LEARNING

Smart dolphin

Pattern learning and the importance of relationship

Gregory Bateson, who writes about systems communication and theory, in his book Steps to the Ecology of Mind, tells his experience in the study of the dolphins communication patterns in the Marine Research Institute, in Hawaii. 

Bateson worked with the instructors while they taught the dolphins to exhibit in public shows. The process started with a not trained dolphin. In the first day, when the dolphin did something different, like jumping outside the water, the instructor used a whistle and, as a reward, gave him a fish. Whenever the dolphin behaved that way, the instructor used the whistle and threw him a fish. Soon, the dolphin learned that its behavior guaranteed him a fish; it repeated it continually, always waiting for a reward. 

The next day, the dolphin arose and ran his jump, waiting for a fish. It got nothing. For some time, it repeated his jump, uselessly. Irritated, it did some other thing, like a turn. The instructor then used the whistle and gave him a fish. Whenever the dolphin repeated that new acrobatics, in the same session, it received the reward. No fish for the prowess of yesterday, only for something new. 

This pattern was been repeated for 14 days. The dolphin arose and accomplished the acrobatics that had learned in the previous day, without any result. Many times, the dolphin some acrobactics of days ago, only to check the rules. But it was only rewarded when did something new. Probably, that was frustrating enough for the dolphin. However, in the fifteenth day, suddenly, it appeared to have learned the rules of the game. It got animated and introduced a surprising show, including eight new different behaviors, four of which had never been observed before in the species. The dolphin appeared to have comprehended not just how to generate a new behavior, but also the rules about how and when generate them. The little dolphins are intelligent.

A last detail: during the 14 days Bateson noted that the instructor threw fishes to the dolphin away from the training context. Bateson became curious and questioned this attitude. The instructor answered: "Oh!! that. It's to keep the things in friendly terms, naturally. After all, if we don't have a good relationship it will not bother about learning something".

J. O'Connor e J. Seymour

in Training with NLP: Neurolinguistic Programming

Translated from portuguese version Treinando com a PNL by V. V. Vilela

Suggest this page to a friend