15 July: Pavlov's dog and Skinner's rats :

marmitelover2000
marmitelover2000 Online Community Member Posts: 38 Contributor
in Coffee lounge

Let's start with Pavlov. Pavlov was a scientist that found that if he rung a bell before feeding the dog enough, Later on when the bell rings, the dog will start to salivate expecting food. Simple to start.

This is called classical conditioning.

I thought maybe I should try this.

I've been arguing with my mum lately so decided that every time I speak to her, I would give her one of her favorite chocolates.

I thought it was going well but all that happened was Mum got annoyed at me for trying to make her fat.

I explained the situation to my dad and he said that it's probably best not to train my mum like a dog.

Onto Skinner's Rats. He found that he could train rats to press a button to receive food or shocks. He found that depending on the stimulus, the rats would change their behaviour.

This is called Operant Conditioning.

It's still used to study things like addiction ( giving the rats drugs when they press the button means that they will press the button until they overdose and starve to death- not fun)

It's interesting to look into :) maybe I'll try and condition myself to enjoy chores 😁

Comments

  • Jimm_Scope
    Jimm_Scope Posts: 5,409 Scope Online Community Specialist

    Your dad's reaction did make me chuckle. We actually have a specific phone alarm for feeding our cat Suki, so she heavily associates that sound with being fed. If we aren't sure where she is we can just play the alarm sound and she comes running (and gets given a token treat of course). So it can be very practical too!

  • Rachel_Scope
    Rachel_Scope Posts: 1,651 Scope Online Community Coordinator

    I love this comment "I explained the situation to my dad and he said that it's probably best not to train my mum like a dog." 😂

    If you find a good way to condition someone into wanting to exercise let me know!!

  • 66Mustang
    66Mustang Online Community Member Posts: 14,992 Championing
    edited July 2024

    Does it work with negative associations or just positive ones??

    It's been 7 years so far and my dog hasn't learnt that laying down in the middle of doorways is connected to having his tail trodden on

  • marmitelover2000
    marmitelover2000 Online Community Member Posts: 38 Contributor
    https://forum.scope.org.uk/discussion/comment/889055#Comment_889055

    yes

    It does

    For both operant and classical conditioning:).

    It’s one of the reasons why you you shouldn’t shout at your dog.

    My dog used to bark outside and when she came in my mum yelled at her. She associated mum yelling with coming inside so stayed outside and barked.

  • 66Mustang
    66Mustang Online Community Member Posts: 14,992 Championing

    I heard that about barking before @marmitelover2000 because apparently they don't know the difference between positive and negative attention, shouting at them is just attention, so they learn to just do it again to get their "reward"

  • Jimm_Scope
    Jimm_Scope Posts: 5,409 Scope Online Community Specialist

    Clearly someone taught my cat that screaming loudly gets her food. It's been a year of meals at very specific times but she'll still try meowing very loudly to get the food early!

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