title: Magical creatures in Harry Potter

text: This beast is believed to be wizard-bred, possibly intended to guard wizard dwellings or treasure, as is often the case with magically bred monsters. Despite its near-human intelligence, the Acromantula is untrainable and highly dangerous to wizard and Muggle alike. Hagrid was expelled from Hogwarts in his third year for possession of the Acromantula Aragog who was thought by Hogwarts teachers to be the monster in the Chamber of Secrets.


title: Magical creatures in Harry Potter

text: In the "Harry Potter" universe, a Basilisk is a monstrous serpentine creature. Larger than its counterpart from the real-life legend, this Basilisk is capable of reaching a length up to sixty feet and living up to hundreds of years. Basilisks are uncontrollable except by Parselmouths, and the first basilisk is believed to have been created by a Greek Dark wizard and Parselmouth named Herpo The Foul. Herpo made this discovery by hatching a chicken egg under a toad. A male basilisk has a scarlet plume on its head. A basilisk kills both with its powerful venom and its huge yellow eyes, which are immediately fatal to any creature who looks at them directly. To anyone who looks at it indirectly, such as through a camera or in a reflection, it creates a profound state of petrification similar to a Medusa stare. Ghosts who either look at it directly or indirectly will only become petrified since they could not die a second time. A phoenix tear is the only known cure for the devastating effect of the basilisk's venom. Spiders flee from the basilisk, as they are mortal enemies. The basilisk itself flees only from the crowing of a rooster, which if heard by the basilisk is fatal, and the weasel whose odor will also kill a basilisk.


title: Magical creatures in Harry Potter

text: In "Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets", a female basilisk inhabits the Chamber of Secrets below Hogwarts. When student Tom Riddle, later known as Voldemort, opened the chamber, the basilisk merely petrified several students (students looked at a reflection of basilisk) and killed one student named Myrtle (later known as Moaning Myrtle) with her stare and hid in the chamber for 50 years, until Riddle's memory opened the chamber again by possessing Ginny Weasley. The basilisk attempts to kill several Muggle-borns, but due to good fortune, all its victims were merely petrified. Riddle commanded Ginny Weasley to kill all the school roosters remarked upon by Hagrid. When Harry discovers the chamber, Riddle reveals his identity and sets the basilisk loose upon Harry while Ginny's life force ebbs away. Fawkes helps Harry, by blinding the basilisk with his talons and carrying the Sorting Hat; Harry pulls the sword of Godric Gryffindor from the hat, and uses it to impale the basilisk in the roof of her mouth, killing her.


title: Magical creatures in Harry Potter

text: The basilisk's fangs and her venom absorbed by the sword of Gryffindor proved instrumental for destroying most of Voldemort's Horcruxes. In "Chamber of Secrets", while killing the basilisk at the same time, Harry Potter was stabbed in the arm by the first fang, which broke off and was used by Harry to puncture Tom Riddle's diary (one of Voldemort's Horcruxes), an act which restored Ginny's life force. In "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows", after losing the sword of Gryffindor to Griphook, Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger return to the chamber and retrieve a fang from the dead basilisk's mouth, using it to destroy Helga Hufflepuff's cup. This time the chamber was opened by Ron by imitating Harry's Parseltongue. Ron Weasley, Neville Longbottom, and Professor Dumbledore used the sword of Gryffindor, laced with the basilisk's venom, to destroy the locket, Nagini, and Marvolo Gaunt's ring, respectively.


title: Magical creatures in Harry Potter

text: In the "Harry Potter" universe, a Boggart is an amortal shape-shifter non-being that takes on the form of its intended victim's worst fear. While British mythology describes boggarts as house-elves who cause trouble or malevolent beings inhabiting marshes or other lonely spots, Rowling's boggarts are more like Fuaths, magical creatures originating from Scotland. However, there is one record of an English (Lancashire) boggart which could take the form of various animals, or indeed more fearful creatures. The word "boggart" was recorded in the Survey of English Dialects across Cheshire, Derbyshire, Lancashire and Yorkshire as a bogey man.


title: Magical creatures in Harry Potter

text: Boggarts like to hide in dark, enclosed places, such as closets and cabinets. It is unknown what form a boggart chooses to take when alone. (In "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix", Mad-Eye Moody determines, with his magical eye, that there is a boggart in the desk in the drawing room.)


title: Magical creatures in Harry Potter

text: In "Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban", Remus Lupin teaches his students in Defence Against the Dark Arts to approach a boggart in groups of two or more, or even to think of several very different frightful beings (Professor Snape and grandmother Augusta, in the case of Neville) so that the boggart will have difficulty in choosing how to frighten whom. The "Riddikulus" charm is used to combat Boggarts, by changing their appearance into a less fearsome or even comical apparition, which weakens the creatures. When Harry Potter approaches the boggart, it takes the form of a Dementor.


title: Magical creatures in Harry Potter

text: Centaurs in the Harry Potter universe are wild creatures who claim to possess intelligence greater than humans. Their heads and torsos resemble those of humans but they possess the four legs, lower bodies and tail of a horse. Although sentient, they have not requested assignment as beings, preferring to remove themselves entirely from human affairs. Centaurs who decide to associate with humans, such as Firenze, who agrees to teach Divination at Hogwarts, can be seen as traitors to their kind and attacked by other centaurs. Firenze's interest in human affairs resulted in violent reprisals by other centaurs and were it not for Hagrid's intervention, Firenze could have been killed.


title: Magical creatures in Harry Potter

text: The Ministry of Magic's Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures has a Centaur Liaison Office, but no centaur has ever used it. Centaurs are skilled in healing and astrology, and spend much of their time scouring the stars for portents. They live in forests, and their society consists of groups called herds. They do not appear to employ or need any technology more advanced than a bow and arrow. They are proud and territorial, therefore high diplomatic skills must be employed when dealing with centaurs. Displaying lack of respect to centaurs can have violent consequences, as Dolores Umbridge learned to her cost. In "Deathly Hallows", the Hogwarts centaur herd, after being admonished fiercely by Hagrid, takes sides with the Order of the Phoenix, and assist in the Battle of Hogwarts.


title: Magical creatures in Harry Potter

text: The films depict the centaurs with bestial and animalistic facial features. The books do not describe them, but several female students are attracted to them.


title: Magical creatures in Harry Potter

text: The dementors are "soulless creatures... among the foulest beings on Earth": a phantom species who, as their name suggests, gradually deprive human minds of happiness and intelligence. They are the guards of the wizard prison, Azkaban, until after the return of antagonist Lord Voldemort. Albus Dumbledore harbors an intense dislike of dementors, noting he has long felt the Ministry of Magic erred in "allying" with such creatures, implying that dementor society in general exists apart from the general wizarding world. Dumbledore forbade dementors from entering Hogwarts but this ban was ultimately broken in "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire" by Minister of Magic Cornelius Fudge, who insisted on being accompanied by a dementor as a bodyguard.


title: Magical creatures in Harry Potter

text: In the books, dementors have a generally human shape, approximately 3 metres (10 feet) in height, covered in dark, hooded cloaks that reveal only their decayed-looking hands. Beneath the cloak, dementors are eyeless, and the only feature of note is the perpetually indrawn breath, by which they consume the emotions and good memories of human beings, forcing the victim to relive its worst memories alone. According to the author, dementors grow like fungi in dark, moist places, creating a dense, chilly fog. Although they are implied to be sentient, this is left ambiguous. The presence of a dementor makes the surrounding atmosphere grow cold and dark, and the effects are cumulative with the number of dementors present. The culmination of their power is the 'Dementor's Kiss', wherein the dementor latches its mouth onto a victim's lips and consumes its soul or psyche, presumably to leave the victim in a persistent vegetative state, without any memories and feelings left. Dementors are invisible to Muggles, but affect them otherwise identically.


title: Magical creatures in Harry Potter

text: Despite their attachment to human emotion, dementors seem to have difficulty distinguishing one human from another, as demonstrated by Barty Crouch Jr.'s escape from Azkaban, wherein they could detect no emotional difference between the younger Crouch and his mother. Their sensitivity appears less precise in proportion to the emotion's 'complexity'; this particular weakness enabled Sirius Black, an Animagus, to escape Azkaban by transforming into a dog. The principal method against them is the Patronus Charm, which both protects its user and repels the dementors.


title: Magical creatures in Harry Potter

text: Harry first encounters dementors during his third year of school, when they are sent to guard Hogwarts against Sirius Black, thought to be a dangerous criminal at this point in time. Being reminded by their presence of his parents' murder by Voldemort, Harry asks Remus Lupin for assistance, and thus acquires the Patronus Charm. At the beginning of "Order of the Phoenix", two dementors are dispatched to Little Whinging to assassinate Harry, and nearly drain the soul from his cousin Dudley Dursley before Harry drives them off with the Patronus (It is later learned that they were sent by Minister Fudge's corrupt secretary Dolores Umbridge, a possible mole for the Death Eaters). By the novel's end, the dementors of Azkaban stage a mass revolt against their employers to join Voldemort, who permits them nearly free access to victims. In "Deathly Hallows", the Ministry, under the control of Voldemort, uses dementors to punish Muggle-borns. The dementors also take Voldemort's side during the Battle of Hogwarts. After the appointment of Kingsley Shacklebolt as Minister of Magic, dementors are removed from Azkaban, and the Ministry contains them by limiting their numbers.


title: Magical creatures in Harry Potter

text: Rowling created the dementors after a time in which she, in her own words, "was clinically depressed".


title: Magical creatures in Harry Potter

text: Ghosts play an important secondary role, mainly as advisors to the leading characters. Unlike the ghosts in a traditional ghost story, these ghosts are neither frightening nor necessarily ghoulish. Ghosts in the novels appear silvery and translucent. They can fly and pass through walls, tables, and other solid objects, but nonetheless have some ability to physically affect, and be affected by, the living world. (Moaning Myrtle, for instance, can splash the water in her toilet.) Ghosts' banquet tables are laden with rotten food, as the decomposition increases their ability to smell and taste it. Touching or walking through a ghost induces a sensation "like walking through an icy shower." Ghosts can be affected by magic and curses, though not to the same degree that living beings can.


