Please read sections 1.5 and the handout on recording behaviors for this week. The hand out will be sent to you as an attachment.
After reading the sections, think of all the terms and concepts used in all of section 1 (1.1, 1.2, 1.3, 1.4 and the ones in these new readings). Please respond to the following questions and try to use these terms and concepts as you respond to the following questions.
Which section did you like the most? Why? Which section did you like the least? Why? What do you think is the most useful piece of information from section 1.5? Why? Most useful from the handout? Why? What are your thoughts the four basic outcomes?
Prior to reading these sections, what did you think about behavior modification? Why? What are three things you will remember from what you read in the sections? Why? How has reading the sections changed what you originally thought about behavior modification? How so?
Finally indicate two topics or concepts that you would like me to cover in more depth in class.
Include a list of the terms and concepts you used in your post. (example - Terms: positive reinforcer, extinction, reinforcer, discriminative stimulus...)
After having read all of the sections for unit one, I still think section 1.4 was the most interesting because it involved most of the terms we need to know to understand the basic points of behavior modification, I probably learned the most from this section.
I also still think that section 1.3 was probably the least interesting just because there wasn’t a lot of information. Although it did help me understand how to speak in behavioral terms a little better, and why it’s important.
The most useful piece of information from section 1.5 was probably the information on behavioral classes, specifically topographical vs. functional ones. Where in an example, waves may look topographically similar meaning waves all sort of look the same at first glance. But they serve different functional purposes meaning they all serve a different function depending on where and how they’re used in a specific environment.
The most useful information from the handout would probably be how in depth it went into on graphing behavioral information, usually we don’t pay that much attention to things like that, but there are a lot of details we must remember when trying to change and modify behaviors so it’s important that when graphing or charting that things are specific.
I’m still a little hazy on what exactly behavioral classes, but from what I do understand they seem to be very important in understanding behavior. There is a lot of thought involved in understanding what behaviors mean that we don’t usually pay attention to, simple things like waving could mean completely different things depending on the context of the situation. Target behaviors are also really important to understand and specify because something that we may think is obvious might mean something completely different to another party, so it’s hugely important that we specify every detail of the target behavior to avoid confusion or mistakes while modifying behavior.
Before reading these sections, I had a much more vague understanding of behavior and changing it. It’s important to learn all of the details about modifying behavior and understand what they mean and how to use them. Being specific about what target behaviors is something I learned from these sections as being hugely important. I’ll also remember to think about behavioral classes and the context in which behaviors are occurring to understand what they mean a little better and how they can be changed. I’ve also been learning and trying to understand concepts like “emit” and “elicit” because the are important terms, but difficult to understand. These sections have changed what I originally thought about behavior and it’s modification because I didn’t realize how specific or in depth one must think while attempting to change behaviors.
I would like to go over behavioral classes and maybe charting information a little bit more to understand them a bit better.
Emit, Elicit, Target Behavior, Behavioral Classes, Topographical, Functional
The section that I enjoyed the most was section 1.4. I liked section 1.4 the most because I personally felt that it displayed the most information with all of the vocabulary included. I liked how the section introduced a vocabulary word by first giving the reading the true definition and then broke it down into more understandable terms. I also liked how section 1.4 allowed the reader to apply their knowledge of the new vocabulary by allowing the reader to create some of their own sentences.
The section that I liked the least was section 1.3. I liked section 1.3 the least because I felt that it provided the least amount of important information. The only idea that the reading really addressed was the idea that the language of behavior is very precise. I felt that everything else included in the section was primarily common sense.
The most useful piece of information from section 1.5 was educating the reader on how behaviors can be evaluated and defined by either topographical or functional. I felt that defining behaviors as either topographical or functional was important because the reading went on to explain that some behaviors may look the same but accomplish different things( topographical) or behaviors may look different but serve the same function(functional).
The most useful information from the handout would be the example given in the reading regarding the two people determining who consumed more water. The example helped the reader understand how important it is to be precise when dealing with behavior.
In section 1.5 there were four outcomes of reinforcement target behavior. The first outcome stated that a behavior is emitted and recognized as the target behavior, a reinforcement is delivered and causes the behavior to be more likely to reoccur. The second outcome is that a non target behavior is delivered and is mistaken as the target behavior, reinforcement is delivered, causing the unwanted behavior to be more likely to occur. The third outcome is that a target behavior is emitted and is not recognized, no reinforcement is given and there’s an extinction of the behavior. The fourth outcome is that a non target behavior is emitted and there’s no recognition/reinforcement, nothing happens (good thing). My thoughts on the four outcomes of reinforcement on target behavior are that it’s very important for the person providing reinforcement to reinforce the desirable behavior every time it happens to ensure that the desired behavior continues. My second thought is that the target behavior should be clearly defined so that the correct desired behavior is reinforced. Also after doing the reading I believe that any behaviors other than target behaviors should be ignored.
Prior to doing these readings, I believed that behavior modification focused on changing your individual behavior, I didn’t realize that you could modify other individuals behavior. I also didn’t realize how precise the language of behavior was.
Three things that I will remember after reading the sections are the ABC’s of behavior modification. A stands for antecedent, regarding things that take place before the behavior. B stands for behavior, which must be precisely defined. C stands for consequence, or what happens after the behavior (Reinforcement/punishment). I will remember the ABC’s of behavior modification because it was the fist concept that I learned in the class.
The readings have changed my perception of behavior modification by educating me that behavior modification not only deals with behavior at an individual level, but also includes the behavior of all other organisms. I also now understand how complex and precise the language of behavior is, and the importance of precisely explaining behavior.
Two topics that I would like further discussed in class are more examples of emitted and elicited behavior. I thought that I understood it after the last class, but I’m still finding myself getting confused about why all behaviors are not considered to be emitted since almost all behavior is voluntary.
The list of terms that I used were topographical, functional, reinforcement, target behavior, antecedent, consequence, extinction, emitted, elicited.
I oddly liked section 4 the best. This was the section where we were thrown a lot of vocabulary at us; however, learning all this vocabulary really helped me to generate and understanding of all elements in behavior modification. This is strangely why I like this section the most. From this section I started to get an understand of the language and how behavior modification works and how the language is spoken. Now that I have an understanding of operant behaviors, it is easier to understand the specifics about it. I have learned that you need to designate a target behavior, the response, and the discriminative stimuli that cause such behaviors. I feel that the most important thing I learned from the handout is that you need to be again very specific when picking out what behavior you are going to keep track of. You need to make sure that you have it very specific what behavior you want and make it very clear. Without making it clear, it is obvious that you think you may be documenting the correct thing, but not.
