Corinthian
07-26-2008, 03:11 AM
I've used target on occasion when I was reluctant to rely on pure shaping methods. Though I tend to prefer pure shaping just because it can produce a novel and exciting behaviors, target training also has its benefits. When my my older dog was learning heeling, no amount of shaping seemed to cure his crabbing, by teaching him to target his left hip to a stick we finally straightened our crooked, crooked ways.
Bridge and Target Training: Beyond Behavior Modification
KAYCE COVER
Bridge and Target training, as developed from classical and operant conditioning in the marine mammal training field, is presented as an important tool in the enlightened and humane management of animals. Two distinctive developments of this technique, the INTERMEDIATE BRIDGE AND TARGET, are presented which go beyond operant conditioning and allow better communication between human and non-human animals. Continuous rewards are bridged to 20 percent to 30 percent reinforcements on a variable schedule. Successful applications with many species are presented including horses, pigs, pigeons, dogs, and frogs. Food rewards are rarely given. Other reward possibilities are discovered or motivators can develop by asking or finding the individual animal's desires, and these can become secondary reinforcers. Examples of accomplishments by trainer and animal teams are presented.
INTRODUCTION
We can find ourselves not living up to our own animal care and management standards because of various expediencies. For example, we would like to administer good, low stress health care, but may compromise that goal if our animal will not allow routine examinations, causing us to miss early health problems. If the animal does not cooperate with his own medical care, he is more likely to require anesthesia even for simple procedures, sometimes at considerable risk to the animal. Similarly, when teaching animals, if we cannot explain things to them in a way that they can understand, then we can find ourselves using physical force or bribes to make an animal conform to some wish of ours. Over the past twenty years or so, a method of animal training developed in the marine mammal community which allows us to minimize coercive, invasive, and restrictive treatment of our animal colleagues while maximizing our ability to cooperate and communicate together. This technique evolved from classical and operant conditioning, and I describe it as "Bridge and Target" (BT) training.
Editor's Note:
I find the amazing success of BT, like with the most successful behavior modification techniques, uses empathic understanding when it is at its best. The dynamics of BT are many, some of which I believe are not yet understood. It has to do with clear communication, rewards, curiosity, relationship between trainer and subject, compulsivity of some species and individuals, and much more! "Bridge and Target" (BT) training allows people to communicate with animals with startling ease and without using any physical force or constraint. Although it has been used in various degrees of sophistication throughout the marine mammal industry for a long time, it has been difficult for anyone outside the marine mammal training field to obtain a description of this technique. Most of the people actively involved in its development are oriented to entertaining the public, rather than publishing in academic journals. Also, many of the facilities where these techniques have been developed consider them proprietary, and although they may have manuals for internal use, are not interested in divulging their techniques to others.
THE BRIDGE
After a rather extensive literature search to see what was available to academicians, I found nothing. Therefore, in 1990 I wrote a short manual describing the basics of how to communicate non-verbally with animals by "Bridge and Target" training (1993). It is distinct from state of the art (or science) operant conditioning in two ways. While both use a conditioned stimulus (bridge) to signal completion of a trial to the subject, "Bridge and Target" training is unique because of its use of an intermediate bridge. The intermediate bridge signals the subject that s/he is on the right track but has not completed the trial yet, like the clue "warm, warm, warm!" in the game "Hot and Cold." The importance of this tiny addition in technique is profound. It allows us to support the subject every instant as s/he claims new territory in learning, to convert failed trials into successes, and to expand correct behavior in the face of challenge. Along with this, it allows the subject to actually process what is going on and think about it!
THE TARGET
The second innovation of BT is the target. Although some might say this is similar to the feed-activating lever in operant conditioning paradigms, BT goes far beyond this. In Skinner boxes, animals are easily conditioned to push a lever to activate feed, or are situationally manipulated into other responses: but all in a very limited and controlled environment, usually a cage. The chances are the animals in such tightly controlled conditions will happen to push the lever as s/he investigates the food source. In the real world, in order for animals to operate any mechanism, they must first notice it in an environment rich in distractions and choices. BT helps the individual focus on a target. This can be accomplished initially by teaching the subject to touch a contact point, commonly called a target, preferably while s/he is in a controlled environment, such as a lab or training area. This focal point can then be transferred out of the lab and into the real world where we can now focus the animal's attention in one spot, and then give information, usually via placement of one or more targets.
