The Cognitive Cat

15/09/2024

Relationship is a deepening of connection. Such connection develops through life stories of shared communication & experience. Meaning is found in these stories. Such meaning offers context to the value of everyday life.

How does the story of you & the cat(s) in your life read? What are some of the celebrations & challenges? Where is shared meaning found?

In answering such questions, I invite you to become a part of the story of positive reinforcement-based cat training. The clowder & I will guide how such approaches open new worlds of communication & understanding.

The Conditional Cat: Cat Herding 101, a positive reinforcement training course starts October 1st on Tromplo & runs for 6 weeks (course remains accessible to the enrolled for lifetime access) offering premium & auditor spots. Either option accesses all course work, but premium spots receive more in depth feedback from myself during the course.

Course lessons include:

👉 reviewing the art & science of learning/training

👉 foundational behaviors of targeting & stationing

👉 training behaviors via shaping, targeting & luring

👉 training intermediate behaviors including: sit, down, high five (with both paws) & more

👉 intro to cooperative care, voluntary carrier entry/exit, training baseline chin-hold & more

👉 training with distance, distraction & duration

👉 understand & apply the concepts of predictable unpredictability & loopy training

👉 a review of environmental stimuli as cues & conditioning calm/relaxation

👉 use the skills acquired & apply to scenarios beyond this course in creative ways

Reasons to take this course:

😺 enhance trust & relationship with the cat(s) in your life

😺 offer mental stimulation & develop a dialogue with your cat(s)

😺 acquire new skills & to help prepare for routine or emergent cooperative care

😺 gain insight into positive reinforcement training, behavior & cats

Course link in bio! ⭐️👆

If this sounds like the kind of story in which you & the cat(s) in your life would like to play starring roles in, sign up now!

21/03/2024

The process & procedure of stimulus-to-stimulus pairing (S-t-S) is used by trainers to condition a bevy of behaviors especially recalls & stationing at a location. This approach has often been considered classical conditioning (CC) as it involves the pairing of a neutral stimulus (which through pairing becomes a conditioned stimulus) with an unconditioned stimulus. The paradigmatic example of CC is Pavlov’s dogs, where the sound of a metronome (neutral stimulus) was followed by delivery of meat powder (unconditioned stimulus). After recurring trials of this pairing, the metronome evoked the behavior of salivating in the dogs before the power was delivered. The sound of the metronome came to predict salivation due to its proximity to the delivered food & that if it had sounded, food was always delivered.

Kiki Yablon Dog Training offers refreshing insights on the subtleties of how the process/procedure of S-t-S goes above & beyond CC in her blogs & resources (see comments for link to podcast). Reels never offers enough characters but some of the aspects I appreciate most are her use of the term “mind the gap” (paraphrasing & self-interpreting so if off the mark, mea culpa) as observing for the development of an operant “B” (as in A->B->C of behavior) between that S-t-S paring of the “A->C,” along with the use of the interrogative adverbs to help define the “how,” in terms of the “when” being availability in the form of the cue & the “where” being access to the reinforcer, while the “why,” in my opinion, is up to disequilibrium theory to ascertain its “bliss point.”

In the video w/ Poe, the “how “ is an open-mouth(hold) (O-MH). (We want to build a more practical & functional O-MH than what we have currently). A large part of constructing this behavior was incorporating the neutral stimulus of the tweezers as the eventual cue (conditioned stimulus) as seen in the 2nd clip. In the 1st clip the neutral stimulus of the tweezers was paired with the treat. Between the sight of the tweezers & the taste of the treat, it was all but a stacked deck for Poe to offer an O-MH.

How can or do you use stimulus-to-stimulus pairing in your training & experiences?

17/02/2024

In the last week I’m guessing you either shopped at a variety of stories, ordered items from more than (ahem 🙄) one website & either made dinner a few times or ordered out. I myself parked in different lots/spaces, cracked a few tops on various craft (🙄🙄) IPAs & followed some new Instagram accounts.

Though a rather humdrum summation, these are all examples of behaviors occurring because of the process of gen.