There really wasn’t a section that I truly did not like the least; there was a part of a section that I disliked though. That part was in section 4 and it was over the vocabulary words emitted and elicited. It was so hard to figure out the true differences between these words at first. They both contained the same definitions a bit. Emitted refers to the occurrence of voluntary behaviors. Elicited refers to the occurrence of behaviors which are caused by the presentation of a stimulus. However, once we discussed it and gave quite a few examples in class, I slowly developed a better understanding of each. I just need to learn not to over think it as professor says. I developed an understanding that elicited causes you to change elements of your surroundings or something of the sort. Emitted occurred more by choice and voluntary. This still probably sounds redundant in writing, but in my mind I feel that I have a good understanding of it. I just can’t put it into words too well.
I feel that the most important information that came from section 1.5 is defining a target behavior. I feel that this is most important because if you do not have a specific target behavior stated or defined, so many things can go wrong in the study then. I have clearly learned that a person needs to define the topography, the function, and the context in which the target behavior is to occur. The target behavior should be so clearly defined that anyone should be able to recognize it when they saw the target behavior.
Terms: Operant behaviors; target behavior; response; discriminative stimuli; elicited; and emitted
The section I liked the best was section 1.5. At first I was really confused on the difference between topographical and functional. After I re-read the section, it made more sense to me...topographical would be behaviors that look similar and functional would be behaviors that will lead to the same outcome. Again, after reading the section, the examples made a lot more sense to me. When we open a door, there are different ways of opening a door, but we are going to get the same outcome every time we open a door. When we wave, whether it be to people or do shoo an insect away, the behavior looks the same, but can have a different meaning when we do it.
There is not a particular section that I did not like. My least favorite was probably section 1.3. This section did give some definitions such as: extinction (a situation where the previous reinforced behaviors are no longer being reinforced)and establishing operation (a procedure that makes the reinforcer more reinforcing). Apart from these definitions, I feel that there is not too much to this section.
I found the most useful bit of information from section 1.5 to be the part about target behaviors. Without knowing the target behaviors, it is very difficult to modify a behavior. The most useful part of the handout was the whole example of Paige and Samuel. It really helped me understand the whole point. They each had different ways of measuring and defining things, so they could not agree at first. This goes to show that behaviors do need to be defined precisely if they are going to be changed.
My thoughts on the concept of behavior classes are that it makes sense when you think about it. I already described the difference between topographical and functional. My thoughts on target behaviors is that they are very important if you want to change a behavior. Everyone has different ways of thinking about things, so it is essential to describe the behavior very precisely.
Prior to reading these sections, I did not realize that there were so many concepts and terms that go along with behavior modification. Three things that I learned and will remember from these sections is: 1. topographical means that the behaviors look the same but do not have the same outcome, and functional means that the behaviors have the same outcomes. 2. It is very important to clearly and precisely define a target behavior. 3. Emit refers to the occurrence of voluntary behaviors. In other words, it means that you DO the behavior. Elicited refers to the occurrence of behaviors which are influenced by a present stimulus. In other words, it is MAKING you do the behavior.
Two things that I would like to go over in class some more would be behavior classes. I think I understand them for the most part, but it would really help to hear it. The other thing would be to go over in more detail the subject of inter-observer agreement.
Terms used: topographical, functional, extinction, establishing operation, target behaviors, emit, elicit
I really enjoyed reading section 1.5 on modifying and recording behaviors. There were so many examples that came to mind while reading this section. I always have examples of my daughter but this section brought more things to mind. I used to work at a school with students that had severe behavior and learning disabilities. Each student was unique as for the reason they were at this school, but so many examples came to mind while reading this. For example, there was one student, his name was Ed (Very fitting for this 300lb teddy bear of a student) and he had many target behaviors he was working on a daily basis. One in particular was physical touch. He used to walk up to staff and students and hug them and rub their back, and this is huge no no at this type of school, (lots of students had physical sexual pasts that this can really hurt). Because Ed was very low functioning, finding ways to make sure he didn’t emit these behaviors was difficult, but after learning more about him, we were able to modify this behavior. We would track how many times a day he would touch someone without permission, and talk to him at the end of the day about each time he did it, and as that number started going down, he was verbally reinforced by each of the staff and even sometimes students. This reinforcement was a big deal to Ed. We also redirected his physical touch behavior by slowly stepping away when he would try to hug us, and say hey Ed, how bout a high five instead. He started to ask just for high fives because he still received the same reinforcement for them. Looking back at his baseline of the number of physical touches a day really reinforced his target behavior of not touching someone without permission, and accepting no if they didn’t want to. It was extremely important that staff defined and recognized the target behavior the same, and the inter-observor agreement was very important because he lived in a residential treatment facility, we had to know their goals and be very open and clear with them too. I think understanding the importance of the inter observer agreement and precisely defining the target behavior(s) is the most useful piece of info in this section. In the handout on water I think having a baseline is very important, because without it, it is impossible to measure an increase or decrease in behavior. I understand the 4 basic outcomes but would like to talk a bit more about them in class. I think the topographical and functional behaviors are important to understand too because like in my example, to some the topographical behavior of getting an unexpected hug is nice, to some it is scary, to some it brings back memories and puts someone in a rage, to some, its no big deal. This was important to explain to Ed because for him, the functional behavior was just to say hi.
Terms used: target behavior, emit, reinforced/ment, baseline, inter-observer agreement, topographical and functional behavior.
Section 1.5 is by far the most interesting, probably because most of it is relatively new to me, and because some of it is a bit difficult to understand.
I liked learning the beginnings of how to recognize the target behavior (specific) that needs modifying, and how to proceed from there. When observing behavior there needs to be an agreement as to what is aversive or pleasurable and how to measure what you want to record(inter-observer agreement). I totally agree with the importance of consistency and inter-agreement so that a person/animal is not getting mixed signals from procedure or either punishment or reinforcement being administered. Think of kids and all the different behaviors that are instilled in them from either their parents, caretakers, school, or society. Reinforcement or punishment for the same behavior might be different depending on where they are or who they are with (divorced parents, parents vs. school, etc.). Its interesting that the word used for what might happen with the weakening of the procedure due to these type of things is called Superstitious behavior.
