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Punished By Rewards


stockdogranch

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A couple of weeks ago, Denise suggested this book in a thread not unlike the one now continuing. I picked it up at my campus library the next day, and must agree with her original comment, " A great read." I find it particularly applicable as a teacher. And while it may not be directly addressing *dog* behavior, then again, maybe it kinda does... :rolleyes:

A

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Guest echoica

Interesting recommendation! I think where people go astray with training (whether that is with humans or dogs) is the thinking that 'bribes' are effective when they absolutely are NOT! At least not as a long term solution -- as this book explains. If you are going to use a reward-based training method it needs to be one that can be faded and intermittent. Unfortunately, humans don't tend to enjoy continuous repetition as much as a dog -- to the point where it becomes necessary to establish an automatic response. Humans are more complex....although I am sure Skinner would disagree with me saying that :rolleyes:

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Interesting. I'll try to pick this up at our college library. I'm taking a class on Educational Psychology right now and we are currently discussing this very thing. When we were discussing operant conditioning, my mind kept thinking dog instead of human. :rolleyes:

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I have a very sensitive dog and I have found by using toys in particular I can transfer value from what she feels about the toys which is excited onto her agility equipment which she used to find demotivating. Bribes dont work long term but transferring value does seem to with my dogs. It took me awhile to learn the difference when I first started working with toys and treats.

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Rather than get into a lengthy explanation, I'll just say that it examines the premises underlying behaviorism, and then, with plenty of studies cited (which keeps us geeks happy), addresses why as a theory, it may or may not achieve the desired goals. But that doesn't really do the book justice--if you're interested, you really should read it. Punished By Rewards by Alfie Kohn (1993).

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Rather than get into a lengthy explanation, I'll just say that it examines the premises underlying behaviorism, and then, with plenty of studies cited (which keeps us geeks happy), addresses why as a theory, it may or may not achieve the desired goals. But that doesn't really do the book justice--if you're interested, you really should read it. Punished By Rewards by Alfie Kohn (1993).

A

 

 

Oh thanks, this is exactly what I was looking for, my '25 words or less' comment was me being silly. :rolleyes: I have read several articles by Alfie Kohn but I did not know he wrote a book.

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