Ep44 Curiosity, Creativity, Constructional Approach, and Critters with Lisa Clifton-Bumpass

Oh man this is gonna be so cool! We’re gonna talk layers of reinforcement! We’re gonna talk animal training! We’re gonna talk about zoo animals learning to consent to receive necessary injections! AND we’re gonna talk Goldiamond and the importance of stories and listening, unpacking the organism/learner, and how behavior analysis can improve the lives of animals, their keepers, handlers, and fur/feathered/and scaley parents.

In this LIVE chat with Lisa Clifton-Bumpass, animal trainer, expert consultant, supervisor, and so much, much more! She’ll relay her story of working with animals (and humans) and discuss how working with animals has shifted and changed throughout the years. Stories and histories provide lessons for others to further explore. This curiosity is important when it comes to understanding the learner, be they fur legged, scaley, or feathered, and then building interventions and programs through the Constructional Approach. Behavioral science is unique in the fact it can be applied to multiple layers, systems, responses, and learners, even if they look a little alien. Curiosity and creativity help expand the science, lead to improved adaption and flexibility within various situations, and further growth for both the practitioner and the learner.

Learning Objectives:

1. Understand the importance of incorporating non-linear contingency analysis in a wide variety of environments and learners.

2. Describe ways to incorporate creativity into the Constructional Approach and its benefits.

3. Describe how programming goals, including consent, for animals can be defined in observable and measurable terms.

Take Aways- your bite-sized educational noms

- The NLCA differs from the traditional three and four term contingencies by collecting data on a variety of both private and public variables that can affect behavior and choices. It has been used with individuals diagnosed with a variety of psychiatric issues to improve their communication skills with others, improving family dynamics, supervision of humans, organizations, and systems.

- One goal of the Constructional Approach (reminder from Ep43- it is a program, not a procedure) is to teach learners to become their own contingency analyst so that when they encounter different environments and stimuli they can analyse their own behaviors and responses. It also shapes behaviors, meeting the learner where they are at and building skills and repertoires without focusing on decreasing less desirable behaviors.

- Behavior is communication and when working with an animal, trainers need to learn how that specific animal communicates- observations of happy, angry, calm. Lisa talked about working with a team that taught a kookaburra to consent to receiving medical injections. The handlers and vet did not even need to enter the bird’s enclosure; he would fly to them and perch. The handler could then feel the weight of the bird shift towards or away from the injection; if he moved away, everything paused. All withdrawals of assent were honoured. Using a constructional approach to train this behavior helped instil trust, built rapport, and the kookaburra enjoyed interacting with the humans during interactions.

Worth 2 Learning CEUs

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