Throughout lectures for exam 3, we have been discussing topics including different types of conditioning, disorders, and types of therapy. For this blog assignment, I am going to go further into depth with the topic of conditioning and more specifically something known as operant conditioning. With operant conditioning, an association is formed between behaviors and resulting events. A response causes a consequence and then that response continues to be strengthen. When training an animal to do new tricks such as lying down or rolling over or shaking their paw, it as known as shaping. People guide a behavior closer towards the desired action. Like the example in class, to get a dog to roll over, you take it step by step. You give it a treat when it sits, then when it lies down, then finally when it rolls over. Each step of the way is called successive approximations. People use positive reinforcement by giving dogs treats when they succeed in the action. They are adding a desirable stimulus.
This type of conditioning can be related to how I trained all of my cats to use the litter box. My family would use the technique of shaping in order to teach each of our new kittens to properly use the litter box. We would begin by placing them in the litter box and we would give them a treat and give them lots of love for just stepping into the litter box. Then we would place a potty pad underneath the litter box and every time they would step onto the potty pad or into the litter box, we would again positively reinforce their actions with treats and love. We would then again positively reinforce their behavior once they began to use the bathroom on the potty pad or in the litter box. And finally, we would take away the potty pad and we would positively reinforce their behavior once they used the litter box properly. We would continue to give them treats and love until we felt as though the behavior was sufficiently strengthened. However, we would also use positive punishment as well when our cats would use the bathroom in the wrong place. My mother would give a slight tap on the bum and a stern yelling whenever they would use the bathroom on the rug or on the bed, they would receive this positive punishment. A combination of shaping, positive punishment, and positive reinforcement is how my family has effectively trained my cats to properly use the litter box. This method has yet to fail us.