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Brain Research on Praise vs. Food as reinforcement
I listened to a great talk by Gergory Berns M.D., Ph.D. Emory University
In 2011, he launched an effort to train dogs to cooperatively participate in fMRI studies, resulting in the first demonstration of its feasibility. Since then, he has trained and scanned 100 dogs on a wide variety of cognitive paradigms.He concludes from his studies that being verbally praised is meaningful to dogs. He says “…their brains are showing us that praise is at least as reinforcing for at least ¾ of the dogs in the studies.” He also advocates for the primary use of play, praise as reinforcers in training and says, “Know the dog for what motivates them and what’s important to them.”
“Training without food makes them less dependent upon the food and more focused on relationship with the human.”
What do you think of his comments?
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4 Replies
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This information is exactly what I was hoping to discover so I can be more confident in helping clients who would like help with their dogs and not overload them on calories. I found also that when I use the food reward too much with a dog they may not eat their kibble right away, but hold out for something better and it affects their eating schedule.
Also, I consider my and my clients pups physical, mental, and emotional health as important as that of myself and my family so good nutrition, regular veterinarian/medical appointments and exercise are priorities. The smaller and older the dog the less we want to use high value (aka high calorie) motivators as they can have negative weight and health impacts.
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Right, @HHPS ! Good stuff here. And of course, it’s easiest to use food as a lure for new behavior training… but this certainly encourages us to look toward fading it quickly and not to lose sight of praise as motivating. Key point there though, don’t miss it: “for 3/4 of the dogs in the study.” So – for the 25 of 100 other dogs? Use food. ???? “It depends!” strikes again – It depends on the individual dog!
If motivation is dropping, try other reinforcers!
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Wow! That statistic is a lot higher than I thought. We always discuss using other motivators other than food where I work. I work with around 20-30 different dogs a week. I’m going use this with some of dogs. Interesting topic!
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This is fascinating stuff. I think is really going to help dogs in the long run as their owners realize that praising and talking to their dogs is meaningful! I can recall several of my canine clients and service dogs in training at school who seemed to just really light up with some enthusiastic praise.
Has anyone else had a similar experience with their dogs or clients? Can you recall any dogs in particular that seem more motivated by praise than other reinforcers?
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