Learning Approach

• aim/hypothesis

  to determine the effectiveness of secondary positive reinforcement in training free-contact elephants in Nepal to voluntarily participate in a trunk wash for the purpose of tuberculosis testing.
• method


  -controlled

  -small groups

  -trained over weeks

  -percentage pass
• procedure


  -elephants were offered drinks before each session

  -no time limit

  -determined by success
• sample

  -1 adult elephants

  -4 juvenile
• independent variable

  -elephant age

  -SPR
• dependant variable

  performance in the trunk wash
• Generalizability


  there was low generalizability: a small sample size
• reliability


  it was a standardized procedure
• application to real life


  There wasn't enough older elephants that they tested to assume that positive reinforcement works on all the elephant population
• validity


  lower demand characteristic (expected to respond a certain way)
• ethics

  -elephants were treated well

  -SPR is more ethical than other traditions

  - to diagnose TB
• results


  - 4 juvenile elephants successfully learned the trunk wash using SPR

  - 1 elder failed

  -Mean success from 39% (10 sessions) to 89.3% (35 sessions) -- -Score never reached 100% because 90% was given as default to each behaviour
• conclusion


  Juvenile, free-contact, traditionally trained elephants can be trained in SPR to participate in a trunk wash reliably, voluntarily, without punishment

  -strengths

  Good reliability and replicability

  Quantitative data and structured observation

  good validity

  -weaknesses

  Low generalisability

  Low representativeness

  practical challenges

  Flexible training session