TAGteach vs Clicker Training

By Karen Pryor

Are you a TAGteacher? Add some clicker savvy to your tool kit.

Are you a clicker trainer? Add TAGteach know-how to your dealings with people.

What's the difference?

Clicker training is a name for marker-based training with animals. TAGteach is a name for marker-based training with people.

For the past eight years, these two branches of reinforcement technology have been maturing side by side. Both systems use reinforcement instead of correction. Both teach you to use clear and consistent cues, sharp observation, and excellent timing. Both break down behavior into small units, and reinforce one step at a time. Both teach new behavior in fast, brief, and intensive sessions—not in long repetitive drills.

The big difference is that dogs can't talk and people can.

Clicker trainers rely on the fundamental tools of operant conditioning, such as shaping, primary and secondary reinforcers, behavior chains, reinforcement schedules, and conditioned stimuli or cues.

TAGteachers can talk to their students. TAGteaching uses conditioned reinforcers as feedback. The information itself is reinforcing, so 'backup' reinforcers (food, money, etc.) are often not needed at all. TAGteach shows you, the teacher, how to control your own verbal behavior. We learn to deliver instructions, TAGpoints, and verbal reinforcers using minimal, specific, and consistent wording in a reinforcing way. 

 
What more do we need?

What's been coming home for me lately is that we need each other more than we knew. Clicker trainers are sometimes baffled by how to get cooperation from human beings, yet every animal we train has people attached: owners, shelter staff, zookeepers, veterinarians. We also have co-workers, supervisors, and recalcitrant offspring, just like the rest of the world. Clicker trainers really benefit when they learn more about TAGteaching.

TAGteachers could use some clicker input, too. What exactly we TAG folks need to know depends on what we are teaching. For example, musicians receive huge benefits from skilled use of back-chaining, but don't need complicated reinforcement schedules. Working with people on the autism spectrum involves capturing, building duration, and using variable schedules to extend new skills into real-life situations. Sports coaches need to learn more about shaping—how to break down behavior into separate elements, to focus on just one element at a time, and to sequence those elements effectively.
Where can we learn more?

I'm finding that groundbreakers in new areas of application do especially well if they have both a TAGteach exposure and a good clicker exposure. And guess what? Now there's an easier way to get that.

Learn TAGteach

TAGteach International offers an online course for independent TAGteach learning.

The course has been upgraded and newly designed, and it's easy and fun. An online mentor is available for questions and help. The course is designed to take about four weeks of your spare time.

Learn clicker training

Last month Karen Pryor Academy (KPA) launched a Dog Trainer Foundations course, an online course for learning clicker training independently. This course is also easy and fun. There's an online teacher, and a bulletin board for help from other students. The Dog Trainer Foundations course is designed to take about eight weeks of your spare time.
Start the New Year with a new adventure

Are you a TAGteacher? Add some clicker savvy to your tool kit.

Are you a clicker trainer? Add TAGteach know-how to your dealings with people.

Want more?

Become a KPA Certified Training Partner with the professional-level Dog Trainer Program. Become a certified TAGteacher with the TAGteach International certification program.

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TAGteach Glossary of Terms

Applied Behavior Analysis

The field of science from which TAGteach and other reinforcement-based teaching and training technologies have been developed.

Behavior

Physical activity in general; or a specific movement or group of related movements (‘a behavior’).

Conditioned Reinforcer

Any stimulus that has acquired positive reinforcing properties through association with other reinforcers such as food, praise or success.  [The tagger is a conditioned reinforcer -providing a positive stimulus that occurs simultaneously with a desired act or response.]

Focus fatigue

Mental fatigue that occurs when a tag session is too long for a particular learner.

Focus Funnel

A technique used in planning and teaching.  Beginning with a broad lesson, information is reduced into more concrete directions and then reduced again to a precise tag point. (Also see reverse focus funnel)

Incompatible behavior

Short for differential reinforcement of incompatible behavior (DRI). Eliminate a designated behavior by strengthening other behaviors that are incompatible with it.

