Please read sections 2.3 and 2.4.
After reading the sections, think of all the terms and concepts used in all of the sections so far. 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 2.3? Why? Most useful from section 2.4? Why?
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...)
The section I found most interesting was probably section 2.4, probably because it had the newest terms and it’s always a little more interesting to read something new. Section 2.4 was mostly about extinction and the processes within it. Some vocabulary like Generalization (emitting the same behavior to a variety of different stimuli in a variety of different context), for instance, picky eaters might say they don’t like vegetables because they tried some broccoli one time and found it to be aversive. Discrimination was another helpful word (distinguishing between subtle differences among different stimuli in order to tell them apart), the section used the example of somebody finding out their friend was a psych major and commenting “oh you’re going to analyze me now,” because they hadn’t discriminated between the different types of topics and contexts within psychology that one could be interested in or study.
I found section 2.3 to be a little less interesting because I had already learned so much about punishment in the past, as well as in the last unit. Although I found the point about the person being punished may tend to have a negative emotional response to the person administering the punishment resulting in maybe a change of behavior, but perhaps the start of a new aversive behavior. The section used the example of an employee at a convenience store being punished for reading a book while he was working, but after being punished, the employee just stopped reading all together and started emitting new aversive behaviors (such has not really glancing at ID’s) as retaliation for being punished.
Three things I will remember from these sections would be the concepts of extinction bursts, spontaneous recovery, and superstitious behaviors. Extinction bursts occur after the organism stops being reinforced for their behavior so they act out by emitting the behavior much more than it would usually in hopes to obtain reinforcement like they once did before.
Spontaneous recovery is when you spontaneously emit a behavior that has been extinguished. For instance, after the behavior of putting a dollar in a pop machine and not receiving pop after a few tries, the behavior has been extinguished because you no longer are being reinforced like you once were, but you come back the next day and emit the same behavior in hopes that you might be reinforced.
superstitious behavior would behaviors that are emitted that don’t directly result in reinforcement, but may be associated with reinforcement. For instance, if you go to a casino and somebody is pulling the lever over and over again instead of the button this would probably be a superstitious behavior because they won a lot of money one time by using the lever even though the lever and the button serve the same function.
Some things that I would like to go over more would be Discriminative extinction and discriminative extinction stimuli.
terms: generalization, discrimination, emit, reinforce, punish, extinction, superstitious behavior, extinction burst, spontaneous recovery,
I feel as if I enjoyed the section 2.4 more than 2.3. I was more interested in section 2.4 because it contained terms and concepts that I didn’t know or understand to well before reading this section. Section 2.4 consisted information about extinction and how extinction worked. This section was also useful in helping to describe some terms and vocabulary that are associated with the extinction process and procedure. Section 2.3 was the more least interesting section to me, because I understand most of the concepts they talked about in this section. I feel that the most important information to take away from section 2.3 is that in order for punishment to be effective it has to be abrupt, intense, and have immediacy. For punishment to work well you need to make sure that it is abrupt and that the punishment is aversive enough for the organism to actually stop, or reliably decrease the frequency of the behavior. The punishment also has to be intense enough to stop the frequency and occurrence of the problematic behavior. I feel as if the biggest component of effective punishment is the immediacy of the punishment after the problematic behavior occurs. You need to make sure to punish the behavior right after it occurs in order for punishment to be effective.
I feel that they were many concepts that 2.4 provided that were important. Extinction is the process in which reinforcement of certain behaviors is stopped. Extinction occurs when an organism that has been reinforced for emitting a target behavior is no longer reinforced for emitting that same target behavior. Extinction usually results in a decrease of that emitted behavior. It was also important to take away from the reading the idea that extinction is the procedure (noun), and extinguished is a verb and the action. An extinction burst is usually associated with the extinction procedure. An extinction burst is when reinforcement is initially withheld, the behavior that used to lead to reinforcement will occur more often. There will be an increased amount of the behavior as the individual tries even harder to obtain reinforcement. An example is Stuie, from family guy, when he says mom, mum, mommy, and Louis a lot to hopefully get her attention. Variability is also associated with extinction. An organism will not emit other varieties of behaviors that were similar to the previously reinforced target behaviors, in an attempt to receive reinforcement for that behavior. There is also discriminative extinction in which a particular stimulus in the environment indicates that not reinforcement will result for emitting a target behavior. Spontaneous recovery is also that last big concept to take away from section 2.4. This concept is when there is a return of the emitted behavior after it was extinguished. This occurs when an organism will keep emitting the behavior even though they know it won’t be reinforced, but maybe hoping it will be sometime.
