Week #5 - Don't Shoot the Dog (Ch 4 - Due Thursday)

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For this homework please read don't shoot the dog. Make a mind map of what you just read. Next visit with your textbook and look up what it has to say about the material you just read. Add to your mind map. Please use different colors for the don't shoot the dog and the text parts of the mind map se we can see where that particular material comes from. If it comes from both you can indicate with some coding system of your choosing. You have a good deal of creative license on how you want to personalize your map.

When you are done:

1) Discuss what you read in the reader. Think about what you learned from the reader. What were the main points the author was trying to make? What were some examples she used? What was the most interesting part of the chapter - etc.?  Don't simply answer these questions; these are just some things to ask yourself before you start writing. I am pretty open to what you write about.

2) Discuss what you read in your text. How did the author of your text book go about addressing the related material? What did you find out about the topic that wasn't covered in the reader? What did you find interesting that was presented in the text? How difficult was it to find the related material in the text? Again don't specifically answer these questions, just use them as a way to think about the material. Feel free to experiment with your own style.

3) After you have had a chance to think about the material - what parts do you think you will remember and what parts do you think might fade from memory sooner.

4) Make a list of the terms and terminology you used in this post.

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1. Chapter 4 of the reader discussed how to use reinforcement to get rid of a behavior you don’t want. This chapter had a lot of information. Pryor discusses eight different methods 4 using positive reinforcement and 4 using negative reinforcement. The four negative methods were; “shoot the animal”, punishment, negative reinforcement, and extinction. The four positive methods were train an incompatible behavior, put the behavior on a cue, shape the absence, and change the motivation. Pryor then goes through each method and gives the same example throughout so it’s easy to understand the difference between the methods. I followed what she had to say about noisy kids in the car and different ways to fix the problem of a high noise level.
Method one “shoot the animal” showed making the kids walk home, take the bus, or get someone else to drive them. The examples showed that totally getting rid of the situation is the way to handle the noise level. Method two, punishment would have been to yell at the kids, threaten them or even smack them. Method three, Negative reinforcement showed ignoring the behavior in a way. Pulling over on the side of the road and reading a book. This way the kids will be quiet and you don’t have to add to the noise by yelling at them. Method four, Extinction explained noise as a normal part of driving a car full of kids. Ignore the noise and they will get tired of it and be quiet. Method five, train an incompatible behavior explains singing songs, playing games, etc. to change the environment so it’s not prone to the aversive behavior. Method six, putting the behavior on cue is what we read about last week. Put the noise making on stimulus control and never present the cue. The aversive behavior won’t come up. Method seven, shape the absence of the behavior. This example was to wait for a quiet period and quickly reinforce the kids with a treat of some kind, shaping the good behavior. Method eight, change the motivation explains to set the environment for positive behaviors. You can think ahead for a car full of kids by providing snacks, pillows, and games to fill their time. I think Method seven and eight would be most effective with children. If parents can plan ahead and set an environment up for positive behavior they can set the stress level low and enjoy the trip more. If the noise level were to get to high quickly reinforce the target behavior of being quiet to get them back on track.

2. The text talks a lot about reinforcement especially schedules of reinforcement in chapter five. The chapter explains continuous reinforcement, ratio, fixed and variable ratio, fixed and variable interval. Continuous reinforcement is when a behavior is reinforced every time the behavior is presented. The book gave the example that every time a pigeon picked a key it was given food. Fixed ratio is when the pigeon would have to press the key a certain number of times before the food was presented and the number wouldn’t change. Variable ratio is when the number of pecks from the pigeon differs. It might press 7 times and then be reinforced. The next time it might peck fifteen times. Fixed interval isn’t based on the number of pecks but by the amount of time that as passed. So the pigeon could peck 20 times but it wouldn’t receive food until a certain time period had passed. Variable interval then is when the time between reinforcement still changes but is based on an average time.
I personally think that a fixed ratio is the best method of reinforcement. The participant knows exactly what they have to do in order to receive the reinforcement and it doesn’t change. With the interval schedules the participant could lose interest and give up on the reinforcement. There is also the chance that the reinforcement could be given to often and lose its meaning.

