https://padlet.com/stephholgate/vk1quzajlkdlkzif Ethologists en-us 2020-12-09 12:16:12 UTC 2020-12-11 19:56:18 UTC hello@padlet.com stephholgate https://padlet.com/stephholgate/vk1quzajlkdlkzif/wish/1001831978 Ivan Pavlov is most famously known for his studies with dogs, and the concept of "conditional reflexes". 
"A conditional reflex is considered a form of learning that can occur through exposure to stimuli" (www.thoughtco.com/ivanpavlovbiography)
Pavlov discovered that dogs salivation levels rose when they saw a technician enter the area where the dogs were housed, as the dogs had associated the lab coat with receiving food. Saliva output increases as an aid digestion. Pavlov made the connection between the responses of the dogs and discovered that the same response could be achieved via different stimuli. These included buzzers, metronomes and electric shocks. Once the dogs had made the connection between stimuli and receiving food, salivation levels would again rise.
"A neutral stimulus - door opening, could be associated with with another event that followed - in this case, being fed." (www.psychologistworld.com/behaviour/pavlov-dogs-classicalconditioning)
Recent studies:
Ivan Pavlov's work is often referred to within the animal industry, within the field of behaviour, this is usually relating to training practices. The connection between food and an animal responding correctly to a command, or in this case, clicker training, will result in a positive result to the animal.
Humans have trained animals for various reasons, for example: exhibitions of sealions, for approximately 10,000 years. many different training apparatus have been used, target training is an example, to achieve changes in behaviour or to observe a required behaviour. An example of this may be a dog performing the 'sit' action to verbal command, or click from a clicker. Within this study, which was completed by reviewing previous studies and analysing how positive reinforcement alongside clicker training showed positive results.
"Clickers and food were the most often used training stimuli."
(https:doi.org/10.3390/ani10101757) ]]> 2020-12-09 12:22:02 UTC https://padlet.com/stephholgate/vk1quzajlkdlkzif/wish/1001831978 stephholgate https://padlet.com/stephholgate/vk1quzajlkdlkzif/wish/1005847179 Von Frish is famed for his study of bees and their communication and also his studies of fish and their ability to distinguish between differences in colour and brightness levels. In 1919, Von Frish also discovered that bees were able to differentiate between varying tastes and smells. The most famous study of Von Frish's showed the behaviours of bees were actually a form of communication. These behaviours included circling and wagging, in some sort of dancing movement. These behaviours indicated to other bees the location and distance of a food source, in relation to the bee hive. The results of Von Frish's study showed that the circling movement/dance of the bee indicated that food was approximately 250ft away, and the wagging shows food being further away. 
"Karl Von Frish performed the earliest conditioning experiments on honey bees, simultaneously demonstrating that they can see colours and that can learn colour reward associations. (Nouvian, M and Galzia, C.G 2019).
Recent studies
Adrian Wenner, challenged the theory of Von Frish and the theory of the waggle dance of bees. Wenner's argument was that bees could only find food through odour. Honey bees and their 'dance' was thought to be an illusion by Wenner. Wenner colaborated with many scientists, and those whose extensive knowledge of bees to devise his theory. Despite Wenner's ongoing battle, scientists still use the theory of Karl Von Frish.

