Ugh! Just lost my detailed post. Here goes again...
and that is what I call abusive........
Charlie, we ALL read/interpret others words in our own way, based on our own experiences & attitudes. That is entirely reasonable. Especially on internet forums where we only have the written word to go on, misunderstandings are rife. We need to keep all that in mind & be careful not to judge, to accuse, based on our interpretation which may be far from the facts of the matter. When not ultra sure, ultra clear, I always try to assume the best of people, not the worst. Not that I always succeed, but I do think it's an important principle for good, respectful forum discussions ;-)
Now, before I go on, having studied behavioural psych, this is a subject I'm passionate about, so I'm going to... go on!
I appreciate what I say may seem purely semantics to some, but I feel that if we're going to use behavioural terminology and theory, it's important to understand the proper meanings & effects. And I don't think it's just about semantics, but that it does also help us to
USE those principles more effectively in training too.
So without further ado...
My horses get positive reinforcement all the time as well as negative. Positive reinforcement comes when they do something good that I am asking of them. Usually in the form of a release of pressure. A hug or pat is... that's nothing. A horse's number one reward is a release of pressure.
Release/removal of pressure is NOT +R but is *negative* reinforcement. It's common for people to think of positive = Good & negative = Bad. But in this context they mean addition or subtraction. The '4 quadrants' of training are;
Positive Reinforcement(+R) =
Adding something DESIRABLE in order to
strengthen a behaviour. Eg giving a treat or scratchie etc at the time of a good behaviour.
Negative Reinforcement(-R) =
Removing something UNDESIRABLE in order to
strengthen a behaviour. Eg removing leg or rein pressure at the time of a good behaviour.
Positive Punishment(+P) =
Adding something UNDESIRABLE in order to
weaken a behaviour. Eg giving a smack, touching an electric fence.
Negative Punishment(-P) =
Removing something DESIRABLE in order to
weaken a behaviour. Eg removing feed, putting a child into 'time out', losing your license for speeding.
It's important to understand the pros & cons of these 'quadrants' to understand how to use them fairly & most effectively. Eg...
- any of these things can be associated with other behaviours/attitudes/emotions going on at the time, so for eg. you can inadvertently +R nippy or 'rude' behaviour if you're not careful;
- negative reinforcement implies something unpleasant (albeit often mildly) must be going on, for it to be reinforcing for it to be removed, so it can effectively mean +P is also involved;
- positive punishment can be misunderstood, cause fear, resentment, etc. Also when it(or -R) is overused, or used without also +R, the 'side effects' are generally greater.
- negative punishment can work great for humans, who have the capacity to understand abstracted cause & effects, but generally has little if any value for other animals, to whom it difficult/impossible for them to understand because it is not instantaneous enough.
Take pawing in the cross ties. If I have a horse doing it I'll stick close by and every time they go for it I give them a firm smack on the shoulder along with a verbal sound.
Soon they learn that the sound equates a tap, and the sound works by itself.
This is a good eg. of how to teach an animal to respond to an innately meaningless cue. It's important to understand that these sounds, actions, whatever, aren't reinforcing or punishing of themselves, but by association gain meaning. The above eg. is of a 'secondary punisher'. While praise, or a clicker is an eg. of a 'secondary (+)reinforcer', aka
'bridging signal', telling the horse an actual positive reinforcement is coming/likely/deserved.
Slapping/patting and hugging a horse around the neck are more egs of things that horses don't generally find pleasant, desirable, and very often find quite UNpleasant - so of themselves they can actually be a punisher. But they too can be made meaningful by associating them well with actual reinforcement - a treat, release of pressure, etc.