Wow! What a thread. And I'll use Bill Hobler's contribution as a random
place to pop in with two simple thoughts a short comment.
We've got a wild and crazy standard poodle (Adrienne, as is "Yo!
Adrienne.) that follows my daughter everywhere, barks aggressively every
time the doorbell rings, protects us all against what she considers a
threat. She's a creature of a perceived history of reinforcement, I
guess. And it is great to see, at almost 3, she is just beginning to
mellow a bit.
She will do what we ask her to do in a series of "tricks" that are
rewarded by our attention with only a very occasional treat (a very lean
variable ratio reinforcement schedule in Skinnerian frameworks). Her only
problem is she loves the cat food and if we don't keep a deterrent in
place, she gets "catfood breath." When she sees us see her, she sculks
away from their food area.
My wife commented to me at the table tonight what a wonderful dog she is
during the family's evening dinner and generally when anyone is eating.
She lays alongside one of us and quietly waits until dinner is over so she
can wander off and do something with one of the kids.
We am most greatful that my Father doesn't come to dinner here, because he
is a notorious "dog feeder at the dinner table" person. You know the
syndrome that creates, especially in a pampered and emotional dog. By
adding an extrinsic reward for some perceived behavior (by giving her
people food at dinner and proximally rewarding whatever she did just
before the treat). we would have created a much more difficult dinner
situation, one might imagine.
My Square Wheels cartoon called "Intrinsic Motivation" shows a wagon
pusher who has a round wheel on the axle on his side of the wagon smiling
broadly. By letting people implement their ideas and make their workplace
better, I think we set up more of the optimal motivational situations. By
adding recognition and peer support, we can strengthen behavior.
By adding some extrinsic reward, the behavior of improvement subordinates
itself to the issue of WIIFM -- which an unfortunate history of prior
reward will quickly turn into a scorecard (comparison of present and past
and future to others) situation.
Now sorry about the proximity of feeding the dog and wagon pushers -- no
direct or associated linkage is inferred.
But I do think that the issue of adding "rewards" to many situations adds
a chaos / complexity aspect that makes the situation much more difficult
to manage. I do NOT like yelling at the dog; it doesn't really stop her
from eating the cat food, she just sculks away when she's caught.
But it definately creates an aspect of defensiveness that the dog just
doesn't understand. Not too unusual, one might expect.
--For the Fun of It!
Scott Simmerman SquareWheels@compuserve.com
Learning-org -- An Internet Dialog on Learning Organizations For info: <rkarash@karash.com> -or- <http://world.std.com/~lo/>