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.
1. When reading chapter 2 I took the most interest in the laws of shaping. The reader does a good job of explaining all ten of the rules. Most interesting to me is the law four in the book. When introducing a new criterion or aspect of the behavior skill, temporarily relax the old ones. When I first read the rule I was a little confused by what they were trying to say. Pryor goes on to explain with an example of playing squash. I’ve never played squash personally but related what she was saying to golf something I do understand. She explained that after working aim for a while you want to work on speed so you hit the ball harder. When you hit the ball harder your aim isn’t very good and the ball goes everywhere. She then says to forget about aim and just slam the ball. When you get control of the speed the aim will come back. What you learn isn’t forgotten it’s just set aside while you work on something new and then you can put it all together. If I would have thought about this when I was working on my golf game I wouldn’t have been so frustrated. She also uses an example of a choir conductor getting frustrated with his chorus at a dress rehearsal because they weren’t singing like they normally did. He didn’t take into consideration they were in costume and moving around instead of sitting or standing and singing. They had more pieces to the puzzle that needed to be put together and then the singing would come back. I can understand this example as well. I was in show choir in high school and we would learn the music before we learned our choreography. The first time we put the two together we sounded horrible. It didn’t take long and we had the two put together all it took was practice.
Some other main points that were covered were modeling, mimicry, target, “training game”, and shaping without words.
2. When I went to my text it wasn’t to hard to find the shaping topics discussed. The reader just covered the material differently. The reader was easier to understand and I liked the examples better. The book gave examples of rats and pigeons being shaped to do a certain behavior. The book did go more into detail about auto-shaping. Shaping was normally done with a clicker or some sort of positive reinforcement when the animal got close and closer to the target behavior. Auto-shaping is a bit different in that instead of the researcher giving the reinforcements by hand they use a noise or a light to initiate the behavior. The book gives an example of teaching a pigeon to eat out of a tray whenever the tray is presented. Then they turn on a light 8 seconds before the food is presented. Over time the pigeons related the light being on as a sign the food was coming. Another example would be Pavlov shaping the dogs to salivate when they heard a bell because they related it to food.
3. After reading I think I will remember the new criterion law because I could relate to it and then better understand it. I do think I will have a harder time remembering all of the other rules that were listed in the reader. I also feel the reader gave me more information and a better understanding than the textbook did.
4. Shaping, new criterion, modeling, auto-shaping, positive reinforcement, and target behavior.
Well for starters I must say that I enjoyed this second chapter much more than the first. I have always been interested in the idea of shaping since my intro to psych classes. I just find it amazing how it works for pretty much any behavior out there. Watson believed that shaping could allow you to make people into anything if you instated the proper conditioning in time. As was said before I think Karen does a very good job of breaking the rules on shaping. Part of what makes the way she writes it so good is that she presents them to you twice. Once in a list, and then she goes and very clearly explains each one. As far as learning the rules go, this helps you remember them quicker. Another thing is the way she explains each rule in detail. She gives examples on how to do it correctly and why it doesn't work if you don't follow that particular rule. For example, when she is talking about making the criteria more difficult in a reasonable manner. This way the animal has an actual chance of being reinforced. For this she used a horse jumping example. Even though the horse may seem capable of making a much higher jump, you shouldn't automatically move it up to that level. The horse may not be able to preform such an act on a steady basis. Although I have never truly done that kind of work with any animal, I can still relate. I feel I have the same problem when I am trying to work on some behavior of my own. I sometimes get excited when I have made progress and so then I try and go to the next level. What ends up happeing most times is I make it too hard to achieve the goal and feel as though I have failed. Before I know it I am back where I started because I wasn't getting reinforced. Many of the things she discusses makes sense when you take a second and think of the behaviors you do or used to do. The stay ahead of your subject for example is one that has caught me up before. I have a lab named Baby and she is a very smart dog. My step-dad was trying to train her to crawl a certain way on the floor. He thought it would be a difficult task but she caught on right away. He got out the "special" snacks for that, but for the most part they weren't even needed. One thing that I have noticed after reading the first two chapters of this book is that Pryor doesn't really explain the why and how these things work...the behind the scenes work of these principles. This is what the text is for and so I think they make a good team.