title: Magical creatures in Harry Potter

text: In the "Harry Potter" universe, only wizards and witches can become ghosts. As Nearly Headless Nick explained to Harry, "Wizards can leave an imprint of themselves upon the earth, to walk palely where their living selves once trod ... I was afraid of death. I chose to remain behind. I sometimes wonder whether I oughtn't to have ... Well, that is neither here nor there ... In fact, I am neither here nor there ..." Despite having chosen this afterlife, many ghosts bemoan their inability to eat, and many are described as gloomy. They also harbour an attraction to imagery morbid and melancholy.


title: Magical creatures in Harry Potter

text: Ghosts are very sensitive about their condition: when the Ministry initially classified them as sentient creatures with full legal rights, they claimed that the term was insensitive and received a separate "Spirit Division", apparently to control the activities and haunting locations of troublesome ghosts (as when Myrtle was forced to haunt the place of her death at Hogwarts after she had disrupted the wedding of the brother of Olive Hornby, a girl who had teased her at school).


title: Magical creatures in Harry Potter

text: Peeves, the Hogwarts poltergeist, is not considered a ghost, but an "indestructible spirit of chaos" according to Rowling.


title: Magical creatures in Harry Potter

text: Giants in the "Harry Potter" universe are capable of interbreeding with humans – Rubeus Hagrid is half-giant, as is his love interest Olympe Maxime – but wizards as a population have engaged in an active campaign to hunt giants out of civilisation. The last giants in Britain were killed apparently by Ministry decree, but most deaths have been due to territorial aggression among themselves as wizards force them to live in ever more confined spaces. The last few giants remaining in the world (the total number is between 70 and 80) are collected together in an isolated region east of Belarus. Giants range in height from 20 to 25 feet, and have skin similar to rhinoceros hide, which grants them limited immunity to magical attacks. Their society is loosely governed by a chief called a Gurg, who spends most of his time demanding food from his underlings.


title: Magical creatures in Harry Potter

text: Voldemort has employed giants in his attacks, after convincing them that he can offer them a better life; whereas Hagrid reveals in "Order of the Phoenix" that he and Madame Maxime went to try and persuade the Giants to take part in the war against Voldemort, but were thwarted when the Gurg Karkas was killed by Golgomath who succeeded him and sided with the Death Eaters. Presumably as a result, some giants took part in the Battle of Hogwarts at the end of the series, mostly fighting for Voldemort. These giants faced off against Hagrid's half-brother Grawp, Buckbeak, and some Thestrals.


title: Magical creatures in Harry Potter

text: The portrayal of giants as a dying breed is consistent with much of European folklore, where they are frequently described as primaeval creatures who built ruins and created strange landforms long before humans arrived.


title: Magical creatures in Harry Potter

text: Goblins are magical creatures chiefly involved with metalwork and the running of Gringotts bank. They are represented by the Goblin Liaison Office in the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures. Goblins are anthropoid, described as having long, thin fingers and feet, black eyes, and domed heads much larger than human heads in proportion to the body. Goblins eat a diet of largely raw meat, roots, and fungi and converse in a language known as Gobbledegook. They consider the true owner of an object to be its maker – that its purchaser has only licensed its use, perhaps for a lifetime – and they consider the passage of goblin-made heirlooms through Wizarding families without further payment to be theft. Wizarding law prohibits the ownership of wands by goblins, but goblins have a different magic of their own.


title: Magical creatures in Harry Potter

text: Relations between goblins and wizards have been strained for centuries by misunderstandings on both sides, sometimes evoking violence. Along with house-elves, goblins seem to occupy positions as second-class citizens in the Wizarding world. The goblins remain a neutral force during the Second Wizarding War, siding with neither Voldemort nor the opposition to him. In some cases, a weak friendship exists between certain wizards and goblins (particularly Bill Weasley, who works as a Curse Breaker for Gringotts Bank), and there have even been some instances of goblin-wizard interbreeding (Professor Flitwick has distant goblin ancestry, which likely accounts for his small size). The depiction of goblins in Harry Potter has been accused of containing antisemitic stereotypes.


title: Magical creatures in Harry Potter

text: House-elves are small elves enslaved by wizards. They are tall, with spindly limbs and oversized heads and eyes. They have pointed, bat-like ears and high, squeaky voices. Their names are usually pet-like diminutives, and they do not appear to have surnames. They habitually refer to themselves in the third person. House-elves are generally obedient, pliant, and obsequious; and when enslaved, wear discarded items such as pillowcases and tea-towels draped like a toga. House-elves' masters can free them by giving them an item of clothing, much like the Hob of English folklore. House-elves can become intoxicated by drinking Butterbeer.


title: Magical creatures in Harry Potter

text: House-elves possess magic distinct from that used by wizards and witches, which they generally use in the service of their masters. This magic can be used without the permission of their masters, or even against their orders, though such disobedience obliges them to punish themselves in various painful ways. Among other things, this magic allows house-elves to Apparate instantly from place to place, even at Hogwarts and other places where human Apparation is prevented; and even to thus transport humans. The full extent of the elves' magic is never fully disclosed, but it seems formidable. Along with the ability to Apparate anywhere at any time, Dobby, Winky, Hokey, and Kreacher all demonstrate that they can overpower wizards when necessary: In "Chamber of Secrets", Dobby forcefully repels Lucius Malfoy while protecting Harry; whereas in "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire", when Barty Crouch Jr. is unmasked and confesses to what happened on the night of the Quiddich World Championship, he says: "Winky used her own brand of magic to bind me to her", and in "Deathly Hallows", Harry tasks Kreacher with capturing Mundungus Fletcher and bringing him to 12 Grimmauld Place, a task that he accomplishes within a few days;–– even though, as Kreacher puts it, "He has many hidey-holes and accomplices". Moreover, although House-elves are not allowed to carry wands, they do not appear to need them, being capable of magical feats without them.


title: Magical creatures in Harry Potter

text: In "Goblet of Fire", it is said that a House-elf who has been freed is expected to find a new family to serve. There is an Office of House-Elf Relocation at the Ministry of Magic to facilitate this. House-elves are unendingly loyal to their masters; so much so that Dobby, who served the Malfoy family, attempts to punish himself each time he utters a negative remark about them (even after his freedom) until the final book, in which he defies Bellatrix Lestrange. According to Kreacher, "a House-elf's highest law is his master's bidding"; however, while House-elves must obey their masters without question, they have been known to find loopholes in orders that allow for unintended interpretations to protect themselves or their friends. Because of their docile, obedient natures, some families abuse their house-elves; Dark wizard families in particular seem to make a habit thereof, as when the Malfoys forced Dobby to torture himself, or when the Black family customarily decapitated their house-elves as they became enfeebled by age. Nonetheless, most house-elves are horrified by freedom even from the most cruel masters. Dobby, the first introduced, is the sole exception; but this extends chiefly to voluntary service, paid labour, and choice of his own employment and costume. During her time at Hogwarts, Hermione establishes S.P.E.W. (the 'Society for the Promotion of Elfish Welfare') to champion House-elves' rights; but gains little interest from her classmates or the House-elves themselves. After Hermione begins leaving elf-sized clothes around the Gryffindor common room, intending for Hogwarts' House-elves to inadvertently free themselves while cleaning, the House-elves find the idea so insulting that Dobby is the only resident elf willing to clean in Gryffindor Tower.


title: Magical creatures in Harry Potter

text: In "Deathly Hallows", Dumbledore tells Harry: "Of House-elves (...) Voldemort knows and understands nothing. Nothing. That they have a power beyond his own, a power beyond the reach of any magic, is a truth he had never grasped". Kreacher also leads the House-elves of Hogwarts into battle against Voldemort's forces.


title: Magical creatures in Harry Potter

text: Obscurials are magical children who attempt to repress their magical abilities. If kept unchecked, this repression corrupts the user's magic, creating a dark parasite force known as an obscurus. The host obscurial keeps the form of the child, appearing normal, if emotionally distressed due to their forced hiding of their magical nature. When their power is unleashed, the child and obscurus share a form of a large, shadowy, ethereal cloud, usually causing destruction due to the child themselves having little to no control over the obscurus. The host and parasite may retake the form of the child later, again with almost no input from the obscurial. Due to its consuming nature, obscurials rarely live past childhood, and obscurials who do make it to adolescence are considered outstandingly powerful magic users, though they still will have no control.


title: Magical creatures in Harry Potter

text: Obscurials first came into notice when wizard-kind was persecuted by non-magical users. In an attempt to hide their true nature and blend in with society, their pain would cause their magic to manifest into an obscurus. As such, obscurials are feared even among witches and wizards, who see them as not only destructive, but a threat to the International Statute of Secrecy. Even today, the creation of obscurials persists through the persecution of magical peoples all across the world.


title: Magical creatures in Harry Potter

text: When an Obscurial comes close to their emotional breaking point their eyes turn a milky white and the Obscurus can be observed writhing under its host's skin.


title: Magical creatures in Harry Potter

text: When unleashed an obscurus will normally target the source of its host's misery and distress; violently mauling the victim and leaving distinct scratch-like burns over the victim's face. Despite their violent nature an obscurus will spare those who have shown kindness and affection to their obscurial host.


title: Magical creatures in Harry Potter

text: Obscurus and obscurials play a crucial role in the film "Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them", "Fantastic Beasts" author Newt Scamander expressing guilt for not being able to save an obscurial girl he met in Sudan. In the film's storyline, an Obscurus manifested in 1926 New York in the body of Aurelius Dumbledore, previously known as Credence Barebone who was forced to conceal his magic from his abusive adoptive mother who has formed an organization to persecute witches. Credence was sought by Gellert Grindelwald and drives him to wreak havoc across the city before he was seemingly killed by aurors under orders from the President of the Magical Congress of the United States of America, Seraphina Picquery. Credence ultimately survived this as a fragment of his obscurus escapes notice and reconstitutes him, retaining the entity throughout the events of "" while learning his true identity and later showing some control over it.


title: Magical creatures in Harry Potter

text: In "", it's revealed that Dumbledore's deceased sister Ariana was also an Obscurial, having been traumatized as a young girl by an attack by Muggle children who had seen her performing magic. Credence, who is revealed to be the son of Aberforth Dumbledore, can now use both his magic and Obscurial abilities, but Dumbledore reveals that Credence's own nature is slowly poisoning him to death and he can't be saved.


title: Magical creatures in Harry Potter

text: Thestrals are an elusive, carnivorous species of winged horse, visible only to those who have witnessed and embraced a death, and described as having "blank, white, shining eyes," a "dragonish face," "long, black manes," "great leathery wings," and the "skeletal body of a great, black, winged horse"; also described by Hagrid as "dead clever an' useful", and also by Harry as "reptilian". They have acquired an undeserved reputation as omens of evil. The High Inquisitor from the Ministry of Magic, Dolores Umbridge, asserted that Thestrals are considered "dangerous creatures" by the Ministry of Magic, although this might be due to her prejudice against 'half-breeds', as Hagrid is half-giant and is showing thestrals in class.