Two concepts I feel I could use some more information on is superstitious behaviors and maybe a little more help on generalization and discrimination of extinction.
Terms: Extinction, extinguished, emitted, punishment, aversive, target behavior, extinction burst, variability, discriminative extinction, spontaneous recover, superstitious behaviors, generalizations, discrimination
I liked section 2.4 better than section 2.3. There were many new concepts that we have not talked about. Section 2.3 seemed to go over concepts that we have already discussed. The most useful piece of information from section 2.4 were the terms. Superstitious behaviors (behaviors that occur when a behavior thought to lead to reinforcement, but it is not in actuality directly related to the reinforcement), generalization (occurs when people emit the same behavior under a variety of circumstances beyond what the behavior was originally learned in), spontaneous recovery (behaviors that have been extinguished, may reoccur after some time), and extinction burst (involves an increase in the behavior you are trying to decrease) are just some of the new terms discussed in this section.
The most useful thing is section 2.3 is the discussion of the possible problems with punishment. unishment can be cruel, such as in extreme negative reinforce (use of torture, such as water boarding). When using punishment, it is important to make sure it is ethical to do. Also, there are cultural differences in punishment. Some cultures have a different punishment for different behaviors.
Three things that I will remember from these sections are 1. there are cultural differences in punishment, 2. discriminative extinction occurs when a discriminative stimulus indicates that no reinforcement will be coming (such as a "closed" sign in a boarded up restaurant), and 3. variability (emitting not only the specific target behavior, but emitting a variety of other similar behaviors to try to receive reinforcement). A good example of variability is Family Guy when Stewie is trying to get his mom's attention.
In general, I would like to go over the terms from section 2.4 in class so I can get a good idea on exactly what they mean and how I can apply them.
Terms used: superstitious behaviors, generalization, spontaneous recovery, extinction burst, punishment, emit, target behavior, reinforcement, discriminative stimulus, variability, extreme negative reinforcement
I found that section 2.4 was really interesting. It seemed to go more in depth with the process of extinction which I find to be really interesting. There were also new terms introduced within 2.4 that furthered my understanding of extinction, like superstitious behaviors and generalization. Section 2.3 seemed to just repeat information about positive and negative punishment, but it did introduce disrupting operant behaviors and extreme negative reinforcement. The most useful piece of information in section 2.3 was about the technique of disrupting operant behavior. This was important because it explained how to use this technique in way to stop unwanted behaviors but in a non aversive way in order not to provoke unwanted behaviors from both parties involved. What I mean by this is that by using the technique of disrupting operant behaviors, we can effectively stop unwanted behaviors by using a more passive way of punishment. Like the example given in the book, if we want a child to stop sleeping in class we can wake them by asking them how they are doing to get their attention rather than disrupting the whole class by calling them out and getting mad at them. The most useful piece of information in 2.4 was the part about superstitious behaviors. These are behaviors exhibited to lead to reinforcement but in reality these emitted behaviors are not directly related to the reinforcement. An example that we often see in the sports world is when a player will listen to the same songs on the way to a game or wear the same pair of socks in hopes of winning their game. By listening to the same songs or wearing the same pairs of socks, they believe that their chances of winning the game have increased because they won the previous game by exhibiting the same behaviors at that time also. These behaviors may become extinct after a big loss, but then may be spontaneously recovered in hopes of providing a win once again.