For example the book more specifically explained the different aspects and parts of shaping. The book discusses differential reinforcement and approximations. The idea that you reinforce close attempts as to help bring the animal closer to the actual desired behavior. This helps the animal separate what behaviors are working and which ones are not. Pierce and Cheney also mentioned that when choosing a behavior to shape, one must keep in mind an animals repetoire, or their natural ability to complete certain behaviors.I think this is sometimes where people make mistakes. They may be asking or expecting too much from the animal they are working with. Another key point I got out of the text is that in order to properly shape behavior there must be variability in the animals actions. Without differences or changes in action, a researcher or trainer has nothing to work with. They are unable to reinforce or "communicate" with the animal. A final part that I found was the idea of emotional responses. This is something we can all relate too. When we fail to be reinforced when we are expecting to we react emotionally, often in frustration. This is true for other animals as well. They used an example of animals that may bite or an individual kicking a vending machine.
For some topics I can understand how it may be hard to find related material, imprinting for example, but I found plenty of information on shaping in the text. I am glad that I looked through the text because if I had soley relied on Pryor to learn about shaping I would have missed out on a lot of information. I like to understand more about a given subject than just examples and that is primarily what Pryor's book is. I do, however, very much enjoy what she has to offer. I would have to say I remember quite a bit. As is often my problem, I believe I will remember nearly all of the ideas and principles, but as time goes on the terms won't still be fresh in my mind. I will remember what works and what doesn't work. I will remember the reason I see people reacting to situations the way they do, but I may not remember what the writers said it was called. For example I will remember the role satiation plays in reinforcement and shaping, but I may end up calling it something else. In my opinion knowing the meaning and purpose of something is more important than knowing its name.
Terms: reinforcement, emotional responses, satiation, approximation, repertoire, shaping, criteria,
I think this chapter of the reader is explaining the ideas of different stimuli. The chapter explains different types of stimuli that help to shape behavior. Ideas such as discriminative stimulus, where it talks about limited holds and how that helps to close interval times. Discriminative stimuli are learned signals, which can be anything. Also, a branch of discriminative stimulus is a fading stimulus where you can make a stimulus smaller and smaller to get the wanted behavior. In the text book it talks about how a discriminative stimulus is an event that precedes an operant and sets the occasion for behavior. The author in the textbook based it purely on scientific knowledge, not examples per se. The reader describes it with relevance to everyday life. One example was if a person does not understand your language, it will not make them understand if you just get louder and louder.
The reader describes the stimulus as being a cause of a behavioral response. I did not find much information in the text that dealt solely with stimulus that tied in well. It mostly explained different kinds of stimuli and how they all tied together. There are unconditioned primary stimuli. This happens with no learning or training. You can learn by association. This is usually reinforced. With these associations, it is easier to establish behavioral chains. When working on a stimulus, one must establish a cue. A stimulus cue reinforces as a behavior is starting. Aversive stimulus can be cues, such as pulling on a horse’s rein. Sometimes one must extinguish behaviors that are done without the cue to show that the behavior must only be done if the cue is present. The text says extinguishing a behavior is withholding reinforcement for a previously reinforced response. These two readings helped me understand the idea of extinguishing a behavior.
The last huge point that I read about was about stimulus control. Stimulus control helps to show how behavior always occurs immediately upon presentation of conditioned stimulus. The reader explains how behavior never occurs in absence of stimulus and no other behavior occurs in response to this stimulus. The resistance to extinction is affected by generalized stimulus control. The textbook say defines stimulus control happens when events precede operant behavior and effect its occurrence. This is one of the best examples, I found, that helped teach me an idea more thoroughly.
