Food smell motivates the learning of animals

in foraging food.
.

Supitchayanut Sittisuparoge

Chutiwan Pattanavongthai

Kanokporn Kaewnakian

Noppasorn Swangswai

Animal Behavior

Ms.Charlene A. Cunningham

Mahidol University International Demonstration School

Semester 3 Academic year 2017-18

Introduction

According to the research, classical conditioning is “a type of learning that had a

major influence on the school of thought in psychology known as behaviorism.” (Cherry,

2017). Animal behaviour can be altered successfully through classical condition. Also, the

classical conditioning is used throughout our live and useful for decreasing fearful responses

to stimuli. This training method was discovered by Ivan Pavlov. Ivan Pavlov was a Russian

Psychologist who studying about the digestive system and that lead to idea of classical

conditioning. In 1890s, Pavlov observed at salivation in dogs by when he gave rang a bell, he

also gave food to the dog. He tried this step and repeat it. After that he saw that the bell can

cause an increase salivation. (McLeod, 2007). From this experiment, he noticed that learning

occurred when the dog began to associated bell with food while no learning was required for

the dog to salivate at the smell or sight of food. There is the another conditioning which is

called “Operant conditioning”. This type of conditioning was discovered by the scientist

name Burrhus Frederic Skinner. B.F. Skinner, “he first studied rats in his experiments, seeing

how the rodents discovered and used to a level in the box, which dispensed food at varying

intervals.” (B.F. Skinner Biography, 2016). The operant conditioning is used for increasing or

decreasing behavior. There are 4 types of operant conditioning which are positive

reinforcement is to add and increase behavior, negative reinforcement is to remove and

increase behavior, positive punishment is to add and increase behavior, and negative

punishment is to remove and decrease behavior. The difference of these two major condition

is classical conditioning is associated between two stimuli while operant conditioning is

associated between a behavior and a consequence. Following the 2 conditioning, there are

the four possible consequences something good can start or be presented (positive),
something good can end or be taken away (negative), something bad can be presented

(positive), and something bad can end or be taken away (negative).

The purpose of our experiment is to understand and observe that the smell of food

motivated the learning behavior of foraging animal by using maze. It is going to illustrate the

classical conditioning that will we apply for training the animals. This experiment will be

measured by the time were corrected and the mistake that they made. Therefore, if they

visited on the arm that does not have any food, we would count it as a mistake. On the other

hand if they can reach to the arm which has food, we would count it as correct. Furthermore,

this experiment would help others who interested in the relationship between smell of food

and the foraging behavior of hamster and guinea pig.

Literature review

The literature review we discuss about smell of food and the question is “How does

the smell of food motivate the learning of foraging animal to solve maze?” There are 3 types

of variable that we had the same including memory, food and time and distance.

Memory

“How the cortisol affects to the memory in learning behavior of guinea pig?” From

the research Machatschke, Bauer, Glenk, Millesi and Wallner (2011) do the pre-experimental

CORT was significantly higher in cohabitated guinea pigs when compared to single. For their

post-experimentally CORT increased significantly in singles but not in cohabitated guinea

pigs when compared to pre-experimental values. Moreover, post-experimental CORT also

increase of singles may be due to be more efficient handling of short-term stress exposure.

This research important to understand the topic and it can help us to design our

experiment. According to the research, cortisol affects the memory learning of guinea pigs.

The pre-study shows that cortisol in single guinea pig is higher than cohabitated guinea pig,

but the post study shows in opposite side. Thus, they concluded that the cortisol in single

increase, may be because of its short-term stress.

Food

Food is one of the important material to do the experiment. Food also affects learning

behavior of animal. The research from Hirsch and Collier (1974) said that portion of food is

influence learning of guinea pig. In addition, Whishaw and Tomie (1988) told that the

hoarding behavior of rat depend on the size of food. Another researcher, Ilersich, Mazmanian,

and Roberts (1988) said if handle time is high from having to open a metal box then the rat
will only choose to forage in area with boxes having more food in this. If handle time is low

(food is on ground), then the rat will choose to forage in any area, including the areas with

low amounts (1 pellet) of food. (classical model of prey choice)

Hirsch and Collier (1974) and Whishaw and Tomie (1989) found similar results that

size of food affects animal behavior of feeding. For example, portion of food or food pellet

size influences the hoarding behavior and its learning to forage. However, Ilersich,

Mazmanian, and Roberts (1988) was different from other studies because it was not related to

size of food as much but it was about the place of food. The animal will choose area that has

lots of food to forage when it took long time to handle the food.