I love the idea of categorizing things and coming up with examples of topograhpic (way they look) and functional behavior (do/accomplish/purpose) classification. But I think I got a little confused with functional. I saw all my topographical examples being explainable by function too.
The four basic outcomes make complete sense to me. the chart will be very useful in learning to modify behavior!
Review mostly a emphasis on different examples of topographic and functional behavior classes. In how they might not work in classify the same behavior...?
Topographic/Functional/Observed behavior/Inter-agreement/aversive/pleasureable/consistency/superstitous/target behavior/reinforcement/punishment/
The section I liked the most was section 1.5. I enjoyed this section because it was easy to understand and the terms were easier to apply to everyday life than the terms of the previous sections. The topography (the way things look) and functional (what they do our accomplish) views of behavior can be applied to several different types of behaviors, such as target behaviors. Another thing I found interesting in this section was the different behavioral classes. The example of waving your hand, but it meaning different things, was very helpful. It also helped when you stated waves are topographically similar, but not functionally similar.
The section I least enjoyed was section 1.4 because it was the hardest for me to understand/apply to daily life. I’m still uncertain as to what establishing operations mean.
The most useful piece of information in section 1.5 was the chart at the very end of the section, and how they described the baseline (the starting point from which the success or failure of the behavioral intervention is measured). The baseline was beneficial because it showed that there can be several baselines and that the starting point to a behavior is not always easy to measure. The chart states that reinforcement occurs when a behavior occurs, and a reinforcer is delivered. A learned unwanted behavior occurs when there is no behavior, but a reinforcer is delivered. Extinction occurs when a behavior occurs and no reinforcement is delivered. These concepts made much more sense when given the example of the target behaviors that John was trying to change/enforce in his classroom.
The most important piece that I learned from the handout was also the baseline of behaviors. The example of the Paige and Samuel drinking water helped a lot in understanding the complications of baselines.
My thoughts on behavioral classes was that it was extremely interesting. I never thought that behaviors could have so many different complex meanings. Another example I thought of was a smile. Because there are several different ways to smile. You can half-way smile, indicating you didn’t actually want to smile. You could do a big smile to indicate that you’re excited, or you could do a frown to imply that you’re sad.
Target behaviors were beneficial because there are different functions/topographical ways a behavior can be perceived. And if you don’t perceive it right, you wont be able to address the problem properly.
Prior to reading these sections, I had no idea that behavior modification was so complex and so many terms were involved. Three things I will remember are: the different between functional and topography behaviors, emitted means doing, and that a behavior can mean several different things (there are different behavioral classes)
A few things I’d like for you to address in class would be: extinction, satiation, and establishing operations.
Terms: behavioral classes, topographical, functional, baseline, reinforcer, extinction, emitted,
Section 1.1 is still the section I liked the most, only because I a) understood it the best, b) am able to apply it to my daily life and understand what’s going on, and c) will make it easier to put behaviors in certain places together and understand the consequence of a behaviors.
I really didn’t like section 1.3, only because it had a lot of information to take in, learning and understanding the language of behavior and knowing how to use the correct terms when explaining certain behaviors can be difficult, but I am starting to understand and become more familiar with using them, but I still have to look back at the text to make sure and look at my own examples I came up with in helping to understand.
The most useful piece of information from section 1.5 was definitions of topographical-the way they look and functional behavior-what they do or accomplish, because it can be the same behavior that someone is displaying, but it can mean two different things that will help later on with behavior modification.
I really liked the section you sent us titled “Recording Behaviors” the most, because it made target behaviors easier to understand. The self-reported baseline was something I found interesting, understanding that there are many reasons why that couldn’t be the best way to figure out who drank more water considering that one could be dishonest or when you know that your behavior is being measured, you knowingly change your behaviors. The 1st charts you used for an example were confusing, but I felt the last way they decided to measure how much water they drank a day was much easier and more accurate. I myself drink two 32oz water bottles a day, which is 62oz a day and that is what the average person is supposed to drink a day, I used to try to drink more water in a day, by drinking smaller glasses more in a day, but it got to be tedious and annoying. I realized now that I’m working out I drank one of 32oz. water bottles no problem and drinking the other one throughout the day is slow, but it gets done. My target behavior to lose weight and workout more goes hand in hand with me drinking more water, as that is a result to my target behavior.
Prior to reading sections I honestly thought behavior modification was just about being able to change your own behaviors and understand when and where to use certain behaviors, it seemed like modifying behaviors would have been so easy to do and change yourself. I will remember that when your behavior is being measured you are more likely to change the behaviors, that the way a behavior looks can be different than what it does or accomplishes (topographical, functional.) Also, when trying to keep track of your own behavior you need to set baseline and there are plenty of flaws with self-reported baselines. With the readings I have learned what I initially thought was wrong! This stuff is more complex and takes a lot more than basic knowledge on my own behaviors, but others as well.
I would like to go over what behavior classes and a few more examples of topographical and functional behaviors in an everyday setting for us.
TERMS: self-reported baseline, target behavior, result, behavior modification, topographical, functional, consequence, behavior, baseline
I found all the readings from chapter one to be very interesting and very informative. The concepts and terms we learned in these readings will give a good foundation for all of the things I hope to learn in this class.
I thought that section 1.4 was very useful and turned out to be one of my favorite chapters. A lot of the terms and concepts that are important to behavior modification were covered in detail in section 1.4 and it will help a lot in discovering and understanding this new BMod language. The distinctions between elicit and emit were covered, reinforcement and punishment were discussed, and key terms like operant behavior, target behavior, and discriminative stimuli were also discussed and defined.
Although I enjoyed reading all the sections, 1.2 was prolly the hardest to understand and read through. It made the distinction between punishment, punisher, and punishing/ Reinforcment, reinforcer, reinforcing and explained how they are all different and shouldn't be confused or interchanged incorrectly.
