Dog Behaviour - Effect of Delay To Reinforcement

Abstract

Dogs were fed dry food as reinforcement and were required to touch a wand with their nose to get that reinforcement. In the first study, half the dogs were given immediate reinforcement, while for the remaining dogs reinforcement was delayed by two seconds. In the second study, dogs were food deprived for longer in an attempt to increase the food-motivation, and the position of the equipment was changed to increase the accuracy of detecting a correct response. The third study was a replication of the second, but was conducted outdoors. Number of reinforcers delivered and time between reinforcers was examined. All three studies demonstrated that a two second delay to reinforcement slows learning in dogs, and in some cases prevents learning altogether.