Ep43 Pandemics, and Puppies, and Pawsitives oh my! A conversation about the Constructional Approach, shelter dogs, and animal welfare with Maasa and Sean from CAAWT

“We don’t ever need to remove reinforcement from the learner to achieve success.” Maasa and Sean ABAI 2022

Many behavior analysts and animal trainers are familiar with the concept of differential reinforcement and planned ignoring- an undesired behavior occurs, and attention is removed until a desired behavior emerges then attention is delivered. But this quote from ABAI 2022 has resonated with our ATBA team. Has consideration been taken about the potential long-term emotional effects that could occur when attention is completely removed? For organisms with complex verbal repertoires, it can be “easy” to talk about why the attention/reinforcer is being removed, but many behavior analysts work with learners who struggle to express emotional discomfort in ways that can be understood by the public.

In this LIVE talk we meet with Maasa and Sean (of CAAWT and other cool things) to talk about the Constructional Approach, shelter dogs, and animal welfare. Constructional Approach to Animal Welfare and Training is a non-profit organization whose mission is to provide free training to individuals and organizations that need training and cannot afford it. Their utilization of the Constructional Approach demonstrates how incorporating a level of compassion by implementing a conjugate reinforcement schedule can increase skill acquisition, improve relationships and rapport, and dare we say, achieve behavioural cusps that may have a life-long impact on the learner’s quality of life.

Learning Objectives:

1. Describe the critical components of the Constructional Approach and how it is different from traditional approaches.

2. Describe conjugate reinforcement schedules and provide examples.

3. Examine the relationship between empathy, compassion, and the Constructional Approach

Take Aways- your bite-sized educational noms

- Being “Constructional” isn’t a procedure rather it is a way of programming for the success of the learner and their environment for long-term by using the critical features of: Current Relevant Repertoire; Terminal Goals; Systematic Approximations to Terminal Goal(s); Tracking the Performance Data

- Conjugate reinforcement occurs when the magnitude of reinforcement is delivered based on the behavior emitted and its approximation to the target behavior. It’s an ebb and flow of increase and decrease as the behavior is shaped up. At no point does reinforcement have to be removed from the learner. Consider the potential for an extinction burst; conjugate reinforcement can mitigate an increase in undesirable behavior. Maasa and Sean provide touch and affection towards shelter dogs and can micro-shape “pick me” behaviors simply by responding to the dog and offering more or less touch (one or two hands for example).

- When reinforcement is removed, there is often a high probability of other behaviors emerging to gain the desired reinforcement, critical consequence. It can leave the learner in a state of distress and damage rapport and trust with the instructor. By using a constructional approach, providing conjugate reinforcement and the critical consequence, the learner is more likely to learn and maintain the responses, while enjoying the learning experience and building skills that will further improve their quality of life.

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