Section 1.5 was also very interesting and
informative. The biggest points I took away from section 1.5 was in regards to functional (meanings behind the behavior) classes of behavior vs. topographical behaviors (appearance on the surface), and the importance of having a specifically defined target behavior in order to get consistant/ valid results, and in order to get strong interobserver agreeability. A good example of the importance of a well defined target behavior was shown in the handout about Paige and Sam's water experiment. Because they did not define the behavior precisely there was a large amount of confusion and difficulties that went along with their research project.
Section 1.5 also discussed the four behavior outcomes that are possible when a behavior is emitted or not emitted and whether or not a reinforcment is administered in the presence or lack of the target behavior. The diagram is very helpful in understanding all four possible outcomes and with the help of this diagram this concept is very easy and clearly understood.
Prior to reading Chapter 1 I had a very basic and general understanding of behavior modification. I was under the impression that it would be full of simple concepts and easy to understand terms. I was wrong. After reading this chapter I now have a new respect and appreciation for just how complex and detailed behavior modification is and how it is very relateable to learning a foreign language. There are many things I will take away from the readings but for now the three things that are sticking out to the most is the ABC's of Bmod, the importance of a well defined target behavior, and the importance of refering to good behaviors as pleasurable instead of positive and refering to bad behaviors as aversive as opposed to negative behaviors.
A couple of things I'd enjoy going over in class is how to make sure you target behaviors are defined well enough, and examples of functional classes of behaviors.
Terms used: Elicit/Emit, Reinforcement/Punishment, operant behavior, target behavior, discriminative stimuli, functional/topographical behaviors, interobserver agreeability, pleasureable and aversive vs positive and negative
Section 1.5 was a very interesting section to read and I think it’s my favorite so far. I’ve noticed as we keep reading the sections become more interesting and easier to understand because we are learning the all the terminology to make sense of it. Section 1.5 was interesting I thought because it talked about how you must have a good target behavior and reinforcement to make a certain behaviors become the ones you want to show up.
My least favorite section would still have to be section 1.3. I think it would have been better combined with section 1.4 because they would have made more sense to me if the topics of section 1.4 were more clearly defined in section 1.3. Knowing all the terms of 1.4 would have made 1.3 easier, so I think those terms should be at the beginning of 1.3 instead of waiting to read about them in 1.4.
I think the most useful information out of section 1.5 would have to be the explanation of the terms topographical and functional. I think people could mix those terms of with different meanings easily so have them clearly explained was a nice thing about this section. Also, using the terms in examples really helped me understand how they are used in the behavioral world.
The most useful thing from the handout was definitely the explanation about the graphs. The step by step process of showing us how to make the graphs was handy and it was also helpful to have us look at how missing few things on your graph can really miss lead the information you want presented.
Before reading about behavioral classes I never really thought about it in the way it is talked about. I never really thought about different waves in groups like the example is used in the section. So now that I have clear understanding of behavior classes I can put behaviors in classes like that. It really gives you something to look at when you are comparing behaviors that are trying to accomplish the same thing but in different ways.
Target behaviors are probably one of the most important things to get right when you are trying to shape someone’s behavior. Like the sections say, if your target behaviors are mixed up all the reinforcement you’ve been doing is for nothing and it can lead to extinction like in the examples used in section 1.5. It’s important for observers to understand want things to reinforce and make sure they are doing exactly the same reinforcement otherwise it will lead to extinction.
Prior to reading the sections I thought behavior modification was just some way to change a person’s actions. I had no idea that there was a whole new language that was to be learned in the process. You need to learn all of the terms and their uses in the behavioral world because they mean different things than when they are used in everyday life. I also didn’t realize the step by step process it takes to change a person’s behavior. You must follow a clear guideline or you want see any change at all.
Three things I will remember from reading the sections are the terms and their definitions, the step by step process of changing a person’s behavior, and how to make a graph accurately represent the information you want it to show.
After reading the sections I really learned all the terms that are needed to understand behavior modification. I never really put in the thought about how terms and the actions those terms represent, are how we shape a person’s behavior. Before, when I read about behavior modification, it wasn’t really stressed that there was a step by step process for everything when changing a person’s behavior but now I’m starting to get a clear understanding how everything is to be done.
Some topics I would like to go over more with in class would be topographical behavior, functional behavior, and behavioral classes.
I found all the readings from chapter one to be very interesting and very informative. The concepts and terms we learned in these readings will give a good foundation for all of the things I hope to learn in this class.
I thought that section 1.4 was very useful and turned out to be one of my favorite chapters. A lot of the terms and concepts that are important to behavior modification were covered in detail in section 1.4 and it will help a lot in discovering and understanding this new BMod language. The distinctions between elicit and emit were covered, reinforcement and punishment were discussed, and key terms like operant behavior, target behavior, and discriminative stimuli were also discussed and defined.
Although I enjoyed reading all the sections, 1.2 was prolly the hardest to understand and read through. It made the distinction between punishment, punisher, and punishing/ Reinforcment, reinforcer, reinforcing and explained how they are all different and shouldn't be confused or interchanged incorrectly.
Section 1.5 was also very interesting and
informative. The biggest points I took away from section 1.5 was in regards to functional (meanings behind the behavior) classes of behavior vs. topographical behaviors (appearance on the surface), and the importance of having a specifically defined target behavior in order to get consistant/ valid results, and in order to get strong interobserver agreeability. A good example of the importance of a well defined target behavior was shown in the handout about Paige and Sam's water experiment. Because they did not define the behavior precisely there was a large amount of confusion and difficulties that went along with their research project.
Section 1.5 also discussed the four behavior outcomes that are possible when a behavior is emitted or not emitted and whether or not a reinforcment is administered in the presence or lack of the target behavior. The diagram is very helpful in understanding all four possible outcomes and with the help of this diagram this concept is very easy and clearly understood.
Prior to reading Chapter 1 I had a very basic and general understanding of behavior modification. I was under the impression that it would be full of simple concepts and easy to understand terms. I was wrong. After reading this chapter I now have a new respect and appreciation for just how complex and detailed behavior modification is and how it is very relateable to learning a foreign language. There are many things I will take away from the readings but for now the three things that are sticking out the most is the ABC's of Bmod, the importance of a well defined target behavior, and the importance of refering to good behaviors as pleasurable instead of positive and refering to bad behaviors as aversive as opposed to negative behaviors.
A couple of things I'd enjoy going over in class is how to make sure you target behaviors are defined well enough, and examples of functional classes of behaviors.