Three things that I will remember from both of the sections is 1) Generalization occurs when people emit the same behavior under a variety of circumstances beyond what the behavior was originally learned in. 2) Superstitious behaviors occur when a behavior is believed to lead to reinforcement but in actuality the behavior is not directly related to the reinforcement. 3) If punishment is to be used, it should be abrupt, have appropriate intensity, be immediate, and should be consistent.
Could you go over section 2.4 in a more in depth sense? Covering more about generalizations and superstitious behaviors?
Terms: extinction, superstitious behaviors, generalization, positive and negative punishment, operant behaviors, disrupting operant behavior, emit
The section I enjoyed the most was Section 2.4 on Additional Concepts related to reinforcement and punishment. I enjoyed it more that it went into a little bit more depth on things dealing with the concepts of reinforcement and punishment. Learning how Extinction is not a punishment but neither a reinforcer, but more as a middle of the road concept. The section I liked least was 2.3, I found it just a little less interesting but not any less educational. Learning about how punishment if not done right can decrease behavior in a different contexts. Acting much like a double edged sword if not used right. The most useful part of 2.3 I believe is to understand that punishment may not be necessary if you try reinforcement first. Punishment can cause a number of aversive responses in retaliation. Punishment can also be taken too far, so using reinforcement first is encouraged if possible. An important aspect of 2.4, is the fact that a extinction burst tells the organism doing the extinguishing that it's working. And that to make this process work, one mustn't give in to the variability of the burst.
Before this section, I knew about punishment, and after I agreed that reinforcement should be used first if possible. However, with punishment in some cases I can see why it is used, regardless of possible complications and moral issues. A matter of thinking of the end justifies the means, however I don't fully agree with this though process either. Behavior Modification is a tricky yet helpful process if used right. Things I will remember are the possible complications dealing with punishment, that extinction bursts are an indication that the extinction is working, and suspicious behaviors of people, they trustfully believe them.
Terms:
punishment,extinction,extinction burst, suspicious behavior, reinforcement, reinforcer, aversive, responses, organism, variability
The section that I enjoyed reading the most was section 2.3. I enjoyed this section more because I understood the terms and concepts much more easily than those of section 2.4. This means that I obviously enjoyed section 2.4 the least because the concepts were a little bit harder to understand/the material was all knew concepts so it was more difficult to grasp.
The most important information from section 2.3 would be how it went into the differences of positive punishment and negative punishment. I understood these terms, but this section helped me understand the overall concept more clearly. Positive punishment is the introduction of an aversive stimuli whereas negative punishment would be the removal of a desirable stimuli. An example of positive punishment could be you and your friend get into a fight, so you break a cd of hers. An example of negative punishment could be your mom taking away your car because you were driving too fast.
The most important information from section 2.4 were the explanation of all the different concepts/terms. Extinction was talking about in previous chapters/sections so I understood that it occurs when an organism that has been reinforced for a certain target behavior is no longer being reinforced for that behavior, however I was always a little uncertain on the definition of extinction burst. The example of Stewie on Family Guy really helped me understand the definition more clearer. It's basically saying that if the organism isn't reinforced any longer for a target behavior, the organism will act up more/ do the behavior more abruptly so that they are reinforced for the behavior. This concept also fits in with aggressive behaviors because in order for that organism to be reinforced more, they may go to aggressive means to get that attention. I believe that these concepts are important because they help us further understand behavior.
Prior to reading these sections I did not think that behavior modification was so specific in its target behaviors and that every behavior can be looked at in depth much further than I had previously thought.
Three things I will remember: extinction burst, B.F. Skinner and how he proposed a punish free society (thus limiting free will), and positive punishment.
A few things that I would like to further discuss in class would be variability, generalization, discriminative extinction, and discriminative extinction stimuli. I read over these concepts several times but could not, for the life of me, retain/understand what they fully meant! Help!
