Behavioral Essays - Behaviorism, Learning, Experimental Psychology

Behavioral Conditioning What I want to do is train my dog to shake with either paw upon request. If I say "right" I want him to raise his right paw and the same for the left. I would use operant and classical conditioning to reach the goal of teaching this trick to my dog. I must condition the dog to shake by using positive reinforcement. The dog (Max) already puts his paw on me when I grab his head so I will act like I am going to reach for his head and when he puts his paw on me I will say, "shake." Every time he puts his paw on me after I say shake I will give him a liver treat. Once I have conditioned him to shake it will then be time to differentiate right from left. I want the words, "shake right" and "shake left " to be the conditioned stimulus (CS) and the raising of the appropriate paw to be the conditioned response (CR). I will condition the unconditioned response (UCR), shaking; the unconditioned stimulus (UCS), tapping his leg, by using operant conditioning and liver treats as positive reinforcement. Day 1: I began by acting like I was going to grab Max' head. Just as I suspected he put his paw on my arm. I tapped his leg and I gave him a treat as a positive reinforcer. I am using operant conditioning at this point in order to establish an unconditioned stimulus (taping Max' leg) and an unconditioned response (putting his paw in my hand). Once I have shaped this behavior I can then go on to the second phase using Pavlov's classical conditioning. Day 2: After two days of fixed ratio reinforcement, Max is beginning to give a conditioned response every time I tap his leg. Every time I tap his leg we exchange a paw for a liver treat. I am using continuous reinforcement today. Day 3: I have switched to using variable interval reinforcement. I will only give him a liver treat whenever I feel like it. Max is now learning that when I tap his leg he is to give me his paw. I am actually conditioning an unconditioned response. I am still using variable interval reinforcement but I only gave him two treats the whole day. Day 4: It is now time to switch over to classical conditioning. I have the active ingredient to do a Pavlov classic experiment. My UCS is now the leg tap and the UCR is Max shaking. I no longer have to use any reinforcement. Every time I tap Max' leg, he shakes. Day 5: I now introduce the words "shake right," the neutral stimulus (NS), as I tap the appropriate leg. I am beginning to get the conditioned response, which is lifting the appropriate paw. Day 6: I now introduce the words "shake left," as I tap the appropriate leg. I now have to reintroduce positive reinforcement. I am afraid Max might be forgetting the CR. He is not wanting to cooperate. Day 7: The NS alone now produces a conditioned response, thereby becoming a CS. I must use variable interval reinforcement to insure the CR continues. I will use this schedule of reinforcement so that Max won't know when to expect a treat. I figure that if he doesn't know when to expect a treat, he will give the CR to the CS more often than not. Day 8: When I say, "shake right," Max will lift his right paw. When I say, "shake left" he lifts the left paw. I will continue to use the variable interval reinforcement to maintain the behavior. This was a lot of fun and my dog just got smarter. I think I got smarter too. I think I could teach Max to do whatever I want him to as long as I follow the simple steps of conditioning, classical and operant.