title: Magical creatures in Harry Potter

text: Thestrals have fangs and possess a well-developed sense of smell, which will lead them to carrion and fresh blood. According to Hagrid, they will not attack a human-sized target without provocation. They are capable of very fast flight for several hours at a time, though they usually spend their time on the ground; and they have an excellent sense of direction. The breed is domesticable, given a willing trainer (Hagrid suspects that he has the only domesticated herd in Britain), after which they may pull loads, and make a serviceable if uncomfortable mode of transportation (Harry rides to the Ministry of Magic by thestral in the fifth book with his friends, although half of the group are unable to actually see their means of transport).


title: Magical creatures in Harry Potter

text: Hogwarts has a herd in the nearby Forbidden Forest and primarily uses them to pull the carriages that transport students to and from the Hogsmeade train station. They are introduced to Care of Magical Creatures students in the fifth year by Hagrid in the same year that Harry becomes able to see them after witnessing the death of Cedric Diggory, some months after it occurred. Harry only sees these beasts after he sees Cedric die, yet it is stated (in both the books and the films) that he witnessed his mother die in front of him at the age of one; therefore he logically should have been able to see them throughout the entire series, or should have started seeing them at the start of the summer holidays of that year. When asked about this discrepancy, Rowling responded that when Harry saw his mother die, he was young and did not fully understand the meaning of death and what had happened. When he saw Cedric die, he fully understood what had happened, and had time to think about it before he returned to Hogwarts and saw the Thestrals for the first time.


title: Magical creatures in Harry Potter

text: Thestrals are featured attacking Death Eaters in the Battle of Hogwarts at the end of "Deathly Hallows". Rowling has since revealed that the Elder Wand has a core of Thestral hair, the only wand with such a core.


title: Magical creatures in Harry Potter

text: "Thestral", a shield bug genus, is named after Rowling's Thestrals. "" writer M.A. Larson also noted Thestrals as an inspiration for a bat-winged variant of Pegasus ponies featured rarely in the series.


title: Magical creatures in Harry Potter

text: The werewolf is a humanoid wolf-like creature that can exist only for a brief period around the full moon. At any other time, a werewolf is a normal human. However, the term werewolf is used for both the wolf-like creature and the normal human. A werewolf can be distinguished from a true wolf physically by several small distinguishing characteristics, including the eyes, claws, fangs, ears, snout, and tufted tail. A person becomes a werewolf when bitten by another werewolf in wolf-form. Once this happens, the person must learn to manage the condition. The Wolfsbane Potion controls some of the effects of the condition; by allowing the sufferer to maintain their human mind in wolf form, it prevents them from harming others. The potion tastes horrible and very few are skilled enough to brew it, and according to Lupin, the addition of sugar to the potion renders it useless and inert. Nothing discovered in the wizarding world can completely cure a werewolf. Most werewolves live outside normal society and steal food to survive. They generally support Voldemort, who they think will give them a better life, since they are shunned by the wizard community and are both feared and hated by the common witch and wizard.


title: Magical creatures in Harry Potter

text: Remus Lupin is the only known exception to this. There are only three known werewolves in the "Harry Potter" series: Lupin, Fenrir Greyback and an unnamed wizard who was in the same ward as Arthur Weasley in St Mungo's Hospital for Magical Maladies and Injuries. While Bill Weasley gets attacked by Greyback during the Battle of the Astronomy Tower in "Half-Blood Prince", he is not a werewolf. Although Bill had a number of side-effects from the attack, including a scarred face and a new love of very rare steak, he does not become a werewolf as Greyback was in human form at the time of the bite. The condition of Lycanthropy can be hereditary, but (as seen in the case of Teddy Lupin), it is not necessarily so.


title: Magical creatures in Harry Potter

text: From the third book to the sixth, Crookshanks is Hermione Granger's pet cat. Crookshanks was purchased by Hermione in a shop called Magical Menagerie in the third Harry Potter book, "Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban". Crookshanks resembles a Persian cat, and Rowling has described him as half-Kneazle, an intelligent catlike creature sensitive to dishonesty, explaining his identification of the rat 'Scabbers' as Peter Pettigrew, and of Sirius Black in his dog form. Crookshanks is seen in "Prisoner of Azkaban" talking to Padfoot in the school grounds. After his original book, he occasionally makes minor appearances to cuddle up to his owner or Harry in the Gryffindor Common Room.


title: Magical creatures in Harry Potter

text: Dobby is the Malfoy family's house-elf. He consistently refers to himself in the third person. He first appears in "Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets" to discourage Harry from returning to Hogwarts. Dobby later tries to keep Harry away from Hogwarts by magically sealing off the hidden entrance to Platform 9¾, only to be foiled when the protagonists pilot Arthur Weasley's flying Ford Anglia to school. During a Quidditch match, Dobby enchants a Bludger to chase Harry, hoping to cause him enough injury to be sent home; but the Bludger only manages to break Harry's arm. Dobby discloses that when an enslaved house-elf is presented with an article of clothing by his or her master, that house-elf is subsequently set free; and when Harry (after returning from the Chamber of Secrets) discovers that Dobby's master is Lucius Malfoy, he tricks Malfoy into setting Dobby free, a feat that secures him the house-elf's undying loyalty. He was now willing to protect Harry regardless of the cost; as he puts it, "Harry Potter set Dobby free!"


title: Magical creatures in Harry Potter

text: Dobby returns in "Goblet of Fire". Now a free elf, he obtains a paid post at Hogwarts. Dobby also quickly becomes the only house-elf who will clean the Gryffindor common room, when Hermione leaves knitted clothing half-hidden around the room in an attempt to free the elves, which they find insulting. He also helps Harry get through the second task of the Triwizard Tournament by giving him Gillyweed. Dobby later appears in "Order of the Phoenix", showing Harry the hidden Room of Requirement, which Harry uses for the secret meetings of Dumbledore's Army. When Professor Umbridge finds the meetings later, Dobby enters to warn the group. In "Half-Blood Prince" Harry entrusts Dobby to watch his compatriot Kreacher when he orders him to work in the Hogwarts kitchens with the other house-elves; and later assigns both to follow Draco Malfoy.


title: Magical creatures in Harry Potter

text: Dobby makes his last appearance in "Deathly Hallows" when Aberforth Dumbledore sends him to rescue the protagonists from Malfoy Manor after Harry asks for Aberforth's help while viewing his eye in Sirius' mirror, but in the process Dobby is killed by Bellatrix Lestrange. He is buried at Shell Cottage, beneath a headstone bearing the epitaph "Here Lies Dobby, A Free Elf".


title: Magical creatures in Harry Potter

text: Dobby's name is derived from a dobby, a creature in English folklore. This creature performs household chores and is kind to children, as is the character in the series.


title: Magical creatures in Harry Potter

text: Dobby is voiced by Toby Jones in the film adaptations of "Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets" and "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 1". IGN put Dobby as their 24th top "Harry Potter" character, with his death described as "one of the most touching moments in the series." In NextMovie.com's "Harry Potter" Mega Poll, Dobby was voted the No. 1 favourite magical creature in the series.


title: Magical creatures in Harry Potter

text: Supporters of Vladimir Putin have often accused the makers of the Harry Potter films to have deliberately modeled Dobby after the Russian president.


title: Magical creatures in Harry Potter

text: Fawkes is Albus Dumbledore's pet phoenix, a mythological bird which cyclically bursts into flame upon its death and is then reborn from the ashes. Phoenix tail feathers are suitable for inclusion in some wands (both Harry and Voldemort's wands contain a feather from Fawkes' tail, the only two he ever gave) and their tears have healing powers. Fawkes can also teleport himself and others in a burst of flame.


title: Magical creatures in Harry Potter

text: In "Chamber of Secrets", Harry's display of loyalty to Dumbledore results in his summoning Fawkes to his aid against Salazar Slytherin's basilisk in the Chamber of Secrets; whereupon Fawkes punctures the basilisk's eyes, eliminating her ability to kill with her gaze. Fawkes later uses his tears to negate the basilisk's venom; and when the basilisk is killed, conveys Harry Potter, Ron and Ginny Weasley, and Gilderoy Lockhart to their guardians. In "Goblet of Fire", during the duel between Harry and Voldemort, the "reverse spell effect" ('Priori Incantatem') occurs, as both of their wands are made of Fawkes' feathers.


title: Magical creatures in Harry Potter

text: During the confrontation between Voldemort and Dumbledore in the Ministry of Magic at the climax of "Order of the Phoenix" (book only), Fawkes saves Dumbledore's life by swallowing a Killing Curse from Voldemort; then bursts into flame and is reborn as a chick from the ashes.


title: Magical creatures in Harry Potter

text: After Dumbledore's death in "Half-Blood Prince", Fawkes is heard singing a lament, and thereafter is not seen again. In an interview, Rowling stated this was to symbolise the loss of Dumbledore. When asked why Fawkes did not return to Harry due to his loyalty to Dumbledore, Rowling stated that Fawkes was non-transferable between owners.


title: Magical creatures in Harry Potter

text: In the prequel films "" and "", Fawkes appears to Credence Barebone at the conclusion of the former film as Gellert Grindelwald reveals his true identity to him: Aurelius Dumbledore, the nephew of Albus Dumbledore. Fawkes is revealed to appear to all members of the Dumbledore family when they come of age to bow before them, retconning Rowling's statement of Fawkes being non-transferable between owners to mean non-transferable between families.


title: Magical creatures in Harry Potter

text: According to Rowling, Fawkes is named after 17th century conspirator Guy Fawkes. Ray Fearon provided vocal effects for Fawkes in the Wizarding World film series "Harry Potter" and "Fantastic Beasts", also voicing the centaur Firenze in "Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone".


title: Magical creatures in Harry Potter

text: Firenze is a centaur and, after "Order of the Phoenix", a Divination teacher at Hogwarts. He is described in the book as a palomino centaur with astonishingly blue eyes. He first appears towards the end of "Philosopher's Stone", in which he rescues Harry from Voldemort in the Forbidden Forest. Having carried Harry to safety on his back, Firenze quarrels with other centaurs who object to the symbolic suggestion that centaurs are subservient to humans.


