Essay on Aversive Conditioning

Florida Atlantic University, Dept. of Psychology, Davie, FL 33314 USA [E-mail: wmckibbi@fau.edu, tshackel@fau.edu] The Omnivore’s Dilemma is the latest book by Michael Pollan, best known for his previous best‐ selling work, The Botany of Desire. Here, Pollan has crafted a well‐written and enjoyable  exploration of humans’ relationship with food. The book is written for a lay audience, but is  appreciable by all.    Pollan begins by focusing on a seemingly simple question,

This so-called balanced view was presented in a program in which the “most misrepresented issues concerned the economic impact of wolves. Ranchers were allowed to claim unsubstantiated losses, with no attempt to validate the accuracy of these claims” (Laverty, par. 2). In granting the balanced view sought by the legislature, the “program portrayed the salt of the earth rancher as a poor victim of the federal government’s whim to restore the ‘killers’” (Laverty, par. 2).

In May, 2016, 20 calves were killed and not eaten in four days in the area of the Absaroka Mountains, outside of Pinedale Wyoming. (Urbigkit ,2016) However, it doesn’t stop there, every day livestock and wildlife are killed and rarely eaten by wolves in almost every western state. This is a problem that needs to be addressed before ranchers lose their herds, and before the wild herds are depleted beyond restoration. If the wolf situation was bad a couple years ago, well now it’s worse, even some of the “protectors of wildlife” are starting to come to their senses.

In “The Beast of Waste and Desolation” in Barry Holstun Lopez’s book Of Wolves and Men, he writes about the attitudes he encountered from people when discussing wolves. These attitudes came from several different sources, ranging from several different Native American tribes and field biologists to ranchers, trappers, and general residents of the areas where he conducted his research. Lopez expressed his discomfort when he spoke with the latter group, as those people that felt there was nothing wrong with killing wolves, and that the practice, overall, was a good thing. Lopez writes that it seemed many of these people appeared to be filled with a general hatred; of government, laws, and wolves. The killing of wolves held a vengeful element, with no remorse or regret. He goes into detail of the single-minded persecution of the wolf, even though many of the conflicts with wolves were man made. One example provided was of man depleting many of the wolves’ natural prey sources like elk and buffalo, and as a result the wolves turned to preying on the domestic stock instead. Suddenly, man was justified in killing wolves as it became necessary to protect livestock. The larger questions

Over 80 years ago, Mr. Murie, a biologist, witnessed “the joy a wild coyote took in being alive in the world (Flores 1)”, even though Mr. Murie intended to prove that the coyote is a dangerous predator this moment ended up changing his view. New York times author, Dan Flores, begins the article by setting up a pathos, making the reader feel that the coyote is more than just a predator. This paragraph also shows what he hopes to accomplish in the article, that readers will feel the same way that Mr. Murie did. From here he backs up this emotional claim with statistics from an animal welfare association. The author continues the essay by offering statistics from various sources, along with information from studies. The author has a well established ethos, not only because he is a The New York Times author, but more importantly he is the author of the book, Coyote America: A Natural and Supernatural History; which gives him great credibility on the

Species within food webs are interconnected in many complex ways that may not be visible to those who are not actively studying these relationships. As a result, modifying one level of the food web can cause unintended consequences when the entire food web is into taken account. Hoping to protect their crops, the ranchers were justified in their actions: their motive to remove prairie dogs from the area was driven by their need to yield a greater amount of crops, not by a malice to eradicate a species.

At long last, farmers realize that they have almost no plan of action if the wolves prey on their domesticated animals. They are permitted to shoot a wolf got in the demonstration of executing a sheep or bovine if the creature has a place with them. Be that as it may, it is exceptionally hard to be in the correct spot at the opportune

Cattle rustling is on the rise in America once again and it proves to be a larger threat that predators. Wolves are the least significant threat to livestock, they kill very few domestic animals. On the rare occasion that they do, it is because members of the pack have been killed and they need an easier target. When you kill a wolf of take it from a pack you weaken the system and they have to learn to work with that new part. That’s why they go after livestock. Humans are causing the problem when they want to prevent it, you cannot blame the

As the scimitar-horned oryx gracefully moved through the rugged landscape, nothing seemed right. Looking around, a high fence surrounded the facility, creating an inescapable doom for the animal that had been bred and nurtured by humans. The hunter took careful aim and fired his weapon, instantly killing this African antelope that is prized for its curved horns. This hunter had a clear advantage over the antelope; he didn’t need to know much about his prey or his surrounding environment. This scenario occurs in operations across North America, primarily in Texas, called captive hunting ranches. Texas ranch operators import, breed, and allow hunting of prized and endangered animals on their private lands for the purpose of earning

2. Rosier, R. L. & Langkilde, T. (2011) Behavior Under Risk: How Animals Avoid Becoming Dinner. Nature Education Knowledge 2(11):8

There is a massive debate going on about whether animal experimentation for experimental drugs should be legal or not. Both sides question whether animal’s lives or America’s knowledge is more important. Several claim that animal testing is needed because many lives can be saved with the awareness that is gained from each test. Others do not agree with these people. They believe that animals should not be hurt because their lives are just as important as humans. One way to resolve this issue is to use the many alternative ways that are being developed to test experimental drugs.

It has been considered that neural mechanisms involving memories undergo synaptic plasticity modification such as LTP and LTD. Indicating the association between memories and synaptic mechanisms has been elusive, until now. Robert Malinow and his colleagues were able to demonstrate this modification of synaptic plasticity by fear conditioning mice. Malinow and his group used optogenetics to focus on a specific fear circuitry. They then induced LTD and LTP in the memory circuitry to reinstate or remove the fear memory. Optogenetics is slightly different from the original tone fear conditioning. To observe the connection between memory and plasticity they induce cued fear conditioning in mice with a tone and shock. There are some main components in conditioning. First, there is a neutral

The dominant view in ecology - predators only affected their prey by killing them - is questioned. "Their mere presence - perhaps their scent on the wind and tracks in the dirt creates a perpetual state of apprehension in their prey." (ll 15,16) It also questions the belief that most animals fear in short bursts, the sharp

Avoidance conditioning is associated with the concept of negative reinforcement. In fact negative reinforcement contributes to an escape behavior initially and secondly to the avoidance behavior. The escape behavior of an organism occurs when the organism performs an action that terminates the aversive stimulus that it is receiving at the current moment in time. More importantly, the avoidance conditioning occurs when a warning stimulus indicates to an organism that a particular aversive event is present and allows the organism time to actively participate in a certain behavior response in order to avoid the aversive stimulus (Powell, Honey, & Symbaluk, 2013). Subsequently, avoidance conditioning can be demonstrated utilizing the shuttle box procedure. According to Domjan (2006), the shuttle box contains an electrically conductive metal grate floor and also contains a partition in the middle with a hole cut out in the center of it that allows an organism (such as a rat) to shuttle from one compartment to another during avoidance conditioning trials. Coincidentally, this particular response is also called shuttle avoidance. Indeed, to better comprehend avoidance conditioning, an understanding of Mowrer’s Two-Factor Theory,

Animal behavior and welfare is very complex and not easy to measure. There are many contingencies that make measuring animal welfare difficult. First, the animals cannot verbally explain to humans what they would like. Second, each animal could have its own preferences concerning animal welfare. Third, there may be a limitation in our total knowledge of animal cognition, meaning that currently many scientists believe that animals have a very basic repertoire of feelings or emotions. Perhaps in the future, scientists will discover that animals are capable of experiencing or demonstrating more emotions than currently known. If this were to happen, the science of animal welfare could change dramatically (Barnett and Hemsworth, 2003).