The Learned Dog: Learning theory, animal learning and the practice of animal training - Bruce Blumberg & Carolyn Barney Harvard Extension School...
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The Learned Dog: Learning theory, animal learning and the practice of animal training Bruce Blumberg & Carolyn Barney Harvard Extension School- Spring 2008
Agenda for class
• Introductions
• Overview of course: objectives, themes and big ideas
• Details:
• Readings,assignments, expectations
• Website (accessing e-journals, discussion board, video page, updated
syllabus...)
Introductions
Instructors • Bruce Blumberg • Senior Scientist, Blue Fang Games, Inc. • bblumber@fas.harvard.edu • Carolyn Barney • Founder, Gemini Dogs Inc. • cbdogs@aol.com
A bit about Carolyn... where the paws hit the mat
Bruce’s perspective working with his own dogs &
developing computer models of
shaped by dog training & learning
The dogs around you are Use this class to sharpen your
ability to see what your dog is
your best instructors telling you
The Learned Dog – class 1 Human Training Game
Shaping Behavior
We will use Positive Reinforcement (R+)
We will use a bridge, a clicker in this case
Clicker predicts food (or anything good) is
coming: by pairing the click and the food
Shaping = create a behavior by reinforcing
successive approximations of the target behavior
Think Hot and Cold game
Click = hot!
Shaping Behavior Click when “animal” gets closer to behavior Do nothing if “animal” is wrong Reinforcement notes: for humans the click itself being information acts as a primary with your animals you will ALWAYS follow the click with a primary such as food works great with kids but use a reinforcer after the click
The Shaping Game
Subject “animal” leaves the room
Trainers decide on a behavior
Human behavior not dog
Sit in a particular chair, pick up an item, touch
something (not someone)
“Animal” returns – begin shaping
Distance folks either click along with class or get
a friend or family member to playThe Shaping Game
Now you know (sort of) how it feels to be our dogs
However, you get the rules explained up front
They do not!
This can be useful for humans actually learning
tasks from sports to teaching autistic children: It is
called Tag TeachMechanical Skills
Any training method requires mechanical skills
Practice without your animal first
Examples for clicker training
Remaining still
Timing of click
Delivery of reinforcer (food)
timing
placementMechanical Skills Practice! Practice! Practice!
Outline for the course
But first a cautionary tale...
100% chance of 0% chance of
success... success...
Why do they choose the After this class they will still
choose the squirrels every time,
squirrel every time? but at least you may know why...Our story begins with the Brelands...
• Students of B.F. Skinner
• Left his lab in 1947 to start an animal training business drawing on the
techniques developed in Skinner’s lab (applied operant conditioning)
• “observe don’t infer” taken to the extreme and through a very specific lens
• Species-specific biases seen as secondary to the universal laws of learning...
• By 1961 had trained over 6000 animals from 38 species...
• Over this period they encountered a “persistent pattern of discomforting
failures”Our story begins with the Brelands
A surprisingly sensitive
performance for one so Thank God there is
young... We are not
no piggy bank
amused...
involved...Discomforting failures...
• Raccoon...
• Conditioned to pick up a coin: easy
• Conditioned to drop coin in a container: hard
• Persistent “washing” even when it meant delay of the food reward...
• Attempted to condition dropping 2 coins: time for a new trickDiscomforting failures...
• The Dilly-dallying Pig
• Conditioned to pick up a dollar bill and deposit it in a piggy bank
(savings & loan companies were evidently big customers)
• Over time, pig would “repeatedly drop it, root it, drop it again, root it
along the way, toss it up in the air...”
• “They stretch out the time required for reinforcement when nothing in the
experimental setup requires them to do so. They have only to do the little
tidbit of behavior to which they were conditioned... to get reinforced
immediately. Instead, they drag the process out... Moreover increasing the
drive merely intensifies this effect”
Breland, K. and M. Breland (1961). "The Misbehavior of Organisms." American Psychologist 16: 681-684.The Brelands’ Conclusions... • “Hidden assumptions which led most disastrously to these breakdowns in the theory” • “virtual tabla rasa” • “species differences are insignificant” • “all responses are all about equally conditionable to all stimuli” • “It is our reluctant conclusion that the behavior of any species can not be adequately understood, predicted, or controlled without knowledge of its instinctive patterns, evolutionary history, and ecological niche”
To the Brelands’ list, I would... • Amend their statement by replacing ‘species’ with ‘individual’, and add: • Emotion and temperament • Development & developmental context • Perceptual capabilities and biases • What is this reward thing anyway? • In other words, the whole dog, and not any old dog, but the dog standing in front of you!
The goal of this course is to place animal learning & training within the larger context of understanding the whole animal & the problems it has to solve in its ecological niche.
