The limited hold is scientific terminology—laboratory slang, really—for a good way to use the marker and reinforcer to speed up response to a cue. We're all used to sluggish responses. You call folks for supper, and in due course, they come; meanwhile the soufflé falls or the soup gets cold. You call your dog to come in the house and it comes, grudgingly, finding half a dozen new things to sniff at before actually reaching the back door. Here's how you can fix that.
Karen's Letters
The Beginners' Clicker Class
By Karen Pryor on 10/01/2006What is a beginner clicker class? Is it an ordinary six-week long basic pet owners' obedience class, with clickers added?
I don't think so.
Jackpots: Hitting it Big
By Karen Pryor on 09/01/2006Jackpots!
A good thing? A bad thing? A nonexistent thing?
Let me tell you what I mean by "jackpot." I mean exactly what the casinos mean: a surprisingly big reinforcer, delivered contingently. The key is in the word, contingent. To reinforce a particular behavior, a jackpot has to appear, and be perceived by your learner, while the learner is doing that particular thing you want. Not afterwards.
Charging the Clicker
By Karen Pryor on 08/01/2006At an annual meeting of the Association for Behavior Analysis, where over 2,000 behavioral scientists gather each year, a woman professor with whom I was acquainted told me she had organized, among her students, a Rat Olympics. I was excited! What a good way to interest students in operant conditioning!
The Panda Game
By Karen Pryor on 07/01/2006Miniature horses are a special breed. According to horse owners, miniature horses are not descended from ponies, but developed from regular horses. Most of them are about the size of a large dog, and, like some large dogs, they make great guides for blind people.
