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Marian Breland Bailey
Born(1920-12-02)December 2, 1920
Minnesota Minneapolis, Minnesota, United StatesUnited States
DiedSeptember 25, 2001
ArkansasHot Springs, Arkansas United StatesUnited States
Occupation(s)psychologist, animal trainer, behavioral scientist

Marian Breland Bailey, born Marian Ruth Kruse (b. 1920) and nicknamed "Mouse", [3] was an American psychologist, an applied behavior analyst who played a major role in developing empirically validated and humane animal training methods and in promoting their widespread implementation. She and her first husband, Keller Breland (1915-1965), studied at the University of Minnesota under behaviorist B. F. Skinner.[1]

Marian Kruse

After graduating as her high school senior class's valedictorian,[2] Marian Kruse went to the University of Minnesota to major in Latin and minor in Greek. To meet a science requirement, she took psychology because, as she later explained, "I thought it the least painful science."[3] As a straight A student, she was recommended for a highly selective psychology class taught by B. F. (Fred) Skinner. With its emphasis on Skinner's new operant training techniques, the course inspired her to major in psychology with a minor in child psychology and to study operant conditioning.[4]

Marian worked as Skinner's research assistant when he published his pivotal work The Behavior of Organisms in 1938.[5] She trained rats for Skinner[6], proofread and typed some of his classic text[citation needed], and even babysat his children.[4] While still an undergraduate student, Marian met her future husband Keller Breland. She graduated with her bachelor's degree summa cum laude in 1941.[5]

Marian Breland

After Marian earned her bachelor degree, she married Keller Breland on August 1, 1941. In time, they subsequently had three children: Bradley (1946), Frances (1948), and Elizabeth (1952).

Marian became the second graduate student who ever worked under the renowned Skinner.[6] Her husband soon came to work with Skinner too.[7] While graduate students, they collaborated with Skinner on military research during World War II.[8] They trained pigeons for use by the Navy, teaching them to guide bombs (a procedure the military never implemented).[9]

Having foreseen the commercial applications of operant training, the Brelands left the University of Minnesota without completing their doctorates in order to found Animal Behavior Enterprises (ABE) on a farm in Minnesota.[10] First training animals commercially for farm feed advertisements for General Mills, the couple went on to train "more animals and different species of animals than any other animal trainers" [11] of their time, including animals of land (e.g., cats, cattle, chickens, dogs, goats, pigs, rabbits, raccoons, rats, sheep), air (e.g., ducks, parrots, ravens), and sea (e.g., dolphins and whales). At their busiest, they trained "more than 1,000 animals at a given time".[12] In training animals for recreational facilities such as Parrot Jungle and Marineland of Florida, they created the very first dolphin and bird shows, a form of entertainment program that is now considered traditional fare.[13] Most major theme parks' animal programs can be traced back to the Brelands' pioneering work.[14] The Brelands also established the first coin-operated animal shows.[15] The Buck Bunny commercial featured their trained rabbits for a Coast Federal Savings television ad that ran for twenty years and which still holds the record for longest running TV commercial.[16] They trained animals for many other venues including circuses, movies, museums, stores, and zoos. [17]

They also trained other animal trainers, establishing in 1947 "the first school and instruction manual for teaching animal trainers the applied technology of behavior analysis."[7] Marlin Perkins of Wild Kingdom and Walt Disney numbered among those who came to learn from them.[18]

Marian led ABE's government research, some of which remains classified to this day. Known projects included the development of an avian ambush detection system.[8] In 1950, the Brelands relocated ABE to a farm near Hot Springs, Arkansas, and in 1955 opened the I.Q. Zoo[19] in Hot Springs as both a training facility and a showcase of trained animals. "Popular acts included chickens that walked tightropes, dispensed souvenirs and fortune cards, danced to music from jukeboxes, played baseball and ran the bases; rabbits that kissed their (plastic) girlfriends, rode fire trucks and sounded sirens, and rolled wheels of fortune; ducks that played pianos and drums; and raccoons that played basketball." [20]

The Brelands were also "the first to introduce the public to the applied technology of behavior analysis via numerous personal appearances at fairs, exhibitions, and theme parks across the country" [21] and they appeared on well known television shows such as The Today Show, The Tonight Show, Wild Kingdom, and You Asked For It. Publications including Colliers, Life, Popular Mechanics, Reader's Digest, Saturday Evening Post, Time, and even The Wall Street Journal featured them and their work. Although Keller was often the public face of ABE with some ads referring to "Keller Breland's I.Q. Zoo," the Brelands collaborated equally in ABE's endeavors.[22]

The Brelands stirred controversy[23] among behaviorists with their 1961 article, "The misbehavior of organisms"[9] -- the title of which involved a play on words referring to Skinner's classic 1938 work The Behavior of Organisms. Marian and Keller outlined training difficulties in which instinctual or instinctive drift might occur as tendencies biologically inherent in a species intrude into behaviors a trainer is attempting to teach an animal.[24] The article is recognized as a milestone in the history of psychology.[25][26][27]

In 1963 Marian designed and implemented a program to improve techniques for working with profoundly mentally retarded individuals at a human development center in Alexandria, Louisiana, teaching ward attendants humane practices that became the standard for institutions of this kind. Her 1965 training manual Teaching the Mentally Retarded remained in use for decades.[10]