]]> 2020-12-10 12:38:27 UTC https://padlet.com/stephholgate/vk1quzajlkdlkzif/wish/1005847179 stephholgate https://padlet.com/stephholgate/vk1quzajlkdlkzif/wish/1008033270 Konrad Lorenz had a theory that some animal species had an innate (genetically programmed) response to forming a bond/attachment to the first large, moving object that they came into contact with after their birth. In order to prove his theory was correct, he took a clutch  of eggs from a goose. As they were close to hatching, half of the clutch would put with a mother goose, and the other half would be placed in an incubator. Once the incubator chicks hatched, Lorenz ensured he was the first thing the hatchlings saw. As Lorenz suspected, the geese with the mother goose would follow her, whilst the incubator geese would followed him, therefore seeing Lorenz as the mother figure.
Recent studies
Harry Harlow (1958),tested the theory of imprinting with his own 'theory of attachment'. Harlow used baby monkeys and surrogates as mothers. The surrogates were placed in cages as follows:
* Wire mother producing milk and towelling mother producing NO milk
*Wire mother producing NO milk and towelling mother producing milk.
*Both wire and towelling producing milk
(psychology hub.co.uk/animal-studies-of-attachment-lorenz-and-harlow/).
"Harlow hypothesised that the tactile qualities of stimuli were more important for the infant monkey bonding than the provision of food."(Brace and Byford, 2012)
Throughout the experiment it became apparent that the monkeys preferred the towelling cloth mother, only using the wire mother to feed. Harlow then conducted three further experiments to confirm his findings. He placed a towelling mother and a wire mother in separate cages and left another cage empty. He allowed the monkeys to view inside each of the cages, the majority chose to view the towelling mother. For the final experiment, he would place the monkeys in a room full of toys, once with a towelling mother and once with no surragate. When the monkeys became anxious/scared, the monkeys with the towelling cloth mother would go to 'her' for comfort, whilst when there was no 'mother' the babies would curl up in a ball on the floor. "Harlow's findings appeared to confirm John Bowlby's contention that the infant - parent bond is based on innate tendencies rather can cupboard love." He also found that "babies monkeys seem to posses a predisposition to bond to objects with certain tactile qualities regardless of their ability to provide food." (Brace and Byford, 2012) These experiments proved Harlow's hypothesis to be correct. 
psychologyhub.co.uk/animal-studies-of-attachment-lorenz-and-harlow/]]> 2020-12-10 21:00:44 UTC https://padlet.com/stephholgate/vk1quzajlkdlkzif/wish/1008033270 stephholgate https://padlet.com/stephholgate/vk1quzajlkdlkzif/wish/1008123818 Burhhus Frederic Skinner was an American psychologist who was the founder of 'operant conditioning'. This is the theory that "behaviour that is followed by pleasant consequences is likely to be repeated" (www.simplypsychology.org/operantconditioning.html)
Skinner's work is based on the work titled 'Law of effect' which was completed by Thorndike in 1898. Skinner added an extension to this work, which was reinforcement. These could be: positive reinforcement- rewards for required behaviour and negative reinforcement- punishment for unrequired behaviour. These theories were achieved by Skinner's box/operant conditioning  chamber, which records behaviour of an animal within an allotted time frame. 
Recent Studies
Page and Neuringer identified there could be variables within the theory of operant conditioning, that was identified by B.F Skinner. 
"Experiments have shown that variability, normally measured as the dispersion of different sequences, are higher when a variability contingency is in effect, than when its not." (Page and Neuringer, 1985)
To support this ,Page and Neuringer used the various sequences of pigeon pecks. "Neuringer's hypothesis is that the underlying process of this stochastic-like behaviour is an inborn variability generator." (Page and Neuringer, 1985)
The results of the experiments showed that there must be contingencies in place to be able to produce accurate results, and also have unknown variables. Page and Neuringer also suggest that "response rate, force, durariation, and location" may be an "operant dimension of behaviour." (Page and Neuringer, 1985)
https://doi.org/10.1007/s40614-020-00262y

]]> 2020-12-10 21:34:20 UTC https://padlet.com/stephholgate/vk1quzajlkdlkzif/wish/1008123818 stephholgate https://padlet.com/stephholgate/vk1quzajlkdlkzif/wish/1008268700 Temple Grandin is known to be the revolutionary driving force within the livestock industry. Temple saw the formations and movements that livestock would make when in large herds, when being moved to be transported for slaughter. Although Temple is autistic , her hypersensitivity to noise and physical contact is at a level which can be related to animals. Temple's life's work is dedicated to ensuring animal's are as at ease when going to slaughter as possible. As Temple says "Nature's cruel, we don't have to be."
The cattle chute that Temple designed is her most celebrated work, and is used within the majority of meat industry/slaughter establishments to this day. The Guardian newspaper stated that Temple Grandin "has done more to improve the welfare for animals at the point of slaughter than any other human alive." (Guardian, 2005)
 Recent Studies
"The economic sustainability of beef herds relies on achieving a reliable percentage of weaned calves" 
Within the beef industry, breeding is a major factor. The ability to be able to sustain a steady herd of cattle is of paramount importance, via financial gain. A large factor in the breeding of cattle is stress along with disease. Stress can be responded to by "acclimatisation, acclimation, or temperament." Certain breeds of cattle are more likely to become stressed than others, so studies should be concentrated on via reproduction within specific breeds. Stressors can include heat, new environment, transport, noise affect and handling. These may/may not affect certain breeds and their reproduction abilities due to these factors. The conclusion of this study shows that minimising stress within a herd, by considering all the factors that can cause the stress levels of the herd to rise, are as important as maintaining physical welfare in order to continue successful breeding programmes.
https://doi.org/10.3390/ani10112096 

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