The Art of Natural Dressage

Pressure, Release… Reward?

Now, we probably have all heard terms similar to pressure, release, and reward, but what does that phrase really mean? Does that cute little formula really stimulate or motivate the horse? If it does, how does it work?


Pressure

What is pressure? Pressure can be many things. It can be emotional or physical. Physical pressure can be as light as a touch or as harsh as blow. Emotional pressure can be as light as a thought or nearly invisible body language, to as harsh as a stressful command. If we were to study the herd structure, we see most of these pressure employed. A mother horse can guide her foal with a light touch from her muzzle; she can also forcefully protect her baby from danger. The matriarch of the herd (boss mare) can flick an ear or give a look and move another horse out of her way; she can also use very forceful body language to teach a young horse a lesson. Of course, when there is pressure there is almost always the release of pressure.

Release

What is release? Well, presumable, it is the taking away of any pressure we were using on the horse. It should be taken immediately off of the horse when the horse responds. If we don’t immediately release pressure, we almost always confuse and frustrate the horse. The idea is to give the horse a stimulus, i.e. pressure, and get him to give the right response. The horse may respond with different actions. In the beginning, the horse likely will not know what we are asking. When the horse accidentally stumbles on the correct idea, we release the pressure. From there we move to reward.

Reward

What is reward? This concept of reward is what I want to uncover most here. Now, I have heard people say that when you release the pressure, this is the horse’s reward. Some say that when you allow the horse to rest, this is reward; or that giving a horse food is reward. Still others say that when you pet them and talk to them, it is a reward. Well, who is right? Who is wrong? Are any of them wrong?

Let me put it to you this way. Let us say you were told to clean your room. If you cleaned your room you would be rewarded. So, imagining the reward you are going to get, you clean your room. You get done and you find out that the reward you were looking forward to was that you get to sit on the couch and rest. Reward?! I don’t think so. Or perhaps you were made to mow the lawn. You mow the lawn and find out you get to rest. Certainly you are happy to rest, but you probably would rather not have mowed the lawn in the first place. Is that a reward?

So, rest from work, either hard or not, isn’t much of a reward. Most horses are required to do things, it doesn’t matter what discipline, whether they want to or not. Afterwards, they get to rest. Or we cue the horses to do something (pressure) and if they get it right, they rest. Is this what you and I would call a reward? I know I wouldn’t.

However, if someone asked you to wash the dishes (no reward mentioned) and after you finished them, you were given Ice Cream as a reward for doing your chores? Wouldn’t you consider this a reward? Would you be willing to do it again for that same reward? True, a horse can be taught many things without treats, but are they being rewarded?

It seems to me, that when you are training a horse, especially at the beginning, the horse needs lots of motivation. The question is: how do we motivate the horse. Certainly one way is to use food rewards. I think that we can call a special food a reward. Is the horse motivated with stroking and kind words? Is this truly a reward?

What is the true meaning of… Pressure, Release, Reward?

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http://www.ivyshorses.com
Blog: http://www.EquestrianHarmony.wordpress.com

Wow! Lot's of questions! Which IMO is a good thing! And finding examples in my own life has always helped me to understand how learning works!

From what you wrote above, it sounds like you are trying to understand the difference between positive reinforcement and negative reinforcement??

Here's a great site with a lot of information and definitions for you:

http://www.wagntrain.com/OC/

Eileen was just taking about The ABCs of shaping, or behavior in her diary that might help here:

Antecedent: occurs BEFORE the behavior
Behavior: what the animal does in response to A
Consequence: occurs AFTER the behavior

I'll also attempt to explain my take on pressure, release, and reward with these terms in mind:

Pressure is an ANTECEDENT stimulus, or sometimes called a cue, it happens before the behavior. This often occurs in a negative reinforcement procedure. More specifically, pressure can be an aversive stimulus, and like you wrote, which means it can be uncomfortable or annoying, but can also be painful or fear inducing, or can just be the threat of any of these. This aversive nature it what gives it it's negative reinforcing properties when removed: RELIEF. However, pressure isn't always aversive. Massage is a good example.

To complicate matters even further, with negative reinforcement, there are two types: escape and avoidance conditioning.

In escape conditioning, the animal experiences the aversive (pressure, pain, cold, weary, etc.) and performs a behavior to make the aversive stimulus stop. For example, I was working outside today as the sun went down and my hands started to freeze (antecedent stimulus). I stopped working and went inside where it was warm (behavior), relief from freezing hands (consequence). I ESCAPED from the cold.

Another example. The next day I notice the sun starting to go down (antecedent). I go inside BEFORE my hands start to freeze (behavior). I have successfully AVOIDED freezing hands (consequence).

