus will act as an indicator to when a behavior will persist and when it will not. Classical conditioning involves learning through association when two stimuli are paired together repeatedly. This conditioning demonstrates discrimination through specific micro-instances of reinforcement and non-reinforcement. This phenomenon is considered to be more advanced than learning styles such as generalization and yet simultaneously acts as a basic unit to learning as a whole. The complex and fundamental nature of discrimination learning allows for psychologists and researchers to perform more in-depth research that supports psychological advancements. Research on the basic principles underlying this learning style has their roots in neuropsychology sub-processes.

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References

  1. ↑ Brando, Sabrina (2010). "Advances in Husbandry Training in Marine Animal Care Programs". International Journal of Comparative Psychology. 23 (4): 777–791. doi: 10.46867/IJCP.2010.23.04.03 .
  2. ↑ Gillapsy, James; Brinegar, Jennifer; Bailey, Robert (2014). "Operant Psychology Makes a Splash In Marine Mammal Training (1955-1965)". Journal of the History of the Behavioral Sciences. 50 (3): 231–248. doi:10.1002/jhbs.21664. PMID   24962746.
  3. ↑ "Training Marine Mammals" . Retrieved 10 April 2012.
  4. ↑ "Marine Mammal Training at Seaworld" . Retrieved 10 April 2012.
  5. ↑ "Project Pigeon". www3.uca.edu. Retrieved 2024-03-27.
  6. ↑ Magazine, Smithsonian; Stromberg, Joseph. "B.F. Skinner's Pigeon-Guided Rocket". Smithsonian Magazine. Retrieved 2024-03-27.
  7. ↑ Gillapsy, James; Brinegar, Jennifer; Bailey, Robert (2014). "Operant Psychology Makes a Splash In Marine Mammal Training (1955-1965)". Journal of the History of the Behavioral Sciences. 50 (3): 231–248. doi:10.1002/jhbs.21664. PMID   24962746.
  8. ↑ Hough, Christopher. "IQ Zoo". Encyclopedia of Arkansas.
  9. ↑ chrome-extension://mhnlakgilnojmhinhkckjpncpbhabphi/pages/pdf/web/viewer.html?file=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.hsu.edu%2Fsite%2Fassets%2Ffiles%2F4464%2F199-0afmarian_breland_bailey.pdf
  10. ↑ Gillapsy, James; Brinegar, Jennifer; Bailey, Robert (2014). "Operant Psychology Makes a Splash In Marine Mammal Training (1955-1965)". Journal of the History of the Behavioral Sciences. 50 (3): 231–248. doi:10.1002/jhbs.21664. PMID   24962746.
  11. ↑ Gillapsy, James; Brinegar, Jennifer; Bailey, Robert (2014). "Operant Psychology Makes a Splash In Marine Mammal Training (1955-1965)". Journal of the History of the Behavioral Sciences. 50 (3): 231–248. doi:10.1002/jhbs.21664. PMID   24962746.
  12. ↑ Gillapsy, James; Brinegar, Jennifer; Bailey, Robert (2014). "Operant Psychology Makes a Splash In Marine Mammal Training (1955-1965)". Journal of the History of the Behavioral Sciences. 50 (3): 231–248. doi:10.1002/jhbs.21664. PMID   24962746.
  13. ↑ Gillapsy, James; Brinegar, Jennifer; Bailey, Robert (2014). "Operant Psychology Makes a Splash In Marine Mammal Training (1955-1965)". Journal of the History of the Behavioral Sciences. 50 (3): 231–248. doi:10.1002/jhbs.21664. PMID   24962746.
  14. ↑ Gillapsy, James; Brinegar, Jennifer; Bailey, Robert (2014). "Operant Psychology Makes a Splash In Marine Mammal Training (1955-1965)". Journal of the History of the Behavioral Sciences. 50 (3): 231–248. doi:10.1002/jhbs.21664. PMID   24962746.
  15. ↑ "Dolphin Research Center" . Retrieved 3 April 2012.
  16. ↑ "Bachelor of Science degree in Marine Biology". Archived from the original on 13 April 2012. Retrieved 10 April 2012.
  17. ↑ "IMATA" . Retrieved 4 April 2012.
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