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Positive Reinforcement, What's the Big Deal??

Discuss the methods and techniques of clicker training, target training and bonding. These are usually the first steps in training a young parrot.

Positive Reinforcement, What's the Big Deal??

Postby Michael » Tue Oct 27, 2009 11:09 am

Some parrot trainers throw around the term "positive reinforcement" like it were candy. Does anyone actually understand what the basis for this is?

I fully understand that punishment can create a fear and fight/flight response against the trainer if the aversive is associated with the trainer. However, what is wrong with negative reinforcement? People seem to think that negative reinforcement is bad (negative way) but that is not the definition of negative reinforcement. Negative reinforcement is used to increase the occurance of a behavior by removing an aversive stimulus.

I can see the act of putting a parrot back in its cage as any one of the following depending on the circumstances:

-Positive Reinforcement
-Negative Reinforcement
-Negative Punishment
-Extinction

To my parrot, going back into her cage after training is a positive reinforcement as a secondary reinforcer. She knows that she is normally fed in her cage after training so she will happily go in. I can use going back into the cage as a motivation to do one last trick.

If there is something scaring my parrot such as a strange visitor, thunderstorm, or loud noises in the room, being put back into the cage can be used as a negative reinforcement. For instance I could then negatively reinforce the desired behavior of not biting. On the other hand, if my parrot were to bite me to demand to go back, I could negatively punish her by not bringing her back into the cage. Thus negative reinforcement could be beneficial.

Going back into the cage could be a negative punishment. If my parrot had been in the cage most of the day and looks forward to coming out, going back may be aversive because it would be the removal of the reward of being out. If I take my parrot out and she bites me, I can put her right back into the cage and walk away. This would be a form of negative punishment because I would be punishing her by taking away her opportunity to be out and attaining my attention.

Finally there is extinction which is basically neutral and non reinforcing either way. If I put my parrot back in the cage randomly for no reason, for neither biting nor being good, then it would lead to extinction of behavior that was supposed to be reinforced or punished by going in the cage. So if you used going back to cage as a reward for doing a trick but eventually started to get sloppy and just put the parrot in without asking for the trick, that would lead to extinction where the parrot would no longer try to do that trick even if cued.

For this example of going back to cage, it can really mean any of those options and it really depends on what the parrot wants. Going back in for feeding is a secondary reinforcer to the feeding. Going back in to hide from scary things is negative reinforcement because it helps avoid the aversive stimulus. Losing the opportunity to be out while enjoying it reduces the likelihood of undesired behavior. It is important that the trainer differentiate how the parrot would learn from each use of the same method.

If the parrot wants to go back and bites the trainer to try to expedite that, putting the parrot into the cage would be positive reinforcement and would teach the parrot to bite to go back when it wants. If the parrot bites the owner when being put back because it does not want to go back and is not put back in, that would be the owner negatively reinforcing the parrot by not putting it back in. It is important for the trainer to understand what the parrot wants and to use or not use that to reward those situations.

So as you see, positive reinforcement, negative reinforcement, and negative punishment are all methods we can use to teach our bird behavior and NONE of them involve doing any harm to the parrot. I am not advocating positive punishment which would involve purposefully inflicting pain or discomfort. However, the other 3 methods are all either giving or taking away good things from a parrot or taking away already present bad things. How are any of these bad? Why aren't parrot behaviorists talking about these other methods? Why does everyone worship positive reinforcement? Why does everyone act like it is so cut and dry and undebatable?
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Michael
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Re: Positive Reinforcement, What's the Big Deal??

Postby Mona » Fri Oct 30, 2009 12:53 pm

Hi Michael:

You seem to have studied this topic and have a good understanding of it. Personally, I think it is a way to apply mathematical models to every day behavior. Reinforcement simply means that the behavior is likely to increase. Punishment simply means the behavior is likely to decrease. Positive simply means something is added and Negative simply means something is taken away.

It's all about analyzing how to increase or decrease behavior by taking away "constructive thinking". It's a way to get people to look at animal behavior using scientific methods and only working with observable behaviors.

Like every thing, there are advantages and disadvantages to it. The more that you start to look at "problem behavior" by analyzing what you can "ADD" to make the situation improve - generally the more success you will have when you are dealing with an animal that has some free will.

The disadvantage, as I see it, is that of course, you cannot get into the animal's head so you cannot always know what is reinforcing. There are always many more forces at work than what we can observe and people often erronously label behaviors. Just because you cannot read an animal's mind...that does not mean that a mind isn't in there, working just as hard as yours.

Behavior is never static. It is always changing so you really can't ever "label" any thing as reinforcement or punishment because circumstances change all of the time. A lot of people want to apply labels....and that's kindof unfortunate because then things just get political.

Having said all of that, if you focus on positive reinforcement, you will be able to accomplish some pretty amazing and magical things. It is an easier way to communicate because you and the animal are on the same page. You are a closer team because not only YOU want the behavior, but the animal also is tending to the behavior. You will also improve in the art of training because you will learn how to read the animal better.

Just some quick notes on this...THANKS!

Mona
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