title: Magical creatures in Harry Potter

text: The character does not make another appearance until "Order of the Phoenix", in which he is appointed by Dumbledore to teach Divination at Hogwarts in place of Sybill Trelawney, who has been sacked by Dolores Umbridge. For this, he is ostracised by his fellows. In "Half-Blood Prince", he shares teaching duties with a reinstated Trelawney.


title: Magical creatures in Harry Potter

text: In "Deathly Hallows", he is seen near the end of the book alongside the other members of the Hogwarts staff, against Voldemort and his Death Eaters; it is mentioned that he was wounded on his flanks by the Death Eaters but ultimately survived the Battle. Although not mentioned in the series, Rowling revealed that after the Battle, Firenze's herd was "forced to acknowledge that his pro-human leanings were not shameful, and allowed him to rejoin them."


title: Magical creatures in Harry Potter

text: The character is based on Steve Eddy, Rowling's former English teacher, who attempted to discourage her from writing fantasy tales. Firenze is the Italian form of Florence.


title: Magical creatures in Harry Potter

text: As for connections to other cultures and religions, Firenze’s character in the Harry Potter franchise is reminiscent of the most famous centaur in Greco-Roman mythology, and that person is Chiron. Chiron and Firenze share very similar traits, contrary to the barbaric and unfriendly image of centaurs towards humans. Just like Chiron, Firenze had a soft spot for humans unlike the other centaurs who did not want to do anything with humans. Furthermore, in the first film, Firenze saves Harry Potter from Voldemort in the Forbidden Forest. Lastly, Firenze and Chiron both share a close connection to heroes respectively, just as Firenze saved and fought for Harry Potter, Chiron helped train Achilles and Jason who are both famous Greek heroes.


title: Magical creatures in Harry Potter

text: Frank is a thunderbird that was kidnapped and trafficked to Egypt in the 1920s. In the film "Fantastic Beasts and Where To Find Them", Frank is the reason Newt went to America. After rescuing Frank from the traffickers, Newt stored Frank with his other magical creatures in his suitcase. Newt brings Frank to America in hopes of returning him to his native land of Arizona.


title: Magical creatures in Harry Potter

text: In the climax of the film, the existence of magic is revealed to the people of New York City, following a battle between American wizarding government MACUSA and an obscurial. Knowing the secrecy of wizard-kind has been compromised, Newt releases Frank from his suitcase and gives him a potion that has memory wiping properties. Because of the thunderbird's ability to generate storms, Newt says goodbye to Frank as Frank flies into the sky, creating a rainfall using the liquid from the potion, erasing the memories of all non-magical people of the event.


title: Magical creatures in Harry Potter

text: Rowling revealed in a tweet following the film's release that Frank did indeed make it back to Arizona following the events of the film.


title: Magical creatures in Harry Potter

text: Griphook is a goblin and an employee at Gringotts until the Second Wizarding War. In "Philosopher's Stone", after Hagrid presents Harry's key and Dumbledore's letter to an unnamed goblin in the Gringotts lobby, Griphook is called to escort Harry and Hagrid through the underground rail-system to Harry's vault, and afterwards to Vault 713 to retrieve the "Philosopher's Stone". He is not heard of again until "Deathly Hallows", when the Snatchers holding him captive also capture Harry, Ron, and Hermione. When Hermione lies under torture to Bellatrix Lestrange that the sword of Gryffindor is a fake, Bellatrix asks Griphook for confirmation, which she receives. He is saved, along with Harry, Ron, and Hermione, by Dobby and successfully escapes to Shell Cottage. Because Harry needs to take a Horcrux from Bellatrix's vault, Griphook reluctantly agrees to help them break into Gringotts, in exchange for the sword of Gryffindor; but when escaping, Griphook betrays them to the other goblins and escapes with the sword. His fate is left unknown in the book, but in the film he is shown dead during the aftermath at Gringotts, and Gryffindor's sword vanishes before Voldemort can see it. In spite of Griphook's insistence that the sword belongs to the goblins, the sword reappears when Neville Longbottom pulls it from the Sorting Hat and beheads Nagini.


title: Magical creatures in Harry Potter

text: The late Verne Troyer appeared as Griphook in the film adaptation of "Philosopher's Stone" with Warwick Davis providing his voice and the latter fully portrayed him in the "Deathly Hallows" films.


title: Magical creatures in Harry Potter

text: Hedwig is Harry's snowy owl, given to him in "Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone" as an eleventh birthday present by Rubeus Hagrid, who purchases the owl in Diagon Alley at the Eeylops Owl Emporium. Harry gives her this name after reading it in a book on the history of magic. Hedwig is used for delivering messages throughout the series, and also serves as a companion to Harry, especially when he is unable to interact with other wizards. It is implied throughout the books that Hedwig can fully understand Harry's speech. In the fifth book, "Order of the Phoenix", Hedwig is intercepted by Dolores Umbridge and is hurt, but is later healed by Professor Grubbly-Plank. In the seventh book, "The Deathly Hallows", Hedwig is killed by a curse from a Death Eater; in the film version, she is killed defending Harry from the Death Eater. According to Rowling, Hedwig's death represents the loss of Harry's innocence.


title: Magical creatures in Harry Potter

text: Although the character of Hedwig is female, she is played on film by male owls (female snowy owls have dark patches of plumage, while only the males are completely white). John Williams' composition which serves as title music for the entire film series is named "Hedwig's Theme".


title: Magical creatures in Harry Potter

text: Hokey is a house-elf who works for Hepzibah Smith, an old woman deceived by Tom Riddle into showing him Slytherin's locket and Hufflepuff's cup, which he uses as two of his Horcruxes. Hokey's memory allows Harry and Dumbledore a glimpse of the visit Voldemort makes two days before Hepzibah Smith is poisoned and both treasures disappear; whereafter Riddle, who magically tampers with Hokey's memories, frames Hokey for Hepzibah's murder. She does not deny the accusation and is convicted for accidental murder.


title: Magical creatures in Harry Potter

text: Kreacher is a house-elf who has served the House of Black for generations and whose name is a play on the word "creature". Kreacher first appears in "Order of the Phoenix" as an unwilling servant to Sirius Black. Kreacher disdains Sirius, mainly due to his devotion to his former masters (Regulus Black in particular), whose pure-blood values Sirius has rejected. Sirius also treats him harshly because the elf is a living reminder of a home to which he earlier had no intention of returning. Knowing too much of the Order of the Phoenix's activity, Kreacher is not allowed to leave Grimmauld Place. Kreacher has lived alone in the house for years with only the screaming portrait of Mrs. Black for company. Despite obeying Sirius, he is insolent and rude, insulting in undertones all present whom he refers to as ""Blood traitors, Mudbloods and scum"". Hermione comments on this: "I don't think he realises we can hear him."


title: Magical creatures in Harry Potter

text: Kreacher desires to leave Sirius and serve his next of kin, Bellatrix Lestrange and the Malfoys. He betrays Sirius and persuades Harry to go to the Department of Mysteries, where a trap has been laid. Sirius is killed by Bellatrix in the ensuing combat, while trying to save Harry. Following Sirius' death, Harry inherits all of Sirius' possessions, including a highly unwilling Kreacher. Harry immediately orders him to work at Hogwarts, where he comes to blows with Dobby about his lack of loyalty to Harry.


title: Magical creatures in Harry Potter

text: In "Deathly Hallows", Harry and his friends coax from the house-elf the current whereabouts of Salazar Slytherin's Locket, a Gaunt family heirloom and one of Lord Voldemort's Horcruxes; whereafter Harry sends Kreacher to retrieve the locket from Mundungus Fletcher and gives him its substitute as a token of remembrance (referring to Regulus Black, who alone treated Kreacher with respect). Thereafter Kreacher appears cleaner and happier, restores the house to pristine condition, and begins to treat Harry and his friends with courtesy and respect. When Grimmauld Place is infiltrated by Death Eaters, Harry decides against calling the elf back to them, fearing possible betrayal. In the Battle of Hogwarts, Kreacher rallies the Hogwarts house-elves against the Death Eaters, calling Harry his "master and defender of house elves". It is implied that he survived the battle, as Harry wonders 'whether Kreacher will bring him a sandwich' after his battle with Voldemort.


title: Magical creatures in Harry Potter

text: Kreacher appears in the film version of "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix", voiced by Timothy Bateson. Producers admitted they had wished to cut the character from the film, but when Rowling was consulted, she advised: "You know, I wouldn't do that if I were you. Or you can, but if you get to make a seventh film, you'll be tied in knots." In "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 1", Kreacher is voiced by Simon McBurney, as Bateson had died.


title: Magical creatures in Harry Potter

text: Nagini is Voldemort's huge familiar snake, introduced in "Goblet of Fire". According to Indian mythology, the name Nagini means a female serpent that occasionally takes human form. Voldemort made Nagini his final Horcrux by murdering a muggle tramp when he was hiding in the forests of Albania. Due to this connection, Voldemort has complete control over the snake, Dumbledore mentions in "Half-Blood Prince".


title: Magical creatures in Harry Potter

text: Voldemort is able to communicate with Nagini due to his ability to speak Parseltongue, the language of snakes. Nagini is first sighted when the snake alerts Voldemort to the presence of an eavesdropping Frank Bryce, an old gardener who had worked for the Riddle family. During the fourth year Harry spends at Hogwarts, Voldemort's temporary body is sustained by Nagini's venom, harvested by Peter Pettigrew. In "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix", Harry assumes Nagini's viewpoint during her attack on Arthur Weasley in one of his dreams; Albus Dumbledore believes this an effect of Harry's special connection to Voldemort, with Harry's witnessing the attack by virtue that Voldemort's mind "happened to be" in Nagini at the time. This is the first indication of Nagini and Voldemort's deeper connection, having the ability to share thoughts and connect with Harry.


title: Magical creatures in Harry Potter

text: In "Deathly Hallows", Nagini consumes Charity Burbage, a Hogwarts Muggle Studies professor, after the Killing Curse is used on her. Nagini is later placed inside the corpse of Bathilda Bagshot by Voldemort, to enable a surprise assault on Harry when he visits Godric's Hollow. Because some snakes (pit vipers, boas and pythons) can sense heat and movement in a way humans cannot, Nagini is able to detect Harry and Hermione even when they are under the Cloak of Invisibility. After discovering that Harry is searching for his Horcruxes, Voldemort places Nagini into a protective magical cage to prevent her from being killed, but uses her to kill Severus Snape by expanding the cage over him. When Harry is apparently killed by Voldemort, Nagini is released from the protective enchantment and is draped around Voldemort's shoulders during the Death Eaters' victory march back to Hogwarts. This allows Neville Longbottom to behead Nagini, using Godric Gryffindor's sword. In the film, Nagini is instead protected by a force field and participates in the final battle as opposed to dying before it began; her fate is ultimately the same as in the book.


