Fagen
What is the primary reinforcer?
Chopped bananas
5 female elephants (1 adult & 4 juvenile)
How did they use self reports in Saavedra & Silverman?
The Feelings Thermometer
What button caused him the most distress?
Small, colored plastic buttons.
What is the purpose of the trunk wash?
Tuberculosis (TB)
Define behavioral chaining
A method of teaching behaviors by linking together sequences of individual behaviors
When he was in kindergarten getting more buttons, a bowl of buttons fell on him in front of the class, traumatizing him.
How long was the fear of buttons there before treatment?
Name the 5 steps of the trunk wash
Name one consideration of animals according to Fagen.
One consideration of animals according to Fagen is to consider the focus that elephants have. Even if the environment was natural, there was a 2 month old baby calf roaming around distracting the adult elephant, which prevented her form learning the trunk wash.
They had to keep the sample size small to minimize harm to the population with a sample of 5 female elephants.
There is a possible pain and distress to the elephants as the syringe task caused distress in the elephants as they increased the amount of saline in the syringe.
How was operant conditioning used in this study?
Praises from his mother after he would do the therapy
How was the DSM-IV used in this study?
To diagnose the boy with the specific phobia, along to rule out OCD.
What is a situational factor of Fagen?
A situational factor is things in the environment that might affect the results of the study.
A situational factor of Fagen can be that the adult elephant had a 2 month old calf that she was looking out for, and it was distracting her from learning the trunk wash.
Vision impairment
2 month old calf that always caught her attention
Age is a possible factor to her learning style and rate
High or low ecological validity? Explain why.
Name one consideration of children, connecting to Saavedra & Silverman.
Consent by proxy, the researcher asked the boy's mother if he could be researched on.
Consider a safe environment to the child, as he is very vulnerable from his fear to buttons, especially with the in Vivo technique, as it raised his distress levels.
They had to develop the Feelings Thermometer so he can fully interpret how he was rating the distress of the buttons
Name one application to everyday life, connecting it back to the study
What is meant by session times?
Session times is a way of data collection, where an assistant would time each training session to each minute starting from the first cue that was offered and after the elephant's response to the last cue offer.
Name a point relating to Nature
Nature is what people are born with.
Humans already have a fear of falling and loud noises since its survival instincts are already imbedded into us by our ancestors. The boy had that traumatic event, the bowl of buttons fell on him in front of the class, he used his survival instincts that he was born with to fear the buttons, so his survival instincts identified the buttons as a threat, and made him fear it.
What is contingency management?
It is the technique utilized in the first therapy, where it was based off the principles of operant conditioning (mainly positive reinforcement)