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
https://www.facebook.com/Meritime-345171735503394
https://www.linkedin.com/in/kai-mattsson-36967819/
kai@meritime.net