Terms used: Elicit/Emit, Reinforcement/Punishment, operant behavior, target behavior, discriminative stimuli, functional/topographical behaviors, interobserver agreeability, pleasureable and aversive vs positive and negative
The section that I liked the most is section 1.5 because we are starting to understand more about what we learned in the first few sections of the chapter and it is getting easier to understand different concepts that we are being taught. I like how what we are learning is very cumulative and with each section that is added to our work, we still keep learning about things we learned in other sections. There is not a section that I like the least anymore because I am starting to grasp the idea of information we are retaining and it is helping that we keep learning more as we go on in the sections. The most useful information I have found in this section was target behaviors because we are continuing to learn about it so it is obviously a significant role in behavior modification. The handout was useful to me because I was able to understand continuous reinforcement and target behaviors better with the extended examples that were given about the drinking water and such. I am very interested in behavioral classes because like target behaviors, many people don’t realize that there are so many different behavioral classes until they are pointed out to us.
As I stated earlier, I am learning more and more about behavior modification as the class goes on and it is easier to do so because our readings are cumulative and using examples from readings we have already done. I like the way our knowledge is being exercised so we can keep hold of it long enough to use it. The three things I will remember from this section are the different behavioral classes, target behaviors, and continuous reinforcement because these are the topics I was most interested in while reading the section. I am not sure how the readings have changed my thoughts about behavior modification other than the fact that I really didn’t know much before and now I am progressively learning about it.
Two topics I would like to cover more depth in class would be the use of the terms emitted and elicited.
I think the most useful section (thus the section I liked the best) was the handout on recording behaviors. First off, it tied into other psych courses that I’ve taken. In research methods we talked a lot about inter-rater(observer) agreement and accurately specifying target behaviors. Trying to describe something in a way that discriminated it from all non-same behaviors while also making it similar to same behaviors was really difficult. We also talked about this in my DevPsych class. I was part of a team that got to go to Price to run tests on the kids. We jumped into it blind and, naturally, had worthless data because it didn’t tell us anything. The second time certainly went more smoothly. The story about Paige and Samuel going around in circles trying to figure out how to define, observe, record, and interpret the target behaviors made me think of my other two classes. It did a fabulous job of explaining in a short number of pages what took two whole TTh class periods to explain to my research methods class (granted, it was 8am, so nothing was easily understood).
The examples and explanations of how broad a behavior class is and the differences between topographical and functional behavior classes is the most useful part of 1.5 for me. As I’ve been doing the readings, my definition of a target behavior has been getting more and more precise, and throwing in the difficulties of explaining the function, topography, and context of a behavior made me realize even more how annoyingly specific I’m going to have to be when describing target behaviors. I’m going to go out on a limb and assume that describing all other aspects of behavior modification has to be just as specific (I really should just start listing them to rack up “I-used-tons-of-BMod-terms” points). One thing I thought of as an example is describing reinforcers. You can say “praise”, but that would be like a behavior class of reinforcers. Praise could mean so many different things, and things like context, establishing operations, and wording could have serious effects on whether the praise is a reinforcer or simply words said to the organism. Or at least that’s what I got out of the section. I will definitely remember how picky the language of behavior is.
Along with the pickiness of the language of behavior, I’ll definitely remember the differences between reinforcement and punishment. I’ll also remember to use positive and negative only when talking about the addition or subtraction of something.
I liked the table of the four basic outcomes. It’s really helpful to have a visual as well as written description. It’s also nice to have something saying “there are only four possible outcomes”. It’s easier to describe what’s going on, I think, when there are very clear-cut guidelines as to what could happen. Makes things easier.
Before these sections, I definitely thought behavior modification was all about totally manipulating someone and, frankly, a lot harder than the book makes it sound. I also thought of ‘behavior’ with the definition of ‘behavior class’. If I had tried to describe a behavior that I wanted changed, I would have said something general like rudeness or being nice.
I would like to discuss what a superstitious behavior is. I get that they can be created by reinforcing behaviors other than the target behavior, but I don’t think my definition is all that good. I can’t really think of a second thing right now, but if I do think of one before class tomorrow I’ll bring it up.
Terms: target behavior, reinforcer, behavior class, inter-observer agreement, punishment, establishing operation
The section of 1.5 that I liked the most is how the section talks about how a teacher is trying to use his knowledge behavioral modification and apply it to the classroom. Showing that behavior modifications is all around us and applied is ways we may not even know. And even at a young age we are being behavioral modified to emit behaviors in certain ways; to raise our hand when answering a question, even when given the choice to sit where we want when we want, a lot of college students though perhaps not all tend to sit in the same spot they did in the first day of class; their self-declared seat for the class in a way. It’s ingrained into our brains to the point that we may not even notice it any more.
The section that I liked the least though found it just as interesting was the little project done to improve the amount of how much a person is drinking water. There was a lot more work that went into it then I would first think in such a case of something so simple. But as I read it makes perfect sense of why the project went through so much before actually trying to improve the amount of drinking water. The tidbit about Samuel remembering beer was mostly water and drinking that instead I found amusing.
The most useful thing from 1.5 I think would be the information on how specific one has to be when trying to find a target behavior. Target behavior sounds like it would be simple enough to find a behavior. But one also has to know the context which it happens and the reasons behind it, how often it occurs and how it affects others. Proving that there needs to be more thought put into the target behavior that the person wants to be emitted. . As for the basic outcomes that were described, I found them a bit confusing, which is a thing I didn’t like about the section.
A useful thing from the handout is the knowledge of the process that could be used to self modifying one’s behavior to emit the behavior of drinking more water. It was a longer process then I would have expected, perhaps a little confusing in parts on why going into such depth. But it gives knowledge to someone that may want to improve some targeted behavior of theirs. Though the project of the two never specified this, but I’m sure there was some form of reinforce as well to compel them to emit the desired behavior.
Since reading this section, I thought target behavior was simpler then it actually was. But it better describes what goes into what is needed when actually achieving a target behavior in behavioral modifications. Proving that there are more things that go into thinking of a target behavior, rather than just trying finding a target behavior itself. What I’ll remember most is that target behavior is a specific behavior that there is a desired improvement to. And the more I read about behavior modifications, the more I realize that it’s not as simple as I thought it was in my head. There is more thought and processing that goes into it. Specifics that are needed to be found before preceding the actual modifying of the behavior.