In conclusion, the food variables are affect the learning behavior of animal including

portion of meal, food-pellet size and place of food

Time Travel and Distance

Animal take time and distance for foraging. We can prove this from the researcher

that we search from the internet. Cassini, Lichtenstein and Ongay (1993) said that time travel

is depend on the amount of prey that the animal found and in 1991 he told that when guinea

pig goes longer distances from their home, they will decrease the risks by increasing scanning

rates and then hurry returning to cover.

Cassini, Lichtenstein and Ongay (1993), and Cassini (1991) found similar results that

time travel that animal spent is depend on amount of food that they found. For example,

guinea pig will scan area frequently on the way if it goes far from its home. It has to run back

to its home quickly after it found the food that it needed. However, Chapuis, Durup, and

Thinus-Blanc C. (1987) was different from other studies because it wasn’t relate to animal

foraging. The experiment is about the length of distance. Hamster that has already explore
will use shortcut and less time, but Hamsters that didn’t explore use the long trail and take

longer time. So we will use this strategy to do our experiment.

To sum up, the time travel of animal is depend on a number of food that they found

and they will have the greater scanning rate when they go for the longer distance.

Research Question

If the rat can smell the food from the maze then, rat will go into the correct maze

which have the food inside.

Conclusion

The topic that we choose for the experiment is “Did the smell of food affect foraging

of the rat?” As the article, there are many types of variable such as memory, food and time

travel and distance that affect the experiment. This research is important because it tell us the

information that we had to know before and give us the data that with type of maze that we

will choose for our own experiment. We should care about proposed study because this

experiment would be benefit to people who want to know about the smell and foraging

animal.
Research Experiment Design

Material

1. One male hamster

2.One male Guinea pig

3.Cages

4.Water bottles

5.Food plates

6.Pellet or Vegetables

7.Brown future board

8.Cutter

9.Glue

10.Card boxes

11.Pencil

12.Ruler

13.Stopwatch
Maze design

About our maze design, we decided to use

eight arms radial maze because it is easy to

analyse the result of animal’s learning skill

because every exits has the same shape.

Consequently, the way that animal can find

the food is smelling but if it made many

mistakes, we could consider that they might

use their memory of the last trial. Moreover,

eight arms radial maze is not too hard and not too easy for animals because if it is too hard,

the animal would be stress during the experiment. Even though if it is too easy, we would not

analyse the result of the experiment. In addition, this type of maze is the one type that can

observe the ability of learning of animals. On the other hand, the reason that we do not use

the simple maze because simple maze will be hard for us to determine that animals can forage

because of smell of the food or using their memory to find a food.

Furthermore, the material that we use to build the maze is future board and card

boxes. Future boards and card boxes are very safety for animals because it cannot harm them

in any way. In addition, the materials that we use is brown because it is the color that similar

to the wood and the environment, also it is not too bright.

Literature review on Methodology

The information about how smell affect the foraging of the rat. From the experiment

by Casarrubea. M, Roy V. and Sorbera F (2013) show that there are 126 different temporal

patterns were detected. These is to measure rat’s behavior. During the first minutes, it

occurring in central planform-open arm, while in the last minute, it is occurring mainly in

central platform-closed arm. This experiment illustrated the behavior of rats while they are in

the maze. There is also another experiment which measure memory of the hamster by Crsig

Hilton Jones, Rachel McGhee and Donald M. Wilkie. From this experiment, the hamster will

visit the baited arm in succession, placing all the sunflower seed that they found in cheek

pouches and while they are gathering food the hamster seldom revisits depleted arm. This

show that they can remember the food site. According to the experiment that we had search,

we choose to use the eight arms radial maze because it easy to figure that the guinea pig and

hamster affect with the small of food or not. The another type of maze that we can use is

regular maze but it will confuse to us that the animal follows the smell or they can remember

the maze.

In conclusion, from the maze which affect the foraging of the animal, we choose to do

the eight arms radial maze because we will know that the animal will follow the smell or they

can memory the way.

Procedure of the experiment

Maze part

1. Plan about how to design a maze, which types of the maze we will use in order to

get the best result in our experiment based on our research information.

2. Prepare materials to build the maze such as cutter, future board, glue, card boxes,

ruler and pencil.

3. After finishing build the maze, leave it to dry for 3 days. If it is not dry and we use it

in experiment, the result might have an error because of the smell of the glue and

something could be break.

Experimental part

1. After maze finish, we will give time to them to adapt with new environment for 2-3

days to reduce stress(Cortisol).