More specifically, the process of ‘programming common stimuli.’ Woah, woah, I know it sounds dry & technical, but it’s really not. It is really important for your training & understanding of behavior though.

What ‘programming common stimuli’ means is when certain objects are present you (may) interact with them in specific ways. Like when wanting to enter a building you never have before & encountering a door handle, what will you do? 🤔

Same with driving to a new location or talking to someone you just met. We’ve learned how to access functional reinforcement from all of these discriminative stimuli through conditioning or training.

In the video montage, Poe responds to the presence of the pink tie-dye station mat. Though scenarios & contexts differ, the station mat remains a ‘sufficient & salient stimulus,’ that Poe responds to. She is of course responding in this way because we have built a conditioned history of positive reinforcement in relation to the stimulus of that station mat.

(Note in last snippet Poe targets the notebook. This is an example of ‘stimulus gen.’, our explorations have focused on ‘response maintenance & response gen.’.)

This aspect of ‘programming common stimuli’ can open up new realities for you & all the species in your life. What are some examples of this programming from your own experience?

👉Comment & Follow along to learn more & keep the conversation going!

Resources

Erhard, P. & Falcomata, T., (2023). Generalization. In W. W. Fisher, C. C. Piazza & H. S. Roane (Eds.) Handbook of Applied Behavior Analysis (2nd ed., pp. 251–268).

Stokes, T. F. & Osnes P. G. (1989). An Operant Pursuit of Generalization. Behavior Therapy, 20, 337-355.

26/01/2024

An aspect I’ve observed in rescue & shelter work is that potential adopters are eager for tactile contact. Often seen by people trying to or better yet, asking, ‘can I pick up this cat.’ Instead of asking this question, a better route is to develop trust & relationship before planning to pick anything up. Cats do not inherently want to be picked up; people inherently want to pick them up. Thus, a discrepancy arises that can hinder development of trust & relationality between people & cats.

I do not often pick the cats in my clowder up. I certainly cuddle them. They sit on my lap (laying on my pillow/head, laptop, notebooks, etc. 😹). There is no lack of connection through contact.

I can, have & will pick both Durga & Poe up, but this is not a behavior I regularly express. I’m not a huge fan of tactile contact from humans (limited hugs please 🤣), so I think of being ‘picked up’ as unappealing. It’s not wrong to pick up a consenting cat, but it’s a conditioned behavior. One that an individual cat may not prefer, or actively dislike. These are crucial considerations for this conversation with the cat’s in your life.

Considering such, Poe & I wanted to share an initial session to begin ‘asking’ a cat if they would like to be picked up, while turning it into a bit of a game. The reinforcement of Poe being picked up is seen by her return to be picked again as the behavior pattern maintains. Notice how space & motion are used to arrange clear communication & establish a training loop of direction & flow. I used the words ‘pick up’ & ‘put down’ as communication for Poe as my wiggling fingers were the discriminative stimulus.

Note how Poe bunts my left hand with her head/shoulder before moving between both hands to bunt my right hand with her head as a start-button signal to pick her up.

There were some clear instances during this video that Poe offered as a slight opt-out as seen at 0:56-0:58 when looking at me, along with a slight shift back of her ears & starting with eyes at 0:59 & slight tail lashing 1:00-1:01. Note how Poe returned for a final repetition before ending the session & building off for next time.

11/01/2024

The behavioral expression of ‘play’ has been defined in many ways as its importance is undeniable. Just as Jack Torrence found that, ‘all work & no play makes Jack a dull boy,’ so too is it imperative to see to & cultivate this aspect within ourselves & the cats in our lives.

In this video we incorporate 3 factors that we find to set our own play sessions up for success. These factors include:

1) the arrangement & setup of session, including if variations are added to the environment from session to session. How can the environment be more engaging & exciting?

2) the sound that the toy produces as its brushes against & contacts the objects in the environment, along with the way you create this music of play. How can the toy sound more like a foraging bird or rodent?

