The Relevance of Operant Behavior in Conceptualizing the Psychological Well-Being of Captive Animals
The term “psychological well-being” is used in reference to husbandry with animals in human care settings such as research, agriculture, and zoos. This article seeks to clarify and conceptualize the term based upon two approaches that draw from several bodies of literature: the experimental analysis of behavior, experimental psychology, animal welfare and husbandry, farm animal […]
A Behaviorological Analysis of Adjunctive Behavior
Adjunctive behavior is operant behavior that appears intermittently in the midst of other on–going behavior. It often appears to be an accidental intrusion that has little if any relevance to more important behavior that is already in progress and which it appears to interrupt, at least briefly. Adjunctive behavior is a schedule effect—that is, a […]
The value of environmental resources to domestic hens: a comparison of the work-rate for food and for nests as a function of time
Twelve Isa Brown hens (Gallus gallus domesticus) were trained to open a locked door for access to a pen containing an enclosed nest box (‘nest test’) and to return to a home pen containing food, water, litter and a perch (‘home test’). The door was connected to a computer-controlled load cell, which recorded work exerted […]
Operant Behavior
“Reinforcement may be contingent, not only on the occurrence of a response, but on special features of its topography, on the presence of prior stimuli, and on scheduling systems. Operant techniques are important in defining the behavioral effects of physiological variables—surgical, electrical, and chemical—in specifying what aspects of behavior are to be attributed to hereditary […]