Please read section 2.4.
After reading the section, think of all the terms and concepts used in all of sections (1.1, 1.2, 1.3, 1.4, 1.5, 2.1, 2.2, 2.3, 2.4) please respond to the following questions and try to use these terms and concepts as you respond to the following questions.
What did you like about the section? How do they relate to the sections you have covered so far? What are three things you will remember from these sections? What if anything would you like me to be sure and go over in class when we meet?
Do you think the behavior modification techniques you have learned so far can be applied to the real world? How so or Why not?
Include a list of the terms and concepts you used in your post. (example - Terms: positive reinforcer, extinction, reinforcer, discriminative stimulus...)
What I liked about this section was the new information. The first part of the section was an overview and a bit more information about extinction. Extinction involves stopping previously reinforced behaviors. There are six characteristics of extinction. They are:
1. Extinction Burst; this is what happens during the process of extinction. The behavior is repeated more before becoming extinguished.
2. Variability; during the extinction burst the target behavior will be emitted, as well as a variety of other similar behaviors in the attempt to achieve the reinforcement previously given.
3. Aggressive behavior; after the extinction burst and variability do not work, aggressive behavior may surface as a result of the frustration from not getting reinforced as usual.
4.& 5. Discriminative Extinction; this is when a stimulus (called discriminative extinction stimuli) shows that there will be no reinforcement for a target behavior. Although I read through this point carefully, I am not sure I fully understand the difference between the two terms. This is something I would appreciate being clarified next time we meet in class.
6. Spontaneous Recovery; when a behavior happens even after it has been extinguished, not all the time, because then it would not be extinction, but randomly.
One new thing we learned was generalization; this is when the same behavior is emitted to a variety of different stimuli. The example given (which is too true) was whenever someone meets a psychology major it is always followed with “Guess I’ll watch out for you psychoanalyzing me!” or “Great! You can help the family/friends/group!” Although not every psychology major will become a therapist or psychiatrist, this generalization is used to assume that is the only career path available.
Another new thing was discrimination; this makes a lot of sense to me because I am a picky eater. I will eat ketchup on my burgers but I will always take the tomato off. I love ham sandwiches, and grilled cheese sandwiches, but I will not ever eat a grilled ham and cheese sandwich. I will eat cheeseburgers, but not hot dogs with cheddar in them. So I have very discriminatory taste when it comes to food.
The third thing I will remember is also the thing I liked most about this section, the part about superstitions. Superstitions do not always lead to reinforcement, but are always associated with one. I am always one to wish at 11:11 and I even have a very specific way in which I knock on wood. Although the wishes I have made came true as a result of my own effort, and I am have not kept track of how many times knocking on wood helps, I do it anyway.
I can certainly see extinction being used in the world, and understand its validity, as a way to decrease punishment for the target behavior. While I know that superstitions can absolutely dictate behaviors (for instance my frantic concentration on having three knuckles touch wood at the same time, in three sets of three) I am unsure how we’re going to use this to learn about behavior modification, but the subject matter is interesting, so I am excited to find out!
Terms used: Extinction, extinguished, punishment, discriminative extinction, discriminative extinction stimuli, variability, extinction burst, reinforcement, emit, spontaneous recovery, superstitious behaviors, generalization, discrimination
Upon more careful reading the difference between discriminative extinction and discriminative extinction stimuli is that discriminative extinction refers to a stimulus that tells there WONT be any reinforcement. A discriminative extinction stimuli refers to a signal when reinforcement WILL occur.
Generalization and discrimination are vastly different. Generalization refers to emitting the same behavior to many different stimuli in many different situations. Discrimination refers to being able to tell subtle differences between stimuli and contexts.
After posting my last comment, it was pointed out that superstitions are sometimes very extreme, which means behavior modification can help these behaviors not be so cumbersome in daily life. I think this is an important point, using superstitions and understanding them and how people believe they will achieve consequences. This, to me is the start of obsessive compulsions.
I liked that this section covered a lot of new material and got me thinking deeper into the ideas of extinction and everything that ties into it. I liked that it was challenging to ponder on ideas and kept me attempting to seperate extinction from negative punishment. They are really close to each other and I feel like that will be an issue for the test, so this will be a good section to go over thoroughly in class. I also liked the dedication of time to generalization and descrimination, and I feel like those are valuable to terms to learn.
This section relates to previous sections in that it focuses a lot on extinction, which is a term we have previously learned but didn't go into with as much detail. It also relates on the ways it ties together extinction with punishment and shows the difference between the two, however small it may be.
