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.
I thought section 5.5 was a pretty interesting section, especially concerning the behavioral hierarchy and the Premack Principle. First, the Premack Principle states that a person will engage in a low frequency behavior for the opportunity to engage in a high frequency behavior (with the frequency of behavior being in relation to other behaviors). When analyzing my personal behavior chain after looking at the one in the section, it was interesting to see which behaviors possibly served as reinforcers, reinforcing behaviors which were emitted for the opportunity to engage in another more pleasurable behavior. For example, within my frequency chart and behavioral chain, I have watching sports and partying right at the top. Towards the bottom I have studying. As it states in the section, a behavioral hierarchy can be created to determine what events can be used as reinforcers. Thus, a high frequency behavior like watching sports/partying could be used as motivation to accomplish a lower frequency behavior like studying. In other words, engaging in studying (low frequency) for the opportunity to engage in a high frequency behavior (watching sports/partying) reflects Premack's Principle. This coincides with the idea that humans can delay gratification and do not usually have to be reinforced right away. People can actually save up reinforcers for later use (like studying now in order to party later in the week).
In relation to the Premack Principle and my behavioral project, to increase my low frequency behavior of exercising, I can motivate myself by engaging in this behavior to allow myself or give myself the opportunity to watch the Cubs game later that night (a high frequency behavior). Using this methodology will help me accomplish and be successful in achieving my target behavior of exercising 3-4 times a week for at least 45 minutes.
1.)I thought section 5.5 was really interesting. There were a few things covered that I hadn’t heard of before, so overall I thought it was a really good read. I thought the Premack Principle was interesting and something everyone can relate too. It stated that people will engage in a behavior that they don’t ordinarily like in order to engage in one that they enjoy. I had never thought about this in behavioral terms, but it makes sense. Our parent’s used this on us when we were younger and it has also carried over to us as adults. I know I do this to myself all the time. I say, “If I do this, then I can do that.” I also thought the behavioral hierarchy was interesting as well. It is very important to determine which behavior can be used as a reinforcer before you can organize the high and low frequencies. I didn’t realize how the two were interconnected. I liked the example given in the reading as well. The graph was very helpful and the exercises were short, but to the point.
For my own behavioral hierarchy, I have watching a movie and hanging out with friends at the top and studying close to the bottom. So in this context, watching a movie would be a high frequency and studying would be a low frequency. This also happens to be the reinforcer I chose for my behavioral project.
I also learned that the behavioral chain is part of the Premack Principle and is the order or sequence in which behaviors occur. According to the text, we pretty much have control over the behaviors we decide. It is up to us to use our “will power and self-made rules.
2.)For my behavioral project, I can use the Premack principle in the following way. To increase my low frequency behavior of studying, I can motivate myself with the high frequency behavior of watching a movie or hanging out with friends at the end of the week. By using this principle, it will help me to achieve my goal of studying for 3-6 hours a day and become more successful in my classes.
1. I thought section 5.5 was very helpful in developing ways to reinforce our target behaviors. I especially liked the behavioral hierarcy and behavioral chain concepts. Not only does it provide us with examples of reinforcers we could use in our own projects, but it also helps us just prioritize our lives in general. If there are certain behaviors that you wish didn't have such a high frequency as you rated it at, then we can modify our environment to better suit our desires. Of course it is more difficult than simply what's written on pen and paper, but atleast it helps identify areas of our life that we would also like to modify. This activity may even be helpful in the beginning stages of developing a behavioral project to gain ideas about a potential target behavior that we want to modify or increase in frequency.
2. For my behavioral project, I can apply the Premack principle in the following ways:
- increase my low frequency behavior of exercising by reinforcing it with a high frequency behavior of shopping
- increase my low frequency behavior of exercising by reinforcing it with a high frequency behavior of spending more time with friends.
- I could weekly reinforce my low frequency behavior by rewarding achievement of my target behavior with eating out once on the weekend or I could daily reward myself by getting nap time only after I have had workout time.
