Marian Breland Bailey, born Marian Ruth Kruse (December 2, 1920 – September 25, 2001) and nicknamed "Mouse",
[Clark, C. (2001)]
. ''The Centre for Applied Canine Behaviour''. Retrieved on February 20, 2007. was an American
psychologist, an
applied behavior analyst who played a major role in developing
empirically validated and humane
animal training
Animal training is the act of teaching animals specific responses to specific conditions or stimuli. Training may be for purposes such as companionship, detection, protection, and entertainment. The type of training an animal receives will va ...
methods and in promoting their widespread implementation. She and her first husband,
Keller Breland
Marian Breland Bailey, born Marian Ruth Kruse (December 2, 1920 – September 25, 2001) and nicknamed "Mouse",Clark, C. (2001). ''The Centre for Applied Canine Behaviour''. Retrieved on February 20, 2007. was an American psychologist, an applie ...
(1915–1965), studied at the
University of Minnesota
The University of Minnesota, formally the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, (UMN Twin Cities, the U of M, or Minnesota) is a public land-grant research university in the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and Saint Paul, Minnesota, United States. ...
under
behaviorist
Behaviorism is a systematic approach to understanding the behavior of humans and animals. It assumes that behavior is either a reflex evoked by the pairing of certain antecedent stimuli in the environment, or a consequence of that individual ...
B. F. Skinner
Burrhus Frederic Skinner (March 20, 1904 – August 18, 1990) was an American psychologist, behaviorist, author, inventor, and Social philosophy, social philosopher. He was a professor of psychology at Harvard University from 1958 until his ret ...
and became "the first applied animal psychologists."
Together they wrote the book Animal Behavior which was first published in 1966, after Keller's death.
Childhood and education
Born to Christian and Harriet (Prime) Kruse, Marian Ruth Kruse grew up in
Minneapolis
Minneapolis () is the largest city in Minnesota, United States, and the county seat of Hennepin County. The city is abundant in water, with thirteen lakes, wetlands, the Mississippi River, creeks and waterfalls. Minneapolis has its origins ...
,
Minnesota
Minnesota () is a state in the upper midwestern region of the United States. It is the 12th largest U.S. state in area and the 22nd most populous, with over 5.75 million residents. Minnesota is home to western prairies, now given over to ...
. Christian, a
German immigrant, worked for an automotive supply store, and Harriet was a registered nurse.
[Bihm, E. M., & J. A. Gillaspy (2006)]
Marian Breland Bailey (1920–2001)
''The Encyclopedia of Arkansas History & Culture''. Retrieved on March 10, 2007. Bailey's father and then others called her "''Maus''" ("mouse"), a common German nickname for little girls.
[Langley, A., & T. Wiebers (2007). Marian Breland Bailey (1920–2001). Paper presented at the annual Arkansas Undergraduate Research Conference. Henderson State University. ]Arkadelphia, Arkansas
Arkadelphia is a city in Clark County, Arkansas, United States. As of the 2010 census, the population was 10,714. The city is the county seat of Clark County. It is situated at the foothills of the Ouachita Mountains. Two universities, Hender ...
. ''Proceedings Journal of the Arkansas Undergraduate Research Conference''. After graduating from Washburn High School as her senior class's
valedictorian
Valedictorian is an academic title for the highest-performing student of a graduating class of an academic institution.
The valedictorian is commonly determined by a numerical formula, generally an academic institution's grade point average (GPA ...
,
[Gillaspy, J. A., & E. M. Bihm (2002). Obituary: Marian Breland Bailey (1920–2001). ''American Psychologist, 57'', pp. 292–293.] Bailey went to the University of Minnesota to major in
Latin
Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...
and minor in
Greek
Greek may refer to:
Greece
Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe:
*Greeks, an ethnic group.
*Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family.
**Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...
. Although financial times were difficult as her family had lost everything during the banking collapse of the
Great Depression, a full scholarship and a
Works Progress Administration
The Works Progress Administration (WPA; renamed in 1939 as the Work Projects Administration) was an American New Deal agency that employed millions of jobseekers (mostly men who were not formally educated) to carry out public works projects, i ...
award for writers supported her undergraduate education.
[ Before long, she also became a research assistant for B. F. (Fred) Skinner.
To meet a science requirement, Bailey took psychology because, as she later explained, "I thought it the least painful science." As a straight-A student, she was recommended for a highly selective psychology class taught by Skinner (the first of what Skinner later called "pro-seminars"), under whom she studied along with ]George Collier
Vice Admiral Sir George Collier (11 May 1732 – 6 April 1795) was an officer of the Royal Navy who saw service during the Seven Years' War, the American War of Independence and the French Revolutionary Wars. As commander of the fourth-rate shi ...
, W. K. Estes, Norman Guttman, Kenneth MacCorquodale, Paul Everett Meehl, and others bound for later fame in their field.[ With its emphasis on Skinner's new operant training techniques, the course inspired Bailey to major in psychology with a minor in ]child psychology
Developmental psychology is the scientific study of how and why humans grow, change, and adapt across the course of their lives. Originally concerned with infants and children, the field has expanded to include adolescence, adult developmen ...
and to study operant conditioning.[Woolf, L. M. (2002)]
Marian Breland Bailey: December 2, 1920 – September 25, 2001
. ''Women's Intellectual Contributions to the Study of Mind and Society''. Retrieved on September 20, 2007.
Bailey worked as Skinner's teaching and laboratory assistant when he published his pivotal work ''The Behavior of Organisms
''The Behavior of Organisms'' is B.F. Skinner's first book and was published in May 1938 as a volume of the Century Psychology Series. It set out the parameters for the discipline that would come to be called the experimental analysis of behavior ...
'' in 1938. She trained rats for Skinner, typed lecture notes for him, proofread his book,[ and even babysat his children.] Skinner gave her the final galley proof of his book, which she considered a prized possession.[ While still an undergraduate student, Bailey met her future husband Keller Breland, who came to call her "Mouse" without knowing that her family called her "''Maus''". Bailey and others soon decided that her name was Mouse.][
In 1940, Bailey joined ]Psi Chi
Psi Chi () is a college student honor society in psychology with international outreach founded in 1929 at the University of Kansas in the United States.
Psi Chi is one of the largest honor societies in the United States, with more than 1,150 cha ...
, the national honor society in psychology.[Wiebers, T. (2004)]
Dr. Marian Breland Bailey: A Psi Chi Tribute
. ''Eye on Psi Chi'' 9 (1), 24–25. Retrieved on September 20, 2007. She graduated with her bachelor of arts degree '' summa cum laude'' in 1941,[Cramer, C. (2000)]
A pioneer for humane methods in teaching animals
(PDF) ''Main Connection, 8'' (1), p. 8. the only member of her graduating class with an A average.
Work with Keller Breland
After Bailey earned her bachelor's degree, she married psychologist Keller Bramwell Breland (1915–1965) on August 1, 1941. Together, they had three children: Bradley (1946), Frances (1948), and Elizabeth (1952).
Bailey became the second graduate student to work under the renowned Skinner. Her husband soon came to work with Skinner as well.[Gillaspy, J. A., & E. M. Bihm (July 16, 2007)]
Keller Bramwell Breland (1915–1965)
''The Encyclopedia of Arkansas History & Culture''. Retrieved on September 20, 2007. While graduate students, they collaborated with Skinner on military research during World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...
. Their work involved training pigeon
Columbidae () is a bird family consisting of doves and pigeons. It is the only family in the order Columbiformes. These are stout-bodied birds with short necks and short slender bills that in some species feature fleshy ceres. They primarily ...
s for use by the U.S. Navy
The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage o ...
