Click - you've been liked !

 

A split of a second

In the past - actually quite recently - this sound was more or less commonly connected to a camera shutter sound; a fraction of a moment that was captured to remind us of some memorable moment, a highlight in our life.

That was before selfies were "a hip" thing to do?

Who would have thought then - to take multiple photos of oneself smiling or grinning to a disposable or any other camera,  then take the film to be developed and wait for about a week to get those photos done. Finally, when the great day arrived, one would go and collect &  pay those photos from the camera shop. 

After that ... Would anyone ever thought of going out and giving those prints to our neighbors, friends or any stranger one happen to meet on the way home?? 

Well - No! 

"Not in a million Years"

Would you like to be liked?

Hmm.. a bit of a strange question:  - who wouldn't ? 

For the majority of us - this is a very strongly built-in need or an essence of human nature. Think of children or another evidence of this need is the popularity of all different social media's. Who wouldn't like to get "likes" of our posting ? This is brilliant marketing "plan" of the social media app's, as it is getting us quite easily hooked up on to follow "feeds and reactions". It makes you look up your phone multiple times in a day. One study stated that an average person (done in US.) touches and looks at one's phone roughly 2500 time a day ! Not all is of course time spend in some social media, weather it's right or false news - it still is a very surprising number! ...and it's all because we get reinforcement when our body generates some endorphins etc cheering hormones.

Affective states and our feedback

How about animals? Do they posses similar needs? 

I believe they do. I believe they also have a need to be accepted, noticed or even liked ...maybe in a bit different way as we are feeling those states of mind. Topics on animal emotions or feelings and their affective states are more and more often heard when talking about animal welfare or even behavior management and training. If you are lucky and you're blessed with a pet , I believe you do know the answer to the question I presented earlier. Animals do like to get positive attention even from us and other inter-species companions.

What is a definition of an affective state?

Animal welfare is considered to be both biological and psychological state of an animal as it attempts to cope in its environment. Taking this into account, welfare includes both these elements; pleasurable and unpleasant mental states or experiences in their life. Animals may show quickly emotional responses  to a stimuly, affective states are longer lasting states of different moods (ie. depression) which are not only caused by a single stimuly but are more like an accumulation of multiple experiences. Those can be called affective states with animals.

How can we have an influence on these different states?

The feedback we are providing to an animal of course depends on what and how we are giving it. Feedback can be divided roughly into 'good' or 'bad', this would be the very common way of expressing it. In the theory behind animal behavior management, operant conditioning, we are talking about positive and negative feedback. The word feedback is nowadays translated into two other forms; reinforcement and punishment.

Simply saying when we are using the word reinforcement, it means we are trying to increase some form of behavior. On the other hand when we are using the word punishment, we are trying to decrease some form of behavior. When we combine these two ways of expression we are talking about positive or negative reinforcements and positive and negative punishments. The positive (+) and negative (-) just simply means that either something is added (increased) or taken away (decreased) from the environment of the animal in question. 

As for the term punishment - one must always remember that we are never physically punishing the animal. The concept of punishment must be understood: It is always affecting the behavior by the means of behavior management theory.

Find more on reinforcements & feeedback from my previous blog from here: 

https://www.blogger.com/blog/post/edit/641880151475095364/4904237641956606255

Showing affection

We have of course multiple ways to show our affection to animals under our care. Showing affection is absolutely positive feedback to an animal. It is what we want our pets to experience.

 ... but ... it's not really a handy tool in behavior management. It is too vague and it leaves too much "air" for interpretation - on both sides; to us and the animal. We can't center it in the precise moment we'd like to reinforce.  Also - In many cases, it may not often be the primary force or reinforcement the animal is seeking or valuing.

Showing affection is good, however it is also one of the things I'm facing most often in many private consultation I am doing. The idea of thinking; what-the-animal-is-thinking is never fruitful. Many emotions are connected to this type of situation and animal owners do behave according to those - which often is not of the best interest of the approximation to achieve the goal in those situations, on behavior management viewpoint.

Bridge over troubled waters

Simon & Carfunkel sang this song into many hearts in 1970. It is a nice song and actually has nothing to do with operant conditioning - BUT:

The idea of using a bridge (clicker, whistle, "good boy" - wording etc. etc.) is kind of expressed in that saying. The signal is like a bridge over the physical space in between us and the animal, therefore it is giving us a very powerful tool to tell to the animal the very precise moment in action which we want to see again. Simplifying the situation; we are marking the exact moment in animals behavior repertoire by means of  a "remote control" = a bridging signal. Afterwards we can then reinforce the correct way of behaving by other means.

B. F. Skinner is considered to be the one who discovered these principles in 1940's & 50's. He was also the first one to use this technique publicly when training dogs, as the Look magazine reported in 1952. However it took almost 30 years before this marvelous technique concurred animal training field more widely. The first one's to use and adapt it were marine mammal trainers, especially dolphin trainers. They started to use different cues for different behaviors and whistles in stead of clickers in capturing and shaping the behaviors of those mesmerizing animals. 

Something to think about;

- I believe that this could also be used in some athletic sports couching - a new kind of tool for the couch to tell the exact moment of action of the athletes rehearsal.

Sincerely

Kai Mattsson

Meritime Consulting

www.meritime.net

https://www.facebook.com/Meritime-345171735503394

https://www.linkedin.com/in/kai-mattsson-36967819/

kai@meritime.net

Recall - what is it good for ?

 Ever called you dog or cat to come to you or back home indoors?

Weather you know it or not you've been using a training tecnique included in a theory called operant conditioning.