Release is a slang term for what the trainer does when the horse has complied to your pressure cue, it is a negative reinforcing CONSEQUENCE. A more scientific way for looking at it is relief from an aversive. It is a very powerful NEGATIVE reinforcer
(negative means to 'take away or remove'). In your lawn mowing example, if I were to FORCE you somehow to mow the lawn for say 8 or more hours straight, you would most likely find that aversive/pressure and be begging for relief, a chance to rest and also some mental relief too!! So resting WOULD be reinforcing to you AT THAT TIME!

Reward is a slang term for giving something to another. As you stated, it does not necessarily increase the 'room cleaning' or 'lawn mowing' behaviors, tho it might. You can 'reward' but not necessarily reinforce a behavior. Like you said if you don't like the 'reward' then it won't increase your behvaior. You need to look at what the behavior does in the future. If those behaviors do not increase, then it was NOT a reinforcing consequence (an possibly punishing!)! The animals (or you!) define what is reinforcing.

It gets clearer when you think of reinforcers, since a positive reinforcer is very different than a negative reinforcer! A reinforcer increases a behavior. If the behavior did not increase or at least maintain, then that consequence was NOT a reinforcer. So there are two types of reinforcing consequences, positive (adding some thing the animal likes/wants) and negative (taking away/removing/cessation of something the animal doesn't like/want).

Reinforcers change depending upon our physical and mental state, and also species. If I am tired, rest might be reinforcing. If I am hungry, food might be reinforcing. If I am Border Collie, racing across the field to gather sheep might be reinforcing. If I am a horse who has been stalled, moving might be reinforcing. If a horse has been cantering for 20 minutes, rest might be reinforcing.

So relief, treats, scratching, touching, rest, running, etc. MIGHT BE reinforcers. The sun is reinforcing on a freezing day, shade is reinforcing on a hot day, etc. A shy dog might love to be touched by his owner, but finds touching aversive from a stranger. The only way to know for sure is to see how these 'potential' reinforcing consequences affect a particular behavior, or motivate the animal to do X. Always look to the behavior to see if the consequences you are offering are working!

Check out that website for more info! Lots of good info there!

Hope this helps!

Brenda

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http://www.youtube.com/user/Lucy04574
http://www.youtube.com/user/Jack04574

This is very interesting point to me. What you describe is so very human. People do a work that they do not enjoy, so they will get a reward/payment.
We often do not enjoy the moment, but we think about the coming reward.

There is the concept to find enjoyment in the work one does. Not thinking about how nice it will be when one is done, but really enjoying and paying attention to the work. Such the whole life becomes much more rewarding

I know for myself, that I enjoy more to live a rewarding life, rather then a life full of rewards in between.

Such would be also my wish to be able to give to my horses - a rewarding life.

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Andrea
http://www.youtube.com/user/FinhorsesAndPinscher
http://basichorsemanship.blogspot.com/

Interesting point indeed. Unfortunately animals only seem to be capable of those volitional processes (with one part being the ability to delay current motives for the sake of long-term goals) to a rather limited extent. That is, their brains just don´t seem to allow anticipating future consequences or needs, or more precisely: only on a much smaller timescale. Other volitional processes related to that are much less developed in other animals than they are in humans as well.

For me the question is to what extent this is possible at all - so I tend to try to go with what I know they can do: anticipating rewards in the very near future - that is, getting a treat for a certain behaviour that they are doing right now.

Finding enjoyment in the work one does is such a wonderful concept - but if I try to imagine how that should happen given your brain does only support short-term consequences, I wonder how this could possibly work without positive reinforcement methods?

Often we have been conditioned to not enjoy the moment! It can take a lot of mindfullness to change ourselves from being extrinsically to intrinsically motivated. My daughter believes that she does not enjoy cleaning her room. Do I just leave her with this feeling, and not help her to experience the pleasure that cleaning her room can give her, just hoping that one day she will decide for herself that cleaning her room might be a pleasurable act? I think I could be waiting a for a very long time.. If instead I help her by extrinsically motivating her to actually DO it.. and at the same time help her to experience that as intrinsically rewarding.. turn on some fun music, share the job with her, share her pleasure in being in her tidy room afterwards, then I believe she's much more likely to eventually experience the pleasure in actually doing that you talk about, especially if we install it as a regular habit. The first week or two she just does it because of the external motivating factors, but eventually, she begins to think, HEY! this isn't so bad after all, and actually starts to whistle as she works!

But to actually BEGIN.. to be in a position to experience that pleasure, she has to be willing to try.. and that's where I can help. I can encourage her to do it by putting pressure on her, or by reinforcing her after she's done it. But either way, I think that my job as a parent is to help her to enjoy the actual DOING as you say.

