“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.
Check it out here: https://atypicalba.com/podcast/ep43-constructional-affection/
or on your favorite listening platform!
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
Worth 2 Learning CEUs