The section I enjoyed the most was section 2.3 and reading about positive and negative punishment. When adding an aversive stimulus (positive punishment) decreases a behavior and taking away a desirable stimulus (negative punishement). My daughter gets to pick one Nick Jr. show to watch before bed and if something happens during the day , she loses this opportunity that she really looks forward to at night. Like the reading talked about thought, the immediacy of the punishment really makes a difference though because if she loses the privilege to watch tv at night in the morning, it doesn’t affect her as much (til night time comes) as it does if she loses it right before the show. An afterschool program I worked at at the YMCA used a system with positive punishment by giving students what we called strikes for undesirable behavior, which getting 3 caused them to be kicked out of the program. We also had to at one time change the environment (the antecedent) in order to change or stop a behavoior. We used to play dodgeball at the end of the night with the students, and this usually led to arguments, crying, storm outs, and sometimes even violence, so we would give that student a negative punishment by not letting them play next time, but eventually we had so many problems that we had to stop playing completely (take out the antecedent) because the behavior wasn’t stopping. I also enjoyed reading in section 2.4 about extinction, specifically about the child interrupting her mother when she spoke to other adults because this is something we are working on at our house right now. The difficult thing about ignoring my daughter when she interrupts, trying to extinguish that behavior, is that she speaks so loud that I have to stop talking to the other adult bc my daughter is trying to talk over me. We have been talking about the importance of waiting til someone is done talking to talk but she is still emitting this interrupting behavior almost daily.
Terms used: Positive punishment, negative punishment, antecedent, emit, extinction, reinforcer
I liked section 2.4 better than 2.3 because there was an introduction of new terms that we have not learned yet, as well as a review of some terms we have learned in past sections.
What I think is important from section 2.3 is the different forms of punishment. This is important because we didn’t touch a lot on the different forms and the appropriate time for using the different forms. Positive punishment involves the introduction of an aversive stimulus in order to emit an undesirable behavior with the intention of decreasing the frequency of that specific response. My example of positive punishment is that my sister pulled my hair because I called her names when I was little. Negative punishment involves the removal of a desirable behavior in order to emit an aversive behavior with the intention of decreasing the frequency of the aversive response. My example of this is my mom used to take my phone away when I would lie or talk back to her. By doing that, I learned that lying and talking back was probably not the smartest route to take.
What I think is important from section 2.4 is extinction and extinction burst. We went over extinction a little bit in class but I still feel that it is important that we keep reviewing it in our readings because there are more concepts to add to it such as extinction burst. We have not yet talked much about extinction burst because it was only mentioned in the last chapter. Extinction burst is when the organism continues to emit a behavior time after time in hopes for reinforcement. It’s as if the organism has not yet given up hope so they keep trying. Something I think of when I am learning about extinction burst is when my mom would ground me as 12 or 13 year old and tell me I couldn’t go to a friend’s house on Friday night. There were a few times when she would give in because I would hound her until she would finally said I could go. However, there were many times when I would hound, hound, hound, and she would never give in. In fact, I would often get grounded for even longer because I wouldn’t let it go. My extinction burst failed me once again!
Some things that I will remember after this section are extinction and extinction burst, and the difference between positive and negative punishment. The two forms of punishment are a bit confusing and I will continue to review them so I can differentiate between the two. Some terms I used are extinction, extinction burst, emit, punishment (positive and negative) and aversive.
The section that I liked the most was section 2.4. I enjoyed section 2.4 the most because it went in depth about extinction. Extinction was a topic that was briefly discussed before the last exam and it was nice to get a full explanation of how extinction works along with some examples. There wasn’t a section that I liked the least because I felt that all of the information present in these sections was interesting and new information. The most useful information from section 2.3 was the criteria for punishment. The criteria for punishment included that the punishment should be abrupt (punishment should happen as soon as aversive behavior occurs). The reading also mentioned that punishment must be intense enough to stop the behavior. If the punishment isn’t intense enough then the aversive behavior may continue. The section also stated that punishment must be consistent. If you want an aversive behavior to discontinue then the aversive behavior must be punished every time it occurs. The most useful information from section 2.4 was the discussion on an extinction burst. Extinction burst was explained in the reading by stating that an extinction burst is when a reinforcement is initially withheld, the behavior that is used to lead to reinforcement will occur more often. The reading used the example of the Family Guy episode where Stewie continually calls “Mom” because in the past his mother had responded to his response. After reading these sections my view on behavior modification has changed from what I originally thought because I originally believed that behavior modification only involved punishment. Three things that I will remember after doing the reading is that extinction is a procedure (noun), extinguish is a verb, and extinguished is an adverb. After doing the readings, I now understand that behavior modification actually encourages the use of reinforcement whenever possible and only encouraged punishment when reinforcement has not worked. The reading mentioned that the two most effective tools in behavior modification are positive reinforcement and extinction. The reading encourages individuals to use extinction rather than punishment. Extinction many times gets confused with punishment; however extinction specifically involves a behavior that was previously reinforced. Two concepts that I would like further discussed in class are superstitious behavior and spontaneous recovery.