title: Magical creatures in Harry Potter

text: The prequel film "" features Nagini in 1927 France as a woman portrayed by Claudia Kim, kept as an attraction in the Circus Arcanus by its ringmaster, Skender, before running off with Credence to help him find his birth mother. The film reveals that she is a type of person known as a Maledictus whose blood curse will permanently transform her into an animal.


title: Magical creatures in Harry Potter

text: Peeves is a poltergeist who causes trouble in Hogwarts and is therefore often pursued by the sole caretaker at the school, Argus Filch. He is capable of flight and can choose whether to be tangible; and is able to manipulate objects, a trait not generally possible with ghosts, but common among poltergeists. Peeves' existence is essentially the embodiment of disorder, which he is observed to constantly cause. In appearance, he is a small man with a mischievous face and a wide mouth, dressed in vibrantly coloured clothing. He derives joy from disaster and mischievous acts, usually causing disruptions to daily activity.


title: Magical creatures in Harry Potter

text: Peeves only listens to a select few: Dumbledore; the Bloody Baron; in the second book Nearly Headless Nick; and in the fifth book, Fred and George Weasley. Filch, who is usually left with cleaning up the mess and damage that Peeves causes, tries repeatedly to remove him; however, Rowling has stated in an interview that not even Dumbledore would be able to rid Hogwarts of Peeves forever. Peeves is vulnerable to some magic; in "Prisoner of Azkaban", Professor Lupin uses magic to teach Peeves a lesson by making the gum Peeves was stuffing into a keyhole enter the poltergeist's nose. In "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince", Harry uses magic to attach Peeves' tongue to the roof of his mouth, after which Peeves angrily departs.


title: Magical creatures in Harry Potter

text: During Dolores Umbridge's attempts to take control of Hogwarts in "Order of the Phoenix", Peeves, along with many of the non-Slytherin students, begins a concerted campaign of practical jokes and pranks at the Weasley twins' request, in order to make Umbridge's time at Hogwarts as unpleasant as possible, a task Peeves undertakes with tremendous glee. When Umbridge attempts to sneak out of Hogwarts, Peeves chases her out, whacking her with Minerva McGonagall's cane (which she lent to him expressly for that purpose) and a sock full of chalk. Many of the other professors also resent her presence and either turn a blind eye to what is done to Umbridge at the hands of Peeves and the students, or occasionally even providing a small measure of assistance. Peeves is twice depicted at the conclusion of "Deathly Hallows": initially attacking Death Eaters with vicious plants and subsequently singing a victory song for Harry.


title: Magical creatures in Harry Potter

text: It is indicated that Peeves was still at Hogwarts at the time of the epilogue, since Harry tells his son Albus Severus not to "mess with Peeves".


title: Magical creatures in Harry Potter

text: Rik Mayall was cast as Peeves for the film adaptation of "Philosopher's Stone", but his scenes were cut from the final film and do not appear in the deleted scenes section of the DVD release. He had not been made aware that his scenes had been cut until the full film was officially unveiled at the premiere. Peeves was subsequently omitted from the "Harry Potter" films that followed, though he can be seen in the video games.


title: Magical creatures in Harry Potter

text: Winky is the Crouch family's house elf, described as having enormous brown eyes and a large, round, soft nose. She views herself as a dutiful servant and guards the family's many secrets. When Barty Crouch Jr is rescued from Azkaban by his dying mother, he is supervised and nursed back to health by Winky. In "Goblet of Fire", she persuades Barty Crouch Sr to let his son attend the Quidditch World Cup; she attends it with the younger Crouch, who is hiding under an Invisibility Cloak, and claims the apparently empty seat beside her is being saved for Crouch Sr. During the festivities, Crouch Jr steals Harry's wand from his pocket and later uses it to conjure the Dark Mark, in spite of Winky's attempts to stop him. In the resulting chaos, Harry and his friends see Winky running into the forest, struggling as she tries to restrain the invisible Crouch Jr. Later she is caught by Amos Diggory with Harry's wand, which is established through a "priori incantatem" to have been the wand used to conjure the Dark Mark; though Crouch Sr. realises what happened, he agrees with the apparent conclusion that Winky conjured the mark, and fires her on the spot, both to save face and as punishment for her failure to control Crouch Jr. Following her dismissal, Dobby takes the distraught Winky to work with him at Hogwarts. There the unhappy Winky, retaining her loyalty to Crouch, becomes an alcoholic until the final book, and eventually fights in the Battle of Hogwarts with the other house-elves.


title: Magical creatures in Harry Potter

text: Over the course of the series, Hagrid cares for a large number of animals, many of them dangerous, including Aragog (a giant talking spider or 'Acromantula'), Buckbeak (Hippogriff), Fang (boarhound), Fluffy (Three-Headed Dog), Norbert (Norwegian Ridgeback Dragon; later revealed by Charlie Weasley to actually be female and renamed Norberta), and Tenebrus (Thestral). Hagrid's love for animals gets him the teaching job for Care of Magical Creatures at Hogwarts beginning in "Prisoner of Azkaban", following the retirement of the course's previous instructor. In their fourth year, Harry and his classmates take care of Hagrid's Blast-Ended Skrewts (a crustacean-like predator), one of which (grown to giant size) is placed in the hedge maze for the final task of the Triwizard Tournament. Although its exoskeleton can repel spells, Harry is able to pass it unhurt. They also have lessons on Nifflers, Unicorns, Fire salamanders and Flobberworms.


title: Robert Davi

text: Robert John Davi (born 1953) is an American actor, singer and filmmaker. Over the course of his acting career, Davi has performed in more than 130 films. Among his most known roles are opera-singing heavy Jake Fratelli in "The Goonies" (1985), Vietnam veteran and FBI Special Agent Johnson in "Die Hard" (1988), James Bond villain Franz Sanchez in "Licence to Kill" (1989), police deputy chief Phil Heinemann in "Predator 2" (1990) and strip club manager Al Torres in "Showgirls" (1995). On television, he portrayed FBI Special Agent Bailey Malone in the NBC television series "Profiler" (1996–2000).


title: Robert Davi

text: Classically trained as a singer, Davi launched his professional singing career in 2011. His first album, "Davi Sings Sinatra – On The Road To Romance", hit No. 6 on the "Billboard" jazz charts. Praised for his voice and vocal interpretations, Davi debuted as a headliner at The Venetian Las Vegas, six months after the record was released.


title: Robert Davi

text: In 2016, Davi replaced the late Jerry Doyle as radio host for a nationally syndicated radio program on Talk Radio Network.


title: Robert Davi

text: Davi was born in 1953, in Astoria, Queens, New York, the son of Maria () and Sal Davi. His mother was an Italian American whose family came from Nusco, Avellino, Campania and his father was from Torretta, Palermo, Sicily.


title: Robert Davi

text: Davi spoke Italian during his childhood. He attended Seton Hall, a Roman Catholic high school in Patchogue, New York. He has two sisters, Yvonne Davi (deceased), and Mrs. Michelle Queal. He graduated from Hofstra University, which he attended because of that university's strong drama department as well as its unique reproduction of Shakespeare's Globe Theater. Davi also studied with legendary acting coach Stella Adler when he moved to Manhattan.


title: Robert Davi

text: Davi made his motion picture debut in "Contract On Cherry Street", in which he shared the screen with Frank Sinatra. He subsequently worked with Marlon Brando, Clint Eastwood, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Benicio del Toro, Bruce Willis, and Roberto Benigni, among others. He has appeared in movies including "The Goonies", "Die Hard", "Showgirls", "Son of the Pink Panther", and in the Bond film "Licence to Kill" (1989) as the villain Franz Sanchez, a South American drug lord and murderer. In 2014, Davi appeared as Goran Vata in "The Expendables 3".


title: Robert Davi

text: In 2015, Davi appeared in a music video for Bob Dylan's recording of "The Night They Called It A Day", from Dylan's album "Shadows In The Night", a selection of songs which had been recorded by Frank Sinatra. "Rolling Stone" suggested that Davi's role in the video may be a nod towards Davi's having made his acting debut alongside Sinatra in the crime film "Contract on Cherry Street", and Davi's release of his own album of Sinatra covers.


title: Robert Davi

text: In 2015, he interpreted Gabriele Tinti's poetry giving voice to the Boxer at Rest at the Getty Museum.


title: Robert Davi

text: In 2007, Davi made his directorial debut with "The Dukes", a parable regarding the mid-2000 economic crisis and its impact. The film starred himself, Chazz Palminteri, and Peter Bogdanovich. "The Dukes" was selected for the premiere section at the Rome Film Festival, along with films by Francis Ford Coppola, Sean Penn, Robert Redford, and Sidney Lumet. Davi was the only first-time director in the premiere section. The film was screened internationally and won awards at Queens International Film Festival, , Monte-Carlo Comedy Film Festival, and .


title: Robert Davi

text: In high school, Davi was praised for his singing, and auditioned for the Metropolitan Opera after being awarded first place at the prestigious New York State School Music Association's Solo Competition, where he sang Vincent Youman's "Without A Song". He subsequently received classical training with top vocal teachers, Samuel Margolis and Danial Ferro of Juilliard and Tito Gobbi. Davi damaged his voice, and later explained that he was a baritone with the "heart of a tenor and had pushed too hard, too early."


title: Robert Davi

text: Davi began to focus again on singing in 2011, and worked with "Voice Builder" Gary Catona as he prepared to record his first album.


title: Robert Davi

text: With a thirty-piece orchestra, he recorded the album at the legendary Capitol Records Building in Hollywood, where Frank Sinatra recorded on many occasions.


title: Robert Davi

text: The album, which featured new arrangements by composer Nic. tenBroek, was produced by Phil Ramone, engineered by Dan Wallin, and mixed by the legendary Al Schmitt. The album, "Davi Sings Sinatra -- On The Road To Romance", was released October 24, 2011, and received significant attention from the media, garnering positive reviews. "Jazztimes" called "Davi Sings Sinatra" "uniformly impressive", and critic Don Heckman wrote in the "Orange County Register" that "there are, of course, dozens of Sinatra imitators and simulators. But what Davi does is a whole different matter. A tribute? Yes, indeed; all that and more." AllMusic noted that "Davi makes no attempt to copy Sinatra's vocal sound ... Rather, he is his own singer." The album reached the Top 10 on the "Billboard" jazz charts.