I think that's absolutely wonderful if you find that your horses are going to be sufficiently motivated by just enjoying what they are doing in the moment. I do believe it's possible, especially with young and playful and uncrushed horses. We have eight horses, and two of them are willing to use energy in play without any other motivating factors other than the fun of it.

Other horses, IME, need help to get started. And I hope that nobody feels that they are somehow morally or ethically inferior because they recognise this and decide to use food as a reinforcer.

I've just finished uploading a video of Sunrise playing tiger on a hot sunny afternoon. She wasn't very energetic that day, but she's having so much fun, cantering and killing the tiger. Until I started using food as reinforcement, she was just getting fatter and fatter and more unfit.. and less and less likely to find such activity fun. Now she quite obviously loves it.. I still give her treats, but you can see that's just secondary to her enjoyment.. and they help to provide her confidence,as she's still not exactly sure of herself with me. If I hadn't used treats to get her started, I believe she would never have been motivated to begin...

So I don't think that food reinforcement and intrinsic pleasure have to be mutually exclusive. My experience is that food reinforcement often preceeds our ability to find pleasure in the moment.

Sue

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I have not sought the horse of bits, bridles, saddles and shackles,
But the horse of the wind, the horse of freedom, the horse of the dream. [Robert Vavra]

I love the comparison with cleaning your daughters room, it made a lot of sense to me!

Just a random thoughts about doing work that you enjoy: I absolutely agree that no kind of external reward beat loving the work itself. However, I experienced several times in my life that I was doing a job of some sorts that I really liked doing (writing, drawing, teaching), but it paid quite bad. At the beginning of such a job I didn't mind at all and just poured all my energy into doing it, but after a while somehow it always felt that the balance was wrong in these situations: I gave all my brains, inspiration, energy and ideas and felt like I just didn't get back as much in return, even though the people I worked with were very positive about what I did. It still felt like the balance was wrong and while at the beginning when I started doing this great job it felt as if it actually gave me new energy, after a while I started to feel strained and drained by it.

When I talked about this with a friend, she looked at me and said; 'but that's because you get paid too little.' which I thought was a silly remark, because I liked the job and who cares about money then, right? Well, apparently something in me did, as my friend then explained that money isn't just a collection of metals, it's energy. It's energy in that people give you something they also would have liked to keep for themself, because you gave them something that you could have also kept for yourself. If somebody who has 100 dollars gives you 10 dollar, you feel more appreciated and content with the reward for your work, than when that person gives you 10 while he has 1000 dollars. The more rare the reward is, the more motivated you are to put effort in your work - and the less rare your reward is, the less motivated you might get.

I was (and still am!) quite shocked that rare appreciation (for example money) does seem to make a difference, even when you like the work itself, but apparently it does work like that, at least in a part of the people. So for us, poor creatures who spend most of their energy on balancing an oversized brain on two legs, it does seem like the reward we expect influences how we value the work we do - regardless of how we feel about the work itself.

Strange stuff!

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New horse book: Mandala horses!

Never stop making mistakes! Natural Dressage

Great point Miriam! I hadn't quite thought of it like this, but I think you are absolutely right.. money, or any form of payment, is an exchange of energy. How interesting.. ! I used to work for a community education centre.. We came to the conclusion after trial and error, that we should never make the courses free.. we should always place some small charge.. because we found that people enrolled but didn't turn up for the free courses.. We understood that they didn't value something that they hadn't paid something for. THis would fit exactly with the "exchange of energy" theory wouldn't it? Whereas if they paid, even some small amount that everyone could afford, the participants would attend much more regularly.. Because they had already expended some energy in the form of money, and wanted to get some return on it? Interesting!

Cheers
Sue

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I have not sought the horse of bits, bridles, saddles and shackles,

But the horse of the wind, the horse of freedom, the horse of the dream. [Robert Vavra]

That is a good point Miriam. I just wrote the article about rewards as a way to help organize my thoughts and get other people ideas about it. It has been very nice to read what everyone thinks.

Ivy

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http://www.ivyshorses.com
Blog: http://www.EquestrianHarmony.wordpress.com

Another good analogy Miriam!

Money in our society is a token, a secondary reinforcer, which enables us to acquire the primary reinforcers that we need, mainly food, shelter, warmth, comfort, safety, education, fun, etc. Money in itself does not keep us warm or safe or from being hungry, but instead what it represents, or predicts is what motivates humans to seek it.

