Tag: operant conditioning

Posted on

What’s in a word?

What is in a word?

Take learning theory and peoples interpretations, some say release of pressure is a reward some say it is a relief at best.

What is certain is that in operant conditioning terms it is negative reinforcement, therefore for the release/relief to happen there has to be an aversive stimulus applied first. Once the animal complies with our request the stimulus is removed.

So it may be leg aids – use and remove as soon as the horse complies, it may be ground work – apply an aversive stimulus to form a behaviour e.g teaching a horse to back up. Often people teach back up using a light touch on the chest – getting firmer until the horse backs, the pressure is removed on the slightest of movements.

I don’t wish to argue about various methods of horsemanship – it is a personal choice but the more I learn about the emotions involved the more I wish to use positive reinforcement as much as possible.

We do live in a world where most people use aversive stimuli to form behaviours, so our horses need to understand other peoples cues.

Dictionary defintions:

Reinforcement – The action or process of reinforcing or strengthening; The process of encouraging or establishing a belief or pattern of behaviour

Stimuli – A thing that arouses activity or energy in someone or something; a spur or incentive; A thing or event that evokes a specific functional reaction in an organ or tissue

Reward – A thing given in recognition of service, effort, or achievement; A fair return for good or bad behaviour:

Relief – A feeling of reassurance and relaxation following release from anxiety or distress; The alleviation of pain, discomfort, or distress

Release – Allow or enable to escape from confinement; set free: Allow (something) to move, act, or flow freely; Remove restrictions or obligations from (someone or something) so that they become available for other activity: Allow (something) to return to its resting position by ceasing to put pressure on it:

Aversive – Someone or something that arouses a strong dislike or disinclination.

References
http://www.oxforddictionaries.com

http://www.equitationscience.com/aversive-stimuli – some are challenging the notion that horses are not safe unless we use negative reinforcement.

Connection Training
Academy of Positive Horsemanship

Read and decide, which would you prefer for yourself? Also worth looking at the emotions involved in negative versus positive reinforcement.

http://www.thehorse.com/articles/33927/study-human-interaction-shapes-horses-negative-emotions

Jaak Panksepp describes the 7 basic emotional systems all mammals exhibit.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3181986/

Posted on

Tolerance

Tolerance
1.
“a fair, objective, and permissive attitude toward those whose opinions, differ from one’s own.” online dictionary definition.

Whilst my understanding of how animals learn gets deeper I find it really difficult to be tolerant with some aspects of horse training.

People who don’t understand the reasons for how a horse learns have some excuse for using techniques that may cause the horse distress. However there are people who understand operant and classical conditioning but still deliberately train horses using aversive stimuli.

Some say horses can’t be trained any other way – but why is that? All other animals on the planet can be trained using appetitives rather than aversive stimuli.

Take trailer loading – I hear people say make the outside of the trailer more uncomfortable than the inside. Why not turn it round and make the inside of the trailer more appetitive than the outside?

We can alter how the horse feels about anything using systematic desensitisation and counter conditioning.

This is not to say we must all be “fluffy bunny huggers” and let the horse do exactly what he wants without due regard for our and his safety.

We can train safety using positive reinforcement just as well, if not better, than if we use negative reinforcement.

Given a choice what would your horse choose – the relief from something he doesn’t like or a reward of something he likes.

It is the horse who decides what is aversive and what is appetitive.

Anytime you train and trigger a flight response (fear response) then you have used an aversive stimulus. I hear people say we don’t train with fear but how do you get a horse to do something he finds innately frightening, if you don’t use positive reinforcement? You add a more aversive stimulus than the stimulus of the frightening thing. How can that be good for the horses emotional wellbeing?

If you know please tell me!

The next module in Jo Hughes’ course is on affective neuroscience – how animals express emotions.

I am also going to a lecture by Jaak Panksepp in April – really looking forward to learning more.

Jack Panksepp has done a lot to help people understand emotions, and many have come to accept animals as sentient beings.

P.S I still use some negative reinforcement, as I ride other peoples horses, but it does not feel right to me to tap a horse with a whip or to use spurs.
Conventional aids can be taught using postive reinforcement.
The world is changing, as we know more about how animals feel and learn.

Posted on

Out of the comfort zone.

Interesting post from a friend today on Facebook about how her “How Animals Learn” course and posts made some people feel uncomfortable. Why? We need this information so we can make informed choices, life is never just black or white.
We are all learning all the time, the more information we have the better able we are to assess the horse and what he/she needs with regards to training and general care.
If the theory behind how animals learn is uncomfortable then it may be due to misunderstanding, misinterpretation or even misleading ways we have been taught in the past.
We all use learning theory in our everyday life without even knowing we do so, but when someones explains why it works that can makes us really think about what we do and why.

If I praise someone for a job well done or remove toys from my child to punish a behaviour I don’t want reinforcing, it all uses quadrants of operant conditioning. Whether it is viewed as reinforcing or punishment is up to the individual concerned. If my child didn’t want the toys anyway it may not be punishing but can be neutral or reinforcing so they misbehave again.

Take time to read and learn about how our horses, dogs, cats, children learn, it does make life a lot easier as we can pick the type of learning appropriate for each individual.

Posted on

New books

I received books about clicker training for Christmas – Alexandra Kurland’s Clicker Training for your Horse is excellent. Lots of sensible advice on using all quadrants of operant conditioning.
There is usually more than one solution to a problem, so the more tools we have in our tool box the better we are able to solve problems. Whether this is positive or negative reinforcement, or redirecting or counter conditioning we can decide what the best way is for our particular animal.
As my daughter has just acquired a foal all this information will be very useful. Many chapters are on foal and young horse handling.
So now after a festive family Christmas I will be off to the field to do more target training. Also I won’t chastise myself for using a little light negative reinforcement – using tactile cues e.g leg aids. What I don’t like is the escalation of pressure to elict behaviour, we now know there is a better way.