If you could clear up a common misconception, which one would it be?

Oh man…mostly surrounding animals.

Baby birds won’t be abandoned if you handle them, songbirds have a poor sense of smell and it is a myth that touching a nestling/fledgling bird will cause the parent birds to reject them.
Ditto with stereotypes about many animals, geese are mean, no, they are territorial and if you get in their face during breeding season especially you will get goosed. haha
Horses, and other animals..fill in the blanks are stupid.
Horses are not stupid, they are quite bright, learn well, anticipate your moves and have long memories.

Turkeys, sheep, etc. well..they are smart enough to be what they ARE! What are you comparing them to, Dolphins and Border Collies? lol
Assigning negative labels to animals when you have zero education in animal behavior just drives me nuts.

Myth: The twelve days of Christmas end on Christmas.

No, they begin on Christmas.

Myth: MSG causes headaches.

In studies this was shown to not pan out, although it is believed that a small part of the population does actually react to msg.

Myth: the microwave cooks from the inside out.

No it doesn’t. The edges get hot first and will be hotter than the middle.

Myth: Most Americans are very religious.

There are some, but they are in the minority. It’s still a big number, but still the minority.

Myth: atheists are immoral people.

That’s just ridiculous.

Myth: if you get the chicken pox vaccine as a child you can’t get shingles.

False. They do believe you are less likely to develop shingles, but there has been cases even in children. We’ll see what happens as that populations ages.

That climate change can be ignored.

Noon nap is an important part of human’s health. Yet many believe it to be a waste of time.

Video games aren’t as bad as people think, and they aren’t childish games which only invole someone going around beating things for a princess. They offer more than just that.

Torrenting doesn’t really hurt the media. Some people actually buy things after torrenting.

Ending a word with ‘s indicates possession, ending a word with just s indicates pluralization. Ending a word with s’ indicates both possession and pluralization.

Jessie’s coat.
The three Jessies.
The three Jessies’ coats.

Ditto @janbb.

Young people never get sick, and you can tell if somebody is sick just by looking at them.

There aren’t as many women in STEM fields because girls just aren’t naturally drawn towards math, science, and engineering. They’re also usually not as good at it, and women only get hired in STEM because of affirmative action.

Women are dramatic and emotional. Usually when relationships don’t work out it’s because she was a crazy, clingy bitch.

Edit: just to be crystal clear, those are the misconceptions. Not my beliefs. Haha

All blondes is not stupid.

@jonsblond No they isn’t.

Feminism is no longer relevant.

You don’t need to worry about government surveillance unless you have something to hide.

That taxes are for the benefit of those taxed.

That there is such a thing as a British Accent.
British people have no accent. That is just how words sound when they are properly pronounced.

@jonsblond: Especially us blondes who pay to be blonde.

Those of us fortunate enough to hold vast wealth are not uncaring, snobbish bastards.
I gave the house staff xmas day off & put an extra penny in their wages to mark the seasonal occasion, sacked the butler for failing to show appreciation, not so much as a thank you or a doffed cap.

first thought to mind: voting

To vote for someone you don’t actually want to be in office just to exercise your right to vote is better than not voting for any candidates because none of them meet your standard. There are provisions for no one winning an election. If no one meets your criteria for the job, and you vote for one of them, and they get the position, then their decisions are on you.

But if you look at the candidates, and none seem worthy of the position, so you don’t choose one. Than you exercised your right to not vote for someone unworthy of the position. And you are not to blame for the person that did get elected.

I disagree with the ‘vote for someone you don’t want just to avoid a greater evil’.

That prayer is effective,.

That “it’s” is the possessive form. It’s not.

That ignorant people are capable of self governance.

That Bats are blind. ” Although they can’t see color, bats can see better than we do at night (University of California at Berkeley). And, many bats can also “see” in the dark by using echolocation.

“You have your facts, I have mine”...