Operant Conditioning

Any procedure by which a behavior becomes more or less likely to occur, depending on its consequences. [In TAGteach, the consequences are always positive and desired responses become more likely to occur.]

Peer Tagging

Student-to-student tag configurations and activities.

Point of Success

A behavior to start or to repeat, for which the student is guaranteed a tag.

Positive Reinforcement

A procedure in which a behavior is paired with a desired stimulus or event that will increase the chance of the behavior happening again in the future.

Reverse Focus Funnel

Deliver the least amount of information necessary for success first (tag point). Once the behavior has been accomplished, and the learner is more confident, additional information can be delivered.  This is useful in situations where too much information may overwhelm the learner and cause a loss of concentration. 

Shaping

An operant learning procedure in which small increments of a desired response are reinforced.  By reinforcing some small response, and then selecting stronger or longer occurrences, one can ‘shape’ or build a more elaborate behavior.

Stimulus

Something in the environment that can be sensed - a sound, an object, a color, etc. A discriminative stimulus is something the learner can perceive which indicates an action to be taken (for example a red light is a stimulus to step on the brake).

Marker

Something which "marks" or identifies a desired action.  Typically a TAGteach marker emits a brief, distinct, uniform stimulus used to pinpoint movement as it is happening; a click from a ball point pen, a clicker, hand clap, a finger snap. Some Smart phone applications provide appropriate marker tones.  

Tag

As a verb it is the action of marking someone's correct behavior (as in “tag for each blink”).  As a noun, it means the mark that is placed on a correct behavior (as in “You got 5 tags today!”). (see Marker)

Tag Phrasing

The wording used for preparing and delivering tag points (see WOOF)

Tag Point

The specific aspect of a behavior that when/as performed will receive the audible mark (tag). (see WOOF for tag point criteria)

Tag Triangle

The three components of the TAGteach process: Identify, Mark and Reinforce.

TAGteach

TAGteach is a protocol that promotes positive interactions for increased productivity and success. The acronym TAG stands for Teaching with Acoustical Guidance and refers to the audible marker, a key tool used in the system designed to highlight success. The TAGteach protocol also includes tools to deliver information, reduce inefficient language, assess performance, create confidence and deliver positive reinforcement.

Tagulator

A device made from beads that slide on a string that allows the teacher or learner to keep track of the number of tags they have earned or given.

Three try rule

If a learner fails to perform the designated tag point three times, the teacher creates and delivers a more achievable tag point.  The three try rule is more of a guide than a rule. Some learners want to work things out for themselves and will try several times without getting discouraged. Others would rather take very small steps forward and succeed nearly every time.

Value Added Tag Point

A single tag point in which more than one problem may be resolved.  [e.g., The tag point “Put keys in pocket”, would keep the keys from being misplaced and from being locked in the car.)

WOOF

The acronym defining the four criteria for a tag point: What you want, One criterion, Observable and definable, Five words or less

 (Some technical definitions are adapted from Learning and Behavior.  Third Edition, by Paul Chance, Ph. D.  Brooks Cole, Pub. Pacific Grove, CA.  1994)                                                 

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TAGteach Terms - The Official List

Developing TAGteach required us to make up some new terms so as to give TAGteachers a way to discuss what we are doing and to allow us to communicate more effectively with our learners.

This is the first of a two-part blog post about the TAGteach lexicon. This first part simply lists the terms the way the terms should be used. The second part will include definitions of these terms and some additional terms used by TAGteachers.

TAG (as acronym for Teaching with Acoustical Guidance)
TAGteach
TAGteacher
TAGteaching
tag (as noun or verb)
tagger
tag triangle
tag point
tagulator
focus funnel
point of success
three try rule
WOOF

If you are writing an article for publication in print or online these terms should be followed with the TM (superscript) to show that they are trademarked terms. This only needs to be done the first time a term is used in the document.

