Title: Don't Shoot the Dog
Tags: clicker

Q: What is important about learning to give presents?
A: figuring out what people actually like

Q: [...] reinforcement is the beginning trainers biggest problem.
A: Laggardly

Q: We are always reinforcing one another too [...].
A: late

Q: When we think we are encouraging kids, what might we actually be doing?
A: reinforcing merely trying

Q: In general, giving gifts, promises, compliments, or whatever for behavior that [...] does not reinforce that behavior in the slightest.
A: hasn't occurred yet

Q: If the negative reinforcer doesn't [...] the instant the desired result is achieved, it is neither [...] nor [...].
A: cease; reinforcing; information

Q: In general, a reinforcer that constitutes [...] for that animal is enough to keep it interested.
A: one small mouthful

Q: Keepers at the National Zoo have trained their polar bears to do many useful things, such as moving to another cage on command, with [...].
A: raisins

Q: A trainer's rule of thumb is that if you are going to have only one training session a day, you can count on the animal working well for about [...] of its rations; you then give it the rest for free.
A: a quarter

Q: If you can get in [...] sessions a day, you can divide the normal amount of food into about [...] reinforcers and give [...] in each session.
A: three or four; eighty; twenty or thirty

Q: The [...] of the task also has some effect on the size of the reinforcer.
A: difficulty

Q: The jackpot is a reward that is much bigger, maybe [...] times bigger, than the normal reinforcer, and one that comes as a [...] to the subject.
A: ten; surprise

Q: A [...] may be used to mark a [...].
A: jackpot; sudden breakthrough

Q: Paradoxically, a [...] may also be effective in improving the response of a recalcitrant, fearful, or resistant subject that is offering no desirable behavior at all.
A: single jackpot

Q: One can make a conditioned reinforcer more powerful by pairing it with [...] primary reinforcers.
A: several

Q: Once you have established a conditioned reinforcer, you must be careful not to [...] or you will [...].
A: throw it around meaninglessly; dilute its force

Q: After a while the subject no longer just repeats the behavior; the subject exhibits [...].
A: intention

Q: In addition to a click, it can be useful to develop a "[...]" signal.
A: keep going

Q: The trick to making "No!" effective is to establish it as a [...].
A: conditioned negative reinforcer

Q: The trick to making "[...]" effective is to establish it as a conditioned negative reinforcer.
A: No!

Q: One way to overcome the slow-start phenomenon is to introduce some reinforcer [...].
A: just for getting started

Q: Raise criteria in increments [...] that the subject always has a [...] for reinforcement.
A: small enough; realistic chance

Q: Train [...] aspect of any particular behavior at a time.
A: one

Q: During shaping, put the current level of response onto a [...] of reinforcement before [...] the criteria.
A: variable schedule; adding or raising

Q: When [...], or aspect of the behavioral skill, [...] the old ones.
A: introducing a new criterion; temporarily relax

Q: Don't [...] a training session gratuitously; that constitutes a punishment.
A: interrupt

Q: If one shaping procedure is not eliciting progress, [...].
A: find another

Q: If behavior deteriorates, "[...]".
A: go back to kindergarten

Q: End each session on a [...], if possible.
A: high note

Q: How fast you raise the criteria is not a function of the subject's [...].
A: actual ability

Q: If you raise the criteria so high that the subject has to exert itself far beyond anything it has previously done [...]—regardless of what it does or doesn't do on its own time—you are [...].
A: for you; taking a big risk

Q: The fastest way to shape behavior—sometimes the only way— is to raise the criteria at whatever interval it takes to make it [...] for the subject to [...].
A: easy; improve steadily

Q: Good teachers [...] the work all the time, leaving one task as soon as [...] and going on to another.
A: vary; some progress has been made

Q: Often when we seem to show no progress in a skill, no matter how much we practice, it is because we are trying to improve [...] things at once.
A: two or more

Q: We can and should use [...] wherever possible in teaching physical skills to humans.
A: mimicry

Q: Of course a major part of the shaping of the behavior of our [...] takes place through mimicry.
A: children

Q: I am always a little dubious about [...] as a training device, even though it is widely used.
A: modeling

Q: The way to make modeling work is to combine it with [...].
A: shaping

Q: While you are putting the subject in position, or through the motions, you stay sensitive to the [...] on the subject's part to [...] the proper motion, and that effort is the behavior you [...].
A: smallest effort; initiate; reinforce

Q: One of the effects of shaping sessions, especially if they are fruitful experiences for the subject, is to increase [...].
A: attention span

Q: [...] organisms should never be asked for more than three or four repetitions of a given behavior; pressure beyond that may [...].
A: Immature; discourage or frighten

Q: One behavior I think is really very difficult to teach to humans in adulthood is [...].
A: swimming

Q: But when you are reinforcing yourself, the event is never a [...].
A: surprise

Q: The single most useful device in self-reinforcement, I found, was [...].
A: record keeping

Q: People are not dumb; they modify their behavior on [...] of reinforcers.
A: just a handful

Q: Once the behavior is [...], we shape the offering of the behavior during or right after some particular stimulus.
A: secure

Q: However, difficulties may arise with "green" or inexperienced animals learning their [...].
A: first cues

Q: A third way to add a cue is to shape [...] as if it were behavior in itself.
A: response to the cue

Q: Obedience to commands is not just a [...] but a [...].
A: state of mind; learned ability

Q: I've often been thwarted by them myself, feeling that I'm pushing at the end of a string because I can't get an animal, or a child, or myself, to do some apparently simple series of things, until I realize that I'm trying to train a behavior chain from the [...].
A: wrong end