On June 16, 1965, Keller died of a heart attack.[28] In their 1966 textbook, Marian described him as the “dreamer” and herself as the “engineer.”[11] She continued writing, researching, and training animals. Marian wrote on the value of positive reinforcement in teaching developmentally challenged individuals.[12]

Marian Bailey

In 1976, Marian married Robert E. (Bob) Bailey, who had been the U. S. Navy Marine Mammal Program's first Director of Training before becoming ABE's General Manager and with whom Marian had founded the facility Animal Wonderful in 1972.[29] Together, the Baileys trained animals from over 140 species.[30]

Her graduate studies having been interrupted when she and Keller left to found ABE, Marian eventually earned her Ph.D. in Psychology at the University of Arkansas in 1978 and then served as a professor of psychology at Henderson State University from 1981 until her retirement in 1998. During these years, the Baileys produced educational films on topics such as the history of behaviorism. Their film work included The History of Behavioral Analysis Biographies, the ABE documentary Patient Like the Chipmunks, and An Apple for the Student: How Behavioral Psychology Can Change the American Classroom.

Marian continued writing about the "misbehavior" of animals during operant conditioning for publications like American Psychologist.[13] The Baileys were chief among the behaviorists who began using the Internet for instruction, problem solving, and promotion of their science.[14]

The Bailey & Bailey Operant Conditioning Workshops begun in 1996 provided training to animal trainers, psychologists, students, and many others from throughout the world.[15] The program of study involved four increasingly advanced levels of the "physically, mentally, and emotionally demanding" workshops.[31] In 1998, the University of Arkansas inducted Marian into the university's Fulbright College Alumni Academy as a member of their first group of Distinguished Alumni Award recipients.[32]

She died September 25, 2001, at a hospital in Hot Springs, Arkansas.[33]

Remembering Mouse

After Marian's death, numerous professionals in the field recognized her passing with obituaries and biographies. Drs. Art Gillaspy and Elson Bihm of the University of Central Arkansas wrote an obituary for the American Psychologist, the official journal of the American Psychological Association.[34] Eye on Psi Chi, a publication of the Psi Chi honor society in psychology, printed a biography by Dr. Todd Wiebers of Henderson State University as Marian had been a member of the honor society since 1940.[35] Her husband Bob provided a biography for the Division 25 Recorder, the official publication of the American Psychological Association's Division 25 for Behavior Analysis. [[36]]

Marian's husband Bob continues to teach seminars they developed and continues the Bailey & Bailey Operant Conditioning Workshops which they began together.[37][38]

The Archives of the History of Psychology in Akron, Ohio, and the Smithsonian Math and Science Museum in Washington D.C. now house collections of Marian's documents and items.[39] The National Science Foundation awarded Dr. Elson Bihm of the University of Central Arkansas a grant to help preserve historical documents related to ABE and the I.Q. Zoo.[40]

References

  1. ^ Cook, B., & Wiebers, T. (1999). Marian Breland Bailey: A pioneer in the history of applied animal psychology. HSU Academic Forum, 17, 55-62.
  2. ^ Gillaspy, J. A., & Bihm, E. H. (2002). Obituary: Marian Breland Bailey (1920–2001). American Psychologist, 57, 292–293.
  3. ^ Yin (2000)[1]
  4. ^ Gillaspy & Bihm (2002)
  5. ^ Cramer, C. (2000). A pioneer for humane methods in teaching animals. Main Connection, 8 (1), p. 8. [2]
  6. ^ Gillaspy & Bihm (2002)
  7. ^ Wiebers, T. (2004). Dr. Marian Breland Bailey. Eye on Psi Chi, 9 (1), 24-25
  8. ^ (Bailey, 2003; Cook & Wiebers, 1999; Gillaspy & Bihm, 2002)
  9. ^ reprint available online at http://www.buginas.com/blog/archives/001604.php
  10. ^ Cook & Wiebers (1999); Cramer (2000)
  11. ^ Breland, K., & Breland, M. (1966). Animal behavior. New York: The Macmillan Company.
  12. ^ Breland, M. (1965). Foundation of teaching by positive reinforcement. In G. J. Bensberg (Ed.), Teaching the mentally retarded: A handbook for ward personnel. Atlanta, GA: Southern Regional Education Board.
  13. ^ Bailey, M. B., & Bailey, R. E. (1993). "Misbehavior": A case history. American Psychologist, 48, 1157-1158; Bailey, R. E., & Bailey, M. B. (1980). A view from outside the Skinner box. American Psychologist, 35, 942-946.
  14. ^ Pryor, K. (1999). Don't shoot the dog: The New Art of Teaching and Training (Rev. ed.) New York: Bantam Books.
  15. ^ Bailey, R. E. (2003). A gentle woman for all seasons. Division 25 Recorder, 36 (1), 1, 4-5.

See also

Bailey, R. E., & Gillaspy, J. A. (2005). Operant psychology goes to the fair: Marian and Keller Breland in the popular press, 1947–1966. The Behavior Analyst, 28, 143–159.[41]

Marr, J. N. (2002). Marian Breland Bailey: The mouse who reinforced. Arkansas Historical Quarterly, 61, 59–79.

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