Operant Conditioning: What In The World Is It?

Operant Conditioning is a method of learning that is the result of reinforcement and punishment. 

 As shown in the photo above, there are also negative and positive aspects to either way of modifying a behavior. To clarify this, lets look at some examples. It is important to stay level headed when looking at this. It is easy to be offended at the idea of punishing an animal. However, punishment does not mean you are being cruel.  Positive Reinforcement: Positive reinforcement is adding something to increase the likelyhood of a behavior, such as clicker training. When clicker training you click to mark that behavior and then treat to add reinforcement. Positive reinforcement can also be as subtle as giving your horse a rub on the neck for a job well done.  Negative Reinforcement: This method is removing something to increase the likelihood of a behavior. This is he most common type of training when training horses. Nearly everyone has heard that "Horses learn from the release of pressure". This is when you ask your horse to do something such as move forward off your leg, and when the horse moves forward you remove the pressure of your legs to release.  Positive Punishment: This simply means to add something to decrease the likelihood of a behavior. An example of this would be a horse that’s leaning on your leg. If I’m asking my horse to bend through a turn and he’s leaning I’ll move from soft steady pressure to firmly bumping my horse off my leg to get my horse off my leg and to discourage further leaning.  Negative Punishement: Negative punishment is not as widely used with horses as there can be limited applications but it is just as important as the other three. This is the removal of something to decrease the likelihood of a behavior. I use this with impatient horses at feeding time. If a horse is pawing and otherwise throwing a fit, I remove my presence and the feed until my horse calms down. 

Every quadrant has an equally important part in training an animal. As you become more experienced you will be able to more easily see what situation calls for which quadrant.