, teaching the birds to guide bombs. This was never actually used.[ Although many sources incorrectly refer to the work as ]Project Pigeon
During World War II, Project Pigeon (later Project Orcon, for "organic control") was American behaviorist B. F. Skinner's attempt to develop a pigeon-controlled guided bomb.
Overview
The testbed was the same National Bureau of Standards-de ...
or the Pigeon Project, Bailey assured colleagues that its name had actually been "Pigeon in a Pelican", with ''pelican'' referring to the missile each pigeon was to guide.[
Bailey and Breland saw the commercial possibilities of operant training. So they left the University of Minnesota without completing their doctorates, and founded Animal Behavior Enterprises (ABE) on a farm in Minnesota.] Skinner tried to dissuade the couple from abandoning their graduate education for an untested commercial endeavor. Classmate Paul Meehl bet $10 they would fail. (His 1961 check for $10 later hung framed on Bailey's office wall.)
ABE's first project was training farm animals to appear in feed advertisements for General Mills
General Mills, Inc., is an American multinational manufacturer and marketer of branded processed consumer foods sold through retail stores. Founded on the banks of the Mississippi River at Saint Anthony Falls in Minneapolis, the company orig ...
. Bailey and Breland went on to train "more animals and different species of animals than any other animal trainers" of their time, including animals of the land (cats, cattle, chickens, dogs, goats, pigs, rabbits, raccoon
The raccoon ( or , ''Procyon lotor''), sometimes called the common raccoon to distinguish it from other species, is a mammal native to North America. It is the largest of the procyonid family, having a body length of , and a body weight of ...
s, rats, and sheep), the air (ducks, parrot
Parrots, also known as psittacines (), are birds of the roughly 398 species in 92 genera comprising the order Psittaciformes (), found mostly in tropical and subtropical regions. The order is subdivided into three superfamilies: the Psittacoide ...
s, and ravens), and the sea (dolphin
A dolphin is an aquatic mammal within the infraorder Cetacea. Dolphin species belong to the families Delphinidae (the oceanic dolphins), Platanistidae (the Indian river dolphins), Iniidae (the New World river dolphins), Pontoporiidae (the ...
s and whale
Whales are a widely distributed and diverse group of fully aquatic placental marine mammals. As an informal and colloquial grouping, they correspond to large members of the infraorder Cetacea, i.e. all cetaceans apart from dolphins and ...
s). At their busiest, they trained "more than 1,000 animals at a given time".[Yin, S. (August 2000)]
Advanced Chicken Training Camp
''Cambridge Center of Behavioral Studies''. Retrieved on September 18, 2007. In training animals for recreational facilities such as Marineland of Florida
Marineland of Florida (usually just called Marineland), one of Florida's first marine mammal parks, is billed as "the world's first oceanarium". Marineland functions as an entertainment and swim-with-the-dolphins facility, and reopened to the pu ...
, Parrot Jungle, SeaWorld
SeaWorld is an American theme park chain with headquarters in Orlando, Florida. It is a proprietor of marine mammal parks, oceanariums, animal theme parks, and rehabilitation centers owned by SeaWorld Parks & Entertainment (one park will be ...
, and Six Flags
Six Flags Entertainment Corporation is an American amusement park corporation, headquartered in Arlington, Texas. It has properties in Canada, Mexico, and the United States. Six Flags owns the most theme parks and waterparks combined of any a ...
, they created the very first dolphin and bird shows, a form of program now considered traditional entertainment fare. Most major theme parks' animal programs can be traced back to the couple's pioneering work.[ They also established the first coin-operated animal shows.] 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 advertisement.[Cook-Hasley & Wiebers (1999)]
Marian Breland Bailey: A Pioneer in the History of Applied Animal Psychology
. ''Henderson State University''. Retrieved on September 19, 2007. They trained animals for many other venues including circus
A circus is a company of performers who put on diverse entertainment shows that may include clowns, acrobats, trained animals, trapeze acts, musicians, dancers, hoopers, tightrope walkers, jugglers, magicians, ventriloquists, and unicyclis ...
es, motion pictures, museum
A museum ( ; plural museums or, rarely, musea) is a building or institution that cares for and displays a collection of artifacts and other objects of artistic, cultural, historical, or scientific importance. Many public museums make thes ...
s, stores, and zoo
A zoo (short for zoological garden; also called an animal park or menagerie) is a facility in which animals are kept within enclosures for public exhibition and often bred for conservation purposes.