Three things I will remember from this section:
1. The difference between punishment and extinction
2. Generalization occurs when people emit the same behavior under a variety of circumstances
3. Superstitious behavior occurs when we tie behavior to reinforcement, but it really doesn't directly relate.
I would actually like quite a few things covered in class from this section. I struggle with seperating punishment from extinction even though I understand the concept behind it. Also, I would like to cover generalization/ discrimination. I feel like I have a good grasp on generalization, but using both within conversation may be difficult for me, also thinking of sound examples.
terms- generalization, discrimination, reinforcement, behavior, punishment, extinction, negative punishment, superstition
This section did expand on a few previously covered terms , but for the most part it had a lot of new material to cover. It is a little harder to understand compared to the last few sections because the concept of extinton is the primary focus and it is easily confused with the two other functions of punishment and reinforcement that we have heavily been going over. In time and increased useit will become easier just as the previous terms did. I enjoyed that a lot more of the example applied to real life such as addiction and gambling which make a lot of sense in my head and have more of a personal interest to me since I have been considering a career in substance abuse couseling. It also built on some prior knowledge I learned from Abnormal and social psychology about gambling.
The three things that I will remember from reading this section is: 1) Extintion can be easily confused with punishment and it is aversive 2) It creates an extintion burst because the subject is looking for any way to get reinforcement which can also change the topography but not the function (Variability). 3) Superstious behaviors such as gambling a paticular way, will contiue to occur because it is reinforced which could even lead to spontaneous recovery if an extinquished behavior randomly gets reinforced.
There were two terms that I did struggle with only slightly, discrimination and generalization and now that I think about it , It probably would not hurt to go over Discriminative extintion too.
Terms Used: Discriminative extintion ,discrimination and generalization, punishment and reinforcement , Extintion,extintion burst, topography, Variability, Superstious behaviors, spontaneous recovery
This section was very heavy in the vocabulary of new terms. I really liked the definitions of these terms and then the use of specific examples to guide my understanding. I liked learning about extinction because I can think of a lot of relevant answers in my head and even laugh at examples like the broken vending machine because I always try again, hit the machine, or even try and talk the machine into giving me a pop. These are examples that I wouldn’t expect to see in a textbook because they are enjoyable to read, and therefore, I believe, they help me to better remember the example.
This book is starting to seem like one big progression. If you don’t get one thing, I feel like you would be in trouble because everything builds on the understanding of previous items. Behavior went from the ABC’s, to reinforcement and punishment, which went to positive and negative, and so on. It would be very difficult to understand extinction burst if I did not have a good understanding of reinforcement and punishment. Extinction can be confused for punishment, so it’s necessary to have a good understanding of each to discriminate between the two concepts.
First I will remember extinction burst, which involves an increase in the behavior you are trying to decrease. We have all seen the child that screams more than usual because it didn’t work when they asked for candy. Because they are usually reinforced for them asking, they are now experiencing extinction because they were not reinforced. This makes a lot of sense when we break it down and actually look at what’s happening.
Second, I will remember the variability when dealing with extinction. We emit a variety of funny behaviors that are close to the behavior that is reinforced hoping that this will help reinforce us.
Third, I will remember the concept of generalization, and mainly because EVERY time I say I am a psychology major people go, “Ha, ha, ho, ho, you are analyzing me!” I usually laugh at this because people always so it. The concept of generalization occurs when people emit the same behavior under a variety of circumstances beyond what they behavior was originally learned in.
As I stated above, many of the examples listed in this section are very real life examples. I love when I learn things I can actually apply to my life. Instead of simply seeing a child throw a fit, I can break down the behavior and determine how they are acting because of the use of extinction. When a child is regularly reinforced for something, it makes sense that they will emit certain extra behaviors. I’m excited, now that I have some of this information, to analyze some situations in the future.
Terms: positive, negative, reinforcement, punishment, extinction burst, discriminate, behavior, emit, elicit, variability, generalization
Extinction is both upsetting and aversive to people because extinction occurs when a behavior is no longer reinforced, which makes it different from punishment. Discriminative extinction occurs when a specific stimulus, in a person’s environment, tells them a reinforcement won’t happen for them emitting the target behavior. An example would be a closed window in the store. You know you won’t be reinforced by trying to open the door, because it will be locked. An out of order sign on a pop machine would be another example. Generalization, on the other hand, refers to emitting the same behavior to a variety of different stimuli and a variety of contexts. Discrimination refers to detecting subtle differences between stimuli and contexts and being able to tell them apart. Generalization would be an example of people thinking all psychology majors are analyzing them.
Distinction involves looking for subtle differences in things, and then being able to tell things that are similar apart. For example, telling noises apart. It is important to be able to discriminate between a smoke alarm beep and a cell phone beep because they both elicit different behaviors, although they may have a similar noise. Generalization occurs when we lump certain things together based on how they are similar. Milk, for example, is generalized in our house by eliciting the same behaviors out of us to use it aside from if it is different for not. Milk is just milk in general terms. The context then matters which behaviors we emit. We may discriminate between milks at the store by having different picking behaviors for which one we choose. But then at home we will generalize the milk, and behave the same general way each time we get out the milk to use it. This is all very important to behavior modification because we are always looking for cues in our environment to tell us how to behave. Our behaviors is usually “under the control of“ stimuli in our environments because our environments often control behaviors based on the consequences of them. It’s important to discriminate between things to know how to behavior. An example would be stores. Although they generally share the same characteristics, we can discriminate between different stores. Some stories let you do things, while others might punish you for certain things like trying on clothes. A discriminative stimulus tells us behaviors to emit by clueing us in on the consequences. An example would be an open sign, we know that can go in and shop. A closed sign then tells us we can’t shop. We can generalize store signs, because we don’t care as long as they are discriminative stimuli and tell us how to behave.
