WILHELM VON OSTEN

Osten's Contributions

Osten's Biography

• Experimental and animal psychology
• Behavioral psychology experiments
• Understanding the intelligence of animals
• Discovered that horses relied on unconscious cues which human questioners presented such as breathing, posture and facial expressions
• Contributor to the Clever Hans Effect
• worked with Pfungst throughout the contributions

• Born on November 30 1838, Germany
• German psychologist and mathematics teacher
• Student of Phrenology theory that ones intelligence, character and personality is based on shape and size of one's head
• Great interest in animal intelligence which is what wins him fame

The Big Experiment

Why it is Operant Conditioning?

He figured the experiment was Operant conditioning because:

- The horses only got 89% of the answers right if the questioners knew the answer, otherwise only 6% were correct

-Horse could see the questioner

- Questioners posture and facial expression changed in ways if consistent

Classical/Operant Conditioning

The commission passed on the evolution to Pfungst to test Osten's claimed abilities:

-Isolating the horse and questioner from the audience

-Using questioners other than horse master

-Using blinders to see if the horse can see the questioner

-Verifying whether the questioner knew the answer in advance

Introduction

• Also known as Der Kluge Hans
• Wanted to show how the intelligence of animals was underestimated
• Experiments on a cat, bear and horse.
• Teaches a horse named Hans to add, multiply, divide, tell the time, and to understand German
• Hans was not dependent on Von Osten as he could answer questions from different people.
• After a formal investigation it was revealed that Hans was responding to involuntary cues from the questioners
• Using his observations skills, Hans was able to answer correctly because he noticed the change in his questioner's body language once he had tapped the right answer

Content of Presentation:

• Biography of Wilhelm Von Osten
• The Clever Hans Experiment
• Whether the experiment of was Operant/Classical conditioning
• Why is the experiment important to our understanding of Behavioral Psychology?
• Conclusion

Summary of the

Clever Hans Effect

Jeopardy Time!

https://www.jeopardy.rocks/wilhelmvonostenpsych

Connection to

Behavioral Psychology

Reasons

• Skills can be taught to anyone using the right conditions and atmosphere
• Osten determined that animals and humans have similarities and differences within their behavioral patterns, although they can be manipulated
• Psychologists only form experiments on animal without any interaction, due to the result of this experiment

Conclusion

In summary:

• Wilhelm von Osten was a German math teacher and phrenologist who was able to train a horse (Clever Hans) to have the ability to do basic math
• His method was operant conditioning
• It was discovered that the horse used expressions to determine the right answer
• Behavioral Psychologist have the ability to alter skills and behavior using suitable conditioning and accurate actions to receive the desired response

WILHELM VON OSTEN

Bibliography

• Google Images. (n.d.). Retrieved October 19, 2016, from https://images.google.com/
• Sxulinguisticsforeducators - Week One Rowe and Levine ... (n.d.). Retrieved October 19, 2016, from https://sxulinguisticsforeducators.wikispaces.com/Week One Rowe and Levine, Chapters 1, 2, and 3
• Wilhelm von Osten – Wikipedia. (n.d.). Retrieved October 19, 2016, from https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wilhelm_von_Osten

Reasons

• It is possible that many resultant reactions are not from a given action, but from any other change
• Psychologists are required to meticulously observe the subject in order to determine the accurate conditions, actions that receive desired response and any other changes affecting the response
• The Clever Hans effect is likely to occur in experiments today, though prevented through "double blind"

By: Monica, Ravneet, Navneet, Brahmleen