Learning theory & Behaviorism

I will focus on the part of learning theory that is relevant for animal trainers, be that dogs, dolphins, chickens or rats, and that is called Behaviorism. In behaviorism all learning is the acquisition of new behavior through conditioning. This sounds complicated but is really no more complicated than that you will tend to do stuff that makes you feel good and tend not to do stuff that makes you feel bad. It is as simple as that. This is called operant conditioning and is together with classical conditioning (i.e. Pavlov's dogs) the basis of behaviorism. There is four expression you need to learn to get a first idea of how learning works. These are:

1. Positive reinforcement
2. Positive punishment
3. Negative reinforcement
4. Negative punishment

If someone does something that you think is good, for example your husband does the dishes, and you praise/thank him for it, maybe even does something special like letting him watch the sports channel all evening instead of interrupting him when you want to see something else, you are using positive reinforcement. That is, you are reinforcing this behavior by showing him that you appreciate what he does and give him something he wants (of course he has to know that doing the dishes is the reason why he can watch the sports channel, in order for it to work as a reinforcement).

If your husband leaves all the dirty dishes, and you complain, yell or nag, you are using positive punishment. That is, you are making him uncomfortable because he did something you think is wrong, and hopefully this will lead to him doing the dishes...

If he then does the dishes, and you stop complaining but doesn't thank him, you are using negative reinforcement. That is, you stop making him feel uncomfortable but didn't make him feel good when he did something you liked.

If your husband leaves the dishes, and you refuse to have sex with him because of this but otherwise doesn't yell at him or complain but remains calm, you are using negative punishment. That is, he doesn't get something he wants because he didn't do what you wanted him to.

I by no means mean to say that husbands need to be trained, so all men reading this, I am only using these examples to show what the different terms mean, not to say anything about husband-wife relationships or what is correct behavior between them. That being said, I believe that most of you quite quickly will see what kinds of reinforcements and punishments are going to make,  in this case the husband, continue to do the dishes on a regular basis.

So why am I telling you all this? Well because understanding these principles will make you a better dog (or any other animal) trainer.