The term ''zoological garden'' refers to zoo ...
s.
Earlier animal trainers had historically relied primarily on punishment when teaching animals. Bailey and Breland instead followed Skinner's emphasis on the use of positive reinforcement
In behavioral psychology, reinforcement is a consequence applied that will strengthen an organism's future behavior whenever that behavior is preceded by a specific antecedent stimulus. This strengthening effect may be measured as a higher fr ...
to train animals, using rewards for desired behavior.[Fishkoff, S. (November 4, 1999)]
Pecking order: Whatever happened to the chickens who worked the tic-tac-toe game on Cannery Row?
''Montery County Weekly''. Retrieved on March 9, 2007. Although other students of Skinner's later entered commercial animal training as well, the pair's techniques dominated the field because they found ways to simplify the training of complex behaviors.[Bailey, R. (2002)]
Click for Joy!
''clickertraining.com''. Foreword and Introduction. Retrieved on September 20, 2007. The couple did not just train the animals. 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
Behaviorism is a systematic approach to understanding the behavior of humans and animals. It assumes that behavior is either a reflex evoked by the pairing of certain antecedent stimuli in the environment, or a consequence of that individual' ...
." Marlin Perkins
Richard Marlin Perkins (March 28, 1905 – June 14, 1986) was an American zoology, zoologist. He was best known as a host of the television program ''Wild Kingdom, Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom'' from 1963 to 1985.
Life and career
Perkin ...
of ''Wild Kingdom
''Wild Kingdom'', also known as ''Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom'', is an American documentary television program that features wildlife and nature. It was originally produced from 1963 until 1988, and it was revived in 2002. The show's second ...
'' and Walt Disney
Walter Elias Disney (; December 5, 1901December 15, 1966) was an American animator, film producer and entrepreneur. A pioneer of the American animation industry, he introduced several developments in the production of cartoons. As a film p ...
were among those who learned from them.[
]
Bailey led ABE's government research, some of which remains classified to this day. Known projects included the development of an avian ambush detection system. In 1950, Bailey and Breland relocated ABE to a farm near Hot Springs, Arkansas
Arkansas ( ) is a landlocked state in the South Central United States. It is bordered by Missouri to the north, Tennessee and Mississippi to the east, Louisiana to the south, and Texas and Oklahoma to the west. Its name is from the O ...
. In 1955, they opened the "I.Q. Zoo" 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."[
Bailey and Breland 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".] They appeared on well known television shows such as ''The Today Show
''Today'' (also called ''The Today Show'' or informally, ''NBC News Today'') is an American news and talk morning television show that airs weekdays from 7:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. on NBC. The program debuted on January 14, 1952. It ...
'', ''The Tonight Show
''The Tonight Show'' is an American late-night talk show that has aired on NBC since 1954. The show has been hosted by six comedians: Steve Allen (1954–1957), Jack Paar (1957–1962), Johnny Carson (1962–1992), Jay Leno (1992–2009 and 201 ...
'', ''Wild Kingdom
''Wild Kingdom'', also known as ''Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom'', is an American documentary television program that features wildlife and nature. It was originally produced from 1963 until 1988, and it was revived in 2002. The show's second ...
'', and ''You Asked For It
''You Asked for It'' is a human interest television show created and hosted by Art Baker. Initially titled ''The Art Baker Show'', the program originally aired on American television between 1950 and 1959. Later versions of the series were see ...
