Behavior Modification Techniques
By
Dr. Jim and Lynda McCall
Copyright
© 2003
Lesson Four
IMMEDIACY
Does this story sound familiar?
You are riding about five miles from home when you find a reason to step
down and leave your horse for a few minutes. When you decide to get back on, Ol' Pea Brain takes one look at you with startled surprise.
As the whites of his eyes protrude from their sockets it becomes increasingly
apparent that he sees you as a creature from another planet that feeds on horse
blood. Instantly, Ol'
Pea Brain tears away, running wide open toward the safety of the barn.
Being far from home and with a good lead
on the space creature, it isn't long before your trusted mount becomes
distracted from his fear by some succulent green roughage growing along the
way. He stops to gorge himself. Walking up on him, you are very careful this
time to announce yourself as a kind loving human who is responsible for his
care and well being. You assure Ol' Pea Brain he has
nothing to fear by letting you catch hold of the broken bridle reins.
This time the horse is not quite as radical, but he is still suspicious
of your intentions and he saunters just out of reach. By this time smoke may be
bellowing from your ears as your temper waxes and your patience wanes. You
realize, however, that you must remain calm and cool in order to muster another
effort at catching this elusive creature.
You try again. The scenario repeats itself again and again until, finally, the home corral comes into view. On the
tenth attempt at getting hold of those out-of-reach reins, you are finally
successful. You have caught the critter! Good thing, because your patience is
exhausted, your feet sore from walking, and most importantly, your temper long
since maxed out.
What do you do to assure yourself that this incident will not be
repeated? Well, if you're a perceptive, intelligent and sainted human being,
the proper response is to praise Ol' Pea Brain for
letting you catch him. If you are more mortal, you are more apt to beat the
living daylights out of him for running away in the first place.
Which way is the horse going to understand that you don't want this
situation to ever happen again? Whether you reward or punish, the horse
associates that activity with his most recent behavior. In this case the most
recent behavior would be letting you grab hold of the reins. So do you want to
punish or reward the horse? Obviously the answer is to reward or praise the
horse for letting you catch him. Although, at this point, it will,
understandably, take a great deal of self control.
Not every incident of immediacy is quite so contrary to human instincts.
The principles of immediacy are very logical and apply to all animal behavior.
The longer we wait to reinforce a behavior, the less effect the reinforcer has.
Conversely, the sooner after the act we reinforce, the more the behavior is
modified.
The principles of immediacy are very logical and
apply to all animal behavior. The longer we wait to reinforce a behavior, the
less effect the reinforcer has. Conversely, the
sooner after the act we reinforce, the more the behavior is modified.
Looking at another example might show the importance of the simple but
important principle of immediacy. Let's say you are going to ride a
two-year-old for the first time. You climb aboard and ask the youngster to take
a few steps. He takes three or four steps without jumping and exploding. Then
he stops.
You are real proud that this particular
horse has the good sense to do what you want, and that he doesn't try to
relieve himself of the burden on his back. Because you want to let him know he
did well, a natural reaction would be to take a deep breath
and relax, putting a hand on the colt's neck to praise him.
But look at this sequence from a behavioral point of view. The horse was
asked to walk. After walking a few steps, the colt stopped. You praised the
colt. Although it was your intention to reward the horse for walking off easy,
in reality, he has been praised for stopping.
You have rewarded the wrong behavior.
You asked him to go and rewarded him for stopping. If this sequence is
repeated several more times, it won't be long before the youngster is sure that
every time you ask him to go on; he should only go a few steps and then stop.
Unfortunately, this isn't what you want, and you may believe that the
cooperative young horse you had a few minutes earlier has become balky and
stubborn. What he needs is a good slap on the rump with the reins to straighten
him out.
Wee ha! The colt explodes from fear brought about by a misunderstanding
of the minds. He tries to escape the situation by dumping the dummy on his back
who doesn't seem to know giddy-up from whoa.
This sequence of events happens quite often in the breaking of a
youngster. A different approach would be to ask the colt to move off by
applying just a little more pressure than he can handle. The pressure could be
in the form of legs, voice, seat, crop - whatever cues
the young horse reads and needs as impulsion. As soon as the colt begins to
move forward, remove the impulsion cues and relax. This reinforces forward
movement, increasing the odds that the behavior will occur again when the
impulsion cue is given.
The key to the success of rewarding behavior is immediacy. The power of
reinforcers to change behavior is greatly reduced as time between the action
and the reward increases. This is, unfortunately, also true when punishment is
used to try and remove undesirable behavior.
The
key to the success of rewarding behavior is immediacy
For instance, suppose you walk into the stall of an aggressive horse who
tries to kick you or otherwise run you out his stall. To fend the attack, you
leave to get a stick or whip to assert your dominance. Re-entering the stall,
you now proceed to beat the dickens out of the horse for previously threatening
you. Confused, the horse may do one of several things. He may cower in the
corner, shaking like a leaf, wondering why this maniac is beating him for no
good reason. Another possible response is that the horse who didn't do anything
this time might meet your confrontation head-on. Regardless of the horse's
reaction to your beating, it is important to understand that he does not
associate his previous undesirable behavior with your belated irate response.
Always be prepared when entering the stall of an aggressive animal who
might want to fight over stall territoriality. Even unarmed, you can make an
impression. Halters and leads will do as makeshift whips in a pinch. Follow an
attack with a counter-attack. Yelling and charging the beast are definite signs
that you are not going to submit to his domination. His behavior will not be
rewarded. You may not win the round, but neither has he. Be
even more prepared for the next time he threatens you.
Show horses do not have a special gene which allows them to understand a
time warp between their performance in the ring and a "back behind the
barn session of punishment training".
How many times have you seen a rider have a bad performance in the ring
and immediately after leaving the ring start a major episode of punishment
training?
What can the horse possibly think?
That is being punished for leaving the ring?
How many times have you heard horsemen say, "Aw he knows what I am punishing
him for! Excuse
us! We don't think so! Maybe, like abused children and women, the
horse just thinks that it is part of his life.
He doesn't know why he is getting hit.
He just has to take it.
If you are not getting your message through to your horse, take a step
back and reevaluate what you are rewarding or punishing. Take a moment to look
at the situation through the eyes of the horse. Is your response paired
correctly with the behavior you are trying to mold? Horses are easily conditioned
to respond in a given manner. Provide your response immediately after the
behavior you wish to change and you will have the first key to using operant
conditioning to manipulate horse behavior.