3) the motion of the toy in navigating the environment as if it were a fleeing creature being hunted. How can the toy seem more realistic?

In considering these factors & setting the stage for such interactions, play encourages species appropriate behavior that mimics the same patterns observed in cats when hunting. Play serves as a function of maintaining physical & behavioral health, while building trust & relationality between human & feline & getting a chance to bring out the individual preferences & personalities of the cats in our lives.

Three excellent resources to explore both the scientific basis & practical application include: the current (& upcoming work) of Mikel Delgado, Total Cat Mojo by Jackson Galaxy & The Behavior of the Domestic Cat (2nd Ed.).

What do you find sets your own play sessions on for success? Comment below! 😺👇

01/01/2024

Continuing to explore generalization further, this post focuses on, ‘training sufficient exemplars,’ as referenced in, An implicit technology of generalization, Stokes & Baer (1977). This approach refers to training various examples of a stimulus or response as detailed in, Generalization, Erhard & Falcomata (2023).

As articulated in, Multiple exemplar training: Some strengths & limitations, Holth (2017) through the variety of examples arranged for the behavior to occur over, the individual learns that these various trained examples are not different from one another. This may allow for the individual to develop a response class based on these examples of which future untrained examples will maintain in occurrence due to this development.

In the video Poe & I explore various exemplars through the response classes of the ‘snoot’ & ‘sit’ behaviors. When constructing a behavior, consider ways that you can arrange to incorporate different settings, conditions & contexts in graded & errorless ways. This approach is multifold & can include such aspects as training the same response at various times of day, in different locations & across varying distances. Other aspects of training sufficient examples could include incorporating different durations & distractions, including changing up your own position or standing on one leg like a 🦩.

Realistically, we are always training a slightly different exemplar, but still consider: how many examples am I training, how varied are they & what function is this behavior serving?

What are some examples of training sufficient exemplars that you are celebrating or focusing on? Comment below…😺

25/11/2023

Have you ever considered how the value of “value,” affects training? Have you ever wondered how to increase the diversity of objects that could be used as functional reinforcers to meet and maintain the motivations of your learner? If nodding your head, as in, “yes,” then keep reading.

There are many aspects that lead to successful (and fun) instances of training with the animals in your life. The aspect this post is exploring is that of how value and preference can affect motivations and in turn impact how engaged learners are in working to access available reinforcers. If the reinforcers are not valuable or preferential, then why would they inspire any behavioral expression?

If the reinforcers that you have been employing are coming up lacking or getting a stale reception, then it’s time to arrange for a preference assessment. Preference assessments can be arranged to offer valuable insights into what objects may work as functional reinforcers in certain instances.

The preference assessment seen in the provided videos is a paired preference assessment. This assessment starts with a certain number of objects, let’s say four different kinds of treats and offers those treats in pairs, one on the left side and the other on the right side, presented simultaneously. All possible combination of pairs are presented and the most preferred treats are those that assessed initially ate or accessed at the highest rate.

A wonderful resource for planning and arranging your own preference assessment is the article, A two-choice preference assessment with five cotton-top tamarins (Sanguinus odeipus), accessed at:
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/8217880_A_Two- Choice_Preference_Assessment_With_Five_Cotton-Top_Tamarins_Saguinus_oedipus

Along with a quality write up template for a paired preference assessment:
https://ebip.vkcsites.org/paired-stimulus/

YouTube links for full paired preference assessment videos:

A paired preference assessment with gustatory items:

https://youtu.be/ZOU1FNblaTA?si=e_Jp4r4TqZNUHkp_

A paired preference assessment with olfactory items:

https://youtu.be/s6mawqVOE14?si=kaFGgIYQUpDr-Cv4

12/11/2023

Marvel’s Loki has been a bright spot in Disney’s lineup & season 2 shines even brighter. With stellar performances from an A-list cast & a twistingly addictive storyline, this season explored themes of determinism vs free-will, tensed vs tenseless time & identity searching for authenticity against preconceived expectation. Owen Wilson’s character, Möbius, spoke to a recurring leitmotif when he mused, most purpose is not ‘glorious’ but ‘more burdensome,’ and in turn often leading to isolation throughout the storyline.