That there really is no true and only way to achieve happiness in life. Ideas that work for some people may not work for others. It is up to you to find the information and advice that you can personalize to your life, do research, listen to others and then choose the options that work for you and implement them to your personal circumstances. If it is not working, don’t be afraid to try something new. Just keep trying.

That GMOs are bad.
That vaccines cause autism.

In spite of the rumors, I am not a Gay Cholo.

a what?

A Gay Cholo!

I am unsure about what is worse. The video itself, or the fact that it has 55k thumbs up.
People find this sort of dreck funny?

LOL!

@ucme You have butlers?

@Mimishu1995 I agree with you about the video games. But I gave up a long time ago trying to explain games to people who never play them but are convinced they are the Devil’s work.

@Symbeline Just the one, more than that would be a frightful bore & we can’t be having that, dear me no.

Do they really look like penguins when they walk around with their noses in the air? :D

Haha, dear old Carstairs resembles more of a spaniel, when he clears his throat his cheeks wobble :D

Lmao
Wobbly Butler Cheeks. That should totally be the name for like, a porn movie or something. XD

Haha, he does a fine job of polishing my helmet & holds my balls wheneve…ahem, cricket, I was talking about cricket :D

It cannot be so. This on my mind can only be learned, let us say, “on the job”

That dogs are constantly trying to assert their dominance over us and other dogs.

That Bull Breeds are to be feared.

Since it asked what is ’A’ misconception, I will give one, maybe the biggest one, the common misconception that you go off into oblivion when you die……we are eternal beings, the spirit will live somewhere, best hope you chose the right direction.

That you enter an afterlife when you die.
You do not. Your consciousness and all its backup copies get deleted from the Matrix’ hard drives to free up disk space.

When people use the word “unthaw” to say that they are defrosting something! To say unthaw really means they are freezing something, think about the word – un means the opposite of thaw which means they are freezing something!! There & their – place or belonging!! Figure it out!!

@Jillybean I’ve never heard someone say “unthaw” but I can definitely imagine it. “Irregardless”, it sounds ridiculous.

I’ve never heard unthaw either.

Huh, I never answered this.

I’d clear up the misconception around positive reinforcement vs. negative reinforcement. The latter is often used as a synonym for “punishment”, and that’s wrong. If I slap someone for getting an answer wrong, I am using positive punishment adding a deterrent, not negative reinforcement. Negative reinforcement means to take away something unpleasant, in hopes of reinforcing a behavior. For example, using heat to make someone uncomfortable and lowering the temperature as soon as they do what you want.

I still don’t get it. So you slap the crap out of someone for not doing what you want. It lasts a second, and it’s briefly uncomfortable, but that doesn’t work as well as, say, holding a candle to their arm then drawing it away as soon as they do what you want? Both methods are uncomfortable, possibly painful. One is just faster than the other. I don’t get how one is negative and one is positive.

Personally I think spray bottles work best. lol

They do, too! I mean, as long as it’s just water. They’re a little shocking but they don’t hurt, so it’s all good.

@Dutchess_III “Positive” does not mean “good”, in learning theories. It just means “adding something”, while negative simply means “take something away”.

When you slap someone for behaving badly, you add a deterrent – that’s positive punishment. Cuddle them for being good, and you are adding something nice – positive reinforcement.

Did that make sense? Can you guess whether grounding a kid (taking away his freedom) is negative or positive punishment?

Negative, because you’re taking something away.

What about this scenerio: A kid makes a bad decision, then pretends he doesn’t know what he did wrong. I send him to time out until he can figure it out, and come tell me what he did wrong. I tell him he doesn’t need to sit there a certain amount of time, only long enough to figure out what he did wrong. Once he figures it out he can get right up and come over to me to tell me what he did wrong, and some things he could have done instead, then he is free to go.
I tell him If it takes him 3 hours to figure it out, he stays there for 3 hours. If it takes half a second to figure it out, he’s only there for half a second. (The results were always amusingly amazing! Never longer than 5 seconds!)

On the one hand, I take something away but for how long depends on the kid. On the other I give it back, also depending on the kid.

