Negative Dog Learning

2023 Author: Molly Page | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-07-31 03:34

Negative learning, or addiction, is called a decrease in the severity or absence of behavioral reactions with repeated or prolonged stimuli that do not have serious consequences and do not at the moment carry any important information for the body. Habituation is considered the most common form of learning.

A distinctive feature of this form of gaining experience is not the development of new behavioral responses, but the loss or weakening of existing ones.

The biological significance of addiction lies in the fact that in order to survive or improve the conditions of existence, the organism must be able to distinguish between stimuli that are essential and insignificant for its vital activity and suppress reactions to insignificant ones, as well as correctly respond to useful or dangerous stimuli.

An animal can get used to any irritating influences that it encounters on a daily basis, and not respond to them with orientational or defensive reactions, adapt to its pack or herd mates and limit its reactions that arise in their presence to only really necessary ones. Thanks to addiction, the social behavior of any animal community is stabilized. Addiction is observed in relation to all types of stimuli or influences: light (visual), auditory, temperature, tactile, taste, smell and even pain.

It is believed that negative learning is characterized by a number of features that can be considered as the rules for using addiction in education and training:

1. Repetitive stimuli lead to a decrease in the magnitude of the initial reaction (the appearance of indifference).

2. Termination of the use of these stimuli leads to a gradual restoration of the response.

3. Habituation develops faster and has greater durability after repeated series of stimuli application and termination of their use until the response is restored.

4. The rate of development and the severity of addiction are in direct proportion to the frequency of presentation of the stimulus.

5. Habituation sets in faster with less stimulus strength. Strong stimuli can either not be addictive at all, or lead to a perversion of the reaction.

6. Addiction to one stimulus can facilitate it in relation to other, similar in nature, stimuli.

7. Presentation of another stimulus can lead to the withdrawal of addiction.

8. Repeated presentation of stimuli that restore the response (cancel addiction) are less effective, since addiction gradually develops to these stimuli.

However, after the habituation has been developed, the animal continues to perceive the stimulus. This is easy to verify, if you slightly increase or weaken the stimulus, it will immediately cause a reaction.

Addiction is very close to the process of extinction of conditioned reflexes. It is likely that these processes are based on the same physiological mechanisms, but so far the term addiction is used in relation to congenital reactions, extinction - acquired.

In this case, it is appropriate to give another definition of addiction: it is the process of a gradual weakening of the innate reaction as a result of repeated applications of the stimulus, not accompanied by reinforcement. Therefore, to accelerate addiction, one must find what reinforces the behavioral response and eliminate it or prevent it, especially if it is negative reinforcement.

Extinction of the orienting reaction in animals to any change in the environment can serve as an example of habituation. As a rule, stimuli from the outside world cause a number of complex reactions aimed at better perception of them, which is necessary for analyzing the biological significance of these stimuli for the body, which is called an orientation reaction.

Orientation reaction for education and training is a double-edged sword … On the one hand, in order for a command (stimulus, signal, event) to be perceived, it is necessary that it be able to cause an orientation reaction (oriented orientation response), which allows the senses to "tune" to it. Without attention, perception is impossible and the more attention is attracted by the novelty, complexity, or intensity of the stimulus (event or object), the more likely it is that the stimulus will be perceived. The formation of any conditioned response begins with an orientation response. But on the other hand, if the orienting reaction does not disappear or the behavior becomes defensive, learning becomes impossible. Remember the presence of a stop reaction, which is expressed in the cancellation of the current activity. Moreover, if the orienting reaction is caused by irrelevant stimuli.