Of course as all sorts of non-linear endeavors offer, there were a few dialogues that spoke to animal training & one of the most articulate & elegant was that of Ke Huy Quan who described science fiction writing as a certain merging of, ‘with science, it’s all what & how. But with fiction, it’s why.’

In reflecting on this statement, the ‘what & how,’ of animal training is the behavioral science which supports certain approaches as more functionally effective & least inhibitory than others. This model of LIFE was presented by & can be found at:
https://www.shelterdogplay.org/life-webinar

In carrying over the ethical import of this LIFE model into the ‘why’ of our training, we look to build & develop the story between ourselves & animals through trust, relationality, offering choice & control, while also understanding motivation & preference. Some considerations for building these shared reflections of ‘why’ into the story we write with our animals, include the following articles.

https://www.behaviorworks.org/files/articlesThe%20Power%20of%20Trust.pdf

https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Christina-Alligood/publication/360223553_Modern_Animal_Care_A_Skinnerian_Perspective_on_Choice_and_Control/links/62695eec05d79a3968a5f754/Modern-Animal-Care-A-Skinnerian-Perspective-on-Choice-and-Control.pdf?origin=publication_detail

So, when writing your own ‘science fiction story,’ where are you coming from with the ‘what & how’? And even more importantly, the first question to always ask, ‘why’ am I training this behavior & will it increase trust & relationality?

31/10/2023

So excited & honored to announce that we have been invited to be one of the speakers at the !2023 conference hosted by IAABC Foundation.

We will be kicking things off bright and early on Saturday November 18th at 9AM EDT. The title of our presentation is, ‘Relationality Through Motivation: A Feline-centric Exploration of Preference, Value & Behavior.’

See write up of The Cognitive Cat’s presentation in the link provided as well as checking out all of the fascinating & fantastic presentations of others!

https://iaabcfoundation.org/events/

30/10/2023

If you're looking to explore cooperative care in animal training now is your chance to get insights and inspirations galore from a creative, dynamic and talented group of both presenters and participants ZooSpensefull.

This conference was a blast at its inauguration in 2021 and no doubt such will be exponential this year. The Cognitive Cat is so appreciative and excited to be invited back. I hope everyone is ready and has their tickets, because this conference offers a wonderful balance of geeky fun and practical learning with top names in the animal training world for a bargain of a price!

May the click be with you and kindness...always.

J.R. & the clowder

😎😺😼

Just 2 days to go before the early bird ends for this conference. We created a fantastic line up. On the last day we are conducting a great workshop all about the holistic approach to cooperative care.

The course connected to the workshop will be released before the conference starts! You want to learn in detail how cooperative care works?

Sign up right here for our 3th annual Cooperative Care Conference !!!

https://zoospensefull.com/product/cooperative-care-conference-2023/

17/09/2023

Relationship is a deepening of connection. Such connection develops through life stories of shared communication & experience. Meaning is found in these stories. Such meaning offers value to the context of everyday life.

How does the story of you & the cat(s) in your life read? What are some of the celebrations & challenges? Where is shared meaning found?

In answering such questions, I invite you to become a part of a greater story positive reinforcement cat training. Let the clowder & I be your guides to explore how such approaches can open new worlds of communication & understanding.

The Conditional Cat: Cat Herding 101, (Tromplo) a positive reinforcement training course starts October 1st & runs for 6 weeks (course remains accessible to the enrolled for lifetime access) offering premium & auditor spots. Either option accesses all course work, but premium spots receive more in depth feedback from myself during the course.