I think that I am a little rougher around the edges with the discriminative stimulus; therefore, it may slip from memory easiest. I think I need a little more time and examples to understand exactly what it means. I think the part about extinguishing a behavior is definitely not going to fade out of memory anytime soon.
Terminology: Stimulus, discriminative stimulus, interval times, fading stimulus, operant behavior, behavioral response, unconditioned primary stimuli, reinforced, behavioral chains, behavioral cue, aversive stimulus, extinguish, stimulus control, conditioned stimulus, extinction.
Chapter two of the reader gives an in-depth discussion of shaping and the laws and principles governing it. I was intrigued in the very beginning when the author discussed methods as a form of shaping. I had never thought about the idea of a written sequence of steps as a form of shaping behavior until it described it through examples. The author gives a short description of methods but goes on to her main focus of the ten principles that a trainer can use to shaping a desired behavior. I enjoyed the fact that Karen broke down each step and gave examples as to how and why they are necessary. Two principles stuck out to me. The first was law 3: during shaping, put the current level of response onto a variable schedule of reinforcement before adding or raising the criteria. I had never thought about the importance of a variable schedule when it comes to training. Often, when training dogs, I am so used to reinforcing the dog each time it performs a trick correctly. However, as Karen says, when an animal is not on a variable schedule and a behavior is not reinforced, even just once, the animal is more likely to go back to a weaker, slower response. If a variable schedule is used the animal learns that, though it is not reinforced every time that does not mean the behavior is not correct. Behaviorist Gary Wilkes called described this variable reinforcement schedule as “surfing the extinction burst” which should allow the trainer to move toward their behavior goal more rapidly.
The other law that caught my attention was law nine: if behavior deteriorates, “go back to kindergarten”; quickly review the whole shaping process with a series of easily earned reinforcers. I believe that when a behavior deteriorates we often try to go back to the most recent step in shaping, hoping that the behavior would come back. Very little do we go back to the beginning of shaping when a behavior starts to slip. I thought this law was one of the most important simply because it is one that we often to not think to do when reinforcing the consistency of a behavior.
When it came to comparing the book’s discussion of shaping to that of the reader, I found the reader to be much more interesting and more detailed. The book went into more detail on the steps of shaping, which were similar to that of the readers – such as reinforcing behavior as it gets closer and closer to the desired performance. It also used the term “shaping” as well as “successive approximation” when it came to describing this form of guided behavior. I liked the fact that the book did use very well-known, interesting examples when it came to describing behavior. The one that interested me most was the experiment that shaped two separate groups of dogs to salivate either more or less. One group was reinforced for a decrease in saliva while the other was reinforced for an increase in saliva. It was interesting to read about to equal groups and how shaping can modify their behavior to dramatically opposite performances.
Over time I can’t honestly say I will be able to remember all of the laws. The few laws that stuck out to me though, such as variable scheduling when it comes to reinforcing, will always stay with me. They are laws that I realized I was doing wrong before and, because of the book, learned the error that I have had when it comes to training. I also found the idea of mimicking to be something that will stay with me because I believe it helps explain many of the behaviors that animals do. I do not think the specific terminology will stay with me but I believe that the ideas as a whole will continue to influence shaping techniques in my own life.
Terminology: reinforcement, shaping, variable schedule of reinforcement, successive approximation, extinction bursts, behavioral responses, mimicking
1) I enjoyed reading Chapter 2 than the first of Don't Shoot the Dog. I loved the laws of shaping. My favorite is Rule #5: Stay ahead of your subject. We use this behavior many times through out our lives because we do not want to be unprepared for the unexpected. Pryor gives an example of how she spent a couple of days with a dolphin, training it to jump over a slightly raised bar. When she conditioned the dolphin to do that, she slowly raised the bar by a few inches at a time, and before she knew it, the dolphin was jumping 8 feet in the air. She also discusses how our school systems are preventing children to learn at their own rate. I definitely agree. This penalizes not only the slow learners (not having enough time to learn) but also the fast learners (not getting reinforced when quick thinking moves them ahead).