So is that negative or positive?

I work with learning theory every day and I have to think about this every time when explaining it to others. It can be so confusing!

I’m thinking an example of negative reinforcement in dog training would be stopping a game when the puppy gets “mouthy.”

So would guys say one is better than the other?

@Dutchess_III Exactly. With, your new example, consider which behavior you are reacting to. There are two different ones to think about: The original “infraction”, which you sent the kid away for…and then there’s taking responsibility for his behavior, which you are reinforcing. You aren’t really adding a reward, though, you’re removing the deterrent you added before.

As you know, I’m a fan of positive reinforcement. This is because when training, you are always doing classical conditioning as well. When your dog associates training and his humans with fun, he is more likely to experience the world at large as a good thing. He will also learn faster.

@OpryLeigh Yep. I seem to benefit from having learned about these concepts when I was rather young, though – I was 12 when I read my first book on clickertraining, and I just accepted “negative” and “positive” as new words.

@janbb You’re right about the “negative”, but you don’t want to reinforce the mouthing, right?

Guess I’m still confused.

I’m confused too.

I kinda got it. But the comment “You’re right about the “negative”, but you don’t want to reinforce the mouthing, right?” confused me a bit too.

In truth, that farts are actually the ghosts of meals past and proof of an afterlife.

@janbb, @jca, and @Dutchess_III That stuff is confusing. Try to forget what you already know, and I’ll explain from the beginning:

1. Think of a behavior. I’m thinking of a child who is whining, for example.

2. Do you want to lessen the appearance of this behavior, or make it occur more frequently?

3. The answer to this question determines whether you are going to use punishment or reinforcement.

You can’t use punishment to make a behavior appear more often, that’s illogical.

In @janbb‘s example, she needs to use punishment so the mouthing will appear less often. In the case of the whining kid, I’m going to use punishment as well, obviously.

Now that you know whether you are punishing or reinforcing, let’s continue. Next question:

4. Will you be adding something, or taking something away?

I’m going to slap the imaginary whining kid. I am adding something…pain. @janbb is taking something away…play.

5. The answer to this question tells you whether you are dealing with “positive” or “negative” punishment/reinforcement.

Negative means to take something away. Positive is adding something.

As you can see, the kid I’m slapping would be trained using “positive punishment”, though there is nothing “good” about hitting kids. Positive only refers to the process of adding something.

Here is a diagram. Did this help at all?

So as in my example, if I was stopping the game it would be negative because I am taking away something the dog wants to continue when he exhibits undesirable behavior. Isn’t that right? I get it though, I think – it’s positive or negative in terms of adding or subtracting something – not positive as in good and negative as in bad.

OK, so my son’s puppy jumps up on people, which is bad. When he does this I push him away and say “No!” and refuse to pet him. I’m…taking something away, so it’s negative reinforcement.

On the rare times he runs up to me and sits down, instead of jumping, I cover him with praises and hugs. I’m adding something, so that is positive reinforcement. He’s actually doing much better with me lately.

However, my son’s wife just slaps the shit out of the poor dog and it doesn’t affect his behavior at all. Why?

She is not slapping it enough.

^^^^ ugh.

@Dutchess_III Generally, physical punishment like hitting, is more likely to cause frustration and anxiety. Hence why more and more professional trainers are starting to realise that, as well as being cruel, it is a pointless training method. Jumping up is often due to frustration (because of over excitement and not knowing how to use the energy appropriately) and appeasement so all your son’s wife is doing by hitting the dog is creating a vicious circle! Obviously every case is different but this is how it seems on the surface. She would be far better off asking for a sit every time the puppy jumps (or before he jumps if she can preempt it) and heavily reward for this appropriate behaviour so puppy will learn how to get the attention he wants without getting frustrated.