Information covered includes:

👉 reviewing the art & science of learning/training

👉 foundational behaviors of targeting & stationing

👉 training behaviors via shaping, targeting & luring

👉 training intermediate behaviors including: sit, down, high five (with both paws) & more

👉 intro to cooperative care, voluntary carrier entry/exit, training baseline chin-hold & more

👉 training with distance, distraction & duration

👉 understand & apply the concepts of predictable unpredictability & loopy training

👉 a review of environmental stimuli as cues & conditioning calm/relaxation

👉 use the skills acquired & apply to scenarios beyond this course in creative ways

Reasons to take this course:

😺 enhance trust & relationship with the cat(s) in your life

😺 offer mental stimulation & develop a dialogue with your cat(s)

😺 acquire new skills & to help prepare for routine or emergent cooperative care

😺 gain insight into positive reinforcement training, behavior & cats

Course link: https://tromplo.com/course/the-conditional-cat-cat-herding-101/

If this sounds like the kind of story in which you & the cat(s) in your life would like to play starring roles, sign up now!

11/09/2023

Hello there & happy clicking! Autumnal days are upon us (I transitioned to use the orange Clicinō 🎃) in the Northern hemisphere & as such, lots of us are bustling about as we celebrate the harvest tide & prepare for those upcoming months of winter. Hopefully we’re able to pack a lot of training & behavior exploring into the midst of such hustle as well. The perfect training tool & companion of practically & convenience to have with you during your ventures is the . If you have one you know what I mean & if you haven’t had the good fortune of this experience, here’s your chance!

The Cognitive Cat will be holding a giveaway raffle of chance for one lucky entree to win ‘3’ free Clicinō rings of any size or color. Two other lucky runners up will win ‘1’ free Clicinō each of any size or color.

To enter 1) Like the post/ like Clicino - Clicker Ring von Animal Balanced Products account and either 2) Share the post or 3) Tag a friend in the comments.

Rules:

One entree per participant and the winners will be announced next Sunday, September 17th at 12 PM EST via drawing on insta live video (I will try to also stream to Facebook live), along with post and story update afterwards.

Unfortunately due to current exorbitant shipping rates, I am only able to honor raffle winners in the continental United States, European Union Bloc Countries & the United Kingdom. I apologize for such limitations & hope futures times will allow for a lessening of such restrictions.

Please PM me if you do opt to share so I can make sure to enter your name in the drawing. No purchase necessary, winners chosen st random & this giveaway is not endorsed by Facebook or Instagram. Winners from previous contests are able to enter as there are now over a dozen colors of clicker ring to choose from.

10/09/2023

A recent survey by found that up to 85% of participants reported they ‘have given their pet at least one nickname.’ (SWNS Staff, 2022). Based on such data, both probability & the power of suggestion imply that at this second you’re considering those very nicknames that your own verbal behavior has voiced in relation to the cats in your life & beyond. But what is the function & origin of both the application & word, ‘nickname.’

‘Nickname’ comes from Middle English, ‘ekename,’ meaning, “also-name.” An earlier derivative being, ‘nekename.’

Some explanations for the ‘nickname’ are that they are part of ‘folk denomination systems…functioning to individualize & satirize.’ (Furtuna, 2020). Nicknames are often accidentally spontaneous, acting to signify (nickname) the signifier (individual) through a diverse association with a certain appearance, occurrence, aptitude, often used word or habit. Nicknames are as diverse & unlimited as observations are keen & wits clever. I love how Fortuna (2020) offers, “nicknames belong to the corpus of human spirituality, are proof of a people's sense of observation & humour, of living, thinking & especially of expressing themselves suggestively & densely.”

But as nicknames satirize & signify, they are powerful social determinants in reinforcing behavior patterns & also controlling social narratives. As Dianitami et al (2023) considers, “nicknames can be a joke…mock & shame a physical, psychological, & character…intimacy becomes oppression, & using a nickname has connotations of humiliating.’

So nicknames are a bit of a Pandora’s box. Even more so in this world of fake news, AI & image/video alteration tech & distrust of scientific data, theory & law.

Nicknames can either create & make one’s reality constructive & growth oriented. Nicknames can also staunch creation & suppress subjective uniqueness by universalizing it to a simulacrum of complete depersonification.

Nevertheless, the nicknames we share with the cats in our lives are wonderful signs of relationality & intimacy. So keep intoning them & please share yours in the comments below!

