Are You Smater Than a 5th Grader - or Your Dog
Posted: Tue Jun 18, 2013 11:04 pm
Are you smarter than . . .
There was a very dull TV show titled “Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader” which expected adults to compete with 5th graders on questions that 5th graders had just learned and adults hadn’t thought about for 20-40 years. It was simply dumb entertainment (if you had a room temperature IQ) and nothing else.
But, are your smarter that a three year old – or your dog?
As a graduate student in Psychology in the early ‘70s I had a required course titled “Learning Theory” wherein the concept of shaping behavior was presented. This was something that psychologists had discovered, probably through federally funded grants, but which your grandparents, dogs and even rats (the latter two being the subject of the research) have instinctively known.
Shaping behavior works like this: Start with a gentile nudge in the direction you want the subject (dog, human, horse, etc.) to go and when there is a response that is in that direction reinforce it. Do this repeatedly, daily and never give up. As the subject moves closer to the direction you want continue with praise and reward. These are not really necessary (the psychologists assumed they were because that’s what they did).
My dog neither praises nor rewards me but she has learned to shape my behavior. Here’s how it works:
While I was at the computer she came in and barked, once. I ignored her so she barked once again. I turned and invited her onto my lap and she accepted my invitation and checked out the keyboard and desk. This occurred several times and I thought that whenever she barked she wanted in my lap. Not so. She later refused to do so. When she barks and I turn my chair and invite her to jump into my lap she turns and runs a few paces away. The message is clear: “Follow me.”
I’ve followed her a few times and she has invited me to play, which I sometimes do and which reinforces her behavior in shaping mine to do what she wants when she calls. Now she barks once and if I ignore her it is two barks, then three until I acknowledge her. She invites me to follow her and play. If I turn back to the computer and ignore her she starts again. The message is clear, “Hey, I’m talking to you; listen up.” And I do; not always. If I continue to ignore here she will leave briefly to return and try again. Unlike some parents who have recalcitrant children, she persists until she has shaped my behavior to comply with her desires.
How is it that the techniques I learned in the graduate Psych course on shaping behavior are exactly the same techniques that my dog uses on me? Not only is my dog smarter than a 5th grader but also she is smarter than the Ph.D. Psych researchers who were paid big bucks to discover this through their research. They could have observed any dog or three-year-old child (who uses the same techniques) to learn how shaping behavior occurs.
There was a very dull TV show titled “Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader” which expected adults to compete with 5th graders on questions that 5th graders had just learned and adults hadn’t thought about for 20-40 years. It was simply dumb entertainment (if you had a room temperature IQ) and nothing else.
But, are your smarter that a three year old – or your dog?
As a graduate student in Psychology in the early ‘70s I had a required course titled “Learning Theory” wherein the concept of shaping behavior was presented. This was something that psychologists had discovered, probably through federally funded grants, but which your grandparents, dogs and even rats (the latter two being the subject of the research) have instinctively known.
Shaping behavior works like this: Start with a gentile nudge in the direction you want the subject (dog, human, horse, etc.) to go and when there is a response that is in that direction reinforce it. Do this repeatedly, daily and never give up. As the subject moves closer to the direction you want continue with praise and reward. These are not really necessary (the psychologists assumed they were because that’s what they did).
My dog neither praises nor rewards me but she has learned to shape my behavior. Here’s how it works:
While I was at the computer she came in and barked, once. I ignored her so she barked once again. I turned and invited her onto my lap and she accepted my invitation and checked out the keyboard and desk. This occurred several times and I thought that whenever she barked she wanted in my lap. Not so. She later refused to do so. When she barks and I turn my chair and invite her to jump into my lap she turns and runs a few paces away. The message is clear: “Follow me.”
I’ve followed her a few times and she has invited me to play, which I sometimes do and which reinforces her behavior in shaping mine to do what she wants when she calls. Now she barks once and if I ignore her it is two barks, then three until I acknowledge her. She invites me to follow her and play. If I turn back to the computer and ignore her she starts again. The message is clear, “Hey, I’m talking to you; listen up.” And I do; not always. If I continue to ignore here she will leave briefly to return and try again. Unlike some parents who have recalcitrant children, she persists until she has shaped my behavior to comply with her desires.
How is it that the techniques I learned in the graduate Psych course on shaping behavior are exactly the same techniques that my dog uses on me? Not only is my dog smarter than a 5th grader but also she is smarter than the Ph.D. Psych researchers who were paid big bucks to discover this through their research. They could have observed any dog or three-year-old child (who uses the same techniques) to learn how shaping behavior occurs.
