9/18/2017 

There is much debate surrounding the topic of animal intelligence and how it compares to human intelligence.  To what extent can we compare human and animal intelligence? We are two different species, but how similar are we? The purpose of my independent study is to explore these questions in depth through conducting behavioral experiments with our farm animals on Home Winds.  

Independent Study Update   

This past Monday, I visited home winds where Mr. Rabel showed me what was new on the farm this year. Last year in animal science my classmates and I worked with the cows, ducks, chickens, 3 donkeys, and 6 goats. During the summer the farm had many new additions including 9 Jacob Sheep, 4 Ewes, and 5 Lambs. I reunited with the original animals, and met all the news ones.  

  

The first task will be testing the animals' ability to learn.  Through the process of classical conditioning, I will test the learning capabilities of the chosen animals. In order to compare the results, I will replicate my experiment with each group.  

For this part of my study, I will be using the sheep, ewes, lambs, goats, and donkeys. I saw last year that the cows had already demonstrated their ability to learn. They learned that every time a bucket of grain was shook, it meant mealtime. So, each time they heard the stimulus, they would go over to the feeder right away. I will not be using the ducks and chickens. I will only be using the four legged mammals.  

My experiment will be a close replication of Pavlov's with his dog. The goal of Pavlov's experiment was to see if his dog would learn to associate an unconditioned stimulus (in this scenario food) with a new conditioned stimulus (a bell). The dog would already salivate when food was presented. So, Pavlov began ringing a bell each time he was about to give his dog food. Sure enough, the dog learned to associate the stimuli, and when it only heard the sound of the bell, it still salivated, expecting food.  

In my experiment my neutral stimulus will be a bell noise. The unconditioned stimulus will be their food. Each time I present food to the animals, I will ring the bell. My goal is for the animals to associate the bell noise with getting their food. So, when I ring the bell, they will learn to expect food. I am curious to see if one particular group learns faster than another.  

Neutral stimulus – bell  

Unconditioned stimulus – food  

Unconditioned response – them approaching the food  

Conditioned stimulus – food  

Conditioned response – approaching the bell 

An important note: While I am testing the animals' ability to learn, I will make additional visits to the animals without food. This is to assure that, if anything, they will learn to associate the bell with the food and not me.