3. I will definitely remember the theories of the methods given in the reader and the difference between fixed and interval schedules of reinforcement. I’m not sure if I will remember all of the methods from the reader because there was a lot of information given. I really liked how the reader gave multiple examples that continued through all of the methods, which made it easier to see the differences between methods.

4. Positive reinforcement, negative reinforcement, extinction, punishment, cue, shape, motivation, aversive behavior, environment, schedule of reinforcement, fixed ratio, variable ratio, fixed interval, and variable interval.

The past chapters of Pryor's book have all been about how to get a certain behavior to occur or how to strengthen the occurance of it. This chapter was a bit different and focused on how to get a certain behavior to end. We all have behaviors that we wish we could stop or things that we wish others wouldn't do. This chapter explained 8 different methods to get this to occur.
1. Change the motivation. This sounds simple enough and she gave a good example of it in the book. She talked about how when she was younger she used to love to chew gum but when she heard girls that chew gum look cheap, she decided that was more important. She changed her motivation from the effect of chewing gum to the hope of not looking "cheap". An even greater example was the child and mother in the store. A child is often depicted as having tantrums in the store. Wanted candy or wanting snack and this is in part because they are hungry. If they were fed beforehand a tantrum could be avoided. This has changed the childs motivation.
2. Extinction. When a certain behavior is not reinforced for extended periods of time it will often extinguish itself. With this one you just have to be careful that you are removing the actual reinforcement. Ignoring only works if reinforcement was some form of attention. Otherwise this will not cause the behavior to end.
3.Incompatible behavior. One easy way to end one behavior is to "replace" it with another one that cannot occur at the same time. I think this one is my favorite because it is one of the quickest ideas to come to mind. One example would be if a child is causing a problem in one room, give them a project to do in another. This may not permanantly solve the problem, but it does temporarily eliminate the unwanted behavior.
4. Behavior on cue. This is when you condition the behavior to only happen when you have it under stimulus control. This way the behavior only happens when you give the cue for it, but the catch is you don't give the cue. Unless of course you want the behavior to occur. The example she gave in the book was of a dolphin who sank to the bottom of the tank when she would offer goggles. She put the sinking behavior on cue.
5. Shape absence. You reinforce anything that is not the unwanted behavior. This one is simple and to the point. Unless it is a problem for you, reinforce it. This way behaviors that aren't reinforced will erode themselves out.
6. "shoot the animal". This one is my least favorite and I find it to be one that should only be a last resort method. One personal example was when we had to put my lab Coby down. We did not have room to keep him at our house. (He got too big and we already have one lab.) We decided to put him out on my grandpa's farm and hoped he would do well out there. Soon he began chassing llamas and we ran out of options and so we had put im down. Safe to say the lllamas no longer had trouble.
7. Negative reinforcement. This is a very common method and it is rather effective. A very small and simple example she gave is a kid and parent in grocery store. The child is screaming and so the parent gives the child what it wants. Although this does not "cure" the problem, it takes away the negative stimulus. And so the parent is negatively reinforced.
8. Punishment. Final method and should not be used if possible. It has been shown to be overall highly uneffective.

The book discusses extinction rather well. It is similar to how Pryor explains it. If there is not driving force or result of a behavior, it will stop. The energy it takes will not be worth it if the animal is getting nothing in return. The text also discusses motivation. Although it is said by some not to be included in discussion of behavior, it does have its role. When you are conditioning an animal, it is given a form of motivation. It is motivated to get that praise, food, or whatever reinforcement it will be given.
Negative reinforcement is also discussed briefly. According to the book it is very common. We are negatively reinforced all day. When you sleep at night you move or turn on your side to avoid the uncomfortable feeling of the position you were in. When something is too loud you turn it down to take away the pain you experience from the sound.

I would have to say that I will remember all eight of these methods as well as why they work as well as they do. My favorite will always be the incompatible behavior. I think the reason I will remember it all is because a lot of it is made up of things I already knew. Many of these things are methods we use all the time without realizing it. If anything, reading this will just make me remember them that much better.

terms: Negative reinforcement, punishment, cue, extinction, shape, incompatible behavior, motivation, stimulus.

