How Animals Learn

1. How Animals Learn From their environment and from training

2. Learning In Animals • Learning is the acquisition of knowledge • Learnt behaviours result when innate action patterns are modified as a result of experience • 2 types of learning • Non – associative learning • Associative learning

3. From innate behaviour to learning • Flexibility of innate behaviour increases as nervous system increases in complexity. • Flexible behaviour increases as lifespan increases, because more learning experiences become available with time • Key experiences provide information critical for the completed development of an animal’s behaviour. • The key experience is a form of learning that helps mature an animal’s behaviour

4. Learned behaviour patterns • Learning is the application of memorised experience in modifying behaviour • A memory is an experience transformed into the language of nerve cells and stored by them • Memories –especially those involving associations are the basis of all learning

5. Memory • Basis of all learning • 2 types – associative and non associative • Non - associative – habituation, sensitisation • Associative – classical and operant conditioning • Reward stops may get extinction of the behaviour

6. 5 stages in the gradation of learned behaviour • Imprinting • Programmed learning • Classical conditioning • Operant conditioning • Advanced learning

7. Imprinting • The laying down of a specific, indelible memory during a critical period, by which an animal associatesitself with a place, object, taste, odour or sound

8. Critical periods • These are sensitive learning or imprinting periods during an animal’s development where behavioural traits and patterns are most easily established • They are typically brief and the animal must receive particular experiences during this time to develop normally

9. Critical periods… • Dogs have a critical period of socialisation as pups during which they must experience a wide variety of events to develop into normaladult dogs • Birth of foals

10. ProgrammedLearning • An animal takes experiences from nature and uses them for a specific purpose, requiring the animal to get experiences in a precise order • The period of the animal’s life during which it can receive these stimuli is preset by the animal’s brain

11. Programmed learning • Variable flexible • Flexible innate behaviour taking experiences from the environment

12. Learning • Involves the memorising of things based on logical associations • An association is the memorised connection between one thing or event and another thing or event • Reinforcement develops persistence of memory

13. Learning… • Reinforcement usually means repetition • A natural stimulus is replaced by an artificial one (human words or hand signals) and this is the basis of most dog training

14. Classical Conditioning • A natural behaviour elicited by an unnatural stimulus • Discovered by Pavlov • Sight of food(a natural stimulus) initiates salivation,an innate behaviour • Offer food while ringing a bell (irrelevant or artificial stimulus)

15. Classical Conditioning… • Ring bell- dog salivates,an artificial stimulus. This is a learnt behaviour or classical conditioning • Other examples include birds of prey returning regularly to places where they have hunted successfully and the cat running to the kitchen when the can opener is used

16. Operant Conditioning • An artificial stimulus is used to elicit an artificial response • The stimulus is usually a food reward • This is the basis of most animal training

17. Training • Positive reinforcement • Negative reinforcement • punishment

18. Advanced Learning • This is very flexible and variably modifiable

19. Advance learning • Also called plastic learning • Examples - language

20. How Dogs Learn NON-ASSOCIATIVE LEARNING • Habituation- get used to an environment by repeated exposure but not constant- offer some examples • Sensitisation- animals can become sensitized by repeated exposure and develop phobias eg fireworks

21. Habituation • A decrease in the behavioural response the more an animal is exposed to a repeated stimulus eg a police horse becomes habituated to noise , traffic & people through repeated exposure

22. Habituation • Amounts to boredom, not fatigue or exhaustion in the sense organs • Learn that a repeated response to a repeated stimulus is useless, and they cease to respond • Allows animals to escape closed-loop behaviours • Use for our advantage or detriment in training

23. Habituation • Can instantly reverse it if an alternative stimulus requires a response • Exhausted sense organs cannot do this

24. Sensitisation • There is an increase in behavioural response due to repeated presentation of the stimulus

25. Desensitisation • Similar to habituation • Gradually increasing doses of the offending stimulus until the animal no loner responds

26. Counter conditioning • Is the removal of an unwanted behaviour pattern due to negative stimulus by replacing it with an alternative desired behavioural pattern

27. Extinction • Cessation of a behaviour due to the withdrawal of its motivating stimulus

28. Extinction • If the animal no longer receives a reward for a correct response it will stop responding • Eg When a dog begs at the dinner table and is NEVER rewarded it stops begging • When the cat scratches at the window at 4AM & you NEVER get up to it , it stops scratching

29. Flooding • Involves the constant application of a particular stimulus until the responses due to it diminishes, due to fatigue of the sense organ(s) involved • In dog training avoid flooding a dogs brain with constant intense stimulus

30. How dogs learn… ASSOCIATIVE LEARNING • Animal needs to be exposed to 2 stimuli and for there to be a relationship between the 2 stimuli- food reward for sitting • Cat that runs to kitchen when the can opener is used • Punishment for negative behaviour-licking a hot barbecue plate • Animal can solve new problems using this method

31. Secondary Reinforcement • Dogs can use petting & praise as social rewards only if the human praising the dog has a greater social status than the animal • Therefore praising a dog that doesn’t know you will be less effective than praising a dog that knows you

32. Reinforcement Schedules • Can be constant or intermittent • Trained behaviours that are rewarded on an intermittent basis are the hardest to to give up • Dogs that sometimes get fed at the dinner table take longer to give it up than dogs that were never fed at all.

33. Shaping • Rewards are given for close approximation of the desired behaviour • When training an animal to move away a small movement is rewarded first then you wait for a greater move away before rewarding again

34. Contiguity • Events that occur together will become associated • If a dog is seen misbehaving and is called back and then punished, the dog will associate the punishment with the recall not the misbehavior

35. Contiguity… • An owner who sees the dog raiding the kitchen bin and calls the dog to him & then punishes the dog is actually punishing the dog for returning not for bin raiding! • Association must take place within ½ sec of the behaviour occurring

36. PositiveReinforcement • Where the performance of a behaviour results in a positive outcome-the dog barking at the postman as he rides by gets a reward because the postman keeps going –the dog has chased the stranger off his territory –he has got his reward so will continue to bark every time he sees the postie

37. Negative Reinforcement • Where the behaviour is strengthened by the animal moving away or avoiding an unpleasant stimulus- the dog that runs and hides inside when fireworks or thunder happen is comforted by the owner & moves away from the unpleasant stimulus • The hiding behaviour is reinforced because the outcome is more pleasurable than the loud noise

38. Negative Reinforcement… • The use of a choker chain is an example of negative reinforcement- the choking sensation occurs while the dog pulls & ceases when the dog stops pulling • Not a great method of training

39. Punishment • The opposite to reinforcement • When you punish a behaviour it becomes weaker. • Positive punishment is the use of a water pistol when the animal does something naughty- an unpleasant experience is an immediate consequence of the animal’s behaviour

40. Punishment • Not a good way to treat aggression • Negative punishment- removing something pleasant to weaken the undesirable behaviour • Time out is an example of negative punishment - Can help for aggression

41. End of Learning in Animals