Topics to go over in class:
The four basic outcomes is a bit confusing. Functional and Togographical.
Term list:
Emit, target behavior, reinforcer, desired(pleasurable)
I would have to say that section 1.5 is now my favorite so far. I liked how it goes over behavior classes and goes into more depth about behavior modification as a whole. I am a bit torn about which section I liked the least. I guess I would have to say Section 1.4, but at the same time I found it interesting as well when I skimmed over it a second time. I found that Section 4 was confusing because of all the terms that had to be processed by us, but it was really interesting at the same time because it showed how much depth goes into the subject of Behavior Modification. I believe the most important pieces of information in Section 5 have to be about the differences between Functional and Topographical behavior classes. This is so important to learn because just like going to a foreign country and learning a new language, the way in which you say things or the way in which you use the word is really important. The same goes for the "language" used in this class. The way that you project a behavior is important because it is the way people observe and receive your behavior as well.
I found the four basic outcomes to be pretty straight forward. I think that these outcomes are important to be able to recognize and it is also important for us as students to be able to distinguish between the four of them so that we can better understand the importance of each.
Before reading these sections, I thought that behavior modification was going to be about being able to manipulate others behaviors and our own. In a sense I was right, but I feel as though I am learning a new language that I will use further on in my career. I am a big believer in how attitude can make a situation. What I mean by that is that depending on your attitude about something, whether good or bad, can result in a good or bad outcome of the situation that is at hand. Behavior is a big part of this. I do not really have any three specific things that I will remember from all of the sections because I think that everything in the first 5 sections is really important in understanding the whole class. The first 5 sections I think are the building blocks of the whole class and will only be built upon further as the semester goes on.
If you could cover the four basic outcomes in more depth that would be great.
TERMS: behavior, functional, topographical, observe
The section that I like the most would still have to be 1.4 just because I learned a lot from that section and still learning from it and the terms that are used in behavior modification. The terms explained in that section will be (obviously) used throughout the course and we will be building on those terms and trying to understand and get a better understanding of what they mean and applying them appropriately.
All the sections from chapter one and the handout I would have to say my least favorite would be 1.3 just because I don’t think I learned much from it compared to the other sections. I understand why it was added because it does help me understand how to apply the terms and how to go about learning the terms.
The most useful information that came from section 1.5 would have to be over how behaviors are evaluated which either can be topographical which is “the way they look” and functional which is “what they do or accomplish”. This really helps when thinking more about how behaviors are looked at.
The most useful information that came from the handout would be about have a baseline when trying to measure your behavior and how important it is to really know where you started. A baseline is you starting point. I felt this is extremely important because if you have nothing to base your results on and what you really started at how do you really know what you accomplished. This is a very useful piece of information that came from the handout.
The first time I read through the four basic outcomes I had to reread them a couple time to understand what they were saying. The chart helped me understand it better and understand the relationship between the behavior being emitted and the target behavior and whether it was recognized by the reinforcer and the behavior occurring. I understand it better now that I read it a few times over and over again!
Prior to reading chapter one I thought I kind of had a basic understanding of what behavior modification was, and learning more about it through class lecture and the readings I am learning a lot more then what I thought went into behavior modification. There is a different language to it and trying to use the terms correctly is hard and really trying to understand and applying it to everyday living. Now that I am becoming more aware of what behavior modification is the better I am at seeing it occur at work and in the classroom and looking back in my grade school days how my teachers used it to have the control they needed in the classroom! So interesting!!
There was a lot in the handout and the section that I will remember (or at least try!). The first would have to be about behavioral classes. How behaviors can be alike in the way they look. I liked the example about the waving. When I learn something in classes or readings, to better understand it I try to look at the things around me. I had to work today and being a cashier I see a lot of different forms of behavior. After I read about the waving I was looking to see all the different ways people “wave”. I saw my manager waving excitedly at someone in the back of the store. I asked what he was doing it was just the basic wave of hello. I watched someone wave to a baby differently (their hand was more to the face and their fingers did the waving with a smile) and of course the wave that indicates the “hurry up I checking out without you!” type. I really like being able to look at what people are doing and being able to apply it in the classroom. Another thing I learned more about is target behaviors. We learned a little about them in section 1.4 I believe but they were explained more in this section as well. Another thing that I learned is from the handout is about charting the information. I didn’t realize that it took that much to get baseline and that much thought went into changing a behavior like drinking water, and graphing it.
Reading chapter one has really changed the way I think about behavior modification. In the way of there is so much more that goes into it than I originally thought would. I didn’t realize that it had its own language and to chart a behavior all the thought that went into it. It is a lot more complex than I thought before taking this class and reading the sections.
The topics that I wanted more explained is topographical and functional explained a little more. I also wanted more on behavioral classes and the four outcomes just explained again in class.
Terms: topographical, functional, baseline, emitted, target behavior, reinforcer, behavioral classes
After reading all the sections assigned it looks like 1.4 and 1.5 are my favorite sections and from reading previous blogs it looks like I am not alone it this favoritism. But if had to choose it would be 1.4. That specific section was just very thorough with explaining each term and giving an example. I like examples a lot. The section I liked the least was 1.3 and that was because I believe it could have in some way been incorporated into section 1.4, but then again I have never tried to write a book and that’s probably easier said than done.
I think the information that was most useful from the handout was that information can be misrepresented to mean a variety of different things. One person may have increased water consumption dramatically but when compared to the other person who was being evaluated for water consumption that person did not increase as much but started out with a higher water consumption level than the previous. The information I thought was most helpful from section 1.5 was the term topographic and your example with a wave. How a wave could mean a variety of things but the wave in general looks relatively similar.
And as I stated previously (and which we will as class probably learn in the future) I want to learn how to tell which establishing operation calls for either reinforcement or punishment or is it up to the person reinforcing/punishing discretion? I believe we will probably go over this in later chapters, I hope. I also cannot wait to find out how we could use punishment/reinforcement on ourselves and actually have it be effective. I would also like to learn more about superstitious behavior and some examples, but I have a feeling the word superstitious is just making it sound more riveting that it actually is. And it would be helpful if you went over the four basic outcomes as well. I believe it hard to state the all behaviors will just have 4 different outcomes, I believe there are too many variables to account for to state this.