Karen Pryor’s fifth chapter focuses on how to get rid of an undesired behavior. She begins the chapter by listing the eight methods of terminating a behavior: capital punishment, regular punishment, negative reinforcement, extinction, training an incompatible behavior, putting the behavior on cue, reinforcing behaviors excluding the undesired behavior, and changing the motivation. She then goes into detail about each method and the positives and negatives of its use. The first four methods are called the “bad fairies” due to the fact that they use negative methods and the second four are called the “good fairies” for each uses positive reinforcement to shape behavior.

Method one, “shoot the animal”, physically blocks the person/animal from being able to perform the behavior. This can include things such as firing an employee, divorcing a spouse, putting a dog in a kennel, or something even as severe as execution of criminals. It often teaches the subject nothing but stops the behavior for the time being, if not permanently.

Method two, “punishment”, is described as humanities favorite method. It includes scolding a child/animal, yelling, threatening, etc. It also does not teach the subject anything and often, when the punishment occurs, the subject does not know what behavior it is actually being punished for. Punishment simply reinforces the punisher when the behavior halts, causing the punisher to use this method again and again in the future.

Method three, “negative reinforcement”, is any unpleasant even or stimulus that can be halted by changing one’s behavior. Examples for this are stepping out of the rain to avoid getting wet or shifting in a chair when the position becomes uncomfortable. Often negative reinforcement can be confused with punishment, depending on the severity of the conditions used. Negative reinforcement has been found to be an efficient way to shape a behavior in numerous situations.

Method four, “extinction”, involves simply ignoring a behavior until it goes away. An example for this includes ignoring a whining child until they quiet. Not all behaviors will simply go away with time making extinction an unreliable method.

Method five, “train an incompatible behavior”, is the first of the “good fairies”. It is described as training the subject to perform another behavior that is physically incompatible with the one you don’t want. You may not fully extinguish the first behavior but, by reinforcing the desired behavior, you keep the subject from performing the undesired behavior.

Method six, “put the behavior on cue”, involves putting the undesired behavior on stimulus control and then never performing the cue for the behavior. For example, when a dog barks constantly you can train the dog to bark on command by giving it a treat for barking each time you say “speak”. When the behavior is associated with the cue, the dog will never bark without the command because it won’t receive a reward for it.

Method seven, “shape the absence of the behavior”, this involves simply rewarding the subject for anything that is not the undesired behavior. For example, if you hate writing thank-you notes you can reward yourself with a treat when the thank-you note has been written and is off the agenda of things-to-do.

Method eight, “change the motivation”, is described as the nicest and most effective method. It involves discovering the reason for the undesired behavior and changing the attitude about it to make it appear to be a negative behavior in the mind of the subject performing it.

The book mentions many of the methods that Pryor uses in her book. Great detail is give about extinction but, in the book, it is described as “withholding reinforcement for a previously reinforced response” whereas Pryor never mentions the initial reinforcement that created the negative behavior. The book also gives much attention to negative reinforcement and its effects in shaping behavior, saying that it has much of the same outcome as positive reinforcement. Stimulus control and punishment are also mentioned and given similar definitions as that of Pryor’s.

Overall, I believe that I will remember much about the methods that Pryor explained when it comes to terminating an unwanted behavior. I never thought of capital punishment as a way to shaping behavior and, as said in the book, it truly does not teach the subject anything at all and is often a very harsh punishment. Changing the motivation is a very rewarding method in my mind and is something that I see used often in athletes and students all the time. Personally, I feel that “shaping the absence of the behavior” is something that I use often in my life for schoolwork with the fact that I will reward myself for finishing an assignment and being able to move away from my studies for the night.

Terminology: behavior, negative reinforcement, positive reinforcement, stimulus control, extinction, cue, motivation, punishment, shaping behavior.

1) Chapter 4 talked about untraining a behavior using reinforcement. There were 8 methods in which she went into detail about:
Shoot the animal-this always works, it is severe, it teaches nothing, but its the most practical solution

Punishment- This is humanity's favorite method, the subject learns nothing

Negative Reinforcement- it can shape the behavior, there can be a reciprocal responsem and there can be a spontaneous response

Extinction- This is when you ignore a behavior and it eventaully diminishes. You do not reinforce the back behavior what so ever

Train an incompatible behavior- this creates a diversion and/or distraction from the behavior. An example pryor used is if you want the dog to stop hounding at the table for food scraps at dinner time, you can train the dog to lay down in the kitchen doorway during eating times.

