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.
After reading a few chapters of the reader I would have to say that I enjoy it more each time. What I found interesting in this chapter was that she actually admits to not being a true "expert". We have all discussed this before, but I think it says something about her character as a writer to actually admit this. It makes me like her all the more. As far as the reading, I learned quite a few new things about behavior. For example, the existence of behavior chains. Looking back it makes perfect sense, but I had never heard of them or thought through them on my own. According to Pryor a behavior chain is how you train a an animal, or a person, to do a serious of behaviors. I learned that there are also two different types of chains, but that both can be trained in the same fashion. Heterogenious chains include various behaviors and homogeneous include similar, if not exactly, the same behavior. In order to have true stimulus control, it is in best interest of the trainer to start at the end and work towards the beginning. Another focal point in this chapter was the rules she gave for establishing complete stimulus control. 1.Behavior never occurs without the stimulus. 2. Behavior consistently occurs when stimulus is presented. 3. When stimulus is presented no other, unwanted behaviors take place. 4. The behavior never occurs with the presentation of a neutral stimulus. These seem almost like common sense now, but many people that work with animals or other people often miss one or more of these steps. She also mentioned other topics such as fading. This is when the original stimulus is replaced by a different,often more subtle, stimulus. A good example for this that she used was with conducting music. In the beginning it may take a large, obscure stimulus to get the desired behavior occur, but after multiple presentations the stimulus can be broken down into a much smaller one. (strong expression and head shake turn into slight eyebrow raise). My favorite example that she used was the story of Hans the horse. I had learned a little bit about this in my psych history class, but I still find the story amusing. I find it fascinating that the horse was able to pick up on the subtle reactions of onlookers and stop at the correct answer. It almost makes you feel like training, shaping, all of it is limitless.
As can be expected I found a few things in the text that weren't mentioned in Pryor's book and vice versa. For example, the text discussed something called an extinction stimulus. This is a type of controlling stimulus that clearly leads to the extinction of an operant. They can be simple or comples. An example of a complex extinction stimulus would be the discrimination of identity. I also learned that one method of presenting cues is by way of a multiple schedule. Each of the different schedules is paired with a different controlling stimulus. Unfortunately I didn't find much of anything in the text about "behavior chains". After looking through the text I would have to say that Pryor did a very good job explaining stimulus control. Her information matches up rather well with what I read in the text book.
I have to say the things I will remember most from these two readings will be behavior chains and the idea of fading. Both of these caught my interest the most because they have so much possibility. There are so many things that you can train an animal to do. You can surprise yourself by using steps and slowly creating a longer and more intricate set of behaviors using the "chain" method. Also, some behaviors can appear as "magic" by using fading correctly.
Terms: Fading, shaping, extinction stimulus, stimulus, stimulus control, behavior chains,operant,multiple schedule, cue, heterogeneous/homogeneous behaviors.
1. Chapter 3 in Don’t Shoot the Dog was all about stimulus control. Some of the main points Pryor covered were Stimuli being aversive vs. being used as reinforcers, cues, extinction, discriminative stimulus, fading, targeting, and chains homogeneous vs. heterogeneous. The most interesting part of this chapter for me was when she talked about fading and the magnitude of a signal. One example she gave is when you see a red stop light you stop your car. You don’t stop faster or slower depending on the size of the light fixture. When shaping a response you use a larger signal to get the attention of the target. Over time you can make the signal much smaller so bystanders won’t even notice. Another example Pryor gave was a mother telling her son not to put sand in another child’s hair as she removed him from the sand box. Over time all the mother would have to do is raise an eyebrow or shake her finger to get the aversive behavior to stop. My parents were pros at this. We were the best behaved kids around because we knew what acceptable behavior was and what wasn’t and all my parents had to do was give us a look and we knew if we should stop what we were doing. Another example of fading a signal is band and choir directors. Being in both in high school I knew my instructor signals very well. It wasn’t always like that though. When we would be in practice our instructors would use very large arm and hand movements to get their points across. When we actually performed they would make small gesture only we could see not the audience.
2. In our text there is a whole chapter on stimulus control. It covered everything mentioned in the reader plus a lot more. I looked more into fading in the text. The text defined fading as a transfer of stimulus control form one value to of a stimulus to another. Honestly that didn’t explain anything for me. I read some more about it and the text gave the example of a pigeon experiment where they changed the color of a stimulus. To me I understand how this is considered fading but I still didn’t think it was the best example. The text then goes on to explain how a doctor got a mute man to say food by using fading. They held up food and said what is this? Say food. Say foo_. Say f___. Say____. Over time the patient finally said food without being prompted to.
