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Feathered Conditioning: The Sequel to Classical Conditioning

CSEF · 2005 Zoology

Jacob D. Dunning · Mariners Christian School, Costa Mesa

Overview

Objectives/Goals My goal was to find out how many weeks it would take to condition my pet bird "Sunny" to respond to the sound of a bell even when no food was present. My hypothesis was that it would take four weeks to condition Sunny with the bell. Methods/Materials I measured the time it took for Sunny to reach her food bowl. Materials: Bird - Sunny, bird food, bell, spoon, log book, stopwatch. Procedure: 1) Put food in a spoon without Sunny seeing, 2) Ring the bell and start stopwatch, 3) Lure Sunny to the bowl with food, 4) Wait for Sunny to go to her food bowl, 5) Stop the stopwatch, 6) Put the food in the bowl, 7) Stop ringing the bell, and 8) Record data in the logbook. Results Sunny was conditioned with the bell in about one week. Conclusions/Discussion My hypothesis was that Sunny would be conditioned in four weeks but Sunny did it in one week. Therefore, Sunny is smarter than I thought.

Summary statement

Sunny learning to associate the artificial stimulus (the bell) with the natural stimulus (the bird food) is called Classical Conditioning.

Help received

My mom and dad helped me with my Science Fair applications. My mom helped me shop for supplies. My dad gave me some advice and helped me format Microsoft Word.

Competition history

  • CSEF 2005 Zoology · Entry J1906

Resources

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