One thing that I like about this section are the preciseness of the definitions. They explained the new terms well, and I feel as though I understand them more now. The examples used to describe why extinction is related to reinforcement and punishment were also helpful. Also, the example used to describe spontaneous recovery was helpful. I find myself driving past old restaurants in my hometown, and didn’t know until reading this section that spontaneous recovery was the reason why I did so.
I agree with Ktbeth when she states that the book seems to be a big progression. It’s as if you will get lost if you don’t get the definitions at first, and the confusion will just keep building and building. Thus, this section relates to the sections we have had so far because it touches again on reinforcement and punishment.
The three things I will remember from this section are the term extinction, superstitious behavior and generalization. The reason why I will remember extinction is because of the extension of the definition used in this section. Superstitious behavior used while gambling is something I will remember, because it seems to act as a discriminative stimulus. You see the button, but you do these superstitious behaviors thinking that money will appear. I see superstitious behaviors as having a positive affect rather than an aversive one, because people feel like they are doing the right thing by using these certain behaviors.
I will remember generalization because I think it is a valuable term to learn. I also think that it is important to know the difference between discrimination and generalization. That being said, I think going over these terms in class would be helpful.
Overall, I think that the behavior modification concepts we have learned thus far can be used in the real world; especially in the workplace. I am interested more in the Industrial/Organizational aspect of psychology, so learning these terms will help me if I decide to use behavior modification in the workplace.
Terms used: reinforcement, punishment, spontaneous recovery, extinction, superstitious behavior, generalization, aversive, discrimination, generalization
This section really took what we have learned previously and applied completely new concepts to consider when looking at the old ones. It was different from the past section because instead of just using our terms in different contexts or adding a word in front of the usual ones it brought about entirely new ideas to consider when studying behavior modification.
My favorite part about this section was reading about superstitious behaviors and how they originate. I love to play bingo and lots of the people at the bingo hall clearly demonstrate these superstitious behaviors. Many people will bring lucky charms with them and set them out, or have to use a particular colored dobber to mark their spaces. These are both examples of behaviors that probably originated because they had these items on a night they won which made them believe they were the reason for the positive thing that occured reinforcing them to use/bring them again.
Another thing that stuck out to me when reading this section was the part on generalization. The example of psychology majors being generalized was very good because this happens a lot. We generalize a lot of things in our everyday world. Another example of this is would be that college students drink and party. When in reality many college students dont drink at all and we think they drink way more than they actually do. People fail to disciminate the college students that party from those who dont.
The final part of this section that I will take with me is the part about extinction because it really plays a role in how we behave. If something is no longer producing a reinforcement to someone then the first thing you think is that the behavior would stop. This is not the case. We need to go through the process of extinction before a behavior is extinguished. In the case of drug use, the drug may not be producing the same reinforcing feeling, but a person may continue using drugs and variability in an attempt to reach that feeling, but if they cannot reach it anymore they may distinguish the behavior, although it will be difficult because addiction factors.
All the examples above prove that the behavior modification elements are prevelent in our everyday world and affect how we act in many situations.
(Superstition,generalization,disciminate,extinction, estinguish, variability)
I liked this section because It helped me gain a better understanding of how to stop a behavior. Extinction was brought in as a way to explain the ceasing of a target behavior altogether. I really felt like I grasped the concept of extinction burst and the variability that coincides with it. So it easy for me to say that this is what I found the most intriguing.
The fact that section 2.4 continues with reinforcement and punishment makes it relatable to past sections. Extinction is associated to reinforcement, but it is aversive. This is awesome but also different than what we have read so far. Because it is aversive, it is often confused with punishment which is not true.
I will remember that an extinction burst is when the reinforcement is first withheld, the behavior that up to that point which led to reinforcement will increase. Then variability will happen. The organism will attempt to achieve reinforcement by varying it's behaviors. Changing things by just a little bit to get reinforced. I will also remember the bit about aggressive behavior. I see this first hand at my job. The children will act out on their emotions when they do not get what they want.
I really want you to go over generalization and discrimination. For some reason I had a tough time wrapping my mind around those. Perhaps if I hear some examples that would be a great help.
Terms: extinction, extinction burst, variability, agressive behavior, reinforcement, aversive, punishment, discrimination, generalization, reinforced, target behavior
What I liked about this section is the examples that were provided for extinction.