1) I thought section 5.5 was interesting. I liked how it went over DRO again because I've learned that it's a very important concept within Behavior Modification. I also learned that it's very important to determine what type of reinforcer you should use. You can either use a primary reinforcer (food, water, etc) or a secondary reinforcer (money, etc). You can also use an event as a reinforcer, such as telling yourself you can go shopping if you complete 15 hours of homework a week. Section 5.5 also discusses how important it is to create a behavioral hierarchy, in which you find out what your high and low frequency behaviors are. That way, in order to increase the frequency of behavior, you can reinforce yourself with the high frequency behavior.
2) The Premack Principle is used to get humans or animals to emit a behavior for the opportunity to do something they like to do. For my project, I would use shopping. I love to shop, so it's a good reinforcer for me! I would have to engage in my low frequency behavior of doing homework in order to be rewarded by going shopping (my high frequency behavior). This is good motivation for me and I think it would fit well into my project!
1) I found the Premack Principle to be rather interesting. It all makes perfect sense to me. Because we all do the small things that lead up to the big things. I found the behavior chain to be very interesting. Because I definitely have a morning routine. I'm very idiosyncratic about it, and I always have been. However, by the time I go to class my idiosyncrasies fall to the wayside. If a person keeps a solid behavior chain and organizes it to fit their target behavior I think it could help them a lot. Granted, I would depend a lot on the individual and how much they like being on a schedule.
2) My behavior could be strongly influenced by the Premack Principle. More specifically the behavioral chain. My routine in the morning is as follows wake up->roll around for a little bit -> wash my face -> brush my teeth -> take a shower -> eat breakfast -> get ready -> go to class...... then nothing is set in stone after class. Since nothing is set in stone, it makes it very easy for me to slack off in the afternoon. I need to set my behavioral chain in a way in which I will be able to do my homework in the afternoon. A perfect way to reinforce this behavioral change switch is by being able to go to bed early. Every night I'm able to get my work done early I will be able to go to sleep early. Every night I'm doing homework into the wee hours of the night I will have an aversive response in the morning because of my lack of rest.
1) A really appreciated Section 5.5 because I feel like my reinforcer is not very reinforcing so I have been trying to come up with a new reinforcer. I liked learning about the Premack Principle and I feel I will apply this to my life in other ways. Come to think of it, I have without the title. I have told myself once I get one page written for a paper, I can watch a tv program. This is just one example. When I had to list the behaviors I emit on a daily basis and then rate them, it made me see my options for reinforcement on behaviors I find aversive to emit.
2) I think I am going to use the Premack Principle in that sleep was rated 7 for me while flossing teeth at night was rated 1. I can turn this into a behavioral rule by stating: If I floss my teeth at night, then I can go to sleep. We will see how this goes!
1) Differential Reinforcement of Other seems like the logical next step when it comes to what we've talked about so far. There are some behaviors that are very difficult to reinforce, or difficult to modify without punishments. The DRO introduces an alternative option that makes the intervention seem more easily attainable. As usual, I'm trying to continually apply the concepts in this class to coaching, and am having a difficult time trying to come up with an effective and efficient way of using the Premack Principle. Not only would it be extremely difficult to keep a frequency chart for all of the players you would be coaching, but your options are also limited. You can't really say "if you do well in (drill x that the players don't like), then we'll do (drill y that the players do like), because practice time is very limited--you already have to make the most of all the time you are given, and that includes A) cutting out drills that serve no purpose and B) performing a lot of repetitions with effective drills. So you couldn't use a pleasurable drill as a reinforcer, because if its an optional "just for fun" type drill, then it probably shouldn't be used at all. If you were going to utilize this principle, it would have to be for an optional activity after practice, which brings me to my next problem: the wide variety of potential reinforcers. Even if I could find a way to establish each players behavioral hierarchy, there would probably be a variety of high frequency behaviors. I'm just not sure how I would be able to effectively and efficiently utilize this concept with so many kids in the situation that I would be in, but it is definitely a concept that I will keep in mind.
