Positive Reinforcement? Negative Reinforcement? Operant Conditioning Explained.

Okay, most people are confused when it comes to positive reinforcement, negative reinforcement, positive punishment, and negative punishment. So, I'll explain it to you guys.

Operant conditioning is a type of learning in which behaviour is modified by the consequences that follow the behaviour. There are three parts to operant conditioning, known as the ABCs. Here they are:

A - Antecedent (this is the cue or stimulus that triggers the behaviour)
B - Behaviour (this is the observable action an animal takes)
C - Consequence (what follows the behaviour)

This is the method used the most to train new behaviours or to modify existing ones. There are five possible consequences you can give a behaviour and depending on the consequence, you can effectively increase or decrease a behaviour. The five consequences are positive reinforcement, negative reinforcement, positive punishment, negative punishment, and extinction.

Positive
To give the animal something/add something to the animal's environment

Negative
To remove something from the animal/remove something from the animal's environment

Reinforcement
Something that will increase behaviour because the animal wants to have it

Punishment
Something that will decrease behaviour because the animal wants to avoid it


Positive Reinforcement
Adding something to reinforce the animal and increase the behaviour (e.g. giving treats or toys). For example, you give a bird a sunflower seed when he performs a trick when asked. Another example is teaching a parrot to scream for attention. The parrot gets attention when she screams. Whenever she screams long enough, her human will give her something, and her behaviour (the screaming), will increase. When she screams, her human rewards her. When she screams, her human might reward her by joining in the screaming (screaming is even more fun your friends join in!); give her food; hold her; etc.

Negative Reinforcement

Taking away something the animal does not like to reinforce the animal and increase the behaviour (e.g., to stop corralling a bird with a towel when they go in their cage). For example, a parrot screams for attention. When her human walks over to her cage, she quits screaming. The parrot took away something the human didn't like (i.e., screaming) and the human's behaviour of giving the bird attention will increase (i.e., her human will rush over to her cage). The parrot reinforced/rewarded the human by no longer screaming. The human has now learned to pay attention to the bird in order to avoid screaming. Another example is studying hard so you can pass an exam. The behaviour (studying) increases because the student won't have to go to summer school if they pass (the threat of spending their vacation at school is no longer there if they pass the exam; therefore they are rewarded by not going to summer school). Just to make sure you understand negative reinforcement: elephants at the circus perform tricks so their trainer won't beat them with a bullhook. Not being beaten is the reward for performing tricks.

Positive Punishment

Adding something the animal does not like to punish the animal and decrease the behaviour (e.g. yelling, using a spray bottle). For example, a macaw's previous human beat the macaw (added pain) for chewing on the couch. The macaw no longer chews on furniture. The behaviour (chewing on furniture) decreases because the human added something (pain) to the macaw. On a side note, the macaw is now on his fifth home, and while he no longer chews on furniture, he self-mutilates, screams, is terrified of men, and won't let humans touch him. Another, less extreme example is squirting a dog in the face when they bark. Although realistically, the dog is probably still going to bark, no matter how much you spray him in the face. Now, the dog probably cowers in fear and runs away whenever he sees you. And now he's started peeing in the house.

Negative Punishment

Taking something away from the animal to punish and decrease a behaviour (e.g. to remove your hand with treats when your bird tries to bite you instead of stepping up).

Extinction

The process of no longer delivering a positive (or negative) reinforcer that used to follow a behaviour. You essentially ignore the behaviour and prevent it from being reinforced in any way, resulting in the behaviour being extinguished and not being displayed anymore, because it is not rewarding anymore.

Okay, I've obviously demonized some of the "five outcomes of operant conditioning" when giving examples, but technically there's nothing inherently wrong in using any of the five methods. However, it should be mostly positive reinforcement, maybe a little negative reinforcement, with a tiny amount of negative punishment, when positive reinforcement isn't helping. For example, if your parrot chews on your fingers, you ask him to stop (ideally you'd distract him by giving him a treat or asking him to do tricks before he chews on your fingers, but sometimes you aren't quick enough to prevent him from mutilating you). If he stops, just pretend nothing happened and do something to keep him entertained, since he was obviously getting bored (make sure he doesn't think you're rewarding him for chewing). If he stops and apologizes for chewing on you, tell him that you forgive him, but let him know that he shouldn't do it again, then move on and don't make a big deal about it. If he doesn't stop, tell him he's "bad" or "naughty", put him down, turn your back to him, walk away, and completely ignore him for 1–3 minutes. Don't put him in his cage. Instead, put him on a table, couch, chair, etc. You don't want his cage to be a "bad place". Also, don't ignore him for more than 3 minutes. Any longer, and the bird will feel hurt and angry. A 1–3 minute interruption in their fun is more than enough to convey the idea that chewing on makes you upset they don't get to play with you when they aren't nice.