Put the behavior on cue- this was confusing for me. Pryor gave an example of when she wanted to blind fold a dolphin to see if it could find objects in the water based on sound. The dolphin didn't care for the suction cups, so when she would pull them out, the dolphin would sink to the bottom to hide. So she then blew the whistle, signaling that the dolphin was going to get a fish. When she did this, the dolphin didn't mind wearing the blind fold.

Shape the absence- this is when you reward the subject when the behavior is absent. For exmaple, if your dog barks at night, you could reinforce it when it is not barking outside, either during the day or night.

Change the motivation- this is the most effective method. Some behaviors are self-reinforcing (ex. it has a fear for the end result). Sometimes the motive consists of a need for reassurance. This is a good method for a smoker. They may have a fear of getting cancer or dying, so they reinforce themselves to quit. They may need support from others in this process to keep them motivated not to smoke.

2)The book discusses in detail about extinction and negative reinforcement and its effects in shaping behavior. It also mentions about punishment and motivation. It was weird because it talked about an equation for motivation. I didn't understand that. I found in the text about behavioral economices. This is the use of basic economic concepts and principles to analyze, predict, and control bhgevaior in choice situations. This relates to the smoking example earlier.


3) I will definately remember the 8 methods pryor used. The first 4 were negative methods, and the last 4 were positive reinforcement methods. The examples she gave were great and interesting. I probably won't remember the examples in the text of punishment, extinction etc. because they were boring and not entertaining enough for me to remember.

4) Punishment, negative reinforcement, extinction, cue, motivation, behavioral economics, behavior, shaping

1) Chapter 4 talked about untraining a behaviorusing 8 different methods
Shoot the animal,Punishment(most common),Negative Reinforcement(can cause reciprocal or spontaneous responses,)Extinction, Train an incompatible behavior(creates a distraction from unwanted behavior),Put the behavior on cue, Shape the absence(reward for not doing something), and Change the motivation (pryor says this is the best choice). The first 4 are negative and the last four are positive.
2) The book talks about negavtive and positive reinforcement and extinction. It also talks about punishment and motivation.
3)I will remember the 8 methods for sure because I found some of them really interesting and things that I would have never thought of. I am kind of excited to try some of these techniques out at work!

4) Punishment, reinforcement, extinction, motivation, cue, shape

One of the main points the author was trying to use with this chapter is that it is best to use positive reinforcement to change a behavior as opposed to negative reinforcement. When she elaborated on all of the methods for untraining, she stressed that the negative methods are often ineffective and positive reinforcement methods would be more beneficial.

At first, I found Method 1: "Shoot the Animal" to be extremely severe. Once I heard a few of the examples Pryor gave for this method, I understood better. The example that stuck out the most was if your parents or spouse was abusive, and the only way to get rid of this behavior is to leave. This is very understandable. If I was ever in a situation like that, I would leave as well. Another example that stuck with me was in the train an incompatible behavior method section. During shows at Sea Life Park, a dolphin was constantly harassing a Hawaiian girls during her part of the show. To change the dolphin’s behavior, trainers taught him to press a lever in return for fresh fish. They then put the lever in the water during her performance. Instead of harassing her, the dolphin was distracted by the lever and the fish. They successfully trained an incompatible behavior.

The material in the text was pretty easy to find. I didn’t find a place on ‘untraining’ specifically but I found some other terms with ease. In this chapter when Pryor was discussing extinction as a method, she used the term ‘habituation.’ I haven’t heard this term in a while. She said it is a way to eliminate unconditioned responses. The textbook said habituation occurs when an unconditioned stimulus repeatedly elicits and unconditioned response and the response gradually declines in magnitude. The text also said that punishment is any event or stimulus that decreases the rate of operant behavior. In the reader, Pryor said that negative reinforcement and punishment are always directed related.

The most interesting part of this chapter for me was the section on nail biting towards the very end. I bite my nails. It is a terrible, terrible habit that I have tried to get rid of. Last spring was the longest I have gone in my life without biting my nails – 6 months. Pryor said the main cause of this was often stress. I mean, yea I’m stressed out a lot between school, work, and friends but I don’t think that can be the main reason why I do it. Also, I wonder if it can possibly be hereditary. Quite a few people in my family do it, including my sister and my mom. Could watching them bite their nails growing up have had any effect on me?