Reading these sections has altered my view of behavior modification drastically. I used to think it was just reinforcement and punishment, but I can tell that it involves a lot more than just that and it should be because I doubt we could spend a whole semester just reviewing punishment and reinforcement. I might be wrong though.
Terms used: topographic, establishing operation, reinforcement, punishment, superstitious behavior,
After reading I liked 1.5 better then the hand out. This week I have not been feeling the reading due to being so busy so it took be awhile to read.
I liked 1.5 because I found the examples and detail about topographical very enjoyable. I like the fact that something can look alike but at the same time be very different. How something simple as a wave can be looked at from so many angles! Also how a way can mean hello and goodbye but at the same time you wave for many other reasons.
I did however from time to time get the two topographical and functional mixed up but I am pretty sure I have got it down now. :)
There really was nothing that I did not like just the fact that I tend to get the terms mixed up with can causes aversive thoughts! I found my self also struggling with the other handout and trying to understand what was truely being said and meant. That does happens some times and I am not too worried about it.
The most usful think from 1.5 was the examples. I feel that when there is examples in the reading I am able to grasp what is truely being said. The examples with baseline, topographical and functional really did help be understand.
The most useful form the handout I would say is the graphs. This is because I am more of a visual and hands on person so I like to see things and how they are done. This allows me to emmit pleasurable behaviors.
The four outcomes, I found interesting because it did allow me to see what are the possibiites that can happen just from one thing happening. I did like the fact that in the reading it uses the words emmited. I feel that this will help me understand the words more! It just is so interesting how a language and a behavior can causes multiple things to either be pleasurable or aversive.
B mod is a fuin and exciting class which as allowed me to learn many things that I personally do not think that I will forget! I think about bmod language as I am documenting my clients and even in class. Socail work and Psychology go hand in hand. Or at least that is how I feel about the two.
Three things that I will remember. Topographical is the way that something is looked at while functional is what they do or accomplished. I really will remember this because you see things from up top and you function every day which indicates that you do stuff everyday.
Reading these as altered my behaviors in many ways. I feel that my behaviors will be more pleasurable then aversive. I also feel that I will be able to show more target behaviors in and outside of class. Because if one is not able to see my behavior they may misunderstand my behavior.
Terms used: Pleasurable, aversive,target behavior,topographical, functional, emmit
While reading the first four sections, I felt they were very repetitive and didn't makes sense at time. As annoyed as I get at how repetitive the ABC's readings are, I know the intention is to familiarize us with the language of behavior. I like the statement in 1.4 about frustration can be a sign that you are learning and boredom can mean you all ready know it. I thought section 1.5 pulled all the concepts together very well to introduce the behavioral classes. Behavior Modification is truly like an Algebra course.
I hated the recording behaviors reading. I found it boring and more humorous than helpful. The boredom probably stems from majoring in biology in the past and having to graph and record everything. I'm confident I know how to appropriately measure and record a behavior, as well as clearly define a target behavior.
I really liked exploring the difference between topographical and functional behavior classes. My roommates heard about it all night. I could explore stimulus classes a bit more, but the concept is pretty simple, and the reading states it will be explored later.
The four outcomes is my favorite topic so far. I did a simple study of them during a juvenile delinquency class last spring. As behavioral control is attempted, the target behavior must be clear to everyone who will elicit or be expected to emit the behavior. The people who are involved in eliciting and recording behavior must exhibit high inter-observer agreement. Without it, a reinforcer can become extinct, or the subject could become confused about what behavior is actually being reinforced and when. This can lead to the subject emitting superstitious behaviors.
The four outcomes possible when the target behavior is elicited are based on two factors. When elicited, did the subject emit the target behavior, and was the subject delivered reinforcement. If the reinforcement is delivered when the behavior is emitted, the behavior is likely to increase. If the reinforcement is given when the target behavior is not emitted, they subject could learn unwanted behaviors. If the reinforcer is not delivered when the behavior occurs, it is likely the reinforcer will experience extinction. If the target behavior is not emitted and the reinforcer is not given, then nothing happens, and that is a good thing.
Things I would like to know more about include operant behaviors and stimuli classes. I feel bored a lot while doing the readings, but it is because I have been exposed to these terms often as I work as a behavioral counselor. I have enjoyed focusing on reinforcement, especially being able to take a look at how I elicit and reinforce behaviors from my students and whether or I am unintentionally reinforcing unwanted behaviors.
Terms: Behavior Class, Topographic, Functional, Extinction, Reinforcement, stimuli classes, punishment, Target Behavior, Elicit, Emit, Behavioral control, Inter-Observer Agreement
The section I enjoyed the most out of chapter one is 1.2. This chapter got me thinking a lot about self-reinforcement and how I can use it in my life. I also feel it gave a lot of terms that set up the rest of the chapter, such as the difference between reinforcement and punishment. Reinforcement is a procedure used in behavior modification to increase the frequency of a behavior. Punishment is a procedure used in behavior modification to decrease the frequency of a behavior. Reinforcement and punishment can either be positive (desirable) or negative (aversive). Positive reinforcement is adding something pleasurable (you want it) and negative reinforcement is talking away something aversive (you want it taken away). Positive punishment is adding something aversive (you don’t want it added-a spank) and negative punishment is taking something away (you don’t want it taken away). Valence is a term used to put psychological value on a person, place, or thing. This can either be positive (qualities that we like/ pleasant), or negative (qualities that we dislike/unpleasant).
The section I liked the least was 1.4. I feel it had a lot of new terms that were not quite explained well enough. One of these was operant behavior, which is the behavior that sets the occasion for reinforcement or punishment. Target behavior is the specific operant behavior that you are trying to increase or decrease. The two terms I have the hardest time understanding are emitted and elicited. From what I understand, emitted is the DO and elicited is the MAKE. Emitted behaviors are almost always elicited by something. A discriminative stimulus sets the occasion for an operant response to occur. It allows you to generate a response based on the situation and tells you what to do. Satiation means the organism has had its fill, or in other words, adding more reinforcement will not help modify the behavior. Deprivation is withholding a stimulus, which is necessary toward the survival of the organism. And lastly, establishing operation is the alteration, which serves to increase the chance that the reinforcer is reinforcing to an organism.
