Tools and Tests

1. Tools and Tests Dr. Anna Johnson Week 5 Thursday 1st March 2007

2. Students please note: I have included quite a few links to web pages that will help define and explain concepts in this (and future weeks) slides. Therefore, for the links to work you need to be on-line and have access to the internet.

3. Today • This is an introduction…. • Identification of tools • Animal motivation and learning • Identification of tests • Challenges and positives for these tools and tests

4. Identification of tools

5. Tools Week 11 • Lasers • Criterion 400 survey laser

6. Laser Laser booklet

7. Tools Week 11 • Data loggers • Sirtrack • Sirtrack Homepage • Large mammal transmitter

8. Tools Development of Small Size Data Logger to Observe Marine Animals. Hiroyuki Muramoto and Naito Yasuhiko Penguin information

9. Tools Week 11 • Vocalizations • Elephant listening project and infrasound! • Elephant project

10. Spectrogram of forest dwelling elephants

11. Tools Week 12 • Locomotion • Gait

12. Tools Week 13 • Eating • Rumination

14. Identification of tests

15. Tests Week 9 • Novelty

16. Tests Week 9 • Fear

17. Tests Week 9 • Tonic immobility

18. Tests Week 10 • T-mazes • Aversion • Operant conditioning • But before this…. Motivation and learning, some theory!

19. Motivation • Motivation is sometimes termed the “hypothetical variable” in that it can not be observed directly • Used to describe internal and external processes that arouse and direct behavior • Animals have motivations for behaviors beyond what is needed for survival

20. Motivation “Motivation is a process within the brain that determines which and when behaviors will occur. Goal orientation of animals forms the basis for motivation. Motivation is a function of stimuli such as physiological parameters and interactions with external stimuli such as those of the various dimensions of the animals total environment.”

21. Motivation • Motivation that is dominant will inhibit the capacity of other motivations • Flexibility can occur in motivational systems • Unlike reflexes and MAP’s • Aspect of motivation animals are said to form representation of their world involving “expectations”

22. General behavioral model system External factors (darkness / leaves…) Internal factors (hunger, body temp) Comparison (is it enough?) Motivation (find food) Goal (store food) I.e. a squirrel! Motor Program (walk, run, forage)

23. Motivation • Motivational controls set high level goals • To get food • Find water • Goals are implemented by lower level processes • This represents hierarchical control • Highest level = goal • Lowest levels = command

24. What can influence motivation…. • Physiological systems • Feeding, drinking, body regulation • Reproductive systems • Seek a mate / be receptive • Seek isolation • Increased aggression from the female • Social characteristics • Dominance order • Flocking in sheep

25. Motivational systems • Classical ethological approach • Biopsychological approach

26. Classical ethological approach • A particular motivation increases as a function of the length of time that has elapsed since it was last expressed • Specific energy underlying a motivation Lorenzo, 1950

27. Classical ethological approach Time elapsed Just performed Behavior must be performed Full Tipping Empty Empty Fill

28. Classical ethological approach • Model has been criticized • No evidence of actual accumulation of physical energy within the animals body • Energy is simply a metaphor to try and describe motivational systems • Does not describe all types of behavior well • Aggressive behaviors • In addition some behaviors explained by physiology: • Feeding and drinking behaviors

29. Biopsychological approach • Physiological events within the animals body – Toates, 2001 • Homeostasis is achieved partly by means of behavior • Deviation from optimum in body fluids / body temperature • Hypothermic animal might: • Engage in huddling with other animals • Persuaded to press a lever in Skinner box to gain units of heat – an index of motivation

30. Biopsychological approach • Emphasize that motivation arises from a combination of external stimuli and internal physiological states • External stimuli are sometimes referred to as “incentive” • Power of the incentive can vary: • Past experience, • Size of the reward, • Satiety levels.

31. Asking the animal….what’s their motivation? • Early use of preference testing • Natural study • Collected in a systematic and quantitative way • Traditional lab studies of behavior have provided insights into animals preferences and motivation • Brambell Committee • Thorpe (1965) proposed what became an agenda for using scientific research to resolve animal well-being issues • Pushed for more work to “ask animals about their environmental preferences.”

32. Floor preference with a laying hen “Chicken wire” Heavy gauge metal mesh

33. Piglet Motivation • Y-maze tests piglet relative motivations • Mother’s odor is learned by 12 hours of age • Piglet motivation to be near the odor of their mother is stronger than their motivation for heat A B

34. Concerns with preference testing… • Asking suitably complex questions • Past animal experience • Avoiding incorrect responses!

35. Test size of enclosure for sows

36. Strength of the preference… • Grapes vs. cherries – weak • Live in house or dungeon – strong “Just because an animal prefers one thing over another or chooses one set of conditions over another this cannot be taken to mean that it necessarily suffers if it has to make do with the least preferred state…. What we need is w ay of calibrating the various signs of well-being and suffering in a quantitative way.” Dawkins, 1983

37. Learning

38. What is learning…. • Animal can predict and control using past experiences • One-event learning • Associative learning • Social learning • Extinction

39. One-event learning • Habituation • Progressive decrease in the strength of a behavioral response to a continuing stimuli • I.e. horses and the train… • Sensitization • Reduce the threshold and magnify the response • Attack by predator, similar inputs = heightened response

40. Associative learning • Classical conditioning • Instrumental conditioning

41. Associative learning • Classical conditioning • Animal associates two events with an out come • First studied by a Russian physiologist called Ivan Pavlov

42. The site or smell of food (the unconditioned stimulus) causes the dog to salivate (the unconditioned response). Ordinarily a neural stimulus, such as a bell ring does not cause the dog to salivate. There is no response to food, only to a sound where the dog may move it's ears. We can condition the dog to respond to the tone. We ring the bell and immediately follow it with food. This should be repeated several times. The link between the bell and food is termed an association.

43. Eventually, the dog will salivate (conditioned response) at the sound of the bell alone (the conditioned stimulus). The dog has associated the tone with food.

44. Associative learning • Instrumental conditioning • Operant conditioning or trial and error learning • The behavior of an animal is dependent on the previous outcomes of the behavior

45. Associative learning • Desirable out come = perform more • Undesirable outcome = perform less • Investigated in a Skinner box or operant conditioning box

46. Social learning • Imitation - quite rare • Orang-utans attempt to make a fire after watching humans • Social facilitation / learning • Food sources • Monkeys washing potatoes before eating

47. Social learning • Imprinting • Lorenzo and his ducks • Shaping • Prenatal and neonatal learning • Aversion** • Learn from negative experience to avoid an area, thing or item (dominance)

48. Aversion

49. Social learning – Rushen 1986 AVERSION…..

50. Electro immobilization • How is electro-immobilisation carried out? • Nose-to-tail or head to tail. • Electrodes are attached to the head of the animals usually via an electrode clip attached to the corner of the mouth or cheek and also to the caudal fold on the tail of the animal using a needle.