In BT, the act of targeting is not directly related to getting food. It is directly related to getting bridged, with occasional (less than 20 percent) food awards! There is a difference between the individual who is going after food and one who is acting in order to make contact with a target. An animal who is focused on food is not necessarily open to learning. Have you ever noticed if you follow another car to find your way somewhere, you often will not notice your path because your attention was focused on the car ahead? If you are able to plot your course with a map, you are more likely to come away with an orientation to the entire neighborhood or the entire situation. Thus, it is important to teach the trainees to focus on the targets as markers which show the path they are to take, and not as places where food is going to appear next. For this reason, animals are taught to pass by food to get to targets early in their training! Once the target is separated from eating behavior, it is possible to introduce new targets at contact points not through use of signals related to food or other reinforcers. Any part of the body can be targeted or many parts can be targeted at once. Any target can be moved relative to the animal's body or his or her environment.
In Bridge and Target training, the target is presented to the animal, showing the individual exactly what s/he must do to be successful. Trial and error is eliminated. Once the animal has learned to contact a target, for example with his or her muzzle, s/he will contact the target whenever and wherever it is presented. Even if a target is presented across a room or a field, the subject will understand that if s/he wants to be bridged, s/he must travel to contact the target with his or her muzzle. This is why it is so easy to teach animals to "come" by this technique, and why it is so easy to correct run-away animals. The animal learns by following a moving target, we can define any motion or behavior. Targets can be presented in a series in order to form certain behaviors, complex behaviors, positions or even be used to communicate concepts like, "wait," in a process analogous to "connecting the dots."
To summarize, the introduction of a fully formed target concept 1) transmits the specific requirements for success to the animal, eliminating trial and error,
2) focuses the individual's attention to the place where the trainer will deliver the next information, in a mode that prepares him or her for learning (versus eating),
3) expands the flexibility of what we can discuss with the trainee because we can extend targeting to body parts that are not directly related to eating (so neither attention nor activities are limited to eating related activities). Moreover, animals quickly learn their way around this system so we can show them the desired end point. Then they will work with us to get there, sometimes improving the methods and results.
The article is too long to post in its entirety. You can read the rest of it at:
http://www.psyeta.org/hia/vol8/cover.html
Related Websites:
http://www.rrcow.org/bt_semr.htm
http://www.caninehorizons.com/Bridge_and_Target.html
Bridge and Target Training: Beyond Behavior Modification
KAYCE COVER
Bridge and Target training, as developed from classical and operant conditioning in the marine mammal training field, is presented as an important tool in the enlightened and humane management of animals. Two distinctive developments of this technique, the INTERMEDIATE BRIDGE AND TARGET, are presented which go beyond operant conditioning and allow better communication between human and non-human animals. Continuous rewards are bridged to 20 percent to 30 percent reinforcements on a variable schedule. Successful applications with many species are presented including horses, pigs, pigeons, dogs, and frogs. Food rewards are rarely given. Other reward possibilities are discovered or motivators can develop by asking or finding the individual animal's desires, and these can become secondary reinforcers. Examples of accomplishments by trainer and animal teams are presented.
INTRODUCTION
We can find ourselves not living up to our own animal care and management standards because of various expediencies. For example, we would like to administer good, low stress health care, but may compromise that goal if our animal will not allow routine examinations, causing us to miss early health problems. If the animal does not cooperate with his own medical care, he is more likely to require anesthesia even for simple procedures, sometimes at considerable risk to the animal. Similarly, when teaching animals, if we cannot explain things to them in a way that they can understand, then we can find ourselves using physical force or bribes to make an animal conform to some wish of ours. Over the past twenty years or so, a method of animal training developed in the marine mammal community which allows us to minimize coercive, invasive, and restrictive treatment of our animal colleagues while maximizing our ability to cooperate and communicate together. This technique evolved from classical and operant conditioning, and I describe it as "Bridge and Target" (BT) training.
Editor's Note:
I find the amazing success of BT, like with the most successful behavior modification techniques, uses empathic understanding when it is at its best. The dynamics of BT are many, some of which I believe are not yet understood. It has to do with clear communication, rewards, curiosity, relationship between trainer and subject, compulsivity of some species and individuals, and much more! "Bridge and Target" (BT) training allows people to communicate with animals with startling ease and without using any physical force or constraint. Although it has been used in various degrees of sophistication throughout the marine mammal industry for a long time, it has been difficult for anyone outside the marine mammal training field to obtain a description of this technique. Most of the people actively involved in its development are oriented to entertaining the public, rather than publishing in academic journals. Also, many of the facilities where these techniques have been developed consider them proprietary, and although they may have manuals for internal use, are not interested in divulging their techniques to others.
