Behaviorology
Ethology is the scientific study of the behavior of animals. Behaviorology is a branch of ethology. Behaviorology is the experimental study of the behavior of animals.
Ethologists usually study the behavior of animals in natural settings. They sometimes use camouflaged shelters so that their presence does not disturb the animals that they are studying. In contrast, behaviorologists usually study the behavior of animals during experiments that they conduct in carefully controlled laboratories.
Behaviorologists design and conduct animal behavior experiments. During an experiment, they collect data about the behavior of an animal. The data may show that over a period of time and under a particular set of experimental conditions the animal's propensity to behave in a particular way either increased or decreased or remained unchanged. The behaviorologists may then conduct additional experiments under slightly modified experimental conditions.
Over the course of many years and many experiments, behaviorologists have learned which conditions will increase the frequency of various animal behaviors and which conditions will decrease the frequency of various behaviors. This knowledge has been applied to the task of training animals to behave in desired ways.
In the early 1970s a group of behaviorologists designed the ultimate animal behavior experiment. Then they built a laboratory in which they could conduct that experiment. Their experiment is ongoing. They named their laboratory Los Horcones.