The differences between punishment and extinction, the way we compare these two is; punishment is when you add something aversive or take away something pleasant, where as extinctions is dealing with the previous behavior that were already reinforced, and all of a sudden you don’t get reinforced for emitting a target behavior, you get extinction.
the three things that I learned are:
1. Burst extinction, because its just repeating and repeating, actions or words, wanting to get reinforced for the behavior the you are emitting.
2. Discriminative extinction stimuli.
We all came across an example of discriminative extinction stimuli. This is when we are being warned that if we emit the behavior we won’t get the reinforcement we expect to get. Examples of this are “Out of Order” signs on vending machines and restrooms, or “Closed” signs at stores and restaurants. Another thing is using the word generalization; this is more what people think about something that they know very little about, so they don’t have much choice but to generalize. The behavior modification techniques I have learned so far can be applied to the real world, because the people are constantly interacting with other people, the behavior of the person tells us more than their words ever could. The techniques make me understand why I and other people behave in a certain way and how to trace their behavior back to see what is causing the emitting of that behavior in the first place.
Something we can go over in class is spontaneous recovery vs. extinction.
Terms Used: Extinction, punishment, aversive, emit, target behavior, discriminative extinctin stimuli, generalization
What I liked about this section was the characteristics of extinction. There are lots of variables that occur when extinction happens and it’s important to know these variables to understand how extinction works. This section relates to the previous sections because we have talked about extinction before. This section also discussed reinforcement which is a prominent topic in this class. The three things I’ll remember from this section are extinction burst, superstitious behavior, and variability. In class, I would like to go over generalization and discrimination in the extinction process. They seemed to be the same thing.
Yes, I think the behavior modification techniques I’ve learned thus far can be used in the real world. I feel like an important aspect in behavior
modification is to know what the target behavior is. Once you know what the target behavior is, it’s much easier to change the antecedent and therefore, the consequence. If you’re trying to stop a person from emitting a certain behavior, you must pinpoint that behavior and look at your options for changing it. There are many options to use such as extinction, punishment, reinforcement, or deprivation.
Terms: punishment, reinforcement, deprivation, extinction, extinction burst, variability, superstitious behavior, emit, target behavior, behavior, generalization, discrimination
I liked that the section had plenty of examples explaining extinction. The terms all related with one another and I don’t feel like the information was as confusing as some of the other sections. Also, I liked how specific examples (Family Guy and drug abuse) were carried out through most of the section to further explain different terms. This relates to previous sections by building on to what we have already learned. I also noticed that the behavior terms we have been going over and studying the past few weeks are starting to appear in the weekly readings more and more (or maybe I am just noticing them more).
Three things I’ll remember from this section are the different ways to use extinction properly, superstitious behaviors, and spontaneous recovery. I think I will remember these most because I have heard of extinction as a method of altering behavior and I wanted to learn more about how to use it appropriately. The parts over superstitious behaviors and spontaneous recovery really stuck out to me as I applied the concepts to particular behaviors I have emitted in my life. I found it somewhat amusing that my behaviors have taken courses and actions like the behaviors described in the examples.
I definitely think that the behavior modification techniques we have been learning about can be applied to our daily lives and to the real world. Already in the few weeks I have been taking this class, I am starting to pick out certain situations that may elicit particular behaviors and how people act on them based on the consequences. The more I am able to learn and then understand about behavior modification the more intrigued I become. I have started to think about how I can modify specific target behaviors in my life as well as a certain few people around me.
(extinction, superstitious behaviors, spontaneous recovery, emit, elicit, consquence, target behavior)
The first part of the section recovered what extinction and extinguished were and how they differed. These terms relate to the previous section by saying that extinction and extinguished happen when there is a flaw within the ABC’s, usually with the Behavior aspect. One thing I will remember is spontaneous recovery. As I tried to long on to my internet this morning and realized it was not connecting I continued to push the button over and over again, and then at different rates, and then finding where the problem was. Because I thought it would be back on at another time, though there was an aversive behavior I continued to emit the clicking behavior. Another thing labeled as superstitious behaviors by something that may not be rewarding but has a rewarding thought behind the action. Lastly one thing I will remember is Discriminative extinction stimuli which is what signs are. This is a positive thing compared to discriminative stimuli signals that you will not be reinforced.
All of the techniques can be applied to the real world. Like for example above when I failed to get on to the internet I went to the shower and then realized my be pushing the button to reload the page over and over was exactly what was discussed in the reading.
Terms: extinction, extinguished, behavior, aversive, superstitious behaviors, discriminative extinction stimuli,
In this section I like that extinction is not punishment. Extinction is like reinforcement. Like the example of ignoring the child, you are reinforcing the behavior of not interrupting. I had fun reading and thinking about superstitions. It is interesting to think about all the different superstitions people have. I like the idea of throwing salt over your shoulder. I also remember that I had a friend who always kissed his "lucky" shamrock before soccer games. He never thought that his shamrock may not be lucky, even when we would lose. He always had a reason why his shamrock was still lucky. And in fact, he has shamrock tattoos now.
