Operant Conditioning
Sylvia
Operant conditioning is also called instrumental conditioning. In Invitation to the Life Span operant conditioning is defined by Kathleen Berger as “The learning process in which a particular action is followed either by something desired (which makes the person or animal more likely to repeat the action) or by something unwanted (which makes the action less likely to be repeated).” My experiment with operant conditioning was done on a hen named Sylvia.
Sylvia is a beautiful buff orpington hen that just started laying eggs about a month ago. Over the last couple weeks she started to lay her eggs in the very back corner of the hen house. If I could walk into the hen house this wouldn’t be an issue. I could just walk in and get the egg. Since I can’t walk into the hen house this is an issue because I can’t reach the back corner of the hen house without some instrument to help me. Not only can’t I reach them but her eggs are out in the open where other chickens can peck and step on them. I wanted to have Sylvia lay her eggs in the nesting boxes where the eggs are easier to collect and they are less likely to be broken.
In order to change Sylvia’s behavior I had to find out a few things about hens in general and about Sylvia’s egg laying habits. The first thing I needed to know was why hens lay their eggs where they do. Hens usually have a specific spot where they lay their eggs. This is somewhere where the hen feels safe during the time they are laying the egg. It is also somewhere where they feel their egg will be safe from predators once they leave. If I was going to correct this I also needed to find out when Sylvia usually laid her eggs.
Obviously Sylvia felt that both she and her egg were safe in the back corner of the chicken house. I decided in order to change her behavior I had to do two things. I needed to make her feel unsafe in the back corner so she wouldn’t want to lay her eggs there. Since I was taking away her safe spot I also had to teach her somewhere where she would be left alone so she could feel safe while laying her eggs.
After paying attention to her habits I found when she usually laid her egg and one day I went out to the chicken house at that time. Since I can’t reach the back corner of the chicken house I got a piece of bent PVC pipe to aid me in my efforts. I took this PVC pipe and chased her out of the corner with it. I then guided her into various nesting boxes. When she was in the nesting boxes I would leave her alone. At first, Sylvia didn’t want to go into the nesting boxes and returned to the corner several more times where I repeated the procedure. After repeating this several times Sylvia decided to stay in a nesting box. In order to reward her for this I closed the hen house doors and left her alone. She proceeded to lay her egg in the nesting box. When she had finished I petted her and praised her for
her accomplishment.
The next day I went out at about the same time and found her in the nesting box where she proceeded to lay her egg. Once again when she finished I praised her for laying her egg in the nesting box. I continued this for a few days. Sylvia is now laying her eggs consistently in the nesting box instead of in the corner.
This is a good example of operant conditioning. Since I still wanted Sylvia to lay eggs there were two things that had to be taught in this example. Not only did I have to change what I considered an undesirable behavior by doing something irritating but I also rewarded Sylvia with what she wanted when she was where I wanted her to be.
Source
Berger, Kathleen Stassen. Invitation to the Life Span. Worth Publishers, New York, New York, 2010.