The Downside to Negative Reinforcement
Negative Reinforcement (R-) also known in the horse world as “pressure and release” training does work, no one is denying that.
But we have to be honest with ourselves about how it actually works in the context of horse training and put ourselves in our horse’s hooves.
If someone squeezes our arm to make us move out of their way and if that squeezing (and their proximity) causes us to move and they promptly stop squeezing when we do AND we move away in the future, that’s Negative Reinforcement. Most importantly, it’s not quite the same as putting a coat on when it’s cold or drinking water when we are thirsty or putting our seat belt on to avoid the annoying beep, which are all examples of R- as well. Negative Reinforcement training is someone else controlling the annoying or uncomfortable thing and it’s removal AND making a decision for us, about where we should be standing, how we should be behaving, by using some kind of physical, emotional and mental “pressure” (unease/discomfort).
Imagine that same person also does all kinds of other things like that to you, after a while they don’t even have to touch you, they simply reach for you and you move away. You really don’t want them squeezing your arm every time or touching you. You might also get a little twitchy and hyper vigilant when they are around. This is so you are ready to do something, before they have to touch you or pressure you or make you do something you probably didn’t want to do or like to do. You probably don’t like them a great deal either. We call those behaviours Escape and Avoidance.
Now imagine the arm squeezer (plus various other methods of discomfort they use to make you do various other behaviours), keeps you in an enclosed area, away from family and friends, dictates when you leave your home, when and what you eat, who your friends are, what you wear, when you need medical treatment.
Imagine every time you learn something new, you have to experience discomfort over and over and over again, until you finally figure out what they are wanting you to do. We call this Trial and Error Learning. Even if the discomfort is mild by our standards, it has to be uncomfortable enough to get a change of behaviour in the horse and it happens repeatedly, over and over, until the goal behaviour is achieved. It’s not once or twice in a day, like feeling cold or feeling thirsty, and then it’s gone, it’s repeated discomfort that someone else is controlling. Imagine learning in a way that is repeatedly being made to feel uncomfortable and trying to figure out how to make it stop.
It’s no wonder we see so many horses looking away, or looking resigned, or worse, dry licking and chewing, or yawning or any of the other calming or stress behaviours.
Learning that way WOULD be stressful.
