Testing the paired stimulus preference assessment as a predictor of reinforcer efficacy in dogs
Preference and reinforcer assessment research with animals has been limited in providing a full analysis of all available methodology. The paired-stimulus (PS) preference assessment has been shown to be effective in yielding a hierarchy of preference with animal participants; however, reinforcer ass...
Main Author: | |
---|---|
Other Authors: | , , |
Format: | Master Thesis |
Language: | English |
Published: |
California State University, Sacramento
2011
|
Subjects: | |
Online Access: | http://hdl.handle.net/10211.9/1352 |
Summary: | Preference and reinforcer assessment research with animals has been limited in providing a full analysis of all available methodology. The paired-stimulus (PS) preference assessment has been shown to be effective in yielding a hierarchy of preference with animal participants; however, reinforcer assessments have not been conducted in any of these studies. The purpose of the current study was to evaluate use of the single-stimulus (SS) and PS preference assessments as predictors of reinforcer effectiveness with dogs (canis lupus familiaris). The preference assessments were followed by single, concurrent, and basis 2 progressive-ratio (PR 1) reinforcement assessments to assess absolute and relative reinforcer efficacy with 12 participants. Results indicate that the PS preference assessment was able to predict preference and reinforcer efficacy. Various features of each assessment are discussed. |
---|