What a treat we have for you.  Once again we are in conversation with Dr. Susan Friedman.  Dr. Friedman is a professor emeritus in the Department of Psychology at Utah State University.  She has pioneered the application of Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) to captive and companion animals. ABA, with its roots in human learning, offers a scientifically sound teaching technology and ethical standard that can improve the lives of all learners.  Susan runs an on-line course - Living and Learning with Animals for Professionals. She has written chapters on learning and behavior for five veterinary texts, and she’s a frequent contributor to popular magazines. Her articles appear around the world in 15 languages. Susan has presented seminars for a wide variety of professional organizations around the world, and she is a member of the faculty of the clicker expo which is how I first met her.  

When Susan is with us we forget about time.  We just keep going until our animals shout out a collective Enough!  Thankfully on this afternoon they were all content to let us talk, and talk we did!  We have a great three parter for you.  We’ll start with Crucial Conversations.  We’ve all been there.  It might be someone is criticizing how you’re training your horse, or maybe they’ve attacked something you’ve posted on the internet.  How do you handle the situation?  That’s the start for a complex, multi-layered conversation.

Episode 161: Dr Susan Friedman Pt 1: Talking Together

This week we continue our conversation with Dr. Claire St Peter.  Claire received her PhD in Psychology with an emphasis in Behavior Analysis from the University of Florida in 2006. She is currently a Professor of Psychology, the Director of Graduate Training, and the Coordinator of the Behavior Analysis program area at West Virginia University.  She is also a horse enthusiast so in this conversation we get to explore all her interests.

In Part 1 we began with mastery-based learning and then Claire introduced us to the concept of super resurgence.  In Part 2 we begin with the reasons why behavior relapses.  That will take us to quadratic equations, philosophical answers contrasted with ethical ones, loopy training and the constructional approach, variable and continuous reinforcement schedules, and collaborations between trainers and researchers.  It’s a fun, wide-ranging conversation that takes us down some unexpected but fun rabbit holes.

Episode 176 Dr Claire St Peter Part 2 What Causes Behavior To Relapse?

Autism Live host Shannon Penrod discusses her personal journey and the mission of Autism Live on 1 in 88 radio show. 

1 in 88 Radio Speaks with Autism Live Host

We are joined again by Dr. Michaela Hempen, but this time, Michaela is not talking about Blondie and the cribbing project, but about her day job.  Michaela works for the European Food Safety Agency.  The EFSA looks at anything related to food safety, including animal health. It provides risk assessments which give the European Commission or European member states the scientific basis for legislation. The European Commission will be revising all farm animal welfare legislation, and part of this will be based on scientific assessments of their welfare.  Michaela has become involved in this project which means she has been on a steep learning curve to familiarize herself with the field of animal welfare.  

In this podcast we talk about preference tests.  Whether it’s a laying hen or a horse how do you measure what animals want?

For a list of the references Michaela refers to in the podcast go to the show notes at equiosity.com.

Episode 190: Dr Michaela Hempen Pt 1: Assessing Animal Welfare

Episode 191   Michaela Hempen Part 2: Animal Welfare: Behavior Analysts Wanted!

In part 1 Dr Michaela Hempen introduced us to her day job.  Michaela works for the European Food Safety Agency.  This is a scientific agency provides risk assessments to give the European Commission or European member states the scientific basis for legislation.  The EFSA looks at anything related to food safety, that includes animal health.  The European Parliament has requested a scientific assessment of what the risks are for farm animals.  These assessments will be the basis for legislation.  The European Commission will be revising all farm animal welfare legislation, and part of this will be based on scientific assessments of their welfare.  Michaela has become involved in this project which means she has been on a steep learning curve to familiarize herself with the field of animal welfare.  

In part 1 we talked about preference tests.  How do you measure what animals want?  Part 2 begins with a discussion of stress and then Michaela talks about an important call for tender which her agency has put out.  They want welfare scientists to design the road map for future risk assessments of animal welfare. They are looking for new ways of assessing welfare.  The teams must include a behavior analyst, so we’re hoping this podcast will help get this information out to people in that field.  

The links to all the references Michaela cited as well as the link to information about the call to tender are in the show notes at equiosity.com

Episode 191: Michaela Hempen Part 2: Animal Welfare - Behavior Analysts Wanted!

This is part 3 of our conversation with Lucy Butler.  Lucy is a special ed teacher who at the start of the 2021-2022 school year was given the assignment of working with all the students in her high school who had failed ninth grade the previous year.   Last week Lucy talked about empowering her students by giving them more choice.  She taught them how to write SMART goals for themselves. It was inevitable that the subject of gun violence in schools came up during our conversation.  

“How insane it is,” Lucy says, “that part of my job as a teacher is thinking about how to protect my students against a gunman.”

But then Lucy found a way to transform the discussion into a hopeful message.  

“What I’m doing is the very best strategy,” she said, “is helping people to feel successful, to feel that they have choice and to feel that they belong. I’m inoculating these kids against violence.  I’m giving them the support of belonging and of feeling success.  We’re inoculating them against a dysfunctional future.   They are developing the skills to create their own success.”  