2. After that, we will train hamster and guinea pig by counterconditioning to make

animals can be close to human without fear.

a. Firstly, we will place the food outside the cage where animal can see the food,

after that we will see the react of animal until it come out of the cage.

b. Secondly, after it come out, one member of group will hold it and it might

show the sign of fear such as shaking, biting, hiding, or startled. We will give

it a food within 3 seconds.

c. Thirdly, the holder will move closer to it and when animal start to shake or

fear, the animal will be fed.

 d. This will be repeated until it feel comfortable and show no sign of fear when it

close to human.

e. Lastly, the procedure above, from a to d, will be used again with another

animal.

3. We will give time for animals to run through the maze and get familiar, so they won’t

be scared when we start the real experiment. At first, we will put the animal in the

middle of the maze, also every arms will have a fabric door which cover food, so

animal cannot see the food easily.

4. In the morning of the day that we will do the experiment, the food will be taken out of

the cage and the trial will start in the afternoon. Thus, the animal will hungry at the

start of the experiment and they will be motivated to complete the maze. In each trial,

we will spread the food to many radial arms and put the animal in the middle of the

maze, then animal will start to run through the maze. Number of times that they did

correct and mistakes will be collected. If they visit the arm that does not have food, it

will be counted as a mistake.

5. Make sure that every trial will have one member who count time since it begins until

it reaches the exit.

6. Make sure that one person record the result of every trial and keep track of the animal

every day.

7. The time for each trial won’t be over 15 minutes and we will give time for them to

take a rest for 30 minutes before begin another trial.

8. Repeat the trial again. Record the time and the data to analyze the ability of smell of

animals each types.

Timeline

Work Things to do Time

Plan about the experiment -We will think about what is our 1 days
topic for this experiment and how
we gonna make it work.

Build the maze -Record the video 7 days

-Prepare the materials and build a
maze for Hamster and Guinea pig

To train animal -Train animals with 3 days

counterconditioning to make
animals not fear with new
environment

To teach animals to run the
maze
-Put animals in a maze and they 2 days
will run through a maze in order
to make them feel familiar with a
maze and not stress during the
experiment

Begin experiment -Begin to experiment with Guinea 7 days

pig and Hamster by putting a food
spread to many arms
-Record the video since it start the
maze until it reaches the
destination.

Analyze result and data of -Collect the data among number 2 days
ability of learning of animals of times were correct and
mistakes that which types of
animal has ability to smell food
better.

To finish editing video(Final -Make description in video to 4 days

product) make viewers more understand in
case the sound from the video is
not clear.
Ethical/ Human statement

For every experiment, the thing that very important is ethical/human consideration.

For our experiment, it will be safe for humane and animals because the material that we use

to build the maze is a future board and card boxes. Every sharp edges of the future board will

be cut off, which means nothing can harm animals or any people. Another consideration is

types of food for Guinea pig and Hamster, we will feed the animal with qualified food that

good to animal's health. Moreover, we will ensure that before the experiment animals are not

stress because if they stress, it is not good for animals and also the result of the experiment.

Data collection

For about the data collection, there is two types of animals which are Guinea pig and

hamster. We will observe how do Guinea pig and Hamster run a maze and we will record the

time that they need to finish the trial, the error that they make in a maze, and also their ability

to smell or memorize. Every trial of Guinea pig and hamster will be recorded and analyzed

after finished the experiment. This experiment, we will observe both the ability of memory

and smelling. We could also see the movement of animals during the experiment that they

can find the food because of the smell or their memory. After that, the result will be recorded

on table but then we will plot the result on the line graph in order to make it easy to

understand the trend of their learning.

Conclusion

This experiment is to justify the effect of smell of food motivate learning of animal

foraging to solve maze, by using hamster and guinea pig to being tested. The eight arms

radial maze is used for do the experiment which is easy to consider the result of the animal’s

learning skill because every exits has the same shape. The number of times that they enter

into the arm doesn't have food will be counted as a mistake.

References

Cherry. K. (2017). ​How Classical Conditioning Works: An Overview With Examples

Retrieved from ​https://www.verywellmind.com/classical-conditioning-2794859

McLeod. S. (2007). ​Pavlov's Dogs.

Retrieved from ​https://www.simplypsychology.org/pavlov.html

B.F. Skinner Biography ​(2016).

Retrieved from ​https://www.biography.com/people/bf-skinner-9485671

Hamsters (Mesocricetus auratus) use spatial memory in foraging for food to hoard. ​(2002)

Retrieved from ​https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/0376635790900239

Magni. S., Krekule. I., Bureš. J. (1979). ​Radial maze type as a determinant of the choice

behavior of rats.

Retrieved from ​https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/0165027079900232

Arcis. V. , Desor. D. (2003). ​Influence of environment structure and food availability on the

foraging behaviour of the laboratory rat.

Retrieved from ​https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S03766357020

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