« Antwort #60 am: 12. November 2011, 00:35:49 »
http://stalecheerios.com/blog/orca/orca-part-3-steve-martin/One of the most fascinating things I heard all day was Steve's ideas on bridges and marker signals. We traditionally think of the clicker as the marker signal. However, the animal picks up on all sorts of other signals we give, such as voice and body movement, which can end up serving as markers without us even realizing it.
Many animals use visual bridges much more than we realize and Steve challenged us to consider how big of an influence the clicker is actually having on the animal's behavior. He showed several clips of trainers working with animals in the zoo setting, mostly involving stationary behaviors, such as targeting, holding a pose, or touching something. While watching, he had us observe carefully for when the animal broke pose, signaling the end of the behavior. We would expect, if the clicker was truly serving as a marker signal, the animal would break pose when he heard the click. Instead, in almost every case, the animal held the pose after the click and moved as soon as the trainer reached for the reward. How interesting!
If the sound of the clicker is not a good predictor of when a reward will be delivered, then the animal depends on your body language and signals rather than the click. This just goes to illustrate that the magic is not in the clicker, the magic is in the trainer's ability to train. In several zoos, Steve has taken away the clickers and the trainers have been able to achieve the same results and success as they had before.
Does this mean we should all throw away our clickers? I don't think so at all. It means we should make sure our animals are associating the sound of the clicker with a reward. The clicker is a great tool for precise timing and communication when we use it correctly.
Also, I think the clicker serves an important role in teaching the trainer good timing skills and when and what behaviors to reinforce. However, this does help drive home the point that there is a huge difference between clicker training and training with a clicker! Just because someone is holding a clicker, does not mean they understand the principles of training and positive reinforcement. On the flip side, though, just because someone isn't holding a clicker, does not mean they aren't training with the principles of clicker training.