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From the Archives - High Jump Practice

Here is a note from Joan to Theresa from Jun 9, 2003, describing the first group high jump practice:

Tried tagging with high jump yesterday. It was good. We used it during individual jumps when they raised their non-jumping knee to waist level during the take-off. They all did it correctly on the first turn - the coach was very impressed. Then we raised the bar 2 inches (still at a low height that they can all clear) and they fell apart. More than half of them forgot about the knee drive and then they improved after a couple of turns. Major mental component with high jump - the bar is very intimidating. All the kids have got the basic idea of throwing themselves backward over the bar - which is very impressive because it is not easy and they had only had one practice before this. 

Next practice we will work on having them straighten out the knee that they bent. Now that they are into the idea of bending the knee they keep it bent all the way through the jump and this causes their backs to roll rather than arch. We will tag them for straightening the non-jumping leg after the inital knee drive and hopefully this will cause them to be in laid out position as they go over the bar. Then we can work on the arch. 

There are about 16 kids and only 2 half hour practices left before the meet. Even with tagging there is is not nearly enough time to develop all the aspects of the skill. According to what I have read on the internet, 90% of high jump technique is in the curved run and take-off. The athlete is supposed to run a curve for the last 5 strides that is part of a perfect circle (radius to be determined for each individual on the basis of stride length), while leaning into the circle so that at the takeoff the athlete is leaning away from the bar. The translation of power from the curved approach to the vertical jump is supposed to result in the spin in the axis perpendicular to the bar that results in the body going over the bar backwards without specific effort put into the spin. Try explaining this to an 8 year old! I think we will have to use cones to delineate the approach, since most of them (except Jennifer and a couple of the older boys) want to run straight rather than a curve. The coach put up one cone (there were no others available) for them to run around and many of them ignored it and went on the wrong side. The coach was very nice and patient with them. 

As always there are quite a few gymnasts on the team and they were very happy to see me with a clicker! I definitely notice that, like dogs, kids become "clicker wise" and learn faster than naive kids. Some of the kids have now been tagged for gymnastics, volleyball, long jump and high jump and these kids catch on much faster than the others. Of course the gymnasts have super body awareness and coachability, so this is probably also a major factor.

Here is a video showing the final tagging protocol we used for high jump:

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NEW TAGTEACH SEMINARS!

You Asked For it – You Got It!

Fresno, California and Toronto, Canada have TAGteach Certification Seminars!

Give yourself and your learners the TAGteach Edge

*Increase success - in less time

*Create positive communication

*Eliminate nagging

Spots are limited and will fill fast so register early.

Fresno, California, November 9-10, 2011.

http://www.regonline.com/Register/Checkin.aspx?EventID=998925

Early Bird registration ends September 20, 2011.

Toronto, Canada, November 26-27, 2011.

http://www.regonline.com/Register/Checkin.aspx?EventID=996110

Early Bird registration ends October 1, 2011.

Other seminar sites:

Fredericksburg, VA (9/24-25/2011)

Solothurn, Switzerland (10/22-23/2011)

Verona, Italy (10/29-30/2011)

San Diego, CA (11/12-13/2011)

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Upcoming TAGteach Seminars

Register now for an open TAGteach Certification Seminar or contact Theresa at t@tagteach.com to schedule a personalized seminar for your group.


Register at http://www.tagteach.com/events or call 704-995-9237 for more details.

If you can't make it to a live seminar, you can take our online course from the comfort of home at your own pace.

Denver, April 2011

Upcoming Seminars

Fredericksburg VA (9/24-25/2011)

Solothurn, Switzerland (10/22-23/2011)

Verona Italy (10/29-30/2011)

San Diego CA (12/12-13/2011)

Recent comment we have received about TAGteach...

