Budgiebud
08-17-2011, 03:14 PM
I have been going through “Training and Bonding Forum” and realized that most bird owners, especially the new ones are unaware of the “CONDITIONING”. I thought I would share my background in Psychology with the members and it will benefit them in dealing with their birds.
Basically every pet owner unknowingly uses some sort of conditioning while dealing with their pets. But if one has basic knowledge of conditioning, it will make it very easy to tame the birds.
I will give two examples where I tried it successfully recently. I will be brief.
I use to prepare different foods for budgies in the kitchen. Recently I started to use the food processor in the bird room. Now simply by hearing the voice of the food processor, most of them come to the food dishes knowing that something is being served soon. And their number is increasing every week.
Similarly, when I changed the vacuum cleaner. The new one was 2500 watts, hence very noisy. I was very concerned that the budgies will be afraid of the voice. But now the situation is that I even insert the suction hose into the cages to clean husk and feathers from under the perches while budgies are sitting on them. It is because they were conditioned to not to be afraid of it. They chatter loudly when the vacuum cleaner is operating. Sometimes it appears that they are trying to overwhelm the vacuum cleaner voice. :)
Here are two types of conditioning…
Operant conditioning is a method of learning that occurs through rewards and punishments for behavior. Through operant conditioning, an association is made between a behavior and a consequence for that behavior. (In case of pets, we only use rewards). The operant conditioning chamber was created by “Burrhus Frederic Skinner (1904-1990)”, who was an American behaviorist.
Classical Conditioning is a process of learning by temporal association in which two events that repeatedly occur close together in time become fused in a subject's mind and produce the same response. It was first demonstrated by “Ivan Petrovich Pavlov (1849-1936)”, a famous Russian physiologist.
I can write in detail about it but it is better to let everyone explore it on his/her own convenience. Please check the following links. You will see in the video that the pigeon is showing the signs that he can read. It is only because he was conditioned to do so.
It is only a small effort from me to get bird owners interested in learning about conditioning. I hope it helps.
Operant conditioning - YouTube
BF Skinner Foundation - Pigeon & Red Block - YouTube
Classical Conditioning - YouTube
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operant_Conditioning
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Classical_conditioning
Note: Please use proper precautions while using vacuum cleaners near birds.
.
Basically every pet owner unknowingly uses some sort of conditioning while dealing with their pets. But if one has basic knowledge of conditioning, it will make it very easy to tame the birds.
I will give two examples where I tried it successfully recently. I will be brief.
I use to prepare different foods for budgies in the kitchen. Recently I started to use the food processor in the bird room. Now simply by hearing the voice of the food processor, most of them come to the food dishes knowing that something is being served soon. And their number is increasing every week.
Similarly, when I changed the vacuum cleaner. The new one was 2500 watts, hence very noisy. I was very concerned that the budgies will be afraid of the voice. But now the situation is that I even insert the suction hose into the cages to clean husk and feathers from under the perches while budgies are sitting on them. It is because they were conditioned to not to be afraid of it. They chatter loudly when the vacuum cleaner is operating. Sometimes it appears that they are trying to overwhelm the vacuum cleaner voice. :)
Here are two types of conditioning…
Operant conditioning is a method of learning that occurs through rewards and punishments for behavior. Through operant conditioning, an association is made between a behavior and a consequence for that behavior. (In case of pets, we only use rewards). The operant conditioning chamber was created by “Burrhus Frederic Skinner (1904-1990)”, who was an American behaviorist.
Classical Conditioning is a process of learning by temporal association in which two events that repeatedly occur close together in time become fused in a subject's mind and produce the same response. It was first demonstrated by “Ivan Petrovich Pavlov (1849-1936)”, a famous Russian physiologist.
I can write in detail about it but it is better to let everyone explore it on his/her own convenience. Please check the following links. You will see in the video that the pigeon is showing the signs that he can read. It is only because he was conditioned to do so.
It is only a small effort from me to get bird owners interested in learning about conditioning. I hope it helps.
Operant conditioning - YouTube
BF Skinner Foundation - Pigeon & Red Block - YouTube
Classical Conditioning - YouTube
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operant_Conditioning
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Classical_conditioning
Note: Please use proper precautions while using vacuum cleaners near birds.
.