Episode 359: Dr. Stephanie Jones, Sofia Abuin and Lucy Butler Pt 5: We Don’t Have to Fear Behavior

This is Part 5 of a conversation with Lucy Butler of River Haven Animal Sanctuary, and Dr Stephanie Jones and her grad student, Sofia Abuin.

In Part 1 we talked about the common links between teaching people and working with animals. We talked about coercion, control, and most importantly about empathy.

In part 2 Stephanie described a pilot study she and her colleagues set up at the River Haven Animal Sanctuary. Shaping can be incredibly challenging to teach well. Often people refer to the science and the art of training. What Stephanie and her colleague Michael Yencha wanted to investigate is what makes up the “art” part of training? Is there a way to tease this apart so it becomes less mystery and more approachable through science?

In Part 3 Stephanie reminded us that the goal of this research project was to help new trainers shape well. That was the reason for the latency criterion. They were using it to judge when to shift criteria. They weren’t looking at any other aspects of shaping. They weren’t looking at the details of the reinforcement strategy or the set up of the environment. They weren’t saying those elements aren’t important, but they wanted to focus on this one component and give it a good rule.

The question was how do you get robust interventions that aren’t influenced by implementor errors? Even in art there is technique.

If you give people this rule, does that mean learners will be better off because shapers are able to minimize exposure to extinction without even needing to know what it means to minimize exposure to extinction? Can new trainers shape well even when they are lacking experience and a broad theoretical background?

We ended Part 3 at a point where Stephanie and Sofia had to leave, but we continued the conversation with Lucy Butler.

In Part 4 we talked about the latency rule Stephanie and her collegues used in the study with the goats and contrasted that with Loopy Training.

Whether we’re talking about science or art, there are principles that guide us towards better results. Lucy suggested that instead of trying to design a study that teases apart the elements that lead to better shaping results, it might be more useful to watch a master teacher train to see what they do.

In Part 5 we continue to explore the what we can learn from watching effective trainers. When there are constraints on the training, what becomes really important? The constraints may be the time you have to train, or the environment you have to work in, how do you prioritize what to work on? The discussion takes us to this great statement from Lucy Butler:

When we understand how behavior is selected and reinforced, we understand that we don’t have to fear behavior. There’s going to be some way we can design and train our way to something better. It’s such an optimistic and hopeful way of being with our animals, and what it turns into is confidence. Join us as we weave our way to this very hopeful statement.