I will remember extinction burst. I can remember all the creative ways in which I would say "please" when I wanted to go to a friend's house. Somehow I thought it would help to "add a cherry on top". Variation was interesting because it is desperation. I'll never forget how I punched a hole in a door due to my frustration over not being able to go out when I was fourteen. For some reason I thought that showing my temper would elicit my mother to let me go out. Finally I learned that many people express seemingly irrational behaviors, which we call superstitions. One of my favorite superstitions is when some athletes will wear the same socks all season, choosing not to wash them with the thought that somehow dirty socks are the reason why the team keeps winning.
I think there is an obvious reason why Behaviorism became popular, and that is because the techniques we have learned are completely relevant to real life. It's easy to see how Behavior Modification can be applied to child rearing, but more abstractly one can see Behavior Modification in such instances as death, or within the engine of a car. Behaviors are emitted and elicited everywhere it would seem.
Terms: extinction, punishment, reinforcement, behavior, superstitions, extinction burst, variation, elicit, emitted.
This was a very interesting section for me as it introduced many new terms. In a sense, it almost began discussing 'troubleshooting' methods for behavior modification. What I liked most about this chapter was the section on extinction, and all of its added issues such as variability and extinction burst. I don't think any one of us had a hard time thinking of examples of ourselves in extinction situations. To implement superstitious behaviors into a social science class such as ours was also interesting. Now I see why we emit some of the strange behaviors we do.
This chapter relates to the previous sections in that it draws on our previous knowledge of reinforcement and punishment and throws a curveball at us. We learned how to modify our previously learned behavior modification techniques.
I will remember most the section about extinction. It took a little bit for me to understand and differentiate it from punishmentment. The visualizations that Maclin provided were very helpful, comical and easily related to. The extinction burst and variability components of this procedure are very important to observe. Many pushover parents have a hard time realizing their initial target behavior and give into their child. I will also remember the explanation of superstitious behaviors.
Though I understood the majority of the chapter, the generalization and discrimination examples gave me a little trouble. I understand the concepts of it but am slightly confused as to their usage in behavior modification.
Terms: emit, superstitious behavior, extinction, variability, extinction burst, reinforcement, behavior, target behavior
In this section, I liked the more detailed description of the different characteristics of the extinction process. I also think that it is neat that throughout this whole book, I am getting terms for behaviors that I emit and see others emit every day but never thought about them in behavioral speak. This section relates similar to the way other sections relate because the book is a progression what we already know but with added terms and concepts. To me, this progressive style allows me to get the core concepts down and then later apply the additional concepts without getting confused or completely overwhelmed.
In this chapter, I learned about the concept of an extinction burst. I like to think of an extinction burst as the individual’s attempt to avoid extinction by becoming increasingly more persistent with the behaviors that have previously been reinforced in hopes of reinforcement reoccurring. To me, extinction bursts are very powerful because often times, the individual who is trying to extinct the behavior eventually cracks and gives into the burst. It is a lot easier for a mom to just give into their nagging child then to hear them cry, scream, and throw a fit for extended periods of time.
I also learned that extinction and punishment are separate procedures even though they both have aversive outcomes. Extinction tries to un-condition a previously reinforced (and therefore) conditioned behavior whereas punishment procedures add aversive consequences to lessen the occurrence of an unpleasant behavior. I don’t know this for sure, but just thinking about it, extinction could be very difficult and confusing to the individual whose behavior is trying to be extinguished. Because they were previously reinforced for a certain behavior but are later ignored and not reinforced for the same behavior, they may not know what behavior is desirable.
Lastly, I learned about the concept of spontaneous recovery. Spontaneous recovery is essentially reverting back to old behaviors despite their extinction. I understand this process but had a difficult time coming up with multiple examples. The only thing I can think of is whenever I go back to my hometown where I went to high school, I cruise around town like I did back in the day (that is literally the ONLY thing to do in my town!) I would find myself driving by the high school where I typically would have been and in the summer I would drive by the softball diamond and reminisce good (and not so good) times that I had there. I never intentionally drive by these places, but my hands just seems to steer me in these directions!
I can definitely see myself using the behavioral techniques in my life, especially because I have a puppy (the most adorable puppy in the world might I add!) that is only 17 weeks old and still learning desirable behaviors. Before I came back to school, I spent 6 weeks with her teaching her tricks and potty trained her. She learned pretty quickly and was quite good at sitting, shaking, giving me high fives, laying down, and was just starting to roll over. When I went home a couple of weeks ago, I noticed that my mom just gave her treats without making her do a trick for them (her philosophy is “I don’t make you do tricks for your food, Myah doesn’t need to do tricks for her food either!”). I then proceeded to make her do all of her tricks for me, but when we got to “down,” she just looked at me and sat there. I then scolded my mom and blamed her for Myah’s extinguished behavior. This is just one example that is relevant to this section, but all of the behavioral techniques we talk about in class are relevant to my dog training skills!