''. Publications including '' Colliers'', ''Life
Life is a quality that distinguishes matter that has biological processes, such as Cell signaling, signaling and self-sustaining processes, from that which does not, and is defined by the capacity for Cell growth, growth, reaction to Stimu ...
'', ''Popular Mechanics
''Popular Mechanics'' (sometimes PM or PopMech) is a magazine of popular science and technology, featuring automotive, home, outdoor, electronics, science, do-it-yourself, and technology topics. Military topics, aviation and transportation o ...
'', ''Reader's Digest
''Reader's Digest'' is an American general-interest family magazine, published ten times a year. Formerly based in Chappaqua, New York, it is now headquartered in midtown Manhattan. The magazine was founded in 1922 by DeWitt Wallace and his wif ...
'', '' Saturday Evening Post'', ''Time
Time is the continued sequence of existence and events that occurs in an apparently irreversible succession from the past, through the present, into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequence events, ...
'', and even ''The Wall Street Journal
''The Wall Street Journal'' is an American business-focused, international daily newspaper based in New York City, with international editions also available in Chinese and Japanese. The ''Journal'', along with its Asian editions, is published ...
'' featured them and their work. Although Breland was often the public face of ABE with some ads referring to "Keller Breland's I.Q. Zoo," both of them collaborated equally in ABE's endeavors.
The couple stirred controversy among behaviorists with their 1961 article, "The misbehavior of organisms"the title of which involved a play on words referring to Skinner's ''The Behavior of Organisms''. Bailey and Breland outlined training difficulties in which instinct or instinctive drift might occur as tendencies biologically inherent in a species intrude into the behaviors a trainer was attempting to teach an animal. The article is recognized as a milestone in the history of psychology.
In 1963, Bailey designed and implemented a program to improve techniques for working with profoundly mentally retarded individuals at a human development center in Alexandria, Louisiana
Alexandria is the ninth-largest city in the state of Louisiana and is the parish seat of Rapides Parish, Louisiana, United States. It lies on the south bank of the Red River in almost the exact geographic center of the state. It is the prin ...
. She emphasized the value of positive reinforcement, and taught ward attendants humane practices that became the standard for institutions of this kind. The 1965 training manual ''Teaching the Mentally Retarded'', which she and others prepared, remained in use for decades.
On June 16, 1965, Breland died of a heart attack.[ In their 1966 textbook, Bailey described him as the "dreamer" and herself as the "engineer". She continued writing, researching, and training animals.
]
Work with Bob Bailey
In 1976, she married Robert (Bob) E. Bailey. He had been the first Director of Training in the Navy's Marine Mammal Program, then became ABE's General Manager. The two of them had founded the facility "Animal Wonderland" in 1972. Among their many activities, the Baileys worked with the Canine Companions for Independence nonprofit organization which trained dogs to assist disabled individuals. Together, the Baileys trained animals from over 140 species.
Bailey's graduate studies had stopped when she and Breland left to found ABE. She returned to graduate school and earned her Ph.D.
A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, Ph.D., or DPhil; Latin: or ') is the most common degree at the highest academic level awarded following a course of study. PhDs are awarded for programs across the whole breadth of academic fields. Because it is ...
in psychology at the University of Arkansas
The University of Arkansas (U of A, UArk, or UA) is a public land-grant research university in Fayetteville, Arkansas. It is the flagship campus of the University of Arkansas System and the largest university in the state. Founded as Arkansas ...
in 1978. She then served as a professor
Professor (commonly abbreviated as Prof.) is an academic rank at universities and other post-secondary education and research institutions in most countries. Literally, ''professor'' derives from Latin as a "person who professes". Professors ...
of psychology at Henderson State University
Henderson State University (HSU) is a public university in Arkadelphia, Arkansas. Founded in 1890 as Arkadelphia Methodist College, it is Arkansas's only member of the Council of Public Liberal Arts Colleges. Henderson has an undergraduate enrol ...
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''.
