Invitation To Participate In Research

[Willem]

And they also defined punishment as mamy things including 'verbal correction'. If I catch my dog peeing on the carpet I will yell OI and put them outside. But I don't 'punish' them.

^^ this

There are consequences if my dogs behave badly. e.g. if they wouldn't stop jumping up at visitors they would either go outside or in a crate. But is this punishment?

If it reduces the frequency/duration/intensity of the behaviour, then yes! :) If it isn't affecting future behaviour, then it's not a meaningful consequence to the dog, is it?

...however, this is not how 'punishment' is defined by the originator of the survey...according to the survey 'punishment' equals any treatment that involves force as a response to unwanted behaviour.

Eta: IMO 'punishment' would have required a much more detailed explanation in the survey - different definitions of 'punishment' from participants of the survey will obviously have a big impact on the findings.

Eta: in the survey the originator states:..."For the purposes of this study, 'punishment' refers to administering treatment that the dog is likely to find unpleasant, such as verbal or physical reprimands"...so while I my explanation above using the word 'force' isn't totally correct, the originator's definition of 'punishment' definitely doesn't comply with the definition of 'punishment' in behaviour science where the potential outcome defines whether it is 'punishment' or not. The originator's definition leaves it also unclear whether 'negative punishment' (removal of appetitive stimuli) should be interpreted as 'punishment' in the context of the survey or not.

Edited June 4, 2016 by Willem

[Papillon Kisses]

I assumed the survey was asking about positive punishment (in terms of applied behaviour analysis).

Edited June 3, 2016 by Papillon Kisses

[Mrs Rusty Bucket]

The punishment questions I answered all the same - based on the definition of punishment given I would never "punish" my dog for anything.

But a lot of the behaviours I absolutely would stop my dog from doing and train something else but no other options were available.

And for the methods of "punishment" - I would not use any of those methods either.

Wondered if the preceding questions were about bias - ie if you're primed with a bunch of ideas about what is disgusting or not - are you more likely to answer that you punish your dog more.

Except - I don't use any of the techniques or methods listed to get my dog on the path to better behaviour. And she gets lots of compliments on how well behaved she is. Until she sees a poodle cross at our local park and then she scares the crap out of everyone. Managed to prevent that tonight.

But I do use techniques designed to reduce repetition of an undesirable behaviour - and that qualifies as "punishment" under the definitions of operant conditioning. And telling her she's not getting a treat for that (or just failing to deliver a treat for poor performance) or laughing at her when she stuffs up - she considers +P but it's not a verbal reprimand. Verbal reprimands make her shut down.

[westiemum]

Very clever survey raineth. Can't wait for the results.

[mita]

One of the trickiest things for beginning psych students to cotton on to, are the differences between positive reinforcement & negative reinforcement & positive punishment & negative punishment. (yep, there's 2 of those critters!).

Clearest, neatest explanation I know, was in an article in Scientific American... where they explained operant conditioning, which involves those above.

The article comes to a splendid conclusion in describing which of these strategies were used by the trainers who taught the dogs in New Zealand to drive a car.

http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/thoughtful-animal/what-is-operant-conditioning-and-how-does-it-explain-driving-dogs/

Best wishes with the survey...you've rightly stated, for the purposes of this survey, your terms will mean what. But the article above might be of interest to anyone who'd like Occam's Razor applied to the whole box & dice of operant conditioning, so it becomes clearer.

And we add to the mix by making (rightly so or sadly not so) ethical decisions about how the above is used. Like how people in this thread refer to the ethics of what they would not do.

Edited June 7, 2016 by mita