Terms: Extinction, punishment, aversive, extinction burst, reinforcement.
I liked section 2.3 the best for the philosophical questions of the morality of punishment. The topic was just really interesting, and it brings up some good points. Like, I didn’t know that Skinner wrote books on his idea of a Utopian society devoid of punishment. It makes sense to me, especially because reinforcement is more powerful than punishment when trying to learn and shape behaviors. However, I have to disagree that it would result in a Utopia. Different people are reinforced by different things, and it would be a nightmare trying to make sure that each person is accurately reinforced to maintain a society that functioned perfectly and all emitted the behaviors in the “good citizen” behavior class. I guess the same could be said for a punishment-based society. I think ours is both, because we have the tokenism embedded deeply into everything we do, but when we screw up the punishments are typically swift and severe enough to discourage us for a while. Anyway, I’ll save that for my topical blog.
I didn’t dislike section 2.4, it just wasn’t as interesting to me as the ethical and moral questions of bmod. I found it to be considerably more useful to me, though. There was a lot less review of concepts already discussed and more of bringing in new terms and definitions to understand the nuances of bmod and bmod language. I think the best part was the bit that elaborated on extinction, particularly discriminative extinction and the stimuli of it. It got me thinking… can an extinction burst still occur when there are discriminative extinction stimuli? Because I think it can, but then if the burst still occurs, does that mean the stimuli weren’t good enough to do their job? What came to mind for me is when people abuse the ATM at the HyVee where I work even though there is a large “Out Of Order” sign on it. I’ve seen people remove the sign and then go through a full-blown adult tantrum/extinction burst when they are not reinforced with their card reading the first time. The superstitious behaviors section was useful as well. It also means bmod just got a lot trickier, because if you don’t pay close attention to how and when the reinforcement occurs, your organism could start to emit superstitious behaviors instead.
The most useful part of 2.3, for me, is probably the disruption of operant behaviors. It’s sort of a way to get around punishing the organism while still not having to wait around for a chance to reinforce the desirable target behaviors in hopes that the non-desirable target behavior stops.
I definitely knew that reinforcement, particularly positive reinforcement, is more desirable and effective than punishment or negative reinforcement, but I guess I didn’t quite know all the unintended consequences behind punishment. Of course there will be resentment felt by the organism toward the punisher, but the cross-context generalized decrease of the behavior. I also figured bmod could be used for evil because, let’s face it, we see it all the time. Hazing rituals shape behaviors of frat pledges (as well as form bonds with the brothers/sisters), which then leads to ultimate loyalty even when one of the brothers/sisters does something wrong. It could be a stretch, but it makes sense to me.
One question that came up during reading is more of an “Am I thinking about this right, or am I thinking too much” question. Extinction isn’t punishment, but could extinction be caused by negative punishment? Extinction is the removal of reinforcement (consciously or subconsciously), so wouldn’t the removal of something pleasing (reinforcement) in order to decrease the behavior that one wishes to extinguish then act as negative punishment?
Also, if possible, an example of how the organism might reduce a behavior across all contexts as a consequence to a punishment would be helpful. I’m pretty ure I get the idea, I just want to make sure.