title: Robert Davi

text: In December 2012, Davi appeared along with Roger Cicero in the French/German Arte TV program "Durch die Nacht mit …" The episode was shot in the Little Italy area of New York City and featured conversation between Cicero and Davi and solos of Sinatra standards by both performers. In December 2013, Davi released a Christmas single, "Mistletoe and Holly", with all proceeds benefiting The Salvation Army.


title: Robert Davi

text: Davi has lent his voice to political ads, including Carly Fiorina's "Demon Sheep" attack ad, "Hot Air: The Movie", and others produced by Republican media consultant Fred Davis.


title: Robert Davi

text: Robert Davi was chosen by the United Nations to celebrate the Transformative Power of Music at the General Assembly in New York, in June 2015 – and again for the 70th Anniversary Celebration of the UN in September 2015.


title: Robert Davi

text: Davi was chosen to tribute Sinatra's 100th birthday for the July 4 PBS special; it was watched by 500,000 people outside the Capitol Building in DC and 15 million viewers.


title: Robert Davi

text: Davi has been married four times having been divorced three times. His first marriage was to Jan Borenstein, the marriage lasted from 1970 to 1980. His second marriage was to Jeri McBride which lasted from 1980 to 1990, they had one son, Sean Christian Davi who was born in 1981. His third marriage was to Christine Bolster which lasted from 1990 to 2019. They have four children together, their first daughter, Ariana Marie Davi who was born on April 3, 1990, followed by a second daughter, Frances Davi who was born in 1992. They also had twins, their third daughter, Isabella and one son, Nicolas Edward Davi who were born on January 11, 2001. Davi married his fourth wife Diana Davi in 2019 and they have a daughter, Gabriela Nicole Davi who was born later that year.


title: Robert Davi

text: He is an outspoken political conservative, often speaking at Republican Party gatherings. He has been invited to comment on numerous political shows and backed John McCain during his presidential campaign. He narrated several film montages that aired during the 2008 Republican National Convention. Davi has spoken at numerous Conservative Political Action Conferences in Washington, D.C. He was a frequent guest on Fox News's late-night satire program "Red Eye w/ Greg Gutfeld". Davi endorsed Donald Trump in the 2016 U.S. presidential election, and again in 2020.


title: Robert Davi

text: For his notable contributions to the Italian community, Davi was enshrined in Toronto's Italian Walk of Fame in 2013.


title: Robert Davi

text: He was nominated for a Golden Raspberry Award for Worst Supporting Actor for his portrayal of Al Torres in "Showgirls" (1995).


title: Salad

text: A salad is a dish consisting of mixed, mostly natural ingredients with at least one raw ingredient. They are typically served at room temperature or chilled, though some can be served warm. Condiments and salad dressings, which exist in a variety of flavors, are often used to enhance a salad.


title: Salad

text: Garden salads use a base of leafy greens such as lettuce, arugula/rocket, kale or spinach; they are common enough that the word "salad" alone often refers specifically to garden salads. Other types include bean salad, tuna salad, bread salad (e.g. fattoush, panzanella), vegetable salads without leafy greens (e.g. Greek salad, potato salad, coleslaw), sōmen salad (a noodle-based salad), fruit salad, and desserts like jello salad.


title: Salad

text: When a sauce is used to flavor a salad, it is generally called a salad dressing; most salad dressings are based on either a mixture of oil and vinegar or a creamy dairy base.


title: Salad

text: The word "salad" comes to English from the French "salade" of the same meaning, itself an abbreviated form of the earlier Vulgar Latin "herba salata" (salted herb), from the Latin "salata" (salted), from "sal" (salt). In English, the word first appears as "salad" or "sallet" in the 14th century. Salt is associated with salad because vegetables were seasoned with brine (a solution of salt in water) or salty oil-and-vinegar dressings during Roman times.


title: Salad

text: The phrase "salad days", meaning a "time of youthful inexperience" (based on the notion of "green"), is first recorded by Shakespeare in 1606, while the use of salad bar, referring to a buffet-style serving of salad ingredients, first appeared in American English in 1937.


title: Salad

text: The Romans, ancient Greeks, Persians and Indians ate mixed greens with dressing, a type of mixed salad. Salads, including layered and dressed salads, have been popular in Europe since the Greek and Roman imperial expansions. In his 1699 book, "Acetaria: A Discourse on Sallets", John Evelyn attempted with little success to encourage his fellow Britons to eat fresh salad greens. Mary, Queen of Scots, ate boiled celery root over greens covered with creamy mustard dressing, truffles, chervil, and slices of hard-boiled eggs.


title: Salad

text: Oil used on salads can be found in the 17th-century colony of New Netherland (later called New York, New Jersey and Delaware). A list of common items arriving on ships and their designated prices when appraising cargo included "a can of salad oil at 1.10 florins" and "an anker of wine vinegar at 16 florins". In a 1665 letter to the Director of New Netherland from the Island of Curaçao there is a request to send greens: "I request most amicably that your honors be pleased to send me seed of every sort, such as cabbage, carrots, lettuce, parsley, etc. for none can be acquired here and I know that your honor has plenty...".


title: Salad

text: Salads may be sold in supermarkets, at restaurants and at fast food chains. In the United States, restaurants will often have a salad bar with salad-making ingredients, which the customers will use to put together their salad. Salad restaurants were earning more than $300 million in 2014. At-home salad consumption in the 2010s was rising but moving away from fresh-chopped lettuce and toward bagged greens and salad kits, with bag sales expected to reach $7 billion per year.


title: Salad

text: A salad can be a composed salad (with the ingredients specifically arranged on the serving dish) or a tossed salad (with the ingredients placed in a bowl and mixed, often with salad dressing). An antipasto plate, the first dish of a formal Italian meal, is similar to a composed salad, and has vegetables, cheese, and meat.


title: Salad

text: A green salad, or green leaf salad, another name for garden salad, is most often composed of leafy vegetables such as lettuce varieties, spinach, or rocket (arugula). If non-greens make up a large portion of the salad it may instead be called a vegetable salad. Common raw vegetables (in the culinary sense) used in a salad include cucumbers, peppers, tomatoes, onions, carrots, celery, radishes, mushrooms, avocado, olives, artichoke hearts, heart of palm, watercress, parsley, garden beets, and green beans. Nuts, berries, seeds, lentils, and flowers are less common components. Hard-boiled eggs, bacon, shrimp, and cheeses may be used as garnishes, but large amounts of animal-based foods would be more likely in a dinner salad.


title: Salad

text: A wedge salad is a green salad made from a head of lettuce (often iceberg), halved or quartered, with other ingredients on top.


title: Salad

text: Bound salads are assembled with thick sauces such as mayonnaise. One portion of a bound salad will hold its shape when placed on a plate with a scoop. Examples of bound salad include tuna salad, chicken salad, egg salad, coleslaw, and potato salad. Some bound salads are used as sandwich fillings. Some pasta salads, e.g. macaroni salad, are bound salads. They are popular at picnics and barbecues.


title: Salad

text: Main course salads (known as dinner salads or as entrée salads in the United States) may contain small pieces of poultry, seafood, or steak. Caesar salad, chef salad, Cobb salad, Chinese chicken salad, Michigan salad, and Pittsburgh salad are dinner salads.


title: Salad

text: A wide variety of cheeses are used in dinner salads, including Roquefort blue cheese (traditional for a Cobb salad), and Swiss, Cheddar, Jack, and Provolone (for chef and Cobb salads).


title: Salad

text: Fruit salads are made of fruit (in the culinary sense), which may be fresh or canned. Examples include fruit cocktail.


title: Salad

text: Dessert salads rarely include leafy greens and are often sweet. Common variants are made with gelatin or whipped cream; e.g. jello salad, pistachio salad, and ambrosia. Other forms of dessert salads include regional dishes such as Midwestern America's ambrosia-like glorified rice and cookie salad, which contains crumbled cookies as an ingredient.


title: Adan Canto

text: Adan Canto (born December 5, 1981) is a Mexican actor. He is known for his role as Sunspot in the 2014 superhero film "". On television, Canto played Paul Torres on the Fox drama series "The Following", and in 2015 starred as AJ Menendez in the ABC prime-time series "Blood & Oil". Canto played real-life politician Rodrigo Lara Bonilla in acclaimed Netflix drama series "Narcos". He is also well known for his role as Aaron Shore in the Netflix political drama "Designated Survivor" starring alongside Kiefer Sutherland. Canto wrote and directed his first short film "Before Tomorrow" in 2014. He is also one of the starring characters in the romance film "2 Hearts". His short film "The Shot" earned several festival awards for Best Narrative Short Film in 2020.


title: Adan Canto

text: Adán Canto was born in Ciudad Acuña, Coahuila, Mexico to parents José-Luis Narváez, a dentist, and Marlyn Canto-Narváez, a homemaker and singer. Born and raised in Mexico, Canto crossed the border daily as a child to attend an American Catholic school in Del Rio, Texas. He grew up riding horses at his grandfather's ranch in Acuña where his father was a charro. With the encouragement of his mother, Canto began performing on stage as a singer at the age of 7. He was introduced to the traditional boleros and mariachi music from a young age and performed in and around his home state through his teenage years.


title: Adan Canto

text: Canto left home at the age of 16 to pursue a career as a musician. He had success as a singer/songwriter in San Antonio after collaborating with Studio M. He spent five years working as a musician in Mexico City where he performed as lead singer for the jazz band "Del Canto". Canto wrote for and produced several songs for film and TV in Mexico. Canto began acting in a handful of commercials in Mexico City and was soon cast in a television series called "Estado de Gracia". Canto eventually turned to the stage after being cast as a lead in the adaptation of Pedro Almodóvar's "All About My Mother".


title: Adan Canto

text: In 2013, Canto made his debut on American television, playing the role of Paul Torres on the Fox drama series, "The Following" during its first season. He later was cast as Sunspot in the 2014 superhero film "". Also in 2014, Canto was regular cast member in the ABC comedy series, "Mixology". He later co-starred in the Amazon pilot "Hysteria", and NBC's "The Curse of the Fuentes Women". In 2015, Canto was cast as AJ Menendez in ABC prime time series, "Blood & Oil". He later had the recurring role in Fox drama series, "Second Chance", and guest-starred on ShondaLand's "The Catch".