I found the handout to be not very useful and just added to the amount of stuff I had to read. On the other hand, section 1.5 was pretty interesting and I was able to use different terms in my experiences. When we learned about extinction, it made me think about my moms love for TiVo. Her favorite part about it was the bloop, bloop, bloop sound it makes when you fast-forward a show. It made her jump for the remote every time a commercial came on. She would even yell out “bloop, bloop, bloop” if I didn’t do it right away. Well one day my dad switched our service to Mediacom and when he realized we couldn’t use the TiVo anymore, he ran out and bought Direct TV. What he didn’t know was that it didn’t make the sound (my mom was upset), and now she doesn’t jump for the remote anymore.
Out of the sections we have read so far, I think my favorite were the first two, because they opened up a new way of thinking about behaviors for me; I'm not used to thinking of behavior as a result of an antecedant. The part I liked the least so far was probably the email attachment/handout, because it was mostly review of what I had already read in the online sections.
The part of section 1.5 that I found to be most useful was the idea of behavior classes, and of classifying the classes by function or topography. The classification system takes an abstract concept and makes it easier to grasp by breaking it into parts. The part of the handout that I thought was the most useful was the example of the importance of establishing baselines and specific operational definitions for the target behavior. I think of the four outcomes table as a kind of punnett square for reinforcement. It's a really convenient way to lay out the basic concept of reinforcement.
Prior to reading these sections, I thought of behaviors in a nebulous kind of way; I didn't really have a systematic way of thinking of steps in the process of learning through reinforcement. I hope I will remember the readings about behavioral terms, because I like being able to discuss behaviors using fancy lexicon. More importantly, I hope (and expect) that the basic concept of reinforcement sticks with me, so I can reinforce desirable target behaviors in my friends, pets, and self (now to figure out the best reinforcer for the target behavior of dish washing...).
The readings so far have emphasized reinforcement over punishment, which is interesting to me because I always thought punishment was the most effective way to modify behavior, and that reinforcement was just new age hippy stuff.
Two things I would like to learn about more in class are the relationship between punishment and behavior modification (is there a neat little square describing the outcomes?), and self-reinforcement methods (because it seems odd to give myself a click for doing dishes).
I still like section 1.1 and 1.4. I feel like I learned the most out of the two. Section 1.1 is the basic information every student needed to know in able to understand the rest of the material. Section 1.4 still had the most vocabulary that we clearly need to know to be successful in this class. Particularly the words emit, elicit, punishment, and reinforcement will be uused the most in my opnion. This section did well explaining in detail how to use those in conversation. Instead of saying "I did this", I can say "I emitted an screaming behavior". There is one example of what section 1.4 taught us alone.
I still think that I liked section 1.5 the least. It was the longest and repeated itself a lot. However it still went into some detail about topographically simlar vs. functional. I thought all sections were useful. The paragraph that explained behavioral classes in context with topographically similar and functional was the most useful information for me. I was still confused about the two until we explained them more in class. I also really like the examples that the sections use, such as waving is a behvioral class but are also topographically similar. Also, waves have different functions depending on the context (where you are, if you are leaving or going, if there is attitude involved and the like).
I have taken psychology courses for 3 years now and I have never been taught what baseline was. It is something that is involved in anyones goals. For example new years resolutions all have a baseline, no matter what the goal is. If the person is trying to quit smoking, there baseline is the amount they smoke before they start their actual goal. I thought the handouts increased water goal example was very helpful and put things into perspective.
I am not sure what answer you are looking for as far as the four basic outcomes. I understand why they had to do it som many times, because there are small details that go into goals that you don't realize at first. In the end, Samuel won but in all reality Paige should have. They didn't actually say that beer didn't count but after reading their agreements, it was pretty clear that plain water was what they were actually referring to. If beer counted because of its significant amount of water than they would have to consider the amount of water in everything they drank, including juice, alcohol, pop etc.
I didn't realize how much terminology was in Behavior Modification. We have only read section one and I feel like my vocabulary has increased significantly.
I hope to remember the majority of what we learn in the class, but I will be sure to understand what emit, ellicit, and topographically similar means. Also, how to relate the ABC's to every behavior.
As said before, I didn't realize how much terminology was involoved in behavior modification and that every thing we do is an actual behavior, such as putting on a coat, sitting on the couch, etc.
Topcis I was confused about were already explained in class.
In this blog I used emit, ellicit, topographically similar, punishment, reinforcement, baseline and functional.
I really like section 1.3. I think this section does a good job in putting all of the information we learned into perspective. It does help a lot seeing the words written out in the sentences about everyday life occurrences.
I liked the part about establishing operation, the procedure that makes the reinforcer more reinforcing, because we have learned a lot about this in animal studies. For example how rats are deprived of food in the skinner box. I also liked the part about extinction because it reminds me so much of my brothers with my step mom. Sometimes she will emit a reinforcing behavior when they are good, but sometimes she will ignore them. This, for a small time, occurs in extinction burst(during extinction where the person begins to vary their behaviors in hopes of being reinforced.) They sometimes just act crazy until they end up getting attention paid to them.
Second 1.4 I liked the least because I had the hardest time remembering some terms from that. For example Discriminate stimulus (any stimulus which sets the occasion for an operant response to occur. It tells you what to do)and Satiation (Indicates that introducing any additional reinforcement to an
organism will not alter the frequency of the behavior which is being reinforced.) It seems like no matter how many times I read those definitions, they don't click for me.
The most important parts in 1.5 are topographical (the way they look) and functional (what they do or accomplish). This is important because there are different ways to do almost any behavior, especially in countries other than our own.
The most important in the handout were the base line and the target behaviors. Without these two concepts, we would never have any set way of accomplishing our goals.
I'm not sure what you're asking about the four basic outcomes.
Prior to reading these sections I've had a much more clear understanding on what bmod is and why we strive to control/alter it.
Three things I will remember:
1. Behaviors that look similar are topographical.
2. Baseline = your starting point.
3. Behaviors that lead to the same outcome are functional classes.
I didn't even know what bmod was before I took this class, so so far I have learned a lot about what it takes to view behavior and know what your target behavior may be.
I would like to go over the 4 basic outcomes and satiation.
Terms: satiation, establishing operation,topographical,Baseline,organism, reinforcement, extinction,functional