This badge signifies the completion of the course Deciding If and When Positive Reinforcement Belongs in a Negative Reinforcement Procedure.

When does positive reinforcement belong in a negative reinforcement procedure —and when might introducing it complicate the process?

In this course, we explore a practical decision framework for using food or other appetitives within constructional approaches to fear, avoidance, and aggression. You’ll learn how to determine whether a second contingency serves a clear purpose, such as facilitating movement, creating a workable starting point, or revealing hidden variables affecting behavior.

Through real-life examples involving a variety of species, we examine strategies for minimizing superimposition while preserving the animal’s ability to communicate through escape, avoidance, or low-level aggressive responses. We’ll also look at observable signs that contingencies may be competing and how to adjust the procedure when conflicted behavior appears.

Finally, we explore the switchover: the point at which behavior has changed enough for positive reinforcement to begin maintaining the desired response.

Members of Animal Training Fundamentals get access to a downloadable Checklist that helps you apply the framework to your own training challenges.

This course takes 1 hour to complete.