Abc's Of Positive Training. Miriam Fields-Babineau
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Название: Abc's Of Positive Training
Автор: Miriam Fields-Babineau
Издательство: Ingram
Жанр: Биология
Серия: Positive Training
isbn: 9781593789541
isbn:
In order to fully understand operant conditioning, you’ll need to understand how the Skinner Box worked. The box is fully enclosed, with a lever or lighted button on one end, a hopper containing food and nothing else other than a grated floor to stand upon. The subject is an animal such as a rodent, pigeon or primate. The animal is placed in the box and allowed to do as it wishes while inside. A trainer peers into the box via a window and has a finger upon a trigger that releases a food reward.
When food is released, most of the subjects go directly to the hopper and eat the food. If not, the subject will clean itself or walk around, eventually getting to the food and eating it. It quickly learns the food-source location and will remain nearby to obtain more. As it does so, the trainer triggers the release of more food. Each successive reward is given as the subject gets closer to the hopper. Then the subject is required to present a specific behavior to obtain the food reward, such as touching the lever or lighted button. The trainer aims the food release at each successive behavior response that gets the subject nearer to the target (lever/button). As the subject becomes conditioned to touching the target to receive his reward, he will increase his targeting responses accordingly, going directly to the target, touching/pressing and receiving the reward. This process is called shaping. The trainer is shaping the behavior through reinforcing each increment of the overall desired response.
Focused intently on the trainer, these dogs have been conditioned to sit for rewards.
Targeting is the first step in positive dog training.
In summary, Skinner stated that positively reinforced behavior will recur and that information should be presented in small amounts to shape the responses. He also noted that reinforcement will generalize with similar stimuli and produce secondary conditioning, which means that the learning curve will improve with each successively learned behavior.
Now that you’re acquainted with the basic principles of operant conditioning, let’s explore how it translates into training our canine companions.
The first people to use operant conditioning outside of the laboratory environment were Keller and Marian Breland. They were students of B. F. Skinner during the 1940s. During this time, they used operant conditioning on dogs. Keller Breland was the first to train marine mammals during the 1950s and, soon after, marine park shows were born, such as those at Marineland and Sea World. Operant conditioning is used to this day to deliver to audiences the spectacular dolphin and whale performances seen at amusement parks.
Animal trainers have taken operant conditioning to a more advanced level, pairing it with classical conditioning. Think Pavlov’s dog: a bell is rung, which signals food, thus causing the dog to salivate. The dog has learned that the sound brings a food reward. The release of the food reward is preceded by a bridging signal which can be either a light, a buzzer or a clicking sound. The dog learns that a correct response brings the bridge, which signals that the food is sure to come. This allows a trainer to shape multiple behaviors quickly. Here are a few examples of positive reinforcement:
• A dog gets a biscuit for going potty outside;
• You get paid for doing a job;
• A child gets to go to the amusement park for earning good grades;
• A dog receives petting when he jumps up on a person;
• You receive a raise for a job well done.
Marine-mammal trainers use a whistle to bridge the correct behavior.
Marine mammals respond well to visual cues.
When a dog jumps up, it’s best to not let him get his paws on you at all, as this contact serves as a reward for him.
These examples are all primary reinforcers. A primary reinforcer is a reward that the receiver doesn’t have to learn to like. There are also secondary reinforcers. These are actions that the receiver does have to learn to like. Examples are:
• Releasing a tight leash when the dog stops pulling;
• A child is no longer yelled at when his room has been cleaned;
• A cow is no longer shocked (with an electric cattle prod) as long as it keeps moving forward.
Both primary and secondary reinforcers are utilized in animal training as well as in our own everyday lives.
A term with which you should be familiar is “schedules of reinforcement.” There are several types of schedules of reinforcement:
• A fixed interval: a reward will be given after a fixed amount of time; for example, every two minutes or every ten minutes;
• A variable interval: a reward will be given but the receiver has no control over when;
• A fixed ratio: a reward will be given after a specific number of correct responses;
• A variable ratio: a reward is given when the greater number of correct responses occurs within a specific set of stimuli;
• A random interval: there is no correlation between the number of correct responses and the receipt of the reward.
Another term with which you should familiarize yourself is “extinction.” This is when a behavior has not been reinforced, thereby fading from the repertoire. This is a good means of getting rid of a behavior without having to use punishment, which in itself might encourage a behavior if it is the only means of obtaining attention. An example of this is yelling at a dog for barking, which encourages the behavior by the owner’s taking part in the “game.” Another example is pushing at the dog for jumping up. The dog is being touched, thereby receiving reinforcement. To extinguish these behaviors (barking and jumping up), they would need to be ignored. Granted, it’s difficult to ignore either of them, but the dog’s learning that the behaviors no longer bring him pleasure of any kind will eventually extinguish the behaviors.
Skinner defined four possible ways to modify a behavior: positive reinforcement, negative reinforcement, positive punishment and negative punishment. Reinforcement is the use or removal of a stimulus to increase the occurrence of a behavior. Punishment is the use or removal of a stimulus to decrease the occurrence of a behavior.
Your reaction to a behavior will tell the dog whether or not to continue the behavior. Let’s say that your dog is digging in the trash. To him, the reward is getting something to eat, so he will repeat СКАЧАТЬ