2) It was not very hard to find the terminology that Pryor used in the textbook. The reader was easier to understand and the examples helped a lot. The book gave examples of rats and pigeons being shaped to do a certain behavior (not interesting at all). The book went more into detail about auto-shaping. Auto-shaping is different, for example, instead of the researcher giving the reinforcements by hand they use a noise or a light to initiate the behavior. The book gives an example of teaching a pigeon to eat out of a tray whenever the tray is presented. They turned on a light 8 seconds before the food is presented to the pigeons. The pigeons related the light being on as a sign the food was coming overtime. Another example is Pavlov shaping the dogs to salivate when they heard a bell because they related it to the food being presented.
3) I believe I will remember the 10 laws of shaping because I could relate to it based on Pryor's examples. Since I discussed rule #5, I think I will be remembering that one the most than the others (not intentional). The reader gave more information that is easier to relate than the textbook (seems to be like that most of the time).
4) Shaping, behavioral cues, modeling, auto-shaping, positive reinforcement, and behavioral response.
1)I really enjoyed chapter 2 much more than chapter 1 because it was a lot more focused on just one thing. I know that 1 was mostly just an introduction but I felt like it was easier to learn from this one. I really like reading about the ten laws of shaping and also the methods part because it was nice to know that shaping can be laid out in a format that most anyone can follow. My two favorite rules were #10 Quit while your ahead: because a lot of subjects have a short attention span and the behavior will begin to fall apart after a while. It also says that you much force yourself to end on a good note because it will be easier to retrieve the behavior next time. I also like rule #8 Don't interupt a training session gratuitously; that constitutes a punishment. I never tbhought of it like that but it does make sense. She says that trainers use it on dolphins as a sort of "time out" for doing something wrong. She also says that removal of attention can be a powerful tool.
3) I thougt it was pretty easy to find things in the book related to shaping but the book talks a lot more about auto shaping which is a respondent conditioning procedure that generates skeletal respenses. and about stimulus substitution which iswhen a conditioned stimulus is paired with an unconditioned stimulus, the conditioned stimulus is said to subtistue for the unconditioned stimulus. These were not things that Pryor really addressed in the reader.
4) Auto Shaping, Stimulus Substitution, Punishment, Shaping, Behavior.
The main focus of this chapter in Don’t Shoot the Dog was on shaping behavior. Pryor focused on 10 steps to use while shaping a behavior and then discussed each step with detail. Some of the main points she was trying to make was that the trainer needs to be patient with the trainee while still making constant progress. When and how behavior is reinforced is very important for success. The trainer needs to communicate well, stay ahead of their subject, have a planed shaping program, raise criteria in small increments, be persistent, work on one behavior at a time, and use a variable schedule of reinforcement as well as positive reinforcement. The most interesting part of this chapter was when Pryor used the example of the ‘training game.’ She stressed that training is a non-verbal skill that can be demonstrated with a small group of people. I liked reading this section because we tried it in class so I already that mental image of how the game worked in my head. The trainer really has to focus on the timing of blowing the whistle. By blowing the whistle too late or too early the trainer will shape an unintended behavior. This example of non-verbal learning was very intriguing.
Finding related material in the text wasn’t too difficult. I mainly just looked up key terms and ‘shaping’ in general to clarify what I read in the reader. The textbook uses an example of a rat (go figure) to shape behavior. The goal was to get the rat to nose a lever. The trainer reinforced the rat to move closer and closer to the lever using a pellet feeder. This was a conditioned reinforcer. After doing this several times the rat’s behavior was shaped. The text talked a little bit about an animal’s repertoire and operant level. An animal’s repertoire is the behavior an animal is able to do based on its history and species and the operant level is the ‘rate of response before any known conditioning.’ The reader did not discuss either of these. I think they are helpful to know when fully understanding the shaping process. The textbook also discussed an animal’s susceptibility to reinforcement which is similar to an animal’s repertoire. Shaping a behavior depends on how specific the behavior and whether or not the behavior is adaptive.