I know a lot of people think the bird needs to be "punished" every single time they nip, bite, or chew on you, but this isn't the case, and punishing them is far more likely to increase biting. For example, if the bird bites you because you're ignoring his body language and harassing him (poking him, forcing him to step up, grabbing him), APOLOGIZE to the the bird. He was scared and you kept making him more and more upset. He used his body language to indicate that he was stressed. You ignored it. He probably tried to run or fly away. You followed him. He felt so threatened and defenseless that he bit you. You deserve it. If a member of their own species was upsetting them, they'd use their body language to show the other that they're upset and would like them to stop. At that point, most parrots would've stopped upsetting the poor bird. If body language didn't work, the parrot might try to fly away and that would likely be the end of it. If not, it might end with the victim biting the assailant. HOWEVER, parrots would rarely need to hurt a member of their own species to get them to stop upsetting them. However, more than 50% of the time parrots are forced to bite when interacting with a human. Do you think they enjoy being in these stressful situations? Of course not!

If the parrot bit in self-defence (i.e., you ignored his body language), don't punish him. Well, he could've chose not to bite! Well, actually, he indicated with his eyes; the position of his feathers; the way he leaned his body; his open beak; his hissing, growling, or screeching; and countless other ways that he was upset and that he wanted you to leave him alone so he could calm down. Odds are he even tried to get away. If you punish him, it'll result in increased frustration, aggression, and mis-trust.

If a parrot hurts you by accident (i.e., they were trying to get your attention but accidentally pierced your skin; saw a freckle and tried to remove it; are still learning about bite pressure; were startled; tried to use their beak to steady themselves while stepping up but accidentally impaled you with it; etc.), let them know that they hurt you, but don't be upset and don't upset them. They didn't intend to hurt you, and the best thing you can do is gently tell them that it hurt by saying "ouch" (but don't say "ouch" in such a way that they think it's funny or entertaining, because they might start hurting you on purpose to see you react), ask them kindly to be more careful next time, then move on. If you get upset with them, or keep nagging them about it, they're going to have their feelings hurt and become angry with you. Imagine yourself in their situation. Let's say you accidentally bump into someone and they spill hot coffee all over themselves. It was an accident and you feel terrible. You are about to apologize when they suddenly start screaming at you and swearing at you. Then they start telling people around you that you threw hot coffee at them. Well, you did feel bad about what happened, but now you want nothing more than to punch them in the face. In this scenario, you're the parrot who accidentally hurt someone, and the jerk with hot coffee all over himself is you. Don't be that jerk.

If the parrot apologizes after hurting you, tell him you forgive him, and don't punish him. He feels bad that he hurt you and wants to avoid conflict, so he quits biting, and maybe says "sorry" in human words, or he gives you kisses, or nuzzles you or something. Forgiveness can't change the past, but it can change the future. Parrots are like small children–they often act without thinking, have trouble controlling their emotions, and want to get along with their family and friends. The fact is, they feel bad that they hurt you and are asking you to forgive them. What are you trying to prove by punishing them? They've said sorry and aren't biting. If you punish them, you're punishing them for NOT biting. Yeah, I know, they just bit. Guess what? They realized what they did, said sorry, and now they're not biting. But for some reason they're being punished? What did we learn from operant conditioning? Right, behaviour is shaped by the consequence IMMEDIATELY following the behaviour. And the behaviour that is being punished is either the act of apologizing, the act of trying to avoid conflict, or the act of NOT biting. The act of biting took place three or four behaviours ago, which is way too far back to be applying consequences.

However, if you've made it clear that they're hurting you, you ask them to stop, but they continue to chomp down, THEN you can punish them. And punish, I mean ignore them for 1–3 minutes. By continuing to chomp down on you, they are showing anti-social, socially unacceptable behaviour. You have to teach them that they don't get to play with others when they're being bullies, so if they don't quit biting when asked, walk away and ignore them. Parrots are highly social, and by being ostracized (for even ten seconds), they're being given a clear message that they have to be nice. In the wild, parrots rely on their flock to find food, shelter, safety, raise babies, etc. If their flock won't include them because they're bullies, then the bully's life is at risk. Therefore, even bullies have to learn to try to get along with others in order to survive.

These are fantastic posts, and would be great stickies. Thank you!