Reinforcement Systems 101 (6 week class)

About this course: Reinforcement systems are often overlooked during teaching. Learning will be much slower if your reinforcement system is poorly designed or if your learner does not understand certain elements of your reinforcement system. Small adjustments to your reinforcement system can have a huge impact on learning.

During the course, you will learn what a reinforcement system is, the elements of a reinforcement system, and how to diagram and analyze reinforcement systems.

This is a hands-on course. You’ll use a shaping game called PORTL to explore the idea of the reinforcement system and to practice your reinforcement delivery and timing. In addition, you will design, build, evaluate, and improve a reinforcement system for an animal learner.

If you want to look closely at the fine details of your training sessions and better understand the nitty-gritty of how reinforcement works, you’ll love this course!

Prerequisites: This course is appropriate for those who are newer to animal training and the idea of reinforcement systems, as well as experienced professionals. Previous participants have included pet owners and novice trainers, professional animal trainers, behavior analysts, veterinarians, and zoo professionals.

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Mary Hunter earned an undergraduate degree in biology from the University of Chicago in 2008 and a master’s degree in behavior analysis from the University of North Texas in 2013. Her master’s thesis was published in 2019 in the Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior.

Mary owns her own animal training and consulting business in North Texas, working mainly with horses and dogs and their owners. She also serves as president of the Art and Science of Animal Training, a nonprofit organization that provides educational programs for professional animal trainers.

From 2016-2019, Mary taught classes in the behavior analysis department at the University of North Texas as an adjunct instructor. This led to an interest in instructional design and course development. In 2017, she converted an upper-level undergraduate class into a completely self-paced, mastery-based course using Dr. Fred Keller’s Personalized System of Instruction (PSI).

Mary’s research interests include studying the process of shaping and developing better methods for teaching both people and animals.

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This course will start October 14.

Click HERE to view the course syllabus.

Zoom sessions will be held on Tuesdays from 1:30–2:30 p.m. Central Time

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