Overall, I had a pretty easy time grasping the concepts in this section but had some difficulties thinking of examples!
Terms use: extinction, emit, extinction burst, reinforced, reinforcement, punishment, aversive, conditioned, unpleasant, extinguished, extinction, spontaneous recovery
In this section, I liked the more detailed description of the different characteristics of the extinction process. I also think that it is neat that throughout this whole book, I am getting terms for behaviors that I emit and see others emit every day but never thought about them in behavioral speak. This section relates similar to the way other sections relate because the book is a progression what we already know but with added terms and concepts. To me, this progressive style allows me to get the core concepts down and then later apply the additional concepts without getting confused or completely overwhelmed.
In this chapter, I learned about the concept of an extinction burst. I like to think of an extinction burst as the individual’s attempt to avoid extinction by becoming increasingly more persistent with the behaviors that have previously been reinforced in hopes of reinforcement reoccurring. To me, extinction bursts are very powerful because often times, the individual who is trying to extinct the behavior eventually cracks and gives into the burst. It is a lot easier for a mom to just give into their nagging child then to hear them cry, scream, and throw a fit for extended periods of time.
I also learned that extinction and punishment are separate procedures even though they both have aversive outcomes. Extinction tries to un-condition a previously reinforced (and therefore) conditioned behavior whereas punishment procedures add aversive consequences to lessen the occurrence of an unpleasant behavior. I don’t know this for sure, but just thinking about it, extinction could be very difficult and confusing to the individual whose behavior is trying to be extinguished. Because they were previously reinforced for a certain behavior but are later ignored and not reinforced for the same behavior, they may not know what behavior is desirable.
Lastly, I learned about the concept of spontaneous recovery. Spontaneous recovery is essentially reverting back to old behaviors despite their extinction. I understand this process but had a difficult time coming up with multiple examples. The only thing I can think of is whenever I go back to my hometown where I went to high school, I cruise around town like I did back in the day (that is literally the ONLY thing to do in my town!) I would find myself driving by the high school where I typically would have been and in the summer I would drive by the softball diamond and reminisce good (and not so good) times that I had there. I never intentionally drive by these places, but my hands just seems to steer me in these directions!
I can definitely see myself using the behavioral techniques in my life, especially because I have a puppy (the most adorable puppy in the world might I add!) that is only 17 weeks old and still learning desirable behaviors. Before I came back to school, I spent 6 weeks with her teaching her tricks and potty trained her. She learned pretty quickly and was quite good at sitting, shaking, giving me high fives, laying down, and was just starting to roll over. When I went home a couple of weeks ago, I noticed that my mom just gave her treats without making her do a trick for them (her philosophy is “I don’t make you do tricks for your food, Myah doesn’t need to do tricks for her food either!”). I then proceeded to make her do all of her tricks for me, but when we got to “down,” she just looked at me and sat there. I then scolded my mom and blamed her for Myah’s extinguished behavior. This is just one example that is relevant to this section, but all of the behavioral techniques we talk about in class are relevant to my dog training skills!
Overall, I had a pretty easy time grasping the concepts in this section but had some difficulties thinking of examples!
Terms use: extinction, emit, extinction burst, reinforced, reinforcement, punishment, aversive, conditioned, unpleasant, extinguished, extinction, spontaneous recovery
I liked that this section explained a lot of new ideas. The method of extinction has been mentioned before, but we never went in depth on the topic. My favorite part of the section covered superstitious behaviors. I liked this part, because it was rather humorous. I think we observe these behaviors all around us, whether we realize it or not. For example, one of my friends has a "lucky" pair of shorts. We used to run 5K races regularly, and she always wore the lucky blue shorts. She believed they made her run faster.
In addition to superstitious behaviors, I will also remember the difference between punishment and extinction. While punishment may give quicker results, extinction is clearly the better method. It just may be difficult to carry out, since the extinction burst may cause irritability. The third thing I will remember will be variability. Variability is part of an extinction burst when the person/animal becomes desperate and begins to seek reinforcement for behaviors which are similar to the target behavior.
I believe that most of the behavior modification methods covered in class can be effective/successful in the real world. One thing I disagree with, is a society to function with no punishment. I think this could only work in a perfect world, and we do not live in a perfect world. Punishment may be necessary if an individual is a danger to themselves or others.
Terms: superstitious behaviors, punishment, extinction, extinction burst, variability, reinforcement, target behavior
I liked this section because it talked about extinction. To fully understand how extinction works you have to know all the different variables that make up extinction. This section relates to the previous sections because we have talked about extinction before. This section also discussed reinforcement which is a very big topic in this class. The three things I’ll remember from this section are extinction burst, superstitious behavior, and variability.