THE BRIDGE
After a rather extensive literature search to see what was available to academicians, I found nothing. Therefore, in 1990 I wrote a short manual describing the basics of how to communicate non-verbally with animals by "Bridge and Target" training (1993). It is distinct from state of the art (or science) operant conditioning in two ways. While both use a conditioned stimulus (bridge) to signal completion of a trial to the subject, "Bridge and Target" training is unique because of its use of an intermediate bridge. The intermediate bridge signals the subject that s/he is on the right track but has not completed the trial yet, like the clue "warm, warm, warm!" in the game "Hot and Cold." The importance of this tiny addition in technique is profound. It allows us to support the subject every instant as s/he claims new territory in learning, to convert failed trials into successes, and to expand correct behavior in the face of challenge. Along with this, it allows the subject to actually process what is going on and think about it!
THE TARGET
The second innovation of BT is the target. Although some might say this is similar to the feed-activating lever in operant conditioning paradigms, BT goes far beyond this. In Skinner boxes, animals are easily conditioned to push a lever to activate feed, or are situationally manipulated into other responses: but all in a very limited and controlled environment, usually a cage. The chances are the animals in such tightly controlled conditions will happen to push the lever as s/he investigates the food source. In the real world, in order for animals to operate any mechanism, they must first notice it in an environment rich in distractions and choices. BT helps the individual focus on a target. This can be accomplished initially by teaching the subject to touch a contact point, commonly called a target, preferably while s/he is in a controlled environment, such as a lab or training area. This focal point can then be transferred out of the lab and into the real world where we can now focus the animal's attention in one spot, and then give information, usually via placement of one or more targets.
In BT, the act of targeting is not directly related to getting food. It is directly related to getting bridged, with occasional (less than 20 percent) food awards! There is a difference between the individual who is going after food and one who is acting in order to make contact with a target. An animal who is focused on food is not necessarily open to learning. Have you ever noticed if you follow another car to find your way somewhere, you often will not notice your path because your attention was focused on the car ahead? If you are able to plot your course with a map, you are more likely to come away with an orientation to the entire neighborhood or the entire situation. Thus, it is important to teach the trainees to focus on the targets as markers which show the path they are to take, and not as places where food is going to appear next. For this reason, animals are taught to pass by food to get to targets early in their training! Once the target is separated from eating behavior, it is possible to introduce new targets at contact points not through use of signals related to food or other reinforcers. Any part of the body can be targeted or many parts can be targeted at once. Any target can be moved relative to the animal's body or his or her environment.
In Bridge and Target training, the target is presented to the animal, showing the individual exactly what s/he must do to be successful. Trial and error is eliminated. Once the animal has learned to contact a target, for example with his or her muzzle, s/he will contact the target whenever and wherever it is presented. Even if a target is presented across a room or a field, the subject will understand that if s/he wants to be bridged, s/he must travel to contact the target with his or her muzzle. This is why it is so easy to teach animals to "come" by this technique, and why it is so easy to correct run-away animals. The animal learns by following a moving target, we can define any motion or behavior. Targets can be presented in a series in order to form certain behaviors, complex behaviors, positions or even be used to communicate concepts like, "wait," in a process analogous to "connecting the dots."
To summarize, the introduction of a fully formed target concept 1) transmits the specific requirements for success to the animal, eliminating trial and error,
2) focuses the individual's attention to the place where the trainer will deliver the next information, in a mode that prepares him or her for learning (versus eating),
3) expands the flexibility of what we can discuss with the trainee because we can extend targeting to body parts that are not directly related to eating (so neither attention nor activities are limited to eating related activities). Moreover, animals quickly learn their way around this system so we can show them the desired end point. Then they will work with us to get there, sometimes improving the methods and results.
The article is too long to post in its entirety. You can read the rest of it at:
http://www.psyeta.org/hia/vol8/cover.html
Related Websites:
http://www.rrcow.org/bt_semr.htm
http://www.caninehorizons.com/Bridge_and_Target.html