Overview of course • History of animal training (1 week) • Emotional context for learning (1 week) • Pavlovian & Operant Conditioning (6 weeks) • Pet dog and performance dog training (1 week) • Behavior Modification & Pharmacology (1 week) • Applications in zoos (1 week) • Learning in nature (1 week) • Social Learning (1 week) • Animal training from zoos to agility trials ( 3 weeks)
Traditional Learning Theory
BB: Emphasis on CB: Emphasis on the
the ideas behind Practical application
the ideas as well of the ideas in pet &
as an ethological performance dog
perspective training
Not a traditional learning The focus is on animal learning
theory class and trainingOur goals for you
• Provide an opportunity to read and reflect on a range of topics that ultimately
help you better understand the process of learning in animals such as dogs
• Place learning within the larger behavioral, cognitive and emotional context
of the animal
• Exposure to primary and secondary sources
• Give you new tools with which to think about the process of animal training
• Practical insight for you and your dogReadings are an integral part of the journey... • Knowledge is a good thing • Multiple perspectives is a good thing • Knowing the primary sources is a good thing • What they actually said & the actual basis for what they said • Forming your own perspective is a good thing
Readings: books • Required books (any addition is fine...) • Grandin & Johnson Animals in Translation. • Schwartz, Wasserman & Robbins: Psychology of learning and behavior • Burch & Bailey: How dogs learn • Great books to have... • Lindsay: Applied dog behavior & training • Shettleworth: Cognition, Evolution & Behavior • Harvard Coop, www.dogwise.com, www.amazon.com
Readings: journal articles
• Original source material on dogs published in scientific journals such as:
• Nature, Science, Animal Behavior, Trends in Cognitive Science, American
Scientist, Animal Cognition, Journal of Comparative Psychology, Journal of
Applied Animal Welfare Science
• Available online...
• Check syllabus if available directly from a website
• Typically, through harvard librariesDetailed overview of the course
Format for classes & readings • Typically, each week we will have readings from • Psychology of Learning and Behavior (SWR) • Excel-erated Learning (Reid) • Class format • Review of core ideas from readings (BB) • Practical application (CB)
Week 2: historical perspective on animal training & an introduction to some of the key techniques • What do we know about the practice of animal training in the past? How have things changed, how have they stayed the same, what perspective does it provide on trends today? • Special focus on the training of hounds and terriers in 19th century England. • An introduction to the key techniques of shaping, targeting, luring and stimulus control.
Week 3 : animals as emotional beings • Reading: Grandin, chapters 1-5 • How to think about emotions in animals • The role of emotions in mediating animal’s responses to their world • The really hard training problems occur when you are working against the emotional biases of the animal
Week 4: philosophy, single-event learning and the neural basis for learning • Reading: Schwartz, chapters 1-2 • The philosophical basis for behavior theory • The low-level neural basis for learning • Single event learning as a case study • The role of the amygdala
Week 5: pavlovian conditioning, basic phenomena and causal factors • Reading: Schwartz, chapters 3-4 • Basic concepts of Pavlovian conditioning: what is it, basic terms, and what types of associations are made? • Not all associations between stimuli are equally useful, and animals seem to be selective in the types of associations they learn. What factors influence the ‘usefulness’ of an association, and the likelihood of being learned? • Biological constraints on learning. An association that is easy for one species to learn may be difficult or impossible for another species to learn. Learning as a behavioral response to the specific problems a species faces in its ecological niche.
Week 6: pavlovian conditioning, explanations and
what is learned anyway?
• Reading: Schwartz, chapters 5-6
• Mathematical models as tools to understand the dynamics of the underlying
mechanism
• Rescorla-Wagner model
• Gallistel’s time-rate conditioning model
• What is the exact nature of the association that is learned?
• Does Pavlovian conditioning involve purely an S-S association, purely an S-
R association, something in between, and do we know?Week 7: operant conditioning, basic phenomena and causal factors • Reading: Schwartz, chapters 7-8 • Basic concepts of operant conditioning: what is it, basic terms & concepts, the nature of reinforcement, extrinsic vs. intrinsic motivation... • Is operant conditioning about contingency or contiguity in space and time? • What is the nature of the association that is learned?
Week 8: operant conditioning seen through several different lens... • Reading: Schwartz, chapter 10, Burgdorf & Panksepp • Operant conditioning and the economics of choice, i.e., choosing from among several alternatives • A second look at the nature of reinforcement, and the role of self-motivating, self-rewarding behaviors. • A critique of learning theory: can we even define precisely what we mean by reinforcement? • The role of expectations
Week 9: perceptual & cognitive representations • Reading: Schwartz, chapters 11-13 • Understanding the nature of the perceptual representations that underlie operant and pavlovian conditioning: discrimination, generalization and conceptualization. • Understanding the interaction between pavlovian and operant conditioning. Are they really as separable and distinct as we make them out to be?
