So another technique that gets talked about, or
a technique that gets talked about in behavior analysis, is functional
analysis.
And you have been a pioneer of applying functional analysis technology
to dog behavioral problems.
So can you tell us first,
what do behavior analysts mean by functional analysis?
>> Sure, so functional analysis really is a methodology of figuring
out what
the functional reinforcer for a behavior is.
And so, what we mean by a functional reinforcer is, what actually
maintains
that behavior in the environment, in the natural environment, for that
one individual?
So, for example, and I collaborate on these projects, so
actually none of them are my own.
So, [LAUGH] I'm gonna bring in some other names.
But, for example, Nathan Hall and I worked on a project where he tried
to find
what was reinforcing or what was maintaining the behavior of circling
or spinning in dogs.
So this kind of stereotypic behavior.
>> Yeah.
>> And so the idea was to try to figure out if we could keep this
behavior up and
actually increase this behavior,
by giving the dogs various kinds of stimuli as potential reinforcers.
And so, for example, we put the dog in some situation, and
we then hypothesize that perhaps the reason why this dog is spinning
is because
he's escaping some event in his life.
So maybe he it's an escape function.
>> Mm-hm. >> So the reinforcer is something to do
with negative reinforcement.
And so we put the dog in the situation, and if he were to spin,
something is removed from the environment.
And we'd take a look at the rate of spinning.
And let's say if it decreases, that that was not our functional
reinforcer, so
we move on to something else.
So, in this case, with several of the dogs, the dogs were spinning and
the owner provided attention contingent on the spinning.
And, in fact, we saw that the spinning increased.
>> Right. >> And maintained.
>> Right. >> And so that will tell us that
owner attention for those two dogs, was, in fact, the functional
reinforcer for
that spinning behavior.
>> And so, this functional analysis is like a diagnostic procedure.
>> Right. >> To uncover
what it is that's reinforcing an undesired behavior.
>> Exactly, exactly.
>> So you're trying out different possibilities and seeing which ones.
Isn't that a little bit dangerous that you're, in effect,
encouraging the undesired behavior?
>> Yeah, so, but one kind of, this is once again back to ethics,
absolutely within the functional analysis methodology,
there are gonna be instances where that inappropriate behavior is
specifically
reinforced or kept maintained- >> Right, right, right.
>> With one of the reinforcers.
But, one can argue that, before we came around, that behavior already
continued in
the environment, was already reinforced by some that stimulus that was
there.
And so without diagnosing,
we just don't know what kind of thing, what are we gonna actually, how
are we gonna treat this behavior?
But after we diagnosed, and we figured out that, okay,
it was specifically owner attention that was reinforcing the spinning,
now we can tell the owner that this is what we found.
>> Right. >> And so to treat this behavior,
we now have to remove owner attention from this behavior.
>> Right.
>> And so, thereby making treatment much more effective and efficient.
>> Right, right, right.
And so, is that an actual example?
Did you actually have a dog- >> Yes.
>> That was spinning, and it turned out that this spinning was
reinforced because
the owners payed attention to it?
>> Yeah, that's right.
>> And you then told the owners to stop paying attention, and
the behavior declined?
>> Yeah, so Nathan figured out a treatment where,
if the dog started spinning, the owner was told to go into a different
room.
>> Right. >> And then
we looked at the rate of spinning, or he looked at the rate of
spinning.
And so he found that the rate of spinning did decrease based on this
kind of treatment,
where the owner attention was specifically removed from this dog.
>> Right, right, right.
>> And that kind of treatment was only possible
because we knew what the functional reinforcer was at that moment in
time.
>> Right, right, right right.
>> It was a second study on problem behavior, but the first one,
on something veterinary behaviorists would call a clinical problem
behavior-
>> Uh-huh, I see, I see.
>> Such as stereotypy,
spinning, obsessive compulsive disorder.
Nicole Dory- >> Yeah.
>> Published the first paper on jumping in dogs.
>> That's right. >> So, uh -
>> Yes, I should know that.
Yes. >> [LAUGH] I think you were an author.
[LAUGH] >> Yes, yes, yes. [LAUGH]
>> So you were the first.
>> I suppose.
[LAUGH] >> [LAUGH] And the second.
[LAUGH] >> [LAUGH]
>> So she did look at what maintained
jumping up behavior of the dogs,
when people come into the house for the first time.
And so I believe she found that, for a lot of the dogs, it was, that
behavior was reinforced by getting the objects out of the hand of that
person.
>> Yeah, yes. I remember now [LAUGH].
>> [LAUGH] >> Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
>> So, that was the first functional analysis - >> Yeah. >> With dogs
in general.
>> Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Okay, good. Thank you.
