TAG | reinforcement
Reinforcement is any consequence that motivates an animal to continue a particular behavior. Reinforcement can be natural or artificial (man-made).
Example of Artificial Reinforcement: If you tell a child that he can have a tootsie roll if he says “Please” and then you give him the tootsie roll after he says please, then you have Artificially Reinforced the behavior of saying please. It’s artificial because you set the rules your self and determined the consequence.
Example of Natural Reinforcement: If you are cold and wet from being outside in the rain and then you come inside and are rewarded with warmth and dryness, then the behavior of coming inside has been naturally reinforced by the consequence of becoming dry and warm. It was natural because the consequence was set by nature and not invented by another human.
Outside of the scientific community “Reinforcement” is often used interchangeably with “Reward”. You reward (or reinforce) desired behaviors to encourage them to occur again.
Reinforcement promotes a specific behavior and is the opposite of Punishment which discourages a behavior.
Reinforcement in Parrot Training
Reinforcement is the best way to train a parrot because parrots do horrible with most forms of punishment. Unlike dogs, parrots will quickly lose trust in a trainer that frequently delivers punishment. It can take a lot of work to regain a parrot’s trust once trust is lost. If you want a parrot to do anything for you, you better be willing to bribe!
