Reinforcement and Punishment

[@1Whipperin]

Excellent educational video on training and learning theory. This video should be studied by all horse owners and trainers and have millions of likes and views. It explains so much that needs to be understood in such a short amount of time, Thank you!

[@equinesciencetalkinternati9407]

Many thanks for all the feedback, comments and suggestions! We will certainly endeavour to cover the points raised in future videos!

[@madmax0781]

I'd be happy to help you fill in any gaps!

[@fburton8]

I thought you made an excellent point (at 3:19) about the intensity of punishment (or the stimuli that lead to effective reduction in unwanted behaviour), that it needn't entail aggressive, violent or even strong actions from the rider/trainer. At these levels of pressure, positive punishment and negative reinforcement can be used together and also be harder to tell apart - as the statement at 3:36 demonstrates.

[@fburton8]

Really interesting video. Will you be talking about the other ways that horses can learn, e.g. classical conditioning, and how they can be used in training?

[@ahorseandhergirl4301]

No mention of using a bridge signal to let the horse know that they have performed a behaviour we want repeated and that a reinforcer will follow. For example clicker training. This makes using positive reinforcement possible when training at a distance or when riding. A break in the training could be viewed as negative reinforcement or negative punishment dependent on the type of training used. The horse decides what is reinforcing or punishing.

[@horsecharming1506]

Precisely

[@1Whipperin]

They made a succinct video not an exhaustive video on training.

[@sallypenno164]

The example of positive punishment is actually negetive reinforcement. Positive punishment Adding an aversive to stop a behaviour happening again. Horse goes to bite, you slap nose. Negetive reinforcement Taking away something to increase the behaviour happening again. Asking the horse to back up, you start with the lightest pressure/ask for a backward movement. Soon as the horse even slightly moves back you stop the pressure. Letting the horse know it's the correct response.

[@horseproblems]

How come you are reading everything?

[@horsecharming1506]

A break in the training is surely negative reinforcement, particularly if the horse's behaviour has been prompted by a traditional aid or aversive stimulus. If you're using positive reinforcement in training, a break in the training would act to negatively punish whatever behaviour it follows.

[@fburton8]

Those are good points. If the work leading up to the break was perceived as aversive/unpleasant then there could be negative reinforcement. Another question is the extent to which the whole pre-break training session would have a negatively reinforcing effect, or whether it is more useful to think in terms of events and perceptions happening moment to moment. I'm sure there is some cumulative stuff going on too as an excess of aversive stimuli will change overall mood. (Apologies if I'm not using current accepted terminology.) Finally, doesn't stopping a training session based on positive reinforcement present a problem - that you can never "end on a good note" because stopping necessarily creates disappointment? Maybe the moment-to-moment vs longer lasting cumulative aspect plays into this as well.

[@madmax0781]

@@fburton8 if you're careful about how you end a session of training that uses positive reinforcement there isn't necessarily a negative punishment effect. For instance if you're training a horse with food, then what you make sure of is that you've taken them back to somewhere where there is forage available in the form of grass or hay before you leave the area and what I generally do is to drop a small amount of training food on the grass or hay and leave while they are eating that, and then they just carry on eating that forage without following and wanting more. Also it's wise to have a specific signal that heralds the start and end of a session. In my case, putting on a bum bag of food means we're training. Ending the session with a hand signal and a verbal cue "all done" and then dropping some additional food onto hay or grass and then leaving can also be learned that the session is over - without loss of access to food. So it IS possible to negatively punish the behaviour that ending a session follows if you simply walk away with the food, but a trainer who knows their behaviour science won't be doing that.