We do bring the conversation around to horses.  The links are important.  No matter who your learners are, Lucy is sharing a hopeful message.

If you have friends with school-age children, I hope you’ll share this conversation.

Episode 196: Lucy Butler Pt 3: Vaccinating Against Violence

We are beginning a conversation with Dr. Claire St Peter.  Claire is currently a Professor of Psychology, the Director of Graduate Training, and the Coordinator of the Behavior Analysis program area at West Virginia University.  We’re celebrating the publication of an article we wrote together for the Journal of Experimental Analysis of Behavior on Loopy Training.  

In this podcast we talk about what it was like to write the article and what is involved in getting an article published in a peer reviewed journal.  Then we take you down some of the many rabbit holes we explored as we developed the article. Some of them made it into the final version and some were just fun to explore.   

Here's the link to the Loopy training article:
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/share/author/HEMGM6YMDQF7UNJEYTCZ?target=10.1002/jeab.779

Episode 197: Dr Claire St Peter Part 1: Loopy Training Article In JEAB

This is part 1 of a three part conversation with Dr Joe Layng.  To begin I should say that Dr Layng is not a horse person.  This conversation is going to cover a lot of important concepts, but for the most part we won’t be talking specifically about horses.  

I asked Joe to talk to us about degrees of freedom.  This is a topic that I have heard Joe talk about several times and every time I have the same reaction.  This is something we need to understand more clearly.  It is relevant not just to our horses but to so many of the choices we make for ourselves.  Whenever I hear Joe present on this topic, I want to share what he’s saying, and that is of course what equiosity is all about.  Dominique and I get to share ideas that make us sit up and take notice.

So first, a little background.  Dr Layng has over 40 years' experience in the experimental and applied analysis of behavior, with a particular focus on the design of teaching/learning environments.  He earned a Ph.D. at the University of Chicago, where he collaborated with Paul Andronis and Israel Goldiamond.

He is the co-founder of Headsprout and was its senior scientist. At Headsprout, Dr. Layng and his colleagues designed, tested, and implemented highly successful Early Reading and Reading Comprehension programs.  Over 4 million children have learned to read through the Head Sprout program.

Dr. Layng has held a number of positions in schools, universities, and other public institutions related to instructional design, educational technology, large-scale performance improvement, and clinical behavior analysis. 

I met Joe at the Art and Science of Animal Training conference.  His presentations have always been for me one of the highlights of that conference.  I could easily go down any number of rabbit holes with him, but where we are going to begin is with degrees of freedom, what this means and what the implications are for our animals and for ourselves.  In the bigger picture, this discussion will help you understand the origins of some of the divisions and the violence that fills the news headlines every day.  It will also help us find solutions.  It’s an important topic on many levels, and one I hope you will share with others.

Episode 212 Joe Layng Pt 1 Degrees Of Freedom

You know you’re in for a great conversation when the guest for this week’s episode is Ken Ramirez.  For over thirty years Ken was the Executive Vice President Overseeing Animal Care and Training at the Shedd Aquarium.  He is now the Executive Vice President and Chief Training Officer of Karen Pryor Clicker Training.  

Those are impressive sounding titles, but they don’t come close to describing Ken’s talent as a trainer and teacher.  Dominique and I were delighted to be able to spend an afternoon with Ken shortly after this year’s Clicker Expo.  Dominique had a list of questions about keep going signals, treatless clicks and end-of-session strategies.  We begin with why Ken describes advanced training as the basics done really well.  Ken shares some great stories and then we jump into a discussion of keep going signals.

Episode 326 Ken Ramirez Pt 1 Keep Going Signals

In part 2 of our conversation with Cindy Martin and Mary Hunter we talk about PORTL.  (Portable Operant Research and Teaching Lab)

Cindy Martin hosts a clinic for me at her farm in Arkansas.  

Mary Hunter is our co-presenter in our new Listen and Learn audio course on applied behavior analysis. During a morning’s conversation after the 2019 clinic, the discussion turned to PORTL.

Mary truly is our PORTL master.  When she was working on her master’s degree at the University of North Texas, every week the graduate students in the behavior analysis department would get together to play PORTL. Actually, originally it would have been Kay Laurence’s table game, Genabacab.  

Under Jesús’ direction the game gradually morphed into PORTL: the portable operant research and teaching lab.  Table games had been used to help handlers improve their teaching skills. Now they could also be used to conduct research.   

Mary’s Master’s degree used PORTL to investigate the effects of what are commonly referred to as desperation clicks.  What effect, if any, does one bad click have on the rest of your training? Rather than frustrate lab rats, Mary used her fellow students to explore this question.  Her research was published in the Journal of Experimental Analysis of Behavior.  

In 2019 she and Dr. Jesus Rosales Ruiz also published the Portal manual.  The manual shares lessons that were developed over seven years in undergraduate and graduate courses and also in professional workshops.  

I’ve had the very great treat of playing PORTL with Mary.  That’s what we’ll be describing as we pick up again with this week’s podcast.

Episode 103: Mary Hunter And Cindy Martin Pt 2: PORTL

Equiosity is the podcast about all things equine with a special emphasis on the horse-human bond.

Popular tracks tagged #applied behavior analysis