Worksheet for Unit 6.
Animal Learning. Classical Conditioning. Operant Conditioning.
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Read the text material entitled;
Unit 6
Section A – Animal Learning, Classical Conditioning, Operant Conditioning
… before commencing the activity questions for Section A.
Activity Questions
Section A:
1) B.F. Skinner described the science of operant conditioning as; “… the area of behaviourism that explains the relationship between environmental events and actions.” What do you think he meant by ‘behaviour’ having a relationship between environmental events and actions? Give a simple example of how environment can stimulate an action in a person.
2) What is an ‘unconditioned response’?
3) When a learned reaction to a stimulus is different to the expected automatic reaction that stimulus would normally produce, it is called a what?
4) Name the 4 people who were the pioneers of the animal training methods we have today.
5) In classical conditioning a stimulus that an animal reacts to without training is called what? Give 4 examples.
6) You have read about how Pavlov’s bell, which meant nothing to the dogs at first, became a ‘conditioned stimulus’, when associated with food. Firstly, explain what a ‘conditioned stimulus’ is. Secondly, give an example of a CS other than Pavlov’s bell.
7) In Pavlov’s experiment dogs learned to salivate when a bell was rung, because they associated the bell with food. What is it called if one of Pavlov’s dogs associates the bell with food (which it enjoys) as well as going for a walk (which it also enjoys)?
8) You may have heard the term counter-conditioning used in conjunction with helping people to be free of phobias. A phobia is a fear reaction to a stimulus that would not normally be expected to cause a fear reaction, eg. fear of open spaces, fear of harmless insects, fear of clowns etc. In classical conditioning terms, what type of response is a phobia? Give 3 examples of ‘phobias’ that can appear in dogs or cats.
9) What are the main differences between classical conditioning and operant conditioning?
10) A stimulus that strengthens a behaviour is called a what?
11) A stimulus that weakens a behaviour is called a what?
12) What is the important thing to remember about the timing of the above consequences with regard to animals?
13) Positive reinforcement (R+) is the application of a pleasant consequence following a behaviour. Negative reinforcement (R-) is the removal of something pleasant following a behaviour. True or False?
14) Positive reinforcers and negative reinforcers are meant to stimulate the recurrence of a behaviour, while positive punishers and negative punishers are meant deter a behaviour from re-occurring. True or False?
15) If you take something pleasant away that stops a person (or animal) from behaving a certain way, you are applying what?
16) Enter your answers to the Quick Quiz on page 10 of your Text here.
1. For the father, the ending of the child’s pleading is a…
1. For the child, the cookie is a…
2. For this dog having its food removed is a…
3. For the cat, being hit with water every time it began to dig the carpet was a …
17) What is a secondary reinforcer? Give 2 examples.
18) Case Study:
Fred is inside watching the sport on TV when his dog starts barking loudly in the backyard. Fred goes outside and the dog stops barking, so he pats the dog as positive reinforcement for it ceasing to bark. Later, when Fred goes back inside to watch TV, the dog starts barking loudly again.
In operant conditioning terms what is happening here?
19) Case Study:
Mary has two cats. One of her cats is overweight and is on an expensive special cat diet. The other cat eats normal cat food. Mary has to keep the cats separated at meal time so the cat on the diet doesn’t get to the normal food, and the cat on the normal food doesn’t go and eat the expensive diet food. The problem was solved when Mary decided to feed the cats in separate rooms that have a door between them.
The cats decided they didn’t like this arrangement and they both began to dig and scratch at the carpet under the door from both sides. In order to save her carpet Mary was forced to open the door when the cats started digging, and they both ran to each other’s food bowl.
What is happening here in operant conditioning terms?
Give an example of a positive punisher that Mary might be able to apply.
Give an example of a negative punisher that Mary might be able to apply.
20) Case Study:
Every time the house keeper switches on the vacuum cleaner Mrs Kravits’ little dog Booboo cowers, shivering, with his tail between his legs, in the corner of the room. Naturally, Mrs Kravits feels sorry for Booboo so she always picks him up and gives him a hug.
“There, there Booboo, that’s a good boy. Mummy’s here.”
What is Mrs Kravits doing in operant conditioning terms?
What would you advise Mrs Kravits to do?
21) Multiple choice: In operant conditioning terms, the word ‘positive’ (as in positive reinforcement and positive punishment) means…
A: Good
B: Confident
C: Applied
D: Reinforcing
… and the word ‘negative’ (as in negative reinforcement and negative punishment) means…
A: Bad
B: Removed
C: Punishing
D: Inflicted
22) What is a ‘conditioned punisher’ and why is it used?
23) Case Study:
Mr Crabsworthy caught his pet cat scratching his beautiful antique furniture, so he yelled “No!” and squirted the cat with a water pistol he kept handy for just such a circumstance. The cat scurried away and left the furniture alone. A day or two later he caught the cat scratching the furniture again so he called out “No!” and, once again, gave it a couple of bursts from the water pistol. The cat again left the furniture alone, however one morning Mr Crabsworthy got out of bed to find that his beautiful antique furniture had scratch marks in it. He cursed the cat and went out to the shops to buy some furniture polish to remove the scratches. When he returned there were even more scratch marks in the furniture.