I would like to go over spontaneous recovery vs. extinction.
I liked this section because I always like reading about superstitious behaviors. It is a fascinating thing to me as to why people believe that these things are lucky or will make them win. It wasn't until I started looking into them in behavioral classes that I began to understand them. This section was a lot like the others because it brought information from the other sections which made it relatable to past information and easier to understand.
The three things that I will remember are The Characteristics of extinction which are: Extinction burst, Variability, Aggressive behavior, Discriminative extinction, discriminative extinction stimuli, and spontaneous recovery. I will also remember discrimination and generalization because those were pretty self explanatory. The last thing I will remember is supersticious behavior.
Something I would like to go over just to be clear is the Discriminative extinction and discriminative extinction stimuli. I was a little confused on that. Overall though I enjoyed the chapter and I always find it amazing the way we have extintion bursts because we are no longer being reinforced.
I do think that these techniques can be helpful to me in my job for sure when attempting to modify my clients behavior. For example just as I sat down to do this assignment at 9:30 p.m. a client calls me to see if she can have a ride tomorrow because her knee is hurting and doesn't want to walk. I didn't answer and I am hoping that by not reinforcing her call with a response until 8:00 a.m. tomorrow she will understand not to call me until that time. I also like learning about this because it explains why I do things and why other people do things. Like why do we put a dollar bill back into a machine a million times if it won't take it? I got that question answered by reading the text!
Terms:Extinction burst, Variability, Aggressive behavior, Discriminative extinction, discriminative extinction stimuli, and spontaneous recovery, Extinction, supersticiuos behavior, reinforcement.
This section really made it clear about what extinction is. I see where it could be confused with punishment. A person could like at an organism to organism extinction in context of one ignoring the other causing an aversive feeling and mistake the ignoring as a punishment. The key to this is that there is nothing being added or taken away from the situation. In the context of a child emitting a whining behavior, this will elicit the parent to either reinforce the behavior by responding to the child or to punish the child by scolding or even spanking (positive punishment). These involve some level of engagement with the target behavior. I see extinction as a removal from or refusal to engage the aversive behavior.
The last section in this chapter over superstitions really interested me. I found myself smiling as i was reading the material thinking about all the rituals i have when i play sports(i.e. # of practice swings i take before an at bat, # of times i dribble the ball before i shoot a free throw, and so on). I somehow feel that these superstitions being what they are might still benefit an athlete. There has to be a difference between this and playing a slot machine. As i am talking myself through this there is. What i am speaking about is ritual, which much have some other significance. A sports superstition would be, for instance lucky socks.
Extinction burst was also a good section for me. The part where a individual begins to emit variable behaviors in an effort to achieve a reinforcer was interesting. Also the point that if they are beginning to vary their behavior means that you are going in the right direction. I can see where these behaviors can become overwhelming and elicit the extinguisher to give in and reinforce the behavior.
Would an example of spontaneous recovery be looking up an old girlfriend/boyfriend on a social networking site? When i read the part on returning to an eatery even though you know it has been closed because of the memories that place held, would this hold true for a person?
terms: extinction, spontaneous recovery, variability, positive reinforcement and punishment, emit, elicit, superstition, aversive
I liked that this section have new concepts which are related to previous concepts. It focuses on extinction and has characteristics of extinction. Although, these concepts were complicated to me I liked that I could learn other materials in behavior modification. These will be helps me to expand my knowledge in behavior modification section.
This section relates to previous sections in that how to stop bad habits; reinforcement and punishment. Of course, extinction and punishment have different means also these are applied different situations. Extinction indicates some behavior stopped that was already reinforced. In the other hand, punishment is a process to decrease the frequency of some behavior.
The three things I will remember from this section are:
1. The difference between extinction and punishment
2. The characteristics of extinction (extinction burst, variability, aggressive behavior, discriminative extinction, spontaneous recovery)
3. The relation between generalization and discrimination
I would like to know characteristics of extinction accurately than I understood by myself. I think that these concepts are important to understand detailed extinction.
As I found some behavior relates to behavior modification in many video clips and articles I believe that the behavior modification concepts and techniques I have learned are applied in the real world.
Terms: reinforcement, punishment, extinction, generalization, discrimination
This section gave a much better "how-to" on how to stop a target behavior. I feel that I fairly understand the concept of extinction burst and its related concepts. This intrigued me probably more than much of the rest of chapter's concepts.
I enjoyed that section 2.4 very much related itself to past sections, in that it continues with reinforcement and punishment. While extinction is a type of reinforcement, or at least a part of it, it is aversive to the holder of the target behavior and is often confused with being part of punishment, this piece of the chapter was peculiar to me and, I will remember it very well.
