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Equine Operant Conditioning: Autoshaping, Observational Learning, And Discriminative Stimulus Intensity, Paul H. Stewart

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

This thesis is compromised of three studies in which basic principles of operant conditioning were applied to horses. Autoshaping was examined as a method for horse training. Observational learning was investigated to confirm that naive horses can, in fact,

acquire novel behavior by observing experienced horses, and the rate of acquisition with observation is more rapid than spontaneous responding without observation. A third study examined the effect of discriminative stimulus intensity on the acquisition rate of novel behavior.

All subjects learned to use an operant conditioning device. Subjects in the first study autoshaped. Observational learning was also demonstrated to be …