TIPS FOR TRAINING CHICKENS (AND SPOUSES) ...

1. It generally does no good to pick the chicken up and bash his face into the dot ­They seem to have to learn how to do it on their own.

2. Sometimes a little "competition" is good for the soul. If your chicken seems totally unmotivated, ask an assistant to get a feathered friend.

3. Often chickens (and children) will seem to have a bit of a "brain burp" and digress. If this happens, you simply have to back up with them, and start again at the point they are at.

4. Reinforce QUICKLY after desired behavior is performed - organisms at this stage are unable to make the connection and "delay gratification" when a reward is not immediately forthcoming.

5 . Avoid spilling any food in the box, or the chicken will get a "free lunch."

6. Put the feeder in so that the end covered with masking tape is seen by the chicken - They will be less frustrated if they can't SEE the food.

7. Allow chicken enough bites of food to be reinforcing (5 or 6 pecks), but not so much as to become full and motivated.

8. If chicken seems bored or sleepy, push the food tray in and out a couple of times, or tap on the box or something to generate enthusiasm.

9. Do not take food tray completely out, as chickens tend to escape. Instead, just pull it out to be flush with the edge of the box.

 

CONDITIONING EXPERIMENT PSYCHOLOGY 111

Motivation, that is, furnishing a reason or desire for doing something, is an important condition for learning. When you are highly motivated you learn faster than when you don't have a reason or desire to do something. The same is true for young chicks. If you want them to do a task, like peck a dot, you need to give them a reason to do it. In other words, you need to, motivate the chick to do what you want. I will instill the motivation in your chick by depriving it I of food for a short period of time.

The first two experiments generally take the most time because you and the chick are generally unaware of what is going on. After you both get the idea that his actions can produce food, he learns pretty fast (and so will you). Keep in mind that you are teaching the chick many things in a very short amount of time, so be patient.(Helpful hint: the quicker you reward the chick after it does what you want, the faster it will learn.)

 

Experiment #1: Magazine Training

The purpose of this experiment is to train the chicken to the location of the food dish and to associate the food dish to the reinforcer (food).

You will "shape" the chicken to the food dish by reinforcing behavior directed toward the dish.

This experiment is basic to most of the other experiments, so it must be done effectively and completely. Once your chicken is trained to go to the food dish sliding in the slot, any other behavior may be rapidly shaped.

Push the food dish in and allow the chick to find the food and eat a few bites. Now pull it out so the chicken can't get to it. When the chicken moves from the food dish, slide the food dish in and wait until the chicken comes over and eats.

Repeat the above procedure until the chicken can come from any location in the chamber to the food dish whenever the feeder is pushed in.

At first you may be free with the reinforcement (food), but as the experiment progresses, you must require the chicken to move further and further away from the food dish. Do not reinforce the chicken for hovering over the food dish or for any particular response (especially for scratching).

 

Experiment #2: Acquisition of the Dot Pecking Response

The purpose of this experiment is to train your chicken to peck the red dot in order to receive food reinforcement. By using the method of successive approximations (shaping) you will reinforce behaviors similar to the dot pecking behavior. Comparatively behaviors would be like pecking around the dot, moving toward the dot, looking at the dot, etc. Do not reinforce incompatible behaviors such as grooming or scratching.

Shape the chick to peck the red dot. Reinforce behaviors compatible with dot pecking by sliding in the feeder and giving the chicken access to the grain. It is important to keep your to keep your chicken hungry (motivated). If he starts getting full, he will respond poorly to the rest of the experiments.

 

Experiment #3: Discrimination Training

One of the basic principles of why we do things is discrimination, the ability to make a particular response in the presence of one stimulus and not make that response in the presence of other stimuli. For example, we all take our clothes off when we take a bath, but we don't take them off in a public place. In this case we are using discrimination; our stimulus to take off our clothes is the

bathroom and a tub full of water. Our stimulus to NOT take off our clothes is the presence of other people and the absence of a tub of water. Outside stimuli come to control behavior and their presence or absence may be an occasion for responding or not responding. The purpose of this experiment is to train your chick to peck only when the red dot is showing (food will be presented), and not to peck when the white is showing (food will not be presented).

After about thirty seconds, and as long as the chick is not scratching or pecking the white disk, turn the disk to show the red dot. The chicken will peck it. You then reinforce him. As R' above, while his face is in the food dish, turn the disk so as to show only white.

Continue alternating the white disk, red dot conditions until the chicken has a near zero pecking rate when the white disk is visible.

 

Experiment #4: Chaining

Much behavior which occurs, acts in a chain. For example, you throw a basketball and someone in turn catches it. Then they dribble or throw to someone else. A chain has occurred: throw, dribble, and throw. In the laboratory we may study simple chaining. You have trained your chicken to discriminately respond while the red dot was present. Using that as part of the chain, you will train your animal to peck a white disk to present the red dot, and then peck the red dot to get reinforcement.

In your box there are 2 disks. One with a red dot and the other solid white. Just as you shaped your chick in the second experiment to peck the red dot by using food as reinforcement, you will shape your chick to peck the white disk by using the red dot (then food) as reinforcement.

Begin chaining. When the chicken approaches or pecks the white disk, show the red dot on the opposite disk. Reinforce the peck to this dot and push in the food dish. Repeat step 3 until the chick is pecking the white disk to show the red dot, and pecking the dot to get reinforcement.

 

Experiment #5: Intermittent Schedules

Until now you have been reinforcing the chicken for every key peck. This has been a continuous schedule of reinforcement (CRF). Rather than reinforce each response, we can reinforce the animal after it makes a certain number of responses (fixed ratio) or we can reinforce the animal for the first response after a time interval has passed (fixed interval). Behavior reinforced under these intermittent schedules of reinforcement is maintained longer and is less likely to extinguish than behavior reinforced under CRF.

In the fixed interval schedule of reinforcement, the chick is reinforced for the first response occurring after a set time interval has elapsed.

In the fixed ratio schedule, the chick is reinforced after a fixed number of responses have been emitted. Gradually begin requiring the chicken to make more responses before you reinforce him: that is reinforce the second dot peck, then every third, etc. up to 10 responses for every reinforcement. In this way you train an animal to "count" and to appear to have great cognitive abilities.