Positive reinforcement, negative reinforcement, punishment, habituation, unconditioned stimulus/response, extinction

I enjoyed reading the methods of untraining. I feel like this is an area many people wonder about. We’ve learned thus far that punishment is an ineffective form of learning, but it’s often difficult to think of ways to end behaviors one doesn’t want using reinforcement. What I found most interesting was that things like time out and prison are considered part of the “shoot the animal” method. This is a method one really shouldn’t use, and yet we use it quite often. I also enjoyed reading about how methods that we use most often, punishment and ‘shoot the animal’, are the worst methods to use, as they teach the person or animal nothing.
It was difficult to find information in the text to go along with this chapter, as much of the information and methods Pryor presents are often named with her own names rather than scientific ones. Most of the areas easiest to find in the text were topics already discussed in the reader and information that I have already looked over such as positive and negative reinforcement, punishment, extinction, and shaping.
I think the areas that I will remember the best are the areas that I found most interesting. I will likely remember that the ‘shoot the dog’ and punishment methods do not work as they often teach nothing. Also, that time out and prison are forms of the ‘shoot the dog’ method of untraining. I also feel like this chapter will make a great reference chapter later in my life when I want to get rid of someone or some animal’s behavior.
Terms: positive and negative reinforcement, punishment, extinction, shaping

Chapter 4 discusses untraining using reinforcement to get rid of behavior you don’t want. The author broke the methods of doing this into four positive reinforcement strategies and four negative reinforcement strategies. The four positive reinforcement strategies identified by the author were: train an incompatible behavior, put behavior on cue, shape the absence of the behavior and change the motivation. The first positive strategy was train an incompatible behavior. This strategy explains how to change the environment in order to avoid the aversive behavior. Examples given were if you are feeling bad emotionally than you can run, dance, sing in order to train the negativity out of yourself. Other examples included fixing a faulty swing, getting a dolphin to stop roughhousing. The next strategy was put a behavior on a cue. This involves bringing the undesired behavior on cue and then not cuing the behavior again. The best example given for this strategy was getting kids to quite down while in the car. The adult would get the kids to make as much noise as possible by making up the “noise game”. As a result of never starting the game again the kids would quite and there would be peace in the car. The next strategy was Shape the absence of the behavior. The object of this would be to get the subject stop doing something but not replacing the behavior with something else. Referring back the noisy kid example, a parent would wait until quit resumed and then immediately rewarded the kids for the quiet in the car. The last “positive” strategy was change the motivation. This method is the most kind/effective (always works). It requires to identify the motivation of the subject ‘s bad behavior and then changing the subjects attitude to view the behavior as negative.
The four negative reinforcement strategies the author identified were: shoot the animal, punishment, negative reinforcement and extinction. The first “negative” strategy would be shoot the animal. Capital punishment would fall under this strategy, and it requires getting rid of the behavior by getting rid of the subject temporarily or premaritally. An example of this would be if you have a faulty golf swing, you would give up the game of golf. The next strategy was punishment. Punishment is the first thought (humans) when changing behavior and is widely used. Unfortunately the subject learns nothing as a result of not knowing why they are being punished. The punishment only reinforces the punisher and results in using punishment over and over until the punishment escalates and leads to shoot the animal method. Next is the negative reinforcement and it dose not cure the behavior and has to be perceived as negative. One example given in the book was a child having a tantrum in a store. The parent reluctantly gives in to stop the undesired behavior to stop, thus negatively reinforcing the child’s behavior. The most interesting part of this chapter would be the charts of behaviors handled differently by the methods of reinforcement. I felt it gave a better understanding to the material.

The text discusses a lot of these terms and dedicates ch five to reinforcement and its schedules. Chapter five distinguishes the schedules as continuous reinforcement(reinforce after each incident) and the other schedules fixed, ratio and interval. The text also talks about extinction as the breaking of the contingency between an operant and its consequence, it refers to a decline in the frequency of the operant when an extinction procedure is in effect.

Punishment, cue, extinction, shaping, motivation, stimulus, negative reinforcement

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