TAGteach Goes Corporate Training! Glenn Hughes (Dir. of Learning Architecture, KLA-Tencor) presented his case studies at the TAGteach seminar at KLA. Incredible results. "TAGteach works so well, I can't do anymore baselines-It would be unfair to my students".

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Fix It! With the Focus Funnel

By Theresa McKeon

A late night comedy show recently aired a skit with a character so frustrated by unresolved economic problems that he was reduced to repeating a single phrase. “Fix it…just fix it…fix it, fix it, fix it!”

In the gym, coaches experience this frustration when athletes, despite repeated directions and feedback, fail to correct particular parts of a skill. This frustration can turn into nagging and then escalate into yelling and punishment. So the question is, if a learner is physically and mentally capable of recognizing the directions to fix a task, what is keeping them from doing so?

One possibility is an insufficient connection to the information delivered by the coach. The coach says “When you are doing a handstand, push up tall all the way through your arms and legs and keep your feet pointed”. The athlete performs the handstand but distractions keep her from remembering to point her feet. What are these distractions? For the most part, it doesn’t matter. There will always be distractions. The solution is to strengthen the line of focus between the coach’s directions and the athlete’s performance of them.

Strengthen that Connection with a Focus Funnel

Research is debunking the "multitasking" myth and data suggest that there is reduced efficiency associated with trying to learn more than one thing at at time. Although multiple tasks can be combined once learned, it is merely an exercise in frustration for coach and athlete to expect an athlete to learn more than one thing at a time. To avoid multitasking in your coaching, start with the academic portion of the lesson and put it through a funnel to provide crystal clear directions and a single point of focus. To use the funnel approach, start with the broad explanation of the lesson, reduce this to a clear instruction and reduce it further to a single point of focus for the athlete’s particular turn. A point of focus declares “fix this one particular thing”. We can further encourage a connection by providing a distinct call to attention for the athlete, a phrase that shouts, “Listen up, the really, really important information is coming now!”

For Example

Lesson Description: “To get a powerful tumbling pass, you need a powerful hurdle. Having clean lines in the hurdle helps you keep the power of your run directed forward. One way to keep a clean powerful hurdle is to reach into the hurdle with your shoulders and arms touching your ears. This will keep your head in line and your back straight which helps to maintain your power.”

Directions: “Go to the floor and do four round-offs with good alignment”

The tag point is… Shoulders touching ears

The athlete now has a single criterion for success, “shoulders touching ears”. If the shoulders are touching the ears in the hurdle, there is absolute success for that tag point. Any additional refinements can be addressed with future tag points.

Lesson Description: “Your feet need to stay together in the handstand, even when you are doing a pirouette on bars. If your feet come apart, they can pull you out of alignment and cause the handstand to tilt or even collapse. Besides, the judges will take a deduction for feet apart.

Directions: Do one handstand half pirouette on the floor bar and 5 handstand pirouettes on the low bar and 5 handstand half pirouettes on the pit bar.

The tag point is…Big toes glued together

Fixing it is Fun

Although studies show that success is in itself reinforcing, the measurable successes marked by audible tags can be used in a token economy. As an athlete ‘collects the tags’ she may turn them in to “buy” stickers, trinkets, come in late for a Saturday practice, choose the next skill or even the next tag point. Groups of athletes can combine their earned tags and turn them in for open gym time or the chance to compete in skill contests.

When the name of the game is perfection, we all have to “fix it” endlessly. The challenge lies in developing the concentration and motivation needed to fix everything. One solution is a direct line of focus between the coach’s directions and the athlete's performance of them. The Focus Funnel provides this direct line by reducing confusion while introducing positive reinforcement and encouraging commitment to the performance.


Read a scientific article by Cora M. Dzubak, PhD about multitask learning that concludes: "there is unequivocal evidence that depending on the task, degree of thinking and the need for future application, we might want to do some things one step at a time, free of interruption, and do them well"

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