Terms: Punishment, reinforcement, consequence, extinction/extinguish, extinction burst, positive/negative punishment/reinforcement, organism, discriminative extinction, discriminative extinction stimuli, behavior class
I really really like both of these sections. However, I probably like section 2.3 the best. It seemed to carry more specific information on punishment, how it works and how to use it in the most effective way. I believe the section contained incredibly useful information. Previously, I just thought of punishment as aversive and done in response to behaviors we found offensive. Through the class I have come to understand that punishment can be a useful tool in changing a behavior we don't like, not just in response to it. This section was great because it taught that punishment should be used as little as possible. That it and negative reinforcement is not as effective as positive reinforcement or extinction! The section taught me that punishment should be consistent and swift in order to be effective. I also liked the idea of instead of punishing a behavior, modify the environment or antecedent that the behavior happens in, in an attempt to prevent it from happening.
I really liked section 2.4 too! I never would have considered extinction to be on par with positive reinforment to change aversive behaviors, but this sections showed me how benifical it can be, even though it IS a aversive procedure. The idea of extinction burst sounds incredibly annoying, but it is good to know that if you witness it and variability occurs, it is a good indication that the procedure of extinguishing a behavior is working. I also liked how it tied in topography to the ideas.
The three things I will probably remember the best from these sections are, the punishment is aversive to the person eliciting a punishment and the person emitting it. Punishment if used needs to be swift with no hesitation. Extinction burst mean the procedure of on extinction is working.
These sections haven't really changed my thoughts on bmod, it has only expanded my knowledge of how it works, how it works best, and how it doesn't work. I feel these sections were the most useful of all of them so far.
I'm pretty sure I understood all the content of 2.3 and 2.4 but a quick review of dicriminative extinction and stimuli with different examples from the text might be useful.
Terms: extinction, extinguish, punishment(+and -), reinforcemnt(+and -), topography, extinction burst, variability, aversive.
I really enjoyed reading section 2.3. I found the information on punishment very useful in helping me understand it better. Although I enjoyed both sections and found them both useful, 2.4 was a bit of a review of some things we learned regarding extinction.
While reading section 2.3 I found the information on cultural differences in punishment interesting and useful. An example would be our use of the criminal justice system compared to a different countries use of Sharia law to deal with crime. Reading section 2.4 I found the information on extinction and extinguished. I have a better understanding of extinction after reading this section. I also learned how extinguish connects to extinction. I found the example about Ed the class clown very useful. After the behavior is extinguished you may experience spontaneous recovery which is simply behaviors reoccuring after some time that were previously extinguished.
Prior to reading these sections I wasn't to comfortable with the concept of punishment. I figured it was just aversive things applied to a behavior to stop the behavior from reoccuring. There is actually much more to punishment and it is also important to understand that punishment should be used as a last resort unless bodily harm is threatened. We can also disrupt the operant behavior instead of using punishment. An example would be is a student was falling asleep in class the teacher could disrupt the operant behavior by calling on the student.
I"ll remember a lot from the sections but I think 3 of the most important things I took away from sections 2.3 and 2.4 were; Positive punishment vs negative punishment, punishment must be administered quickly and consistantly, and that extinction can lead to an extinguished behavior but we may experience spontaneous recovery and emit the behavior after some time.
In class I would like to go over disrupting operant behaviors and Superstitious behaviors!
Terms: punishment, extinction, extinguished, spontaneous recovery, aversive, positive and negative punishment, disrupt the operant behavior, cultural differences in punishment
I actually like both of the sections, but out of the two I would have to say my favorite was 2.4 about the additional information about reinforcement and punishment. I think that it tied a lot of what we learned thus far about behavior modification together. Especially over the topics of reinforcement and punishment. I like that it branched off about extinction and cover that in depth more about what it is exactly (it is defined in the section as it occurs when an organism that has been reinforced for emitting a target behavior is no longer reinforced for emitting that same target behavior). I also enjoyed from this section about the part at the end about the superstitions and I never thought of it before, and it was really interesting to me. There was so much more in this section about learning new terms and expanding on them (I’ll talk about them more in the section about the usefulness and what I will remember).