What operant conditioning application was Mr Crabsworthy using?
What was the result?
What did Mr Crabsworthy do wrong?
24) Accidental application of negative punishment (P-) can sometimes have the adverse effect of stopping a desired behaviour. For example, when your cat has jumped up on the kitchen bench-top to get some food scraps and you pick it up and put it on the floor. The cat may associate allowing you to pick it up with the removal of something pleasant (food scraps), so it begins to avoid letting you pick it up. Or, you call your dog at the beach and when it comes to you it is taken away from the beach. It may learn to associate coming to you with the removal of something pleasant (a romp at the beach), and stop coming when called.
What should be done in the case of the cat jumping on the kitchen bench-top to avoid the loss of the desired behaviour of allowing itself to be picked up?
What should be done in the case of the dog at the beach to avoid it deciding not to come when called?
So far in this Unit we have looked at how we can stimulate the recurrence of desired behaviours using positive and negative reinforcement, and how we can extinguish unwanted behaviours using positive and negative punishment.
The behaviours we have addressed in Section A have been those instigated by the companion animal itself.
In Section B we are looking at how we can be the instigators of the companion animal’s behaviour using operant conditioning techniques.
Read the text material entitled;
Unit 6
Section B – Classical & Operant Conditioning, Cat Training, Dog Training
… before commencing the activity questions for Section B.
Activity Questions
Section B:
1) “Cats won’t perform for the approval of their owners in the same way dogs will.” Why is that?
2) Explain what remote punishment is and why it is a better form of punishment than direct punishment for cats. Why is this not generally the case for dogs?
3) What is the technical term for a charged up clicker?
4) Explain the difference between Behaviour Capture Training and Lure Training.
5) Case Study:
Mary Pigsbottom has taught her cat Fluffington to come on command. Every time Mary calls, “Here Fluffington,” the cat comes from whatever part of the house it is in, and Mary gives it a tasty treat.
One day, Mary was preparing to go out. She took a nice dress from the closet and laid it on the bed, then went into the bathroom to take a shower. When she returned to the bedroom she found that her nice dress had claw and bite marks in it.
Mary called, “Here Fluffington,” and when her cat came to her she showed it the ruined dress and clapped her hands loudly and yelled, “Naughty cat!”
This frightened Fluffington who promptly ran away and hid in another room.
Now, when Mary calls, “Here Fluffington,” her cat doesn’t come to her.
What two things did Mary do wrong?
From the cat’s perspective what happened?
Why doesn’t the cat respond to being called now?
6) Case Study:
Jack is trying to teach his cat Jill, to sit. He places his hand under her chin to hold her head in position and pushes down on her rump to make her sit. Sometimes Jill sits, but sometimes she lays down, sometimes she walks away from him, and sometimes she doesn’t move but makes a low growling noise in her throat.
What two things is Jack doing wrong? What should Jack be doing?
7) Dogs have a pack mentality. This means that they seek to develop a social structure around them that organizes the other members of their social group into rank, from the dominant member on down to the most submissive.
In a dog’s social group who is obedience offered to?
8) Why is a dog that has taken a dominant role in the household so hard to train?
9) In operant conditioning terms what are the methods used (eg. R+, R-, P+, P-) in the following remedies, as listed on page 12 of your text. Explain your answers.
Remedy 2.
Remedy 4.
Remedy 5.
Remedy 6.
Remedy 8.
10) Which of the following is true and why:
A) ‘Time Out’ is positive punishment (P+) because it is imposing the punishment of confinement and isolation in order to deter dominant behaviour in the dog.
B) ‘Time Out’ is negative punishment (P-) because it is removing something pleasant (eg. The dog’s freedom), in order to deter dominant behaviour in the dog.
11) There are four main training strategies in operant conditioning, what are they? Give a brief definition of each one.
12) Why is a non-food reward (eg. A clicker or verbal reward) useful when teaching an animal?
13) Explain how words can be primed to become rewards for dogs.
14) How do you ‘charge up the clicker?
15) True or False: Lure training a dog to ‘sit’ is done the same way as lure training a cat to ‘sit’.
16) Case Study:
Mike Stinkhaven is training his dog Sniffer to lie down on command. He begins by charging the clicker using Sniffer’s favourite treat, yummy cheese bites. Once the clicker is charged and functioning as a secondary reinforcer, Mike begins by holding a yummy cheese bite in his closed fist and placing his fist in front of Sniffer’s nose to make sure the dog knows there is a treat in it. Mike then lowers his fist toward Sniffer’s chest and between his front legs. Sniffer follows the treat with his head and then Mike moves his fist down to the floor. Sniffer starts to crouch down to get closer to Mikes fist and keep track of where the treat is going, so Mike says, “Down!” and moves his fist slowly away from Sniffer, along the floor, making Sniffer crouch into a typical ‘down’ position; chest on the floor and front legs forward.