Field Guide · Glossary
Premack principle
Learning scienceThe principle that a behavior an animal is more likely to perform will reinforce one they are less likely to perform.
How it works
David Premack described it in 1959, and its strongest evidence is reversibility: he showed that running could reinforce drinking and drinking could reinforce running in the same animals, depending on which had been made more available. In training it is the accurate name for paying a behavior with access rather than with food, such as a sit that is paid by being released to sniff. Later work refined the mechanism: what makes an activity reinforcing appears to be that access has been restricted below its normal level, rather than simply that it is more probable.
What it looks like
A dog pulling toward a lamp post is asked to sit. The moment they do, they are walked to the post and allowed to sniff it. The sniffing paid the sit, and no food was used.
Commonly confused with
- Positive reinforcement
- The Premack principle is one form of positive reinforcement, where the thing added is access to another activity rather than an item. Every Premack arrangement is positive reinforcement; most positive reinforcement is not Premack.
Related terms