Operant psychology makes a splash--in marine mammal training (1955-1965).

Despite the wide spread use of operant conditioning within marine animal training, relatively little is known about this unique application of behavioral technology. This article explores the expansion of operant psychology to commercial marine animal training from 1955 to 1965, specifically at marine parks such as Marine Studios Florida, Marineland of the Pacific, Sea Life Park, and SeaWorld. The contributions of Keller and Marian Breland and their business Animal Behavior Enterprises (ABE) as well as other early practitioners of behavioral technology are reviewed.

Exploring body weight, voluntary activity, and intrinsic value in rats.

Modeling activity-based anorexia, food-deprived rats consistently show that activity increases as weight decreases. This effect was explored in 8 food-deprived, Sprague-Dawley rats as potentially mediated by intrinsic value of activity. Running-wheel activity rates were recorded for free-fed weight, reduction to 90% of free-fed weight, and to 80% of free-fed weight.