2) I could use coffee and getting out of bed when utilizing the Premack Principle. If I get out of bed without the alarm going off for a second time, then I can have my morning coffee. It would be hard to deny coffee on mornings when I would potentially hit the snooze button a few times, because those are probably the mornings that I am feeling the groggiest, and would most like to have the coffee.
1. I found this section interesting and rather enlightening because I had not learned about some of the principles discussed before. I also appreciated the extended discussion of the differential reinforcement of other (DRO) because I kind of have to go over that concept a few times in my mind before I completely understand it. I was glad that I had to think of behavioral situations where a DRO might be helpful because it made me connect the concept to real life events. Also, I appreciated the discussion of the Premack Principle. I know I have either used this principle in my own life before or used it with some of the children I with whom I work, but I have never heard it labeled before. Filling out the list of 10 behaviors that I engage in was a bit difficult for me because I typically don't think of my day as divided into specific behaviors.
2. Working on homework was rated #4 in my list of behaviors and so was working out. So, I don't think using working out as a reinforcer is probably particularly reinforcing to me. However, since the weather is getting nicer and hanging out with friends is one of my top-rated behaviors, I could start going for long walks with friends to provide reinforcement for getting homework done.
1. 5.5 Reviewed 5.4 a bit with discussing Using reinforcement to control behavior. As we have stated before, even if your goal is to reduce the frequency of a particular target behavior you should try to find a way to reinforce a different behavior that will function to decrease the problem behavior by competing with it. Again it is called Differential Reinforcement of Other. For example, Sally wanted to stop biting her nail. It was unattractive. She only bit them when she was bored or nervous so every time she got bored she would do a cross word puzzle and when she got nervous she chewed gun instead. These new changes helped her to stop biting her nail. This will help everyone trying to stop this habit or that these new habits will work forever. But for the moment it is working for sally. Having language and the ability to delay gratification, we don’t need to have the reinforcer readily available each time the behavior occurs. Many people think of reinforcers as a tangible object or reward. However, we can reinforce ourselves with the opportunity to do something. The way to find out what your high and low frequency behaviors are, is to maintain a behavioral hierarchy. This can be done is several ways, however in general it is done for others by observing their behaviors.
Suppose a preschool teacher Kelly and she has several ‘game activities available for her class such as racing cars, fastest runner the best painter, biggest house,
and best drawer. Kelly wants the children to have a balanced experience with all of the centers and wants the overall experience to be reinforcing so the children look forward to playing the game each class period. When a variety of reinforce options exist, it is often a good idea to choose a reinforce that compliments the behavior you are modifying. Behavioral hierarchies can be obtained by observing behaviors or they can be obtained by self report.
2. Premack Principle: I would do these things to help increase my motivation to study and to not procrastinate. Listening to music will study to help stay focused on school work, Eat while doing studying, and to hang out when receive a B or better on an exam.
Section 5.5 was good to read because it covered a couple things I knew (reviewing reinforcers and the importance of them) and then introducing the Premack Principle. The Premack Principle is basically saying that people will act in a low frequency behavior for the high frequency behavior. For example I will get to drink alcohol on Friday night if I don't on Tuesday Wednesday or Thursday.
As for my behavioral project, I think that I will emit the behavior of going to bed before midnight every night from Sunday through Wednesday so I will guarantee myself 7-9 hours of sleep each night. Engaging in that low frequency behavior will give me a positive reinforcement of being able to drink alcohol on Thursday night, so that even though I won't get much sleep Thursday Friday and Saturday, majority of the week I will be able to have energy and be healthy for the important parts (like school!).
1)At first this section was a bit confusing and I didn't understand how our activites could be used to reinforce each other by way of the Premack Principle, but I'm gonna try =)
I like to shop and don't get to do it very often and find myself going t out to eat several times a week. If I eat at home more often I can save money and be able to shop more often.
This is still a bit confusing to me, but I'm sure I'll get it.
