The scenario below is really interesting to me because I can 'see' this behavior fitting my main character. If this could happen, then I can write this. It fits my character perfectly, but I'm completely unsure if it's possible!:
This weekend I watched a dog do tricks for a biscuit, and it got me thinking about Skinner, and humans, and behavioral conditioning.
The first time a dog smells a biscuit, the dog brain says: That smells good, I want it. So then the dog owner ‘teaches’ the dog to do tricks for this reward. I watched a dog owner put their dog through a series of simple tricks and the owner rewarded the dog for doing the tricks by giving the dog the biscuit/treat. Then, the dog owner handed a biscuit to a ten year old kid and the kid began to run the dog through the same series of tricks, except the kid was having too much fun making the dog do the tricks over and over again to the point that the dog lost interest.
The question that came to me was whether or not you could teach the dog to ignore the biscuit/treat? Could you ‘tease’ the dog with the biscuit/treat so much and not reward it - to the point where the dog would associate the smell/sight of the biscuit as not being a reward?
Say the dog gets free from the yard tomorrow and neighbor recognizes the dog. They happen to have a stash of dog biscuits, and grab some to go lure the dog. If the dog associates the smell of biscuits as a non-treat/false-alarm might the dog take one wiff and go: Oh that? I know that smell, just forget that, and walk away?
As I sat and watched the ten year old tease the dog and watched the dog lose interest in a ‘treat’ the question that came to me wasn’t so much about dogs, but whether or not I could apply this to humans?
Could a human be teased enough by a ‘treat’ that they never receive, that the human develops negative associations with something that is supposed to be a ‘good’ thing? Might such a trained person eventually learn to avoid this stimulus altogether?
It sounds like avoidance behavior, but doesn’t avoidance behavior usually manifest when the person associates the task with something bad. IE: One might avoid public speaking because it makes them anxious. Public speaking is a task, it’s not exactly a treat.
What I’m wondering isn’t a question of whether or not you can train the animal to salivate at the sound of the bell (instead of salivating at the sight or smell of food) but can you train the animal not to salivate at all to a stimulus that should make them naturally salivate?
Love to hear your thoughts. =)
This weekend I watched a dog do tricks for a biscuit, and it got me thinking about Skinner, and humans, and behavioral conditioning.
The first time a dog smells a biscuit, the dog brain says: That smells good, I want it. So then the dog owner ‘teaches’ the dog to do tricks for this reward. I watched a dog owner put their dog through a series of simple tricks and the owner rewarded the dog for doing the tricks by giving the dog the biscuit/treat. Then, the dog owner handed a biscuit to a ten year old kid and the kid began to run the dog through the same series of tricks, except the kid was having too much fun making the dog do the tricks over and over again to the point that the dog lost interest.
The question that came to me was whether or not you could teach the dog to ignore the biscuit/treat? Could you ‘tease’ the dog with the biscuit/treat so much and not reward it - to the point where the dog would associate the smell/sight of the biscuit as not being a reward?
Say the dog gets free from the yard tomorrow and neighbor recognizes the dog. They happen to have a stash of dog biscuits, and grab some to go lure the dog. If the dog associates the smell of biscuits as a non-treat/false-alarm might the dog take one wiff and go: Oh that? I know that smell, just forget that, and walk away?
As I sat and watched the ten year old tease the dog and watched the dog lose interest in a ‘treat’ the question that came to me wasn’t so much about dogs, but whether or not I could apply this to humans?
Could a human be teased enough by a ‘treat’ that they never receive, that the human develops negative associations with something that is supposed to be a ‘good’ thing? Might such a trained person eventually learn to avoid this stimulus altogether?
It sounds like avoidance behavior, but doesn’t avoidance behavior usually manifest when the person associates the task with something bad. IE: One might avoid public speaking because it makes them anxious. Public speaking is a task, it’s not exactly a treat.
What I’m wondering isn’t a question of whether or not you can train the animal to salivate at the sound of the bell (instead of salivating at the sight or smell of food) but can you train the animal not to salivate at all to a stimulus that should make them naturally salivate?
Love to hear your thoughts. =)
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). This child still has to learn how to discriminate Cheaters from Fair Players, but they've got a giant leg up in their baseline experience of reciprocity.