3. I will definitely remember fading because that’s what I found most interesting and looked into the most out of the other topics covered in the chapter. I definitely don’t think I will remember the hetero and homogeneous differences in chains.
4. Aversive, reinforcers, cues, extinction, discriminative stimulus, fading, targeting, chains hetero and homogeneous, signals, and shaping.
1) The reader talked all about stimulus control and behaviors that go along with that. I found the rule of stumulus control to be very memorable and intresting. I was also really interested in targeting and the example with the mentally challenged boy and the teacher. All she did was say Touch and hold out her hand and when he did it she said good and she got him to sit still and do the work by just doing that. I found that fascinating! Also the idea of anticipation and how she paired it with sports and a false start or offsides.
2) The book was all about stimulus control and discriminative stimulus. There was a little bit about targeting but not as much as I had hoped because that is the part of the reader that I liked the most.
3) I will remember Targeting and Anticipation the most because the examples in the reader were the most exciting for me even though there wasn't more info in the book about them.
4) Targeting, Stimulus contol, Anticipation, discriminative stimulus.
Chapter three of the reader focuses primarily on stimulus control and the various aspects of a stimulus and how it can affect and modify a behavior. It was interesting to hear the various kinds of stimuli that are present in our lives. The fact that we often flinch when we hear a loud noise or we blink or close our eyes when a bright light is flashed at us are examples of unconditioned stimuli or primary stimuli. Before reading this I had never thought of the cause of these actions as a behavioral response. Throughout most of the chapter Pryor focus on how to train an animal (or sometimes even humans) to react to a discriminative stimulus or signal in the way we want. Example – when you tell a dog to “sit”, when you say the word “sit” that is the discriminative stimulus and the desired behavior is the animal actually sitting. There are numerous ways condition the stimulus, some which involve training the behavior through rewards and then introducing the discriminative stimulus or training the behavior alongside the discriminative stimulus. What I found most intriguing about the chapter was the fact that many animals and humans often have numerous stimuli that bring about the same behavior. For animals, you can often either say a word or produce a hand signal for the animal to do something. Though they are two very different forms of discriminative stimuli, the animal will produce the same behavior to equal satisfaction.
When it came to comparing the book to the reader, I felt that the book focused more on defining discriminative stimuli whereas the reader both defined it and explained how to create it. However, the book did give much more detail on the various types of discriminative stimuli. One point that caught my attention from the book was its discussion on differential reinforcement. Differential reinforcement can often change the behavior that is emitted when the stimulus occurs. For example – if the telephone rings, naturally a person answers it. However, if recently it has only been telemarketers calling, when the person hears the phone ring they are more likely to be hesitant when rising to answer or slower to react to the stimuli. The type of reinforcement that came from answering the phone changed the conditioned behavior.
The idea of primary stimuli versus discriminative stimuli is something that will stick with me. It amazes me to realize how much my natural behaviors are unconsciously caused by stimuli from the surrounding environment. Also, the idea of behavior chains intrigued me and will stick with me. I often memorize or learn things in a pattern without even realizing it. It is often hard to perform individual tasks then without going step-by-step through the pattern.
Terminology: stimulus control, primary stimuli, unconditioned stimuli, behavioral response, discriminative stimuli, differential reinforcement, behavior chains
1) Pryor starts out by talking about stimuli. This is anything that causes some kind of behavioral response. We experience these on a daily bases without any learning or training: We flinch at a loud noise, blink at a bright light, and we seek out that wonderful smell of food that is dissipating through the house. She then talks about cues. A common example is telling a dog to sit, then pushing the dog into a sit position. After many repetitions, the dog will learn to sit without being pushed to do so. There are rules of stimulus control: the behavior always occurs immediately upon presentation of the CS, the behavior never occurs in the absence of the stimulus, the behavior never occurs in response to some other stimulus, and no other behavior occurs in response to this stimulus. This was a lot to take in, but the examples helped A LOT. I liked the examples.