2) As for my behavior project, when I go out to eat (which I often do) I can choose a vegetable or have a salad as a side (something I do sometimes). This way I can increase the frequency of eating vegetables (my goal!).
1) Section 5.5 was very interesting to me, and it should help me to better know how I can reinforce my behaviors for my project. The Premack principle was especially useful. The Premack principle is something that I'm sure we have all observed in action. If there is something that someone really likes to do, then it can be withheld and then only given to the person as a reinforcer once they perform a specific target behavior. This happened all through my childhood as my parents said things like, "You can go over to your friend's house if you clean your room first." If I cleaned my room (target behavior), then my parents would reinforce that behavior with the pleasant consequence of being able to go to my friend's house. Going to my friend's house was a higher frequency behavior than cleaning my room. It was higher on the behavioral hierarchy. I also liked the example of how the Miss Franks was using this principle to taylor her methods to each individual student, and hopefully to achieve better results. This was a good practical example of one of the ways that this principle could be used in real life.
2) My current reinforcer for drinking 36 ounces of water per day is being able to get these cheese-filled breadsticks I really like (but are really bad for me) from the store. If I drink enough water, then at the end of the week I can get the breadsticks. This is a good reinforcer for me because eating breadsticks was a high frequency behavior for me. Now that I know I can only have them when I drink enough, it elicits the water-drinking behavior from me. Pretty much any reinforcement related to eating good food would be high on the behavioral hierarchy for me, and thus would be a good reinforcer according to the Premack Principle.
1. At first this section was a bit confusing, but after really paying attention to it, I found it interesting. The Premack Principle says that people will participate in a low frequency behavior if they know they are going to be able to participate in a high frequency behavior. For example, your son doing is chores in order to play his xbox.
2. To apply the premack principle to my project, I could reward my self for studying. If i go all week with studying 2 hours a night, then I get to go out on the weekends. If not, I stay in and do homework till it's done then maybe get to go out.
1. I found this sections reading very informative in the ways that we reinforce ourselves but also the premack principle was something i noticed i did all throughout childhood and its still something i carry on with to this day in everything that i do. Ive noticed that i will engage in lower desired behaviors in order to be able to attain something or do something that i want to do. In this way i usually try to get my work done when i know my friends are going to want to go golfing, riding bikes, or just have a bond fire and play music all night. In this way my heirarchy is usually something along the lines of get work done and then play. But just recently ive noticed because of the weather my heirarchy has been reversed in that im more prone now to get all my fun in before i return to complete my assigned work for my classes. In this way i have a reversed premack principle that needs some significant work. But i believe that its good that i now realize this before it becomes too late to do anything significant about it. I really enjoyed the section about how our own behavioral heirarchy works as well. In my daily routine its wake up, check email, shower, eat something, see what i have to do for the day for classes, go to classes, then return home to have fun with friends until the sun goes down. This have been my principle heirarchy for some time now. But it does need some adjusting and thats something im going to have to work on.
2. The premack principle for my desired intervention would probably work out something like when the work is done then you can reinforce yourself for completing that desired behavior. Also upon completion of my goals for the day or week or whatever i choose i can then go hang out with my brothers at the fraternity house and possibly relax till the next day when i have to do it all over again. I feel as though this is something that is going to be a daily thing for me and not something thats going to occur over a weeks time. In this way ill be able to more closely monitor my behaviors and those principles in which i reinforce my desired behaviors.
I found this section very interesting because I don't usually take the time to think about how I reinforce myself or others. The Premack Principle is very basic, but a great way to get people to emit certain behaviors. The frequency charts really helped me understand the hierarchy, and why it's important to know high and low frequency behaviors. I also liked filling out my own behaviors, and listing the frequencies for them.
Now that I know what my high and low frequencies are, I can use them to decide how to reinforce myself. Since I think spending time with my boyfriend is very important, I can make myself do a few hours of homework before I get to see him. I could also let myself sleep in on Saturday mornings if I study 2 hours per day Sunday through Thursday.