Extinction burst occurs when a reinforcer is withheld and the reinforced behavior increases so as to receive the reinforcer again. When reinforcement is not received, the person/animal/etc. will vary its behaviors slightly in an attempt to receive the desired reinforcement. The bit about aggressive behavior hit very close to home with me as I have worked in a number of placements in which delinquent and/or emotionally unstable children would act out in an aggressive manner when they became displeased with something that a peer, staff, or family had done. This was also a tidbit of the section that I will remember.
Terms: extinction, extinction burst, aggressive behavior, reinforcement, aversive, punishment, reinforced, reinforcer, target behavior
The part that I liked most about this section is how it took it's time to describe more in depth what extinction actually is and what it looks like. It didn't just give a term, the definition, one example and move on like many of the other chapters do. Seeing multiple examples and explanations made it easier for me to remember the differences between the characteristics that relate to extinction. It also didn't add a bunch of new terms which made it also easier to understand those.
This section relates to the previous chapters because it built on what we had already learned about extinction. A more in depth discussion about the different characteristics allows for a better understanding.
Three things that I will remember from this section are the characteristics of extinction, which in include
1. extinction burst -- a behavior that was previously reinforced and no longer is will occur more often, variability -- an organism will emit behaviors that are similar to that which was previously reinforced, discriminative extinction -- stimulus within the environment tells the organism that reinforcement will not result from emitting the target behavior, and spontaneous recovery -- an organism will emit the behavior that had previously been extinguished.
2. Generalization happens when the same behavior is emitted in many situations and by many different stimuli while discrimination is being able to tell differences between situations and stimuli in order to emit the correct behavior.
3. A superstition is a behavior that is emitted because the organism thinks it's related to the reinforcement when in reality it's not directly related to it.
I think the techniques learned in behavior modification can be related to real world situations in many ways. Extinction and all of it's characteristics are very evident in the real world, while other behaviors that we have discussed are also apparent. Reinforcement and punishment is used every day by everyone, and superstitions are developed frequently.
Extinction, extinction burst, variability, discriminative extinction, reinforcement, target behavior, emit, generalization, superstition, punishment.
What I really liked about this section was how it emit a review method of learning two previously learned concepts together thus asking a elicit of association from me. It was easy for me to emit said behavior because of the amount of examples given as well as the distinctions made between different contexts. The set up was similar to previous sections by definitions, examples, then write your own examples; which is helpful, I feel like I learn from this method. I only wish there was a way to know if my own examples were right or wrong before I move on to the next topic. Intrinsically, they're right, until I get to class and I find out Dr. MacLin is looking for a different extrinsic answer from the students.
Three things that I will remember from this section are extinction burst, spontaneous recovery, and how superstitious behaviors occur. I will remember extinction burst and spontaneous recovery because I see these behaviors emitted regularly. Extinction burst is when an individual is withheld of a previous reinforcement then tries even harder to be reinforced by increasing the previous behavior. Unfortunately, this goal to elicit a reinforcing behavior is successful and when reinforcement is emitted, the extinction for such target behavior is ended. Spontaneous recovery is similar to extinction burst in the fact that a previously emit behavior is being emitted again; however, in this context, the behavior was successfully extinguished. An example of this is if you called someone multiple times with a goal to ask a question and you continuously get their voice mail. The call-ee not answering their phone and never returning phone calls to the caller is emitting an extinction behavior, whether extrinsic or the call-ee is intrinsically perceiving it as aversive, the behavior of calling to get an question answered is unsuccessful and being extinguished. Soon, the caller stops calling and said behavior is extinguished. However, a few days later the person may try again, the caller emitting the calling behavior again is spontaneous recovery. Lastly, I found superstitious behavior very interesting which is why I will remember it. I always said I wasn't superstitious, and I still say that, I just like to do things in a certain order. For example, when I was in high school, I liked to put my spandex and jersey on first, then I would get my hair out of my face in preparation for the game, next would be putting my socks on, then I put on deodorant and filled my water bottle, then I put on my shoes, and last was my warm-up clothes. I didn't associate my getting ready behavior with winning games, I just liked consistency. However, I now look back and wonder what would have happened if I did behave out of order; so maybe it was superstition. I do understand that superstition occurs when an organism associates a reinforcer to a behavior that may not be intended as a reinforcement.
A few topics that I would like you to go over in class are clarifying on discriminative extinction and discriminative extinction stimuli and further examples on generalization and discrimination.
I do feel like the behavior modification techniques I've learned thus far are having an impact. For example, I am an RA and I try to emit reinforcement behavior rather than punishment to elicit a positive atmosphere on my floor. My girls seem to respond to it well; however, one behavior was decreased last week so I am trying to vary a previously reinforced behavior as a spontaneous recovery to keep a behavior emit by my residents from becoming extinct. Hopefully it works!
Terms: elicit, emit, intrinsic, extrinsic, extinction burst, spontaneous recovery, reinforce, reinforcement, reinforcer, punishment, target behavior, extinction, discriminative extinction, discriminative extinction stimuli, generalization and discrimination.