Week 10: the neural basis of fear conditioning and aversive control of behavior • Reading: Schwartz, chapter 9, LeDoux optional • Understanding the neural basis of fear conditioning including the role of the amygdala. • The influence of aversive stimuli on operant behavior
Class 11: applications in pet, performance and working dog training • How to apply these ideas in a practical and focused setting.
Class 12: behavior modification and pharmacology • Application of the theory to specific behavioral issues and the role of pharamacology • Readings: TBD
Week 13: applications in zoos from husbandry, to enrichment to training • Readings: Various readings from the Journal of Applied Animal Welfare and the Journal of Zoo Biology • Guest speaker!!! • Understand the application of operant and pavlovian conditioning in animal husbandry, enrichment and training in zoos. • Get a sense for some of the special issues associated with working with animals in zoos
Week 14: an ethological perspective on learning
theory
• Reading: Shettleworth, Bolhuis & Honey, Marler (maybe)
• Learning within the larger context of a species adaptive strategy
• General learning mechanisms or adaptive specializations tailored to the
specific learning problems the species has to solve in its niche?
• Perhaps it is a general learning mechanism scaffolded by adaptive
specializations that make it easier to learn what needs to be learnedWeek 15: social learning and model-rival training • Reading: Pepperberg, Slabbert & Rasa, Pongracz • The nature of social learning. Is it a special type of learning, or can it be understood within the framework we have developed in the course? • Understanding the nature of model-rival training
Weeks 14 and 15: applications in pet dog and performance dog training • Readings: TBD • The goal of these 2 classes is to characterize, understand and critique various approaches to pet dog and performance dog training in light of all we have learned in the class.
Practical matters...
Readings...
• The class will be most useful to you if you...
• do the assigned reading, reflect on it, and draw your own conclusions &
meanings from it.
• If short on time, pick one reading and focus on it, rather than skim all
• A good way to reflect on the readings is to observe, work with, and/or play with
your own dog, or go to a dog park and observe other dogs.
• If you need to justify it, consider it homework :-)Assignments
• 2 short quizzes
• Open book, take-home
• 20% of grade each
• 1 final paper
• Pick a behavior problem, develop a protocol, implement it and write up your
experience.
• 50% of gradeAssignments • Participate on discussion board • Should be equivalent over the semester to an informal 3-4 page paper. • 10% of grade • If you are uncomfortable with discussion board, you may submit a 3-4 page paper based on some thread on the discussion board • due by the end of the semester
Grading philosophy
• The best papers in my eyes are those that...
• Make me think
• Show that you are forming your own perspective on the ideas presented in
class and via the readings
• I want to read what you think, and I want to see you present your ideas
in a clear and articulate mannerAcademic honesty • Please be sure you understand your responsibility with respect to the appropriate use and attribution of sources... • www.fas.harvard.edu/~expos/sources • There should never be any confusion in the reader’s mind whether the idea and/or presentation of that idea is yours, or belongs to someone else. • If in doubt, ask... • I am required to report cases of suspected academic dishonesty to the dean’s office.
Extensions
• Extensions for the 2 short papers...
• email me (bblumber@fas.harvard.edu) prior to due date to request an
extension. I will automatically grant a 1 week extension, no questions
asked.
• Extension for the final paper
• You must submit a signed Extension Request form to the academic office
prior to last date when they will accept the form (2 or 3 weeks prior to end
of semester.)
• I can not give a passing grade without receiving final paper, and can not submit
a grade of INC without also submitting extension form.Extensions • If real life intrudes, please don’t hesitate to ask for an extension, but please respect the guidelines above!
Memorable
URL
Class website:
http://isites.harvard.edu/icb/icb.dokeyword=k29941Class website It is your friend
Accessing Harvard’s e-journal collection
accessing e-journals can be accessed from:
http://lib.harvard.edu/E journal web page Be sure to log in
Harvard ID & PIN
requiredEnter name of journal
Click on title
Enter author and/or
Access to ScienceDirect is worth
volume & issue price of courseClick to download
Great for doing general
searchesRetrieved articles Not all are available, though
Accessing class discussion board
Class discussion board An important dimension of class
Class discussion board
Class discussion board • Use this to discuss readings & ideas presented in class, or questions that you have from class • Ask dog-related questions that you think are of general interest to your classmates • Please be respectful of the ideas of others (no flame wars...)
Video page: for watching recorded lectures on line
Lectures available on-line
You need to be logged in to see
24-48 hours after actual video page linkpdfs of slides will be posted
the day after the lectureLet me know if I can help make online lectures better
Next week: Setting the stage
• The history of animal training
• Readings
• Breland, K. and M. Breland (1951). "A field of applied animal psychology."
American Psychologist 6: 202-204.
• Breland, K. and M. Breland (1961). "The Misbehavior of Organisms."
American Psychologist 16: 681-684.
• LeRossignol, J. E. L. (1892). "The Training of Animals." The American
Journal of Psychology 5(2): 205-213.You can also read