Operant conditioning or instrumental conditioning is a behavioral theory - a way to work not only with animals but many of it's origins are from human psychological science as well. It's history goes back to the beginning of 1900's but the "golden time" in discovering it's fine tunes - is probably in 40's & 50's.    B. F. Skinner and his team did revolutionary findings and they trained hundreds if not thousands of animals during their experiences - he is often referred as the father of operant conditioning. However many other behaviourists, like Thorndike and his findings in connectionism, had done significant studies on animal behavior science before the findings of Skinner's team, thus making their work feasible. 

"Call him!"

In every day life with our pets, we don't necessarily think of some theory when we're calling our animals - and quite rightfully we just call the animals to us, often by their name. It is quite natural and simple that animal do react on it the way we anticipate. - or is it?

Most likely while we have been building up a relationship with the animal(s) under our care there have been multiple reinforcers involved in above described situation. Animal is getting a lot of attention from it's keeper, some good treats (primary reinforcements), tactile reinforcement, possibly some play and social interaction with us etc.  (secondary reinforcements) just to name a few. All these factors are extremely important not only for the behavior to be reliable but also in building up a good trustworthy relationship with each other.

Find more info on reinforcements & punishments from here:

What has a cookie jar to do with animal training ? ;   https://www.blogger.com/blog/post/edit/641880151475095364/5727146612062096244 

The situation described above  is what is very commonly considered as a (re)call. To get the animal where we are!

However if we dive a bit deaper in the theory we may notice that a recall is not really a call to get the animal to us but it's meaning is something of a bit wider content. If we look at the definition of the word recall; it's something of the following: 

- bring back to one's mind 

or

- order (someone) to return to a place

In this context we are naturally interested in the later description and as we see; the meaning of it is to get someone in a specific location.

This is one of the fundamentals in taking care of animals in a more professional manner. It also should be one of the first things to be taught to animals under our care, as it makes life often times so much easier. Imagine animal having  large enclosure in a zoogical setting  or livestock in a meadow and you would need to get animals back to a stable or a shed for what ever reason - say because of a colder night etc. How much easier life is if the response of the animals is reliable.

Consistency & variability

Getting an animal from one place to another is not really a problem - however sometimes keeping the behaviour reliable can be a challence. This may happen if we as trainers are keeping the response too much for granted, on other words; we don't maintain a well established behavior with a proper reinforcement schedule.

A recall is a very practical everyday life behavior which is naturally under a cue - given by the keeper of the animal. I've seen in many places where recall has been trained and sustained to animals extraordinary well. There are variable ways to reinforce it in such way that in almost every situation animals will react correctly to the given cue. The key elements are consistency and variability. Those two element will also keep the behavior in a very reliable state.  

This is maintained in a way the cue is given - also that the animal is rewarded of a proper response but with a twist of variability. In other words the animal does not always know when the cue is given to it nor how it's response is reinforced. The element of surprise makes life so much more rewarding and motivational. Changes is variation of reinforcement doesn't have to be extreme - small nuances will do the magic. Variation is important also in the sense of magnitude of the reinforcement; a jackpot in surprising the animal is a very strong tool to be used, as it's influence can be so long lasting.

Variability in reinforcements provided in a consistently random manner will establish a very motivated and reliable response in any animal behavior reliability.

When we are considering animal welfare; a possibility for a choice for animal is nowadays always emphasized. Considering the recall we are not really giving a choice to the animal where to we are expecting it to go...but ...

If we are thinking of a scenario where we are training a recall for an animal to go in it's indoor enclosure; Reliability on behavior may have an indirect effect if that animal has access to that indoor area free willingly also during times outside actual training. This way we are giving to the animal more control of it's environment, through choice, which  is recommended to be provided to any animal under our care. 

If Turles Could Fly ...   

What would be a proper cue for turtles?

A cue for a recall can be almost anything; verbal cue or some other sound, light or a body signal etc. It is wise to find a cue which does not normally exist in the animal's environment and of course it should be under our control. 

Sometimes you got to be creative; for example if  you being with an animal with hearing disability or it's eyesight is not too good. In this case it's al about a kind of fitness program for our red-eared and yellow eared sliders; we started to give them a possibility for a couple of hour "walk time" before opening hours at public aquarium ( Särkänniemi Aquarium, Finland). The turtles get on the public area for a morning walk every morning thus giving them a bit of different exercise than they would get in their exhibit. 

Now - turtles are relatively easy to catch when we are putting them back to their premises. However I though of a nice "game" or "play" with them; I started to train them for a cue for recall. It  took me a while to think of a proper cue but eventually I think I game up with a nice idea:

As they have no change to enter their paludarium by them selves (...only if they could fly...) so I starter to work with them for a recall which would have a meaning for them to come to me or any animal caretaker on duty. Once they come to us it is then easy to pick them up and put them into their paludarium. The most convenient way to establish this was just to kneel down next to their exhibition. At the beginning it took a while before animals started to react on this cue well but eventually all four got it. So the cue was simply kneeling down.

As for reinforcements; there were two major rewards or reinforcements I think made the difference for them. One was the fact that they got back to nongravity feeling of swimming in the water and of course a primary reinforcement of food that was at the beginning offered to them almost every time. The variability was maintained by variation in different food items provided to them at this state. After a while the food was not any more provided every time they got into the water. This reinforced the variability and surprise in rewarding shedule, thus making the motivation in long run a whole lot better for them.

Now the "game" is well established and it is rewarding and reinforcing to these cute turtles ... and it is really fun to watch.

Enjoy this short clip :-)

Red-eared slider turtles hurrying back to home after getting a cue for recall !

Ps. If you have any fun stories or cues you've experienced - Please share them as it would be good to hear your expereinces.

Sincerely

Kai Mattsson

Meritime Consulting

www.meritime.net

https://www.facebook.com/Meritime-345171735503394