2) The text contains a lot of information on stimulus control. It goes into detail of generalization (observation in everyday life), generalization gradients, peak shift, and absolute and relative stimulus control. I liked the example of the complex stimulus control in the text. It uses a pigeon that pecks at a red or green sample on the center response key. The response of this is the box it is in darkens. It then chooses between red and green side keys. The choices that match to the sample are reinforeced with food. It made sense of what the author was trying to say about delayed matching to sample and remembering. I was surprised to not find 'cues' in the index of the text.
3) I will remember the pigeon example in the text. I liked the examples from pryor about cues and the rules of stimulus control. It used a common animal that many of us have experienced training with (dog).
I also enjoyed the section 'What kind of signal?' She talkes about how dolphins are usually trained with visual hand signals and how fish will learn to respond to sounds or lights. I have experienced this in the past when I went fishing with my dad. The fish are very sensitive to boat motors, and obviously try to get away from it. I hated how I had to be so quiet while waiting for a fish to bite. It was so boring and I wanted to talk all the time.
4) Stimulus control, cue, signal, behavioral response, delayed matching, generalization, complex stimulus control.
Chapter 3 of the reader focused on stimulus control. Pryor discussed the different types of stimulus used, how to establish a cue, the rules of stimulus control, the concepts of fading, targeting, limited hold, anticipation as well as prelearing dips and tantrums. One thing that she seemed to stress that when people think of stimulus control they often think of discipline and discipline is linked to punishment. This is really not the case. Teaching an animal or human using stimulus control is often a positive experience for both the trainer and the trainee. All it takes is true communication.
There were several examples Karen used when defining terms that related directly to my life. When discussing conditioned warning signals she used the example of the Invisible Fence systems for keeping dogs on their owner’s property. My dad and I put an electric fence system surrounding our yard when we got our dog and it has been very successful. Her shock collar beeps when she is within a few feet of the fence. This ‘warning beep’ is a signal to her that if she goes any closer she will get shocked. After only getting shocked a few times as a puppy she quickly learned to stay within the boundaries of our yard. The thing I will remember most from this chapter of the reader was the section on ‘prelearning dips and tantrums.’ I found it funny that Karen used the example of a student getting so frustrated with math that they stabbed their book with their pencil… again, something I have experienced. I used to get so frustrated with math until it would finally just ‘click’ and the new information would make sense.
There was a ton of information in the textbook… I didn’t know where to start really. I guess it is better to have an abundance of information than not enough. Extinction was brought up in the ‘establishing a cue’ section of a reader. Pryor simply said that extinction is the removal of a reinforcer. The textbook used an example of the breakdown of communication between a married couple. A wife tries to talk to her husband while he pretends to read the paper… this causes an extinction of conversation now every time the husband picks up the newspaper. The textbook elaborated more on discriminative stimulus than Pryor did. She stated that discriminative stimulus was a learned signal. I learned from reading the textbook that it sets the occasion for a high probability of response. It used the example of a green light and the word ‘walk’ to get pedestrians to cross the street. Again, it is beneficial to read both the reader and the textbook. Often when one doesn’t provide an example I can relate to that would better my understanding of the information, the other one does.
Stimulus control, cues, conditioned warning signals, communication, discipline, punishment, prelearning dips, extinction, discriminative stimulus.
While this chapter was still easier to read than the text, I found it less interesting than the previous assigned chapters. A lot of the material Pryor covered either appeared to be common sense, or concepts that were vaguely covered in the previous chapters. I did enjoy reading some of the examples from the reader, less for what they taught about stimulus control and more just to continue to see how reinforcement can be used when training animals and pets. I did like her example and explanation of an unconditioned stimulus in humans (flinching at a loud noise), it was nice to have that reminder from previous lessons in conditioning in other classes.
I did find that it was easier to find information in the text that corresponded with the reader than in previous chapters. Many of the terms and concepts Pryor discussed were discussed in greater scientific detail. Terms like discriminative stimuli, discrimination, stimulus control, and fading were discussed in the text, in a chapter dedicated to stimuli and stimulus control. It was interesting to read about concepts Pryor had discussed and have them paired with a definition in the book. I found the text most helpful this chapter.
I feel as though the information from this chapter that will stick with me the most is the process of bringing a behavior under stimulus control. I feel this will be easiest to remember, as it seems to be a concept that was repeated and explained multiple times.