Bailey continued writing about the "misbehavior" of animals during operant conditioning for publications such as ''American Psychologist
''American Psychologist'' is a peer-reviewed academic journal published by the American Psychological Association. The journal publishes articles of broad interest to psychologists, including empirical reports and scholarly reviews covering scien ...
'', the official journal of the American Psychological Association
The American Psychological Association (APA) is the largest scientific and professional organization of psychologists in the United States, with over 133,000 members, including scientists, educators, clinicians, consultants, and students. It ha ...
(APA). The Baileys were chief among the behaviorists who began using the Internet for instruction, problem solving, and promotion of their science.
In 1996, the Baileys began the Bailey & Bailey Operant Conditioning Workshops, which provided training to animal trainers, psychologists, students, and many others from throughout the world.[Bailey, R. E. (2003). A gentle woman for all seasons. ''Division 25 Recorder, 36'' (1), 1, pp. 4–5.] The program of study involved four increasingly advanced levels of the "physically, mentally, and emotionally demanding" workshops. In 1998, the University of Arkansas inducted Bailey into the university's Fulbright College Alumni Academy as one of their first Distinguished Alumni Award recipients.
On September 25, 2001, Bailey died at St. Joseph's Hospital in Hot Springs.[
]
Remembering Mouse
After Bailey's death, numerous professionals in the field recognized her death with obituaries and biographies. Dr. Art Gillaspy and Dr. Elson Bihm of the University of Central Arkansas
The University of Central Arkansas (Central Arkansas or UCA) is a public university in Conway, Arkansas. Founded in 1907 as the Arkansas State Normal School, the university is one of the oldest in the U.S. state of Arkansas. As the state's only ...
wrote an obituary for the ''American Psychologist''. Psi Chi's journal '' Eye on Psi Chi'' honored Bailey, who had been a member for over sixty years, with a biography by Dr. Todd Wiebers of Henderson State. The year after her death, the ''Arkansas Historical Quarterly'' featured a retrospective on Bailey, who had been a figure in the state of Arkansas for decades. Her husband Bob provided a biographical tribute for the ''Division 25 Recorder'', the official publication of the APA's Division 25 for Behavior Analysis. Other obituaries and biographies have appeared online.
In her name, Henderson State University presents the Marian Breland Bailey Endowed Scholarship in Psychology to select psychology undergraduates. Memorial contributions in Bailey's memory go to this scholarship and to the Arkansas Kidney Foundation.[
Bailey's husband Bob continued to teach seminars they developed and the Bailey & Bailey Operant Conditioning Workshops which they began together.
The Archives of the History of Psychology in ]Akron
Akron () is the fifth-largest city in the U.S. state of Ohio and is the county seat of Summit County. It is located on the western edge of the Glaciated Allegheny Plateau, about south of downtown Cleveland. As of the 2020 Census, the city ...
, Ohio
Ohio () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. Of the fifty U.S. states, it is the 34th-largest by area, and with a population of nearly 11.8 million, is the seventh-most populous and tenth-most densely populated. The sta ...
, and the Smithsonian Math and Science Museum in Washington, D.C.
)
, image_skyline =
, image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...
, now house collections of Bailey's documents and items.[The ]National Science Foundation
The National Science Foundation (NSF) is an independent agency of the United States government that supports fundamental research and education in all the non-medical fields of science and engineering. Its medical counterpart is the National ...
awarded Dr. Elson Bihm a grant to help preserve historical documents related to ABE and the I.Q. Zoo (January 23, 2004).
Bihm receives grant to preserve psychology materials
'. ''UCA Today''. Retrieved on September 20, 2007.
References
External links
Behavior by Bailey
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bailey, Marian Breland
American women psychologists
20th-century American psychologists
Behaviourist psychologists
University of Minnesota College of Liberal Arts alumni
University of Arkansas alumni
Henderson State University faculty
Animal trainers
Works Progress Administration workers
2001 deaths
1920 births
20th-century American women
American women academics