1)I liked this chapter because it exapands the usefulness of behvaior modification. It gives more practical techniques for gradually modifying behaviors. Although bmod has a very basic foundation (reward the desriable and punish the undesirable), it can be incredibly difficult to put into practice. This is no doubt because of the complex web of ABC's in our environments.
With the premark principle, baseline data, and other information from behavioral diaries can be unwound (or unwebbed...) into more specific reinforcement strategies. As mentioned in the reading a reinforcer is only a reinforcer if it reinforces. So if your plan calls for being reinforced with McDonalds yet you are not making your goal McDonalds is NOT a reinforecer.
This can be maddening. Because McDonalds may work as a reinforcer for your eating more vegitables behavior, but not your exercizing behaviors. The Premark principle helps to explain this. Through rigorous and structured documentation you can discover a better hiarachy of behavioral frequencies and solve this problem. Perhaps your list is Exercising, Eating McDonalds, Eating Vegitables. The Premark principle explains that McDonalds may act as a reinforcer for things lower on the list (veggies) but not things higher on the list (working out).
2) As mentioned above by organizing the various types of behaviors I enjoy doing I can find out where on the list the reinforcer I am using for exercizing behavior is. Not only that I'll find out how far away from my target behavior it is. The further up on the list it is, and the further down the target behavior is, the more reinforcing power it will have. Also, by organizing this data it is very likely that other intersting information will reveal itself.
I felt that Section 5.5 really picked up where 5.4 left off(as it logically should). By using examples of getting ready in the morning, it is easy to see how by using differential reinforcement of other (behavior) can direct your behavior towards a more pleasurable consequence. Also, by marking down your "10 most favorable" behaviors it is plain to see what you like and don't like to do. Implementing this from my own personal experience I reward myself with either a beer or video games as long as I get my target behavior (studying more) completed for the night (sometimes I even combine beer + video games as a reward.. zing!)
To my knowledge I don't recall learning about the Premack Principle so it was good to read and learn about the concept. In regards to my behavior modification project studying more (target behavior) has been reinforced by high frequency behaviors (drinking, video games, working out, and even.. sex!) Who knew that studying could be so enjoyable? In all seriousness these techniques (along with will power) can be a very powerful way to modify behaviors. The crucial portion of the Premack Principle is in fact listing your own behavioral hierarchy. By having this information in front of you, a person is able to make better decisions in manipulating their target behavior. Honestly, I wish I would have had this knowledge upon starting my college career - as opposed to learning these methods upon graduation. This was more than likely the most helpful section of behavior modification.
Section 5.5 was very beneficial in getting us to think of ways to reinforce ourselves with our behavioral projects. I especially liked the topic of behavioral hierarchy with high and low frequencies because it shows what behaviors we need to focus on and which ones we are already focusing on. For example, I have a high frequency in playing my wii, watching tv, and shopping, but I have a low frequency in working out, eating healthy foods, and studying. My behavioral hierarchy shows that I need to focus more on working out, eating healthy, and studying. For the premack principle, If I go a week completing my target behavior which is working out three days a week for 30 minutes then I reinforce myself with a shopping day or going to a movie with my friends. By reinforcing myself with my desired behaviors (high frequencies) it will help me stay motivated to achieve my less desirable behaviors (low frequencies).
I have had to think about choosing the right reinforcer for my son. I also thought a lot about it for my behavioral project. When I first started reinforcing my son for positive behaviors, I really didn't pick things that he cared too much about. The kid lives for star wars legos and the wii. I now use them both for reinforcers. He also loves to watch Star Wars Clone Wars on Friday nights on the Cartoon Network. We use this night for a fun pizza and movie night for the boys. It works great! In my behavioral project, I used diet coke as my reinforcer. I love diet coke, but my goal is to drink more water. Now after I drink my daily goal for water, I can enjoy a diet coke. I'm sure that I will need to keep evaluating the effectiveness of the reinforcers, but for now, we both have the right ones.