Terms: stimuli, stimulus control, discrimination, fading, discriminative stimuli
1) I felt that Chapter 3 of Don't Shoot the Dog started to sound more like a manual for training then the previous chapters had. In this chapter Pryor talked about stimulus control and how you know when you have fully achieved it. Lots of people think that they have fully trained, but they haven't. Pryor gave four rules, which are really more like criteria. If the thing that your training can meet all of these then, congratulations, they are fully trained. I really enjoyed reading about fading. I thought it was interesting how the size of the stimulus can get so small that people other than the learner don't even notice that they are happening. The example of the mother going from taking her child out of the sandbox for dumping sand on another child, and fading the cue to just having to raise her eyebrow at him was very interesting. It made me think of how once when I was visiting my sister whose three year old son is a master of getting into mischief. Every time that he would go into the kitchen and start heading toward a particular cabinet, all my sister had to do was say his name and look at him. He would instantly turn around and go the other way, a few days before that he had gotten into some flour and made a huge mess on the floor. I also thought that fading was really interesting because the example that Pryor gave of the orchestra conductor. It made wonder what it would be like if we couldn’t process the cues that we learn if they were smaller. For example, if the orchestra conductor had to make the oversized signal at the concert for the orchestra to understand what he wanted. I suppose that if none of us could understand fading then it wouldn’t be considered as awkward for him to make that big of a gesture.
2) The text went into more depth about limited holds that Pryor did, it mentioned variable-intervals. This a limited hold where the amount of time before reinforcement isn’t given changes. I thought variable-intervals were interesting because they apply to more real world scenarios. For example, the elevator at my workplace is not the best and should probably be fixed. Sometimes when you are riding in it and arrive at the floor you want to get off at it will stop and open right away. Other times you may be trapped in the elevator for up to two minutes. The reinforcement of the doors opening on the floor you want to get off at will happen, but how long it takes after you arrive on your floor for you to receive the reinforcement changes each time you ride the elevator.
3. I think I will remember variable-interval the most because every time I ride the elevator at work I will be reminded of it. Also I will remember fading because I really enjoyed the example that Pryor gave of the orchestra conductor.
4. fading, limited hold, variable-interval
I agree completely with your interest in fading. After reading that chapter I really enjoyed that part the most. I try and think of all the weird cues you would see people giving if there was no way to minimize them. One of the things I think of when I hear about variable-interval is a slot machine. So many people put in the same amount of money, but you never know when you will get reinforced. I can't say I want to ride that elevator anytime soon either.
I feel the same way sometimes. I guess I just have to try and remember that not everybody who reads/has read her book know those basic principles. Overall I think the comparison from Pryor to text is getting better as we go through the chapters. Sometimes I get a little frustrated that she leaves so much out of her book. I have always enjoyed learning about basic human reactions and instincts. I think that relates well with the Watson paper. These are prime examples of how animalistic we are. Have the same preparedness and drives as less complex animals do.
Yea I would have to say that I related to anticipation the most. I mean I think most people do. There are always times when we are on "edge" and we are prepared for some type of action. Reminds me of track back in high school. Someone would jump the gun and that would just make it harder to not to start too early! Do you think there is anything that you could personally use targeting for? I find it interesting, but I don't think it is something I could actually benefit from.
The aspect of conditioning that Prior discussed in chapter three was stimulus control. The chapter began discussing stimuli, which is anything that causes a behavioral response. The reader gave two kinds of stimuli natural (smells, flinches) and learned (reinforced behaviors). Other terms discussed in the reader were: Ques- conventual/alternative and how to establish, kinds of signals ex(fish respond to light/sound), signal magnitudes, fading, targeting, limited holds, anticipation, stimuli as reinforcer behavior ques, pre learning issues(dips and tantrums). I feel the overall message that the author was trying to get across was that effective stimulus control equals true communication. If you can convey your messages through stimuli than your subject will understand what specific behavioral messages are being sent and this results in proper communication. This overall message was my favorite part of the chapter. It helps bring all of the concepts together and give them a common goal.
Just like the reader the text also dedicates a chapter to stimuli control. The text was very technical and used formulas to help explain the material. I enjoyed reading the FOCUS ON parts of the chapter. These parts helped associated aspects of vision and how different organisms respond to stimuli like light. The two books were also alike in the aspect of giving the general definitions of the shared material. The text used bold type to identify the terms but then broke down the general terms into sub topics that confused me until I had a chance to apply it in the FOCUS ON part. I feel that the majority of the material that will resinate will be the reader material because I had two chances to read about them(and the reader was more fun to read).
Stimuli
Ques
fading
targeting
limited holds