Have you watched a training session at the museum lately? (Click here to see an old video of Marilyn training Chummix) If you see Kent training Max, or Kimberly training the lemurs, or Sarah working with Lightning, you’ve probably heard a clicking sound while they train. What is that thing? It’s called a clicker, and it’s used as a conditioned reinforcer. You can establish any arbitrary sound as a conditioned reinforcer, but clickers and whistles are the two that seem toRead more
Posts tagged: #operant conditioning
Cassandra explores the vet room
Ring Tailed Lemur training is going well! Here’s where we were last time Lemurs in Crates. Last week with guidance from Julie Grimes and assistance from our Vet Keeper Katy, I let Cassandra, our female ring tailed lemur, out in the vet room. The idea was to let her out of her crate into a vet room cage. This is where she will spend a little time on the day of her physical. In training terms we are desensitizing herRead more
Lemurs in Crates
I’ve posted about lemur training before and wanted to give an update. Click here and here to refresh your memory. Ring Tailed Lemur physicals are in September! That’s so soon. But we are making progress. Lycus actually had to be seen earlier than expected. I noticed a change in his eyes, a white cloudiness. We had a few days until Dr. Vanderford would be able to see Lycus so I began using the ophthalmoscope (a lighted instrument that is usedRead more
Contingencies
Hey all! Have you ever wondered, “How did they get that animal to DO that??” It’s all about contingency management. What’s a contingency, you ask? A contingency is a relationship between a response (or a behavior) and some environmental consequence. (And by consequence, I don’t mean the normal, everyday definition of that word…like when a small child does something wrong and the parents say, “You’re going to get a consequence!” Nope, that has an implication that consequences are always bad.) Read more
Training Progress
I posted in March about my progress training the Ring Tailed Lemurs. At that point they were staying in their crate for about 4 minutes on average. I’ve worked up to about 10 minutes, including taking them right outside of the lemur house. Yay! But here is where it gets tricky- we spoke with our vet about giving them one or two treats the morning of their physicals. Since the lemurs have to be sedated, she does not want themRead more
Introducing Myself
Hello, Museum of Life and Science Family! Sherry already did a Spotlight post on me, but I wanted to introduce myself to everyone. I’m Dr. Julie Grimes, the Behavior Management Consultant for the Museum of Life and Science. I have a company (well, it’s really just me and my cell phone, but the IRS keeps insisting it’s really a company) called Animalworks, LLC that provides Behavior Management services to institutions with animals in captivity. I’ve worked with zoos, museums, scienceRead more