But training pets can go beyond changing their behavior. It can aim to improve ... whereas learning based on mere conditioning does not. An animal’s ability to be instructed stems from the ...

Skinner developed the operant conditioning chamber, later known as the Skinner Box, to study animal behavior. The chamber or box has a key or bar that can be pressed so that the animal obtains a ...

Karen Pryor is a behavioral biologist, a pioneering dolphin trainer, and an authority on applied operant conditioning—the art and science of changing behavior with positive reinforcement.

She was so successful at training dolphins that she began applying the same techniques to other creatures, including dogs — ...