Research Overview:
Would the presence of dolphins act as reinforcement to help increase learning for children with mental disabilities? Dr. David Nathanson came to DRC to investigate. Six children were taught new vocabulary words through interaction with dolphins.
Results indicated the children learned two to ten times faster and with greater retention when working with the dolphins. Benefits included increased evidence of the efficacy of using non-human species to increase attention, elicit speech, and increase memory for people with disabilities. One question remained: was it the dolphins’ presence that made the difference, or simply being in-water?
To find out, he then compared the effectiveness of in-water work without dolphins to in-water work with dolphins on the learning improvement of children with mental disabilities. Sessions without the dolphins were conducted out of sight of the dolphins at a nearby beach, and the reinforcement for a correct response was the child’s favorite water toy.
Significant improvements in responses occurred when interaction with dolphins was used as reinforcement, compared to responses made when reinforcement was a favorite toy. Water work with dolphins evoked both a greater number and higher level of responses.