Same goes for a marker, like the clicker. It is a secondary reinforcer that has been paired with a primary reinforcer, something the animal wants or needs, like food, scratches, etc. The clicker is only a neutral stimulus, like money was once for all of us, that has come to represent something the learner wants, so will figure out which behaviors (work, stealing, creating, maniupulating, etc.) cause that consequence to occur! Hence, operant conditioning!

So energy is one way of looking at it, cuz secondary reinforcers are very POWERFUL consequences, but only thru their classical associations with a primary!! Even people who are 'money hungry' and seek more money than they need, the primary is still there, possible in the security or comfort that they seek, in an attempt to avoid aversive consequences in their lives. Stress can be quite the motivator!!!

Brenda

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http://www.youtube.com/user/Lucy04574

http://www.youtube.com/user/Jack04574

Oh, I also love miraim's point.

But also, havn't you ever done something nice for someone because you loved them?

I would rather do somthing nice for my husband because I love him, than do the same thing for some jerk I can't stand because he pays well.

I would rather my horse do things for me than for a carrot. Of course I love him and want to do somthing nice for him so I give him a carrot, but there are plenty of days that proved the carrot is not needed. That is when you know you really have a relationship!!!

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Learning to put the relationship first.

What does that mean?

That I have not previously made the experience that he would make me do things anyway if I did not do them by myself?
That I can understand that achieving a behavioural goal, like a certain movement or exercise, is something one might want to strive for?
That I can understand that me achieving a behavioural goal is something another one might want to strive for (except for "useful" things like moving out of his space)?
That I can take the other one´s perspective to anticipate his feelings in case I do that certain something?
That I can see a link between liking someone and working for him, doing him a favour?
That doing things because I love someone does not imply a lack of rewards, but only a shift of them - and with that, that helping/cooperating IS rewarding for me?

Are all of these points true for horses? Can they be true, considering learning experiences and evolution of the species?

And I would rather not being pressured into doing things but choose to do them.
And if then I get a treat for doing them, oh goody!

Maybe when pressured, the release of pressure after doing it is the treat...

@ All: Interesting though: once I was showing Ralph what O and I were up to. And while I was asking O for things and giving him treats I forgot to use my voice the way I do when I am alone with him. (high and shrieky saying 'Good boy' ' 'WOW!' 'beautiful' 'thank you' and 'yes' etc).
After a short while he did not want to train anymore... he even did not want to take the treats! He walked away!
That amazed me!
He will train without the treats I know now... but I just like to give them, I need to do something with my endless glee...

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www.equusuniversalis.com

This is interesting to me, because it guides how I train.

First of all, I know that the brain does not treat release of pressure in the same way that it treats something that is intrinsically rewarding, such as food. So for me, release of pressure is not a reward. This doesn't mean that it can't be motivating, because if it's a negative reinforcer, it reinforces/strengthens the response that immediately preceded the release. However, I think Brenda sums it up nicely - it strengthens the behaviour in the context in which I am training - but it has other effects too and these are to motivate avoidance. So if I try to train using release of pressure with no ropes etc. to keep the horse with me, the next time I try to obtain the reinforced behaviour, I may find that the horse goes out of his way to avoid the situation in which I ask for it

In terms of rewards, for me the definitition is again the clue. A reward strengthens behaviour, and motivates the animal (if it is salient) to work for more. So take for example, the scratch on the forehead often advocated by NH trainers. If this is rewarding to my horse, if I then turn him loose and hold out my hand, does he approach for another scratch on the forehead? The horse is the one that determines whether something is rewarding or not, and his behaviour is what tells me it is. For my horse, I can say for sure that most times, he finds a scratch just under his dock rewarding - if I hold up my hand, he will reverse until my hand is positioned right. He doesn't at all like being scratched on the face and will walk away if I try that.

He does, if he is calm, like food. If he is excited, he likes games and will try to initiate play - so in those times, for him, play is rewarding.

And also, for me, I see that the food offered as a reward when training has more meaning for him than simply "food" - because he will stand in the middle of a field of spring grass and work hard to get a couple of fibrenuts

Finally, I guess, there are behaviours that become rewards in their own right. I think they are the ones that are most frequently reinforced - and these behaviours will in themselves start to act as reinforcers for other behaviours paired with them. I trained a sort of lateral move at liberty very early on, where the horse walks along side me in shoulder-in. He finds this very exciting, and will often offer it when we're not playing, and as soon as we start doing it, he starts nickering. I can use this to reinforce, for example, a sidepass. I hope as we work, more behaviours will take on this role for him - I suppose in a way they're like paper money - they're just a "promise to pay the bearer", but have no value in themselves. I guess it's also a bit like teaching a young child to "share your toys" - if they're rewarded for doing it, eventually - you hope - you will have an altruistic child who understands that giving something without the expectation of a return may still make you feel good inside