After reading the text, I think the 10 steps Pryor focused on for shaping behavior will stick with me the most. After stating each step she explained the importance of that particular step and used examples. This made it interesting and fun to read.
Shaping
Reinforcement
Conditioned reinforcer
Variable schedule of reinforcement
Animal repertoire
Operant level
Susceptibility to reinforcement
Planed shaping program
Chapter two of Don’t Shoot the Dog focused mainly on shaping. While Karen Pryor spent a majority of the chapter talking about the rules of shaping and how to use it, two other discussions in the chapter stuck with me more.
The first was the section on the Training Game. This section was interesting to read after doing it ourselves in class. It was great to be able to compare the examples I saw myself to the ones she was describing. It also made it easier to understand why it was difficult to shape the behavior the first time we tried. The experiment itself makes more sense now.
The second part of the chapter that stuck with me and made me think was the section on mimicry. In the section, Pryor says that dogs are not good at mimicking behavior. She explained that often, if two dogs are doing the same behavior it is for the same reinforcement or stimulus and not because of mimicry. This made me think of Dr. MacLin’s dogs. He described in class how much easier it was to train his second dog because the first was already trained. We had originally discussed this by talking about mimicry and the second puppy doing as the first did. I wonder now after reading the chapter, though, if the dog was just well trained because it wanted the same reinforcements the first received.
The thing I find most interesting about the text is the difficulty in finding information and as much information as is presented in the reader. It makes it difficult to know if the information and terms presented in the reader are correct. From the text I did find some information about shaping and more vocabulary associated with shaping. It was interesting to read the laboratory example of successive approximation instead of a real world example. I also was able to find information about modeling; however I found nothing about mimicry or targeting which was disappointing.
I think that I will likely recall more of the information from the reader than from the text, specifically some of the rules that seem to repeat parts of chapter one or appear to be common sense. For example, changing behavior in small increments made sense to me after learning that one should also use small reinforcements. Using a variable schedule was also discussed in chapter one, making it easier to understand. Rules like end on a high note, don’t change the trainer, and change your ways if what you’re doing isn’t working should be relatively easy to remember.
Terms: shaping, mimicry, reinforcements, successive approximation, targeting, modeling, variable schedule
In chapter 2 of Don't Shoot the Dog Pryor focuses on shaping. She says that there are 10 rules of shaping. I really enjoyed reading about law 10, this law says that you should always try to end on a high note. I think that this is very good advice, not just for training but for life. Pryor gives the example of a horse that learns a new skill and the trainer makes it try again, but it starts to make mistakes. I have done this before when trying to figure out a hard problem on math homework. I finally think I get it, but then on the next problem I try, I make a mistake. I get discouraged, and start making even more mistakes. Eventually, I just give up and go back to it later. Frustration can easily take a toll on self-confidence on a new or difficult task. I have found that if you don't think you can do it, you can't.
She also talks about the different forms of shaping. These are targeting, mimicry, and modeling. I thought it was really interesting that she used the example of the horses in the circus being pushed into a position because I recently read a novel about a traveling circus and in the book they talk about using this technique. As I recall, it took a long time, and the animal got punished for not getting the task quick enough. Clearly, this is not a good training strategy.
I found that it was a little difficult to find the information in the text that was in the reader. The text talked about shaping as successive approximation. The text also gives a example of modeled consequences. The example is of a boy who watches his brother steal a cookie from the cookie jar, and gets caught. Later when the little boy does it he also gets caught. The text says that this is supposed to teach him that "what happens to others can happen to me." Although the text did specifically say it, I believe Pryor would call this mimicry.