Give Yourself a Happy Face

There's been a lot of talk around here about behavior and handling, a subject I'm very passionate about. I picked up a fully engrossing book about clicker training called Reaching the Animal Mind. Author Karen Pryor shares her experiences working with animals using non-aversive training. I'm about halfway through the book. There hasn't been too much mention of using positive reinforcement with humans, other than kids teaching ponies to surf. Yes, you read that right! It got me wondering if +R could really be effective on humans, and then it hit me: I was the recipient of +R training, and at a very young age!

1991 meant entering the first grade. Mrs. Thompson had the foresight to understand the importance of proper spelling; teaching us to get high marks on our papers was her passion, and she knew just how to do it. The first few weeks were very easy words. She read down the vocabulary list, and we wrote what we heard. We checked our papers all together, one word at a time. "If you got that one right, give yourself a happy face!" Wow! What kid doesn't like happy faces, especially in exchange for a good job? "If you didn't get it, don't do anything." Oh no, not nothing, anything but that! Six-year-old kids just crave attention! I remember the elation and frustration of my classmates, as well as my own, depending on how we answered. Everyone really wanted those happy faces! We turned our papers in, and she gave us a grade.

Here's how it worked: the happy face was the marker, similar to the clicker, to let us know we did the right thing. The grade was the reinforcer, the payoff, the result of getting happy faces. With everyone wanting the happy faces so badly, the grades stayed high.

After a few weeks, Mrs. Thompson collected our papers immediately after we were done. They got graded and handed back. No more happy faces? That's just fine. Mrs. Thompson phased out the markers and went straight to the reinforcer. After we fully associated the marker with the reinforcer, the happy faces were no longer needed; we understood the importance of the grade, and our test scores remained high. How do I know this? She posted them on the halls for everyone to see. Parents and other teachers were impressed. This is what a true trainer of +R does: the markers don't become a permanence, and eventually the reinforcer is phased out as well. This is when real learning takes place.

So then, the skeptics will ask, why isn't everyone still a perfect speller? The answer is simple: the reinforcer, the grade, suddenly became the fastest route to unpopularity. Learning wasn't the "cool" thing to do from a social standpoint, so kids misspelled words frequently, and on purpose. It still continues today: just look up any teenager's Myspace page! If you're an English major like me, you might just feel disgusted. However, sharing a laid-back attitude towards proper spelling--peer pressure--is now the reinforcer. Since I didn't give a lick about popularity, my spelling remained excellent. Thanks Mrs. Thompson, wherever you are!

The above is an example of just how complex behavior patterns can be, yet how easy it can be to create and change them. Animals are nowhere near as complex as we are, so most anyone can get a handle on what +R is all about. Give it a try! Teach your dog how to dance, show your cat how to wave hello, have your gerbil press a lever... and if you do it successfully, give yourself a happy face :)