Animal trainers have this problem all the time. Animal performs behavior ‘x’ gets a reward. But the animal might have been doing other subtle behaviors at the same time, and map the reward to ‘y’. So instead of reinforcing ‘x’, you might be reinforcing ‘y’. And if ‘x’ and ‘y’ are too close for you to tell apart, then you’ll be in for a surprise when your perspective and context changes, and the difference becomes more apparent to you. And you find out that the bird was trained to peck anything that moves, instead of just the bouncy red ball or something.
Psychologists have a formal term for this but I can’t remember it, and can’t find it on the internet, I’m sorry to say.
Come to think, industry time-and-motion people suffer the same problem.
Animal trainers have this problem all the time. Animal performs behavior ‘x’ gets a reward. But the animal might have been doing other subtle behaviors at the same time, and map the reward to ‘y’. So instead of reinforcing ‘x’, you might be reinforcing ‘y’. And if ‘x’ and ‘y’ are too close for you to tell apart, then you’ll be in for a surprise when your perspective and context changes, and the difference becomes more apparent to you. And you find out that the bird was trained to peck anything that moves, instead of just the bouncy red ball or something.
Psychologists have a formal term for this but I can’t remember it, and can’t find it on the internet, I’m sorry to say.
Come to think, industry time-and-motion people suffer the same problem.