I guess I liked 2.3 as well but it was my least favorite just because I felt 2.4 had a lot my new concepts to it that I liked more. I did like it because it explained punishment (just like 2.2 did for reinforcement) more and use examples to help me better understand it and being able to apply it. Other than that I didn’t have any problem with any of the sections.
What I thought was the most useful from section 2.3 is the abruptness of punishment. For punishment to be useful the punishment needs to be aversive enough for the organism to actually stop or an actually decrease in the frequency of that target behavior. Also, intensity of the punishment and that the punisher needs to be intense enough to stop that behavior or the frequency of the behavior. Also, the immediacy of the punishment and how it needs to be right about the behavior occurs there needs to be a punishment right after for it to be effective. I thought this part really help me understand really the effectiveness of punishment and understanding punishment more.
The most useful information about 2.4 would probably be expanding more on extinction. I thought it was well explained and it explains a lot more about what it is and how it is seen in behavior. I thought this helped me understand why people do what they do and also how something like an “out of order” sign can turn you away. Also, the example of the vending machine made me think about my behavior. I thought it was an overall very useful section.
Like mentioned before I think reading more and more about it I didn’t think there was so much more learning. Last week we read a section about reinforcement and this week about punishment, and how it builds up from that and there is more that goes into what we already learned about. There is so much more to punishment and reinforcement then I originally thought. Reading these sections has changed my original thoughts on behavior modification because the terms keep building up and it’s like there is so much to one ‘little’ term that that ‘little’ term isn’t a small part of learning behavior modification but it plays a huge role to it. Something like extinction is one part of bmod but there is so much to it. I think that has changed my thinking on what bmod is and what I thought of it.
What I will remember from this week’s reading is about superstitious behavior. I really never about it before. I couldn’t help but remember my iHome I had. I could never get the thing to work right and I would play with the buttons and it would suddenly start working. Every time I would do the same thing just to get it to work and sometimes it wouldn’t work the right away and I would become upset because the last time it worked. But I would continue to press the buttons the same way. I thought if I did this it would work. Another thing that I will remember is about extinction bursts. At first I was really confused about what it was and now I am understanding it a little better within the section 2.4 when it goes into detail about it. It is defined as a reinforcement is initially withheld, the behavior that used to lead to reinforcement will occur more often, there will be an increased amount of the behavior as the individual tries even harder to obtain reinforcement. This reminds me of when a baby cries and you go in there to pick it up and rock the baby back to sleep every time. Then when it starts to get a little older you don’t go in there when it starts to cry, you let it cry it’s self to sleep. It’s so hard when you hear them crying not to go in there and rock them back to sleep. But that it what I think of when I read about this, and I will remember it! The third thing that I will remember is cultural differences and punishment. I thought this was so informative because I personally sometimes forget the views of other cultures towards punishment. I think it was a very interesting section about how different cultures believe. I thought is fascinating about the Thailand example and what happened. I thought it was way too harsh but then I have to remember that the cultures are different and the beliefs. I will defiantly remember this section.
I would like to learn more about spontaneous recovery and discriminative extinction.
Terms: reinforcement/punishment/extinction/emitting/superstitious behavior/target behavior/ abruptness of punishment/ intensity of the punishment/extinction bursts/cultural differences
I found 2.3 more interesting than 2.4. This is because I found the reading over punishment very interesting. I would rather reinforce then punish but there are ways to look at punishment in a positive form. Positive punishment involves the introduction or addition of an aversive stimulus, contingent upon emitting an undesirable behavior, with the goal of decreasing the frequency of such a response. I find the difference between positive and negative very interesting as well. Positive to be is like a minor punishment or action. While in negative something is getting taken away! I really like the fact that I was able to understand this section more than most sections. I know that I understand most of the language but it comes to the point where I get confused!
In section 2.3 I found the examples very helpful. This is because for the most part in order for me to understand things I need to be able to compare them. The examples allowed me to emit a behavior or understanding. One thing that I was thinking about with punishment is Wal-Mart and the new rules. You are not able to buy alcohol or like bullets with children or anyone under that age with you. I think that is punishment in so many ways. It’s like I need a babysitting to watch my kids or my roommates and boyfriend cannot go shopping with me. Because they will id me and my boyfriend and I will not be able to buy alcohol due to him being underage. I feel it’s a punishment and not reinforcement.
