Let’s talk about reinforcement. In a previous blog post we talked about the “save button.” In horse training, the save button is pressed the moment the situation improves from the horses’s perspective. When the save button is pressed on a behavior, we are more likely to see that behavior again in the future. Behaviorally speaking, this mechanism is called reinforcement.
Reinforcement can happen in two ways. In behavioral analytic terms these two ways are referred to as positive reinforcement and negative reinforcement. This terminology can be confusing though, and often results in people conflating negative reinforcement with punishment.
So, for clarity's sake, we will explain the two types of reinforcement as follows:
Remember that reinforcement happens to a specific behavior at a specific moment in time. Reinforcement happens the moment the horse’s situation improves from his perspective. This reinforcement (or save button) can take one of two forms. Either something is added to improve the horse's situation (praise, treats, scratches), or, something is removed to improve the horse's situation (intimidating energy, a scary object, you).
Encouraging behavior through the addition of praise or treats or scratches is pretty easy to understand and control. Most people don’t do this on accident. We see a behavior we like, and we add something to reward it.
Encouraging behavior through the removal of stimuli, however, is a bit trickier, because it is frequently done unintentionally. This is where we can inadvertently press the save button on behaviors that we definitely don’t want, simply by yielding or changing our “ask” at the wrong time.
For example, let’s say you are attempting to put a fly mask on your horse. You approach him with the fly mask, and as you are raising it up to place it over his ears, he raises his head, snorts, and starts to lean his head up and away from you, just out of reach. At that very moment (realizing that you can’t reach to get the fly mask on) you lower the fly mask to reposition yourself and try again.
In this seemingly benign interaction, you have inadvertently pressed save on your horse’s behavior of avoiding the fly mask by removing the fly mask at the very moment your horse raised his head to avoid it. The situation improved for your horse at that moment because he desired distance from the fly mask and you provided it. It is not uncommon for this type of scenario to repeat itself over and over again, interaction after interaction, day after day, until we end up with a horse that can’t be fly masked. All because we unknowingly pressed save on a behavior we didn’t want.
By simply being aware that we can save behaviors by removing something at a specific moment in time, we will dramatically increase the number of constructive interactions we have with our horses. This understanding of behavioral cause and effect will foster an environment of mutual predictability, which will lead to improved trust and confidence in both horse and handler.
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