title: Adan Canto

text: In 2016, Canto was cast in the ABC political drama series, "Designated Survivor", playing White House Deputy Chief of Staff, and later Chief of Staff Aaron Shore opposite Kiefer Sutherland, Natascha McElhone, and Maggie Q. The show was renewed by Netflix for a third season which was released on June 7, 2019.


title: Adan Canto

text: In 2019, Canto was cast opposite Halle Berry in her highly anticipated directorial debut film "Bruised".


title: Adan Canto

text: Canto started his production company Canto House Pictures in 2013 and directed his first short film "Before Tomorrow" in 2014. Canto's most recent short film "The Shot", a period drama set in 1844 Texas, earned several festival awards for Best Narrative Short Film in 2020. Canto is currently developing projects for film and TV through his production company based in Los Angeles, California.


title: Adan Canto

text: In March 2020, Canto was cast in a main role of mobster Arman Morales for the FOX series "The Cleaning Lady".


title: Adan Canto

text: Canto met sculptor and painter Stephanie Lindquist in 2012 while filming "The Following" in Brooklyn, New York.


title: Adan Canto

text: The two married in June 2017. They continue to collaborate on film and television projects and currently live in the Hollywood Hills. They had their first child in 2020, and their second in 2022.


title: Operant conditioning

text: Operant conditioning, also called instrumental conditioning, is a learning process where behaviors are modified through the association of stimuli with reinforcement or punishment. In it, operants—behaviors that affect one's environment—are conditioned to occur or not occur depending on the environmental consequences of the behavior.


title: Operant conditioning

text: Operant conditioning originated in the work of Edward Thorndike, whose law of effect theorised that behaviors arise as a result of whether their consequences are satisfying or discomforting. In the 20th century, operant conditioning was studied by behaviorist psychologists, who believed that much, if not all, of mind and behaviour can be explained as a result of envirionmental conditioning. Reinforcements are environmental stimuli that increase behaviors, whereas punishments are stimuli that decrease behaviors. Both kinds of stimuli can be further categorised into positive and negative stimuli, which respectively involve the addition or removal of environmental stimuli.


title: Operant conditioning

text: Operant conditioning differs from classical conditioning, which is a process where stimuli are paired with biologically significant events to produce involuntary and reflexive behaviors. In contrast, operant conditioning is voluntary and depends on the consequences of a behavior.


title: Operant conditioning

text: The study of animal learning in the 20th century was dominated by the analysis of these two sorts of learning, and they are still at the core of behavior analysis. They have also been applied to the study of social psychology, helping to clarify certain phenomena such as the false consensus effect.


title: Operant conditioning

text: Operant conditioning, sometimes called "instrumental learning", was first extensively studied by Edward L. Thorndike (1874–1949), who observed the behavior of cats trying to escape from home-made puzzle boxes. A cat could escape from the box by a simple response such as pulling a cord or pushing a pole, but when first constrained, the cats took a long time to get out. With repeated trials ineffective responses occurred less frequently and successful responses occurred more frequently, so the cats escaped more and more quickly. Thorndike generalized this finding in his law of effect, which states that behaviors followed by satisfying consequences tend to be repeated and those that produce unpleasant consequences are less likely to be repeated. In short, some consequences "strengthen" behavior and some consequences "weaken" behavior. By plotting escape time against trial number Thorndike produced the first known animal learning curves through this procedure.


title: Operant conditioning

text: Humans appear to learn many simple behaviors through the sort of process studied by Thorndike, now called operant conditioning. That is, responses are retained when they lead to a successful outcome and discarded when they do not, or when they produce aversive effects. This usually happens without being planned by any "teacher", but operant conditioning has been used by parents in teaching their children for thousands of years.


title: Operant conditioning

text: B.F. Skinner (1904–1990) is referred to as the Father of operant conditioning, and his work is frequently cited in connection with this topic. His 1938 book "The Behavior of Organisms: An Experimental Analysis", initiated his lifelong study of operant conditioning and its application to human and animal behavior. Following the ideas of Ernst Mach, Skinner rejected Thorndike's reference to unobservable mental states such as satisfaction, building his analysis on observable behavior and its equally observable consequences.


title: Operant conditioning

text: Skinner believed that classical conditioning was too simplistic to be used to describe something as complex as human behavior. Operant conditioning, in his opinion, better described human behavior as it examined causes and effects of intentional behavior.


title: Operant conditioning

text: To implement his empirical approach, Skinner invented the operant conditioning chamber, or ""Skinner Box"", in which subjects such as pigeons and rats were isolated and could be exposed to carefully controlled stimuli. Unlike Thorndike's puzzle box, this arrangement allowed the subject to make one or two simple, repeatable responses, and the rate of such responses became Skinner's primary behavioral measure. Another invention, the cumulative recorder, produced a graphical record from which these response rates could be estimated. These records were the primary data that Skinner and his colleagues used to explore the effects on response rate of various reinforcement schedules. A reinforcement schedule may be defined as "any procedure that delivers reinforcement to an organism according to some well-defined rule". The effects of schedules became, in turn, the basic findings from which Skinner developed his account of operant conditioning. He also drew on many less formal observations of human and animal behavior.


title: Operant conditioning

text: Many of Skinner's writings are devoted to the application of operant conditioning to human behavior. In 1948 he published "Walden Two", a fictional account of a peaceful, happy, productive community organized around his conditioning principles. In 1957, Skinner published "Verbal Behavior", which extended the principles of operant conditioning to language, a form of human behavior that had previously been analyzed quite differently by linguists and others. Skinner defined new functional relationships such as "mands" and "tacts" to capture some essentials of language, but he introduced no new principles, treating verbal behavior like any other behavior controlled by its consequences, which included the reactions of the speaker's audience.


title: Operant conditioning

text: Operant behavior is said to be "emitted"; that is, initially it is not elicited by any particular stimulus. Thus one may ask why it happens in the first place. The answer to this question is like Darwin's answer to the question of the origin of a "new" bodily structure, namely, variation and selection. Similarly, the behavior of an individual varies from moment to moment, in such aspects as the specific motions involved, the amount of force applied, or the timing of the response. Variations that lead to reinforcement are strengthened, and if reinforcement is consistent, the behavior tends to remain stable. However, behavioral variability can itself be altered through the manipulation of certain variables.


title: Operant conditioning

text: Reinforcement and punishment are the core tools through which operant behavior is modified. These terms are defined by their effect on behavior. Either may be positive or negative.


title: Operant conditioning

text: It is important to note that actors (e.g. a rat) are not spoken of as being reinforced, punished, or extinguished; it is the "actions" that are reinforced, punished, or extinguished. Reinforcement, punishment, and extinction are not terms whose use is restricted to the laboratory. Naturally-occurring consequences can also reinforce, punish, or extinguish behavior and are not always planned or delivered on purpose.


title: Operant conditioning

text: Schedules of reinforcement are rules that control the delivery of reinforcement. The rules specify either the time that reinforcement is to be made available, or the number of responses to be made, or both. Many rules are possible, but the following are the most basic and commonly used


title: Operant conditioning

text: Most of these factors serve biological functions. For example, the process of satiation helps the organism maintain a stable internal environment (homeostasis). When an organism has been deprived of sugar, for example, the taste of sugar is an effective reinforcer. When the organism's blood sugar reaches or exceeds an optimum level the taste of sugar becomes less effective or even aversive.


title: Operant conditioning

text: Shaping is a conditioning method much used in animal training and in teaching nonverbal humans. It depends on operant variability and reinforcement, as described above. The trainer starts by identifying the desired final (or "target") behavior. Next, the trainer chooses a behavior that the animal or person already emits with some probability. The form of this behavior is then gradually changed across successive trials by reinforcing behaviors that approximate the target behavior more and more closely. When the target behavior is finally emitted, it may be strengthened and maintained by the use of a schedule of reinforcement.


title: Operant conditioning

text: Noncontingent reinforcement is the delivery of reinforcing stimuli regardless of the organism's behavior. Noncontingent reinforcement may be used in an attempt to reduce an undesired target behavior by reinforcing multiple alternative responses while extinguishing the target response. As no measured behavior is identified as being strengthened, there is controversy surrounding the use of the term noncontingent "reinforcement".


title: Operant conditioning

text: Though initially operant behavior is emitted without an identified reference to a particular stimulus, during operant conditioning operants come under the control of stimuli that are present when behavior is reinforced. Such stimuli are called "discriminative stimuli." A so-called "three-term contingency" is the result. That is, discriminative stimuli set the occasion for responses that produce reward or punishment. Example: a rat may be trained to press a lever only when a light comes on; a dog rushes to the kitchen when it hears the rattle of his/her food bag; a child reaches for candy when s/he sees it on a table.


title: Operant conditioning

text: Most behavior cannot easily be described in terms of individual responses reinforced one by one. The scope of operant analysis is expanded through the idea of behavioral chains, which are sequences of responses bound together by the three-term contingencies defined above. Chaining is based on the fact, experimentally demonstrated, that a discriminative stimulus not only sets the occasion for subsequent behavior, but it can also reinforce a behavior that precedes it. That is, a discriminative stimulus is also a "conditioned reinforcer". For example, the light that sets the occasion for lever pressing may be used to reinforce "turning around" in the presence of a noise. This results in the sequence "noise – turn-around – light – press lever – food". Much longer chains can be built by adding more stimuli and responses.


title: Operant conditioning

text: In escape learning, a behavior terminates an (aversive) stimulus. For example, shielding one's eyes from sunlight terminates the (aversive) stimulation of bright light in one's eyes. (This is an example of negative reinforcement, defined above.) Behavior that is maintained by preventing a stimulus is called "avoidance," as, for example, putting on sun glasses before going outdoors. Avoidance behavior raises the so-called "avoidance paradox", for, it may be asked, how can the non-occurrence of a stimulus serve as a reinforcer? This question is addressed by several theories of avoidance (see below).


title: Operant conditioning

text: Two kinds of experimental settings are commonly used: discriminated and free-operant avoidance learning.