@janbb Yep, that’s exactly right. You got the “negative” part – good work! Feeling reinforced?
What you need to remember, in addition, is not to use the word “reinforcement” when you are trying to lessen the frequency of a behavior. You did that in the post above. I think people shy away from using the word “punishment” because we associate it with violence. It doesn’t have to be. While most effective training happens when you communicate what you want an animal to do, instead of only addressing problematic behavior, I do think punishment is fine, at times. Your example is an excellent one. I teach Wilson not to use his mouth too roughly by doing what you describe, and that’s punishment. I also teach him what I want him to do instead, by rewarding him for biting his toys. Together, that works quite well.

@Dutchess_III Like @janbb, you’ve got the “negative”/“positive” stuff down! You need to remember, though: Whenever you want to get rid of a behavior, your reactions are punishment, not reinforcement. If you’d be reinforcing the jumping, you would be reinforcing it – making it stronger. The terms are defined by their outcome. By definition, “punishment” lessens a behavior, as opposed to “reinforcing” it.
You’re right about praise for sitting being positive reinforcement. Good thinking! See what I did there?

On the puppy: I completely agree with @OpryLeigh, and I’m glad you, @Dutchess_III, are being a good influence on the dog. To understand why the slapping is not working, think of this from his point of view…in a dog’s world, jumping up and licking faces is the ultimate appeasement. When the dog is getting punished for the jumping, he thinks, “Goodness. They are angry. I need to make absolutely clear that I’m just a harmless puppy, or they might hurt me!” Cue more jumping…more hitting…more jumping. Additionally, hitting a dog is an excellent way to get him hand-shy, and hand-shy dogs are pitiful and often dangerous. You can’t trust a hand-shy dog with kids or strangers, ever.

I realize this is anecdotal, but I trained both my Labradors not to jump up on people. Nerina, my old girl, I tried to train by just telling her “No”, at first, and ignoring her attempts. She got attention when she had all four feet on the floor. It worked – but it took two years, and we had to appease quite a few annoyed visitors.

With Wilson, I am using positive reinforcement – and his progress is absolutely amazing. He is only five months old, and he already has greeting strangers down. We’re working on family members, which are more of a challenge – but he is so much easier to train than Nerina was. What I did, from day one, was to mark and reward his approaches. He’d be walking toward someone, and I’d click, at which point he’d whip around and look for the treat I had thrown on the ground. Now, he expects this game, so he purposefully goes up to people at a calm trot, sniffs their hands if they offer them, and waits for the treats. It is becoming a habit, and we will be able to lose the treats at some point not too far away.

One mistake I realized I was making with the puppy, though, was he’d jump up, I’d say “No!” and push him off, then say “Sit!” and he would (he’s pretty smart…a blue heeler) and then I’d pet him and tell him “Good dog.” Then I finally realized that he got the idea that in order to get the petting and “good dog” he had to start with the jumping up! Like it was part of the routine. So, I worked on that. Considering I only see him once a week, he’s a pretty fast learner, and not much I can really do to counter the screams and hits.

I so agree with the hitting, as in lashing out just because you’re angry. If it’s a “go-to,” everyday reaction, it’s nothing but an angry, violent negative for the dogkid.

@Dutchess_III: Have you tried talking to the dog’s parents about the screams and hits?

I remember all of my dogs over the years being really easy to house train, except that they went through this phase of knowing to go to the door but…if you didn’t get there fast enough they went on the floor by the door. lol
I never punished them for that, just said, in a kind of disappointed tone..” Oh..blah, blah, you almost made it ” then put them out anyway. haha
The critical zone seemed to be around 4 months old but by 5–6 months they could hold it long enough that if there was a five minute delay they didn’t go on the floor.

You mean my son and his wife, @jca? I’m sure “talking to them” about what an awful parent she is would go over just great. I mentioned something to my son, and I try to set an example, but a bad parenting conversation isn’t really conducive to a good outcome.

@Dutchess_III Yep, those behavior chains can be challenging.
In case you do want to say something: I usually get away with commenting on these things by being extremely polite and telling stories about how I had/have a similar issue with some dog. Also, complimenting the owner on his dog’s intelligence, loyalty and beauty works wonders.