In section 2.4 I found aggressive behavior more interesting and helpful. This is because if you think about children they truly do emit aggressive behavior when there is extinction in a behavior that was being emitted before. The parents also elicit a behavior and when that stops and they no longer elicit behaviors the children will no longer emit them. I think about aggressive behavior in children elicit an action in order to get the parent to emit a reaction. I also think about my sister, when she could not get my parents attention she would scream and throw herself on the floor. This was her aggressive behavior, most of the time it worked. I also see aggressive behavior as a way to get what you want when you’re not getting the proper reaction that is needed to stimulate one.
I still to this day think that b mod is difficult to understand but I feel that is because we have not had class and have not had our teacher to answer our questions. I feel that language is getting harder and harder. I do like class and I do really feel that this class will help me in the future with social work.
I would like us to talk about discriminative extinction , spontaneous recovery and superstitious
I enjoyed reading section 2.3 the most. It helped me understand punishment a lot more in depth. I have always been more familiar with reinforcement in the past because like BF Skinner and many others reinforcement should be used over punishment whenever possible. I liked how section 2.3 talked about both negative reinforcement and positive punishment. I used the same example on the test as in the text of waterboarding as a type of negative reinforcement, when the general population would consider this form of torture a punishment. It is still a bit confusing on why waterboarding is a negative reinforcement and not a positive punishment. I think of it in the way that the act of waterboarding someone is a punishment for the person not talking, not as an aversive stimulus to be taken away when the person starts talking. I guess I am overthinking the concept. I would like to know of another example of negative reinforcement.
I also like that section 2.3 mentioned punishment contingencies. This is very true. Speeding is a good example. I have gotten 1 speeding ticket throughout my seven years of driving and I still speed all the time and it is because I highly doubt I will get punished and even if I did get pulled over (I’ve been pulled over numerous times for my lead foot) I still highly doubt Ill receive a ticket. Speeding is also a reinforcer in itself because it helps one get to where they are going faster, but I was wondering why speeding is not also a punishment because it decreases gas mileage. Disruption of behaviors was also a new concept for me. It is common sense that punishment would disrupt the operant behavior, but it needs to be when the unwanted behavior is happening or it will not be effective or as effective. An unwanted behavior that is being reinforced is probably the hardest behaviors to change. Smoking is probably a prime example of this. Smoking is definitely an unwanted behavior but it is reinforced not by the environment, but by the person’s body being addicted the nicotine. This is true for all drugs I am assuming. An illegal drug where one is punished and yet the user still abuses the drug is because the reinforcement outweighs the punishment in their minds. And the punishment is intermittent whereas the reinforcement is constant.
I also liked the example of the death penalty (the ultimate punishment). I am not even sure if you can technically call it a punishment. Yes it does reduce the probability of the person repeating the unwanted behavior. Being dead sure does reduce all probability, but not sure if it was the creators of the definition of punishment had it mind.
I like the other section 2.4 as well, just not as much as 2.3. 2.4 covered previous terms. Why do so many of the words in behavior modification begin with an “E”? I am not sure what is the correct verbiage to use. Extinct or extinguished? Schedules of reinforcement was interesting as well. I have learned about schedules or reinforcement in previous classes of mine, usually related to the topic of gambling. This weekend my ex-boyfriend tried calling me over 36 times in about a 2 hour period and I did not reinforce any of these calls , so I relate to your ex-boyfriend example. He is calling less now and if I had picked up on that 36th call. He would have been reinforced. I’m so happy I took this class. Thank goodness.
I also liked spontaneous recovery and the example of how going back to your hometown one might drive by an old closed down restaurant. It made me think of when I moved to Iowa in 8th grade from Seattle. My dad had purchased a big farmhouse in the booneys and there was a dog that would keep coming by and it was the homes’ previous owners’ dog who had bought a new home about 4 miles down the street. The dog would come by at least once a week. Is this because