Category: Animal Emotions

Poisoning – or counter conditioning?

Post author By Karolina Westlund, PhD
Post date 14 September, 2018
45 Comments on Poisoning – or counter conditioning?

Updated August 2023

Yes or no, true or false?

“If you combine negative reinforcement with positive reinforcement, you poison the learning process.”

Do you agree?

Do you poison the cue? The environment? Yourself? – if you after a negatively reinforced response add a positive reinforcer (AKA combined reinforcement)?

Some of the readers of this blog may say “yes”.

Some may say “no”.

Some may say “huh?”

After all, that question doesn’t make sense if you’re unfamiliar with those terms. Stay tuned, I’ll explain them in a minute.

I think the right answer is “it depends”.

Before we start untangling the potential pitfalls of combined reinforcement – why is this an important question?

Animal Emotions

Meme Week: Animal emotions

Post author By Karolina Westlund, PhD
Post date 7 September, 2017
5 Comments on Meme Week: Animal emotions

I did an experiment. Which was a bit scary, because the outcome depended on you…! Or your fellow readers, who might have stumbled on this page before you.

So, I was a bit prepared that the whole project it might implode, if nobody joined. Luckily, I had just ordered some new spring bulbs, so I could go outside and do some planting instead, if things didn’t pan out as I imagined.

I had a plan B, as it were.

And now my garden is in rather a sorry state… because this project did get a lot of attention!

It was really fun and engaging, not to mention important, and it reached thousands of people – getting the impact I think that this topic deserves..!

I called it Meme Week.

Meme Week took place on my Facebook page.

Animal Emotions

Infected situations

I’m almost done giving my first online course!

I wanted to share some of the course content here on my blog, and choosing was difficult.

So, I got some help from my students. I asked them:

“Out of the course videos you’ve seen so far, which do you like the best? One that taught you something important that you think the rest of the world of pet owners or animal professionals would benefit from?”

Several students suggested chapter 11 from the GRIEF module entitled Infected Situations. So – here it is!

Animal Emotions Ethics Weathering scepticism

Are dogs separated from mom too early?

Post author By Karolina Westlund, PhD
Post date 17 May, 2016
68 Comments on Are dogs separated from mom too early?

In the last couple of weeks, I’ve had influences from two directions that have caused me to consider the age at which dogs are separated from their litter and mom.

Animal Emotions

The SEEKING system – a fascinating core emotion

Post author By Karolina Westlund, PhD
Post date 8 April, 2016
22 Comments on The SEEKING system – a fascinating core emotion

This week’s topic takes off from last week’s post on improving animal welfare by integrating two models of emotions, and is all about the SEEKING system.

If you don’t have six minutes, here’s the major take-home message:

Animal Emotions

Two models of animal emotions: Core Affect Space and Panksepp’s Core Emotions.

Post author By Karolina Westlund, PhD
Post date 31 March, 2016
6 Comments on Two models of animal emotions: Core Affect Space and Panksepp’s Core Emotions.

Jaak Panksepp has deservedly been getting a lot of attention about his Core Emotions concept. I like to frame it in another model called the Core Affect Space.

Here is why.