Q: If you reward responses to even [...], people rapidly start responding to other commands to earn reinforcement.
A: one learned command

Q: Bringing behavior under stimulus control often gives rise to an interesting phenomenon I call the "[...]."
A: prelearning dip

Q: During the [...], the subject [...] rather than [...].
A: prelearning dip; attends to the signal; offering the behavior

Q: In humans prelearning temper tantrums often seem to take place when [...] and the subject knows deep inside that there is [...] to the new information.
A: long-held beliefs are challenged; some truth

Karen Pryor (Seeing a young visitor's wet bathing suit and towel on the living-room couch): Please take your wet things off the couch and put them in the dryer.
Young Visitor: Okay in a minute.
K.P. (Physically goes to the young visitor and stands there, saying nothing.) 
Y.V.: What's the matter with you?
K.P.: Please take your wet bathing suit off the couch and put it in the dryer. (N.B: Without adding "Now!" or "Right this minute," or "I mean it," or anything else. I am training this person to obey requests the first time, not to wait until the signal has been heightened with further details or threats.)
Y.V.: Well, jeez, if you're in such a hurry, why don't you do it yourself?
K.P. (Pleasant smile, no comment. I am waiting to reinforce the behavior I want. Giving me an
argument is not the behavior I want, so I ignore it.)
Y.V.: Okay, okay. (Gets up, goes to couch, picks up stuff, tosses it at the laundry room.) K.P.: In the dryer.
Y.V. (Grumbling, puts stuff in the dryer.)
K.P. (Big smile, sincere, no sarcasm): Thank you!

Q: People who have a disciplined understanding of stimulus control avoid giving [...], [...] commands, or orders that [...].
A: needless instructions; unreasonable or incomprehensible; can't be obeyed

When you get a whole family, or household, or corporation working on the basis of real stimulus control—when all the people keep their agreements, say what they need, and do what they say—it is perfectly amazing how much gets done, how few orders ever need to be given, and how fast the trust builds up.

Q: Good stimulus control is nothing more than [...].
A: true communication

Q: [...] is the most complex, difficult, and elegant aspect of training with positive reinforcement.
A: Stimulus control

Method 1: "Shoot the animal."
Method 2: Punishment.
Method 3: Negative reinforcement.
Method 4: Extinction.
Method 5: Train an incompatible behavior.
Method 6: Put the behavior on cue.
Method 7: "Shape the absence."
Method 8: Change the motivation.

Q: The most the punisher can hope for is that the [...] will change.
A: motivation

Q: [...] increases rapidly under a punishment regimen.
A: Evasiveness

Q: If the [...], if the [...], and finally, if [...]—the punished behavior stops.
A: motivation for doing the behavior is small; fear of future punishment is large; the subject can control the behavior in the first place

Q: Punishment has the best chance of halting a behavior in its tracks if the behavior is [...], so that it has not become an established habit, and if punishment itself is a [...] for the subject.
A: caught early; novel experience

Q: Many people do not experience guilt or shame in their daily lives, not because they are perfect, nor because they are unfeeling hedonists, but because they [...].
A: respond to their own behavior in alternative ways

Q: Babies are not programmed to learn easily to [...] aversives, though they can learn rapidly through [...].
A: avoid; positive reinforcement

Q: Babies are born to [...], not to [...].
A: please; obey

Q: There is another class of subjects that are singularly unamenable to negative reinforcement: [...].
A: wild animals

Q: One of the problems of dealing with behavior that is [...] is that we humans have [...].
A: expressed in words; inordinate respect for our language

Q: By ignoring the [...] without ignoring the [...], you can arrange for many [...] to extinguish by themselves.
A: behavior; person; disagreeable displays

Q: [...] requires a huge amount of [...], and if it doesn't work it is usually quickly abandoned.
A: Hostility; energy

Q: Training an incompatible behavior is quite useful in modifying your [...], especially when dealing with [...] such as grief, anxiety, and loneliness.
A: own behavior; emotional states

Q: The best way to get rid of [...] behaviors in yourself or another is to [...].
A: self-reinforcing; change the motivation

Q: To [...] motivation, one needs to make an accurate estimate of [...], and we are often very incompetent at that.
A: change; what the motivation is

Q: It's my suspicion now that trying to increase motivation by using [...] of any sort is not only [...] but [...].
A: deprivation; unnecessary; deleterious

Q: Behavior is a rich soup of [...], [...].
A: external and internal responses; learned and unlearned

Q: So subjects like to learn through reinforcement not for the obvious reasonto get food or other rewards—but because they actually get [...] what is happening.
A: some control over

Q: [...] is [...] about what you are doing that is [...].
A: Reinforcement; information; working

Q: Living creatures have a right not only to food and shelter but to a [...].
A: reinforcing environment

Q: One of the most common reactions, when conventional dog trainers switch over to clicker training, is their astonishment at how incredibly well the dogs [...] what they've learned.
A: retain

Q: During training sessions, clicker trainers are finding if they mix reinforcement of desirable behavior with [...], good things [...].
A: punishment or correction of behavior that they don't want; stop happening

Q: But we avoid using punishment, or its euphemism "correction," as a [...].
A: learning tool

Q: Shutting up about what you [...], in order to [...] behavior you do like, is [...] and takes some practice.
A: don't like; wait for and reinforce; counterintuitive

Q: First, they have the clicker [...] down pat, and second, they have also grasped the idea of raising criteria in [...] but [...].
A: timing; small steps; quickly

Q: For a technology to spread fast, he says, it has to have three characteristics: It must be [...]; it must have [...] to the user; and it must be something that can be [...].
A: easy; visible benefits; learned in small increments