Clicker training in horses: Operant conditioners and secondary reinforcers in horse training.

摘要

“Clicker training”, a training method based on operant conditioning with the use of a secondary reinforcer, has gained popularity as horse owners and trainers seek improved ways of training their horses. While this method draws from theories of the psychology of learning and is widely used by many owners, there has been no scientific investigation of its efficacy. This study was conducted to assess the hypothesis that operant conditioning with a secondary reinforcer (auditory click) followed by a primary reinforcer (food) results in fewer target training trials to learn an operant task and more trials to extinction than operant conditioning with only a primary reinforcer. Sixty horses were divided into one of six treatments based on which reinforcers were administered during conditioning, target training, and extinction. The operant response required the horse to touch his or her nose to a plastic cone. The number of shaping trials required, the total number of target training trials required, and the total number of trials required to extinction were not influenced by type of reinforcer(s) administered (P ? 0.33), age (P ? 0.08), or sex (P ? 0.14). The total number of target training trials and the total number of trials required to extinction were not influenced by schedule of reinforcement (P ? 0.33). The number of extinction trials required was not influenced by the reinforcers withheld during extinction (P = 0.38). This study failed to find a difference between horses which received a secondary reinforcer followed by a primary reinforcer and those which received only a primary reinforcer in regards to the amount of time required to train a response or in the number of trials required to reach extinction.