April 2010 Archives

Token Economy - On Tuesday (week #15) we will cover the use of token economies in class. For this post I would like you to develop a token economy to practice what you learned.

What is your setting?
What behavior class are you going to change?
What are the target behaviors you are going to change though reinforcement (Keep in mind the use of DROs)?
What type of token are you going to use?
What are some considerations for the use of these tokens?
What are you going to use for the backup reinforcers?
What was your rationale for choosing these reinforcers?
What is the token value and how did you select that value?
What are you using for a bank and how did you arrive at that decision?
What are the hours of operation for your bank?
Who will you need to explain your program to?
How will you go about explaining your program (what will you actually say)?
What is your plan for reducing the need for tokens to maintain the target behavior?
Looking back at your token economy you have planned, what are some potential problems you should anticipate and plan for?

Let me know if you have any questions,

--Dr. M

What I would like you to do for this homework is to have some fun and find some websites places or organizations that use or tried to use token economies. Please try to incorporate the behavioral terms we are learning into your writing and some material from the lecture on token economies.

1) Please discuss your topic in general, why it interests you (or not) and how it relates to behavior modification.

2) Post at least 2 links to the sites you visited that were most informative about token economies.

3) Discuss how these sites further expanded your understanding of token economies (kind of like a conclusion).

4) Make a list of behavioral terms you used in this post (this is to help get you focused on using behavioral terms in your regular writings).

Thanks. 

Please use this to comment on your reading for sec 5.5.

1) I'll leave it up to you about what and how you would like to comment, however I would ask that you attempt to write using behavioral terms.

2) Discuss how you might use the premack principle to change the reinforcers related to your behavioral project in terms of the material in section 5.5.

Please use this to comment on your reading for sec 5.4.

1) I'll leave it up to you about what and how you would like to comment, however I would ask that you attempt to write using behavioral terms.

2) Discuss how you can change the antecedants related to your behavioral project in terms of the material in section 5.4.

You are encouraged to attend this important meeting of the psych club. If you attend and blog about your experiences you can use this for class credit - something that you can add to your portfolio....

  Please announce the following in classes, as appropriate:

"The UNI Psychology Club will be holding its April meeting in Room 112, Seerley Hall, at 7:00 P.M. on Monday, April 5. The meeting will feature election of officers for academic year 2010-2011, details regarding the upcoming volleyball tournament (scheduled for April 24), information about the Psi Chi induction ceremony April 11 at 2:00, and the popular "Registration Gossip" session discussing Fall classes and professors (no faculty allowed!).  Free pizza and pop will be provided.  Any questions should be addressed to President Lisa Hickman: lhickman@uni.edu."

After reading section 5.3 (I'll email that to you) conduct a functional assessment of the target behavior you have decided to use for your project.

1) State the target behavior

2) What are the antecedents to the behavior?

3) What are the consequences to the behavior?

4) How do you think the behavior is functioning? List several hypotheses as to why in the order of most liekly.

5) For the top hypothesis, what might be an intervention you might use to change the frequency of the behavior?

Let me know if you have any questions,

--Dr. M