title: Operant conditioning

text: A discriminated avoidance experiment involves a series of trials in which a neutral stimulus such as a light is followed by an aversive stimulus such as a shock. After the neutral stimulus appears an operant response such as a lever press prevents or terminate the aversive stimulus. In early trials, the subject does not make the response until the aversive stimulus has come on, so these early trials are called "escape" trials. As learning progresses, the subject begins to respond during the neutral stimulus and thus prevents the aversive stimulus from occurring. Such trials are called "avoidance trials." This experiment is said to involve classical conditioning because a neutral CS (conditioned stimulus) is paired with the aversive US (unconditioned stimulus); this idea underlies the two-factor theory of avoidance learning described below.


title: Operant conditioning

text: In free-operant avoidance a subject periodically receives an aversive stimulus (often an electric shock) unless an operant response is made; the response delays the onset of the shock. In this situation, unlike discriminated avoidance, no prior stimulus signals the shock. Two crucial time intervals determine the rate of avoidance learning. This first is the S-S (shock-shock) interval. This is time between successive shocks in the absence of a response. The second interval is the R-S (response-shock) interval. This specifies the time by which an operant response delays the onset of the next shock. Note that each time the subject performs the operant response, the R-S interval without shock begins anew.


title: Operant conditioning

text: This theory was originally proposed in order to explain discriminated avoidance learning, in which an organism learns to avoid an aversive stimulus by escaping from a signal for that stimulus. Two processes are involved: classical conditioning of the signal followed by operant conditioning of the escape response:


title: Operant conditioning

text: a) "Classical conditioning of fear." Initially the organism experiences the pairing of a CS with an aversive US. The theory assumes that this pairing creates an association between the CS and the US through classical conditioning and, because of the aversive nature of the US, the CS comes to elicit a conditioned emotional reaction (CER) – "fear." b) "Reinforcement of the operant response by fear-reduction." As a result of the first process, the CS now signals fear; this unpleasant emotional reaction serves to motivate operant responses, and responses that terminate the CS are reinforced by fear termination. Note that the theory does not say that the organism "avoids" the US in the sense of anticipating it, but rather that the organism "escapes" an aversive internal state that is caused by the CS.


title: Operant conditioning

text: Several experimental findings seem to run counter to two-factor theory. For example, avoidance behavior often extinguishes very slowly even when the initial CS-US pairing never occurs again, so the fear response might be expected to extinguish (see Classical conditioning). Further, animals that have learned to avoid often show little evidence of fear, suggesting that escape from fear is not necessary to maintain avoidance behavior.


title: Operant conditioning

text: Some theorists suggest that avoidance behavior may simply be a special case of operant behavior maintained by its consequences. In this view the idea of "consequences" is expanded to include sensitivity to a pattern of events. Thus, in avoidance, the consequence of a response is a reduction in the rate of aversive stimulation. Indeed, experimental evidence suggests that a "missed shock" is detected as a stimulus, and can act as a reinforcer. Cognitive theories of avoidance take this idea a step farther. For example, a rat comes to "expect" shock if it fails to press a lever and to "expect no shock" if it presses it, and avoidance behavior is strengthened if these expectancies are confirmed.


title: Operant conditioning

text: Operant hoarding refers to the observation that rats reinforced in a certain way may allow food pellets to accumulate in a food tray instead of retrieving those pellets. In this procedure, retrieval of the pellets always instituted a one-minute period of extinction during which no additional food pellets were available but those that had been accumulated earlier could be consumed. This finding appears to contradict the usual finding that rats behave impulsively in situations in which there is a choice between a smaller food object right away and a larger food object after some delay. See schedules of reinforcement.


title: Operant conditioning

text: The first scientific studies identifying neurons that responded in ways that suggested they encode for conditioned stimuli came from work by Mahlon deLong and by R.T. Richardson. They showed that nucleus basalis neurons, which release acetylcholine broadly throughout the cerebral cortex, are activated shortly after a conditioned stimulus, or after a primary reward if no conditioned stimulus exists. These neurons are equally active for positive and negative reinforcers, and have been shown to be related to neuroplasticity in many cortical regions. Evidence also exists that dopamine is activated at similar times. There is considerable evidence that dopamine participates in both reinforcement and aversive learning. Dopamine pathways project much more densely onto frontal cortex regions. Cholinergic projections, in contrast, are dense even in the posterior cortical regions like the primary visual cortex. A study of patients with Parkinson's disease, a condition attributed to the insufficient action of dopamine, further illustrates the role of dopamine in positive reinforcement. It showed that while off their medication, patients learned more readily with aversive consequences than with positive reinforcement. Patients who were on their medication showed the opposite to be the case, positive reinforcement proving to be the more effective form of learning when dopamine activity is high.


title: Operant conditioning

text: A neurochemical process involving dopamine has been suggested to underlie reinforcement. When an organism experiences a reinforcing stimulus, dopamine pathways in the brain are activated. This network of pathways "releases a short pulse of dopamine onto many dendrites, thus broadcasting a global reinforcement signal to postsynaptic neurons." This allows recently activated synapses to increase their sensitivity to efferent (conducting outward) signals, thus increasing the probability of occurrence for the recent responses that preceded the reinforcement. These responses are, statistically, the most likely to have been the behavior responsible for successfully achieving reinforcement. But when the application of reinforcement is either less immediate or less contingent (less consistent), the ability of dopamine to act upon the appropriate synapses is reduced.


title: Operant conditioning

text: A number of observations seem to show that operant behavior can be established without reinforcement in the sense defined above. Most cited is the phenomenon of autoshaping (sometimes called "sign tracking"), in which a stimulus is repeatedly followed by reinforcement, and in consequence the animal begins to respond to the stimulus. For example, a response key is lighted and then food is presented. When this is repeated a few times a pigeon subject begins to peck the key even though food comes whether the bird pecks or not. Similarly, rats begin to handle small objects, such as a lever, when food is presented nearby. Strikingly, pigeons and rats persist in this behavior even when pecking the key or pressing the lever leads to less food (omission training). Another apparent operant behavior that appears without reinforcement is contrafreeloading.


title: Operant conditioning

text: These observations and others appear to contradict the law of effect, and they have prompted some researchers to propose new conceptualizations of operant reinforcement (e.g.) A more general view is that autoshaping is an instance of classical conditioning; the autoshaping procedure has, in fact, become one of the most common ways to measure classical conditioning. In this view, many behaviors can be influenced by both classical contingencies (stimulus-response) and operant contingencies (response-reinforcement), and the experimenter's task is to work out how these interact.


title: Operant conditioning

text: Reinforcement and punishment are ubiquitous in human social interactions, and a great many applications of operant principles have been suggested and implemented. The following are some examples.


title: Operant conditioning

text: Positive and negative reinforcement play central roles in the development and maintenance of addiction and drug dependence. An addictive drug is intrinsically rewarding; that is, it functions as a primary positive reinforcer of drug use. The brain's reward system assigns it incentive salience (i.e., it is "wanted" or "desired"), so as an addiction develops, deprivation of the drug leads to craving. In addition, stimuli associated with drug use – e.g., the sight of a syringe, and the location of use – become associated with the intense reinforcement induced by the drug. These previously neutral stimuli acquire several properties: their appearance can induce craving, and they can become conditioned positive reinforcers of continued use. Thus, if an addicted individual encounters one of these drug cues, a craving for the associated drug may reappear. For example, anti-drug agencies previously used posters with images of drug paraphernalia as an attempt to show the dangers of drug use. However, such posters are no longer used because of the effects of incentive salience in causing relapse upon sight of the stimuli illustrated in the posters.


title: Operant conditioning

text: In drug dependent individuals, negative reinforcement occurs when a drug is self-administered in order to alleviate or "escape" the symptoms of physical dependence (e.g., tremors and sweating) and/or psychological dependence (e.g., anhedonia, restlessness, irritability, and anxiety) that arise during the state of drug withdrawal.


title: Operant conditioning

text: Animal trainers and pet owners were applying the principles and practices of operant conditioning long before these ideas were named and studied, and animal training still provides one of the clearest and most convincing examples of operant control. Of the concepts and procedures described in this article, a few of the most salient are the following:


title: Operant conditioning

text: (b) the use of secondary reinforcement, (e.g. sounding a clicker immediately after a desired response, then giving yummy);


title: Operant conditioning

text: (c) contingency, assuring that reinforcement (e.g. the clicker) follows the desired behavior and not something else;


title: Operant conditioning

text: (e) intermittent reinforcement, as in gradually reducing the frequency of reinforcement to induce persistent behavior without satiation;


title: Operant conditioning

text: Animal training has effects on positive reinforcement and negative reinforcement. Schedules of reinforcements may play a big role on the animal training case.


title: Operant conditioning

text: Applied behavior analysis is the discipline initiated by B. F. Skinner that applies the principles of conditioning to the modification of socially significant human behavior. It uses the basic concepts of conditioning theory, including conditioned stimulus (S), discriminative stimulus (S), response (R), and reinforcing stimulus (S or S for reinforcers, sometimes S for aversive stimuli). A conditioned stimulus controls behaviors developed through respondent (classical) conditioning, such as emotional reactions. The other three terms combine to form Skinner's "three-term contingency": a discriminative stimulus sets the occasion for responses that lead to reinforcement. Researchers have found the following protocol to be effective when they use the tools of operant conditioning to modify human behavior:


title: Operant conditioning

text: Practitioners of applied behavior analysis (ABA) bring these procedures, and many variations and developments of them, to bear on a variety of socially significant behaviors and issues. In many cases, practitioners use operant techniques to develop constructive, socially acceptable behaviors to replace aberrant behaviors. The techniques of ABA have been effectively applied in to such things as early intensive behavioral interventions for children with an autism spectrum disorder (ASD) research on the principles influencing criminal behavior, HIV prevention, conservation of natural resources, education, gerontology, health and exercise, industrial safety, language acquisition, littering, medical procedures, parenting, psychotherapy, seatbelt use, severe mental disorders, sports, substance abuse, phobias, pediatric feeding disorders, and zoo management and care of animals. Some of these applications are among those described below.


title: Operant conditioning

text: Providing positive reinforcement for appropriate child behaviors is a major focus of parent management training. Typically, parents learn to reward appropriate behavior through social rewards (such as praise, smiles, and hugs) as well as concrete rewards (such as stickers or points towards a larger reward as part of an incentive system created collaboratively with the child). In addition, parents learn to select simple behaviors as an initial focus and reward each of the small steps that their child achieves towards reaching a larger goal (this concept is called "successive approximations").


title: Operant conditioning

text: Both psychologists and economists have become interested in applying operant concepts and findings to the behavior of humans in the marketplace. An example