29/08/2023

Unpredictable predictability is a concept I first started thinking about after reading a blog post discussing how elements of predictability (which I consider to be aspects of stimulus discrimination) & unpredictability (aspects of stimulus generalization) can affect & impact motivations, expectations & engagement when in training scenarios. In this reel, Poe & I are working to generalize her evoked bite response to target a new stimulus, being a very appropriate Nylcot mini bite sleeve.

Looking at some predictable elements incorporated in this session: using a station mat & location (table) with history of stationing at, offering the knotted fabric for first few behavior cycles, utilizing a verbal cue that evokes the behavior & offering reinforcers in a systematic manner of signaling.

Some of the unpredictable elements include: offering the Nylcot pillow as a stimulus to bite, varying exact location of reinforcer delivery, offering two different reinforcers (Temptations & freeze dried chicken liver), changing my position in relation to Poe & directing her to shift & transition motion & location also.

A blending & balancing of these tendencies towards generalizing & discriminating is at the heart of this session’s success. This process is one of graded adjustments that works to cultivate errorless approximations through unpredictable predictability.

Some approximations to work towards: Poe & I have used the bite pillow for two play sessions where she did target it in ways expressive of clawing, biting & tendencies of evisceration. We will continue to evoke species appropriate behaviors resembling such play with the pillow before such sessions. We will also work to shape contact of Poe’s bite to occur more centrally so that all 4 of her canines are contacting the Nylcot.

Not sure if feline bite sport is more than just a romantic whim, but even so, this flight of fancy has become a rather indulgent reality. So thank you for watching as we bite our thumbs at tradition, pretending we have any idea what a bitey dog would even do to that pillow…

21/06/2023

Relationship is a deepening of connection. Such connection develops through life stories of shared communication & experience. Meaning is found in these stories. Such meaning offers context to the value of everyday life.

How does the story of you & the cat(s) in your life read? What are some of the celebrations & challenges? Where is shared meaning found?

In answering such questions, I invite you to become a part of a greater story positive reinforcement cat training. Let the clowder & I be your guides to explore how such approaches can open new worlds of communication & understanding.

The Conditional Cat: Cat Herding 101, (Tromplo) a positive reinforcement training course starts July 1st & runs for 6 weeks (course remains accessible to the enrolled for lifetime access) offering premium & auditor spots. Either option accesses all course work, but premium spots receive more in depth feedback from myself during the course.

Information covered includes:

👉 reviewing the art & science of learning/training

👉 foundational behaviors of targeting & stationing

👉 training behaviors via shaping, targeting & luring

👉 training intermediate behaviors including: sit, down, high five (with both paws) & more

👉 intro to cooperative care, voluntary carrier entry/exit, training baseline chin-hold & more

👉 training with distance, distraction & duration

👉 understand & apply the concepts of predictable unpredictability & loopy training

👉 a review of environmental stimuli as cues & conditioning calm/relaxation

👉 use the skills acquired & apply to scenarios beyond this course in creative ways

Reasons to take this course:

😺 enhance trust & relationship with the cat(s) in your life

😺 offer mental stimulation & develop a dialogue with your cat(s)

😺 acquire new skills & to help prepare for routine or emergent cooperative care

😺 gain insight into positive reinforcement training, behavior & cats

Course link: https://tromplo.com/course/the-conditional-cat-cat-herding-101-9/

If this sounds like the kind of story in which you & the cat(s) in your life would like to play starring roles, sign up now!

05/06/2023

All effective feline grenadiers know that when a safety pin hits the ground, that’s your cue to follow suit. Poe is privy to this as well, as seen from some fun times over a few ‘Go boom,’ chain sessions.

One component behavior we were going to shape but have not is the final link of Poe placing her paws over head/eyes after she hits the deck. This is something we have in mind to approximate towards, but figured we’d post anyways as the chain is close to our envisioned completion. Poe & I figured, we’d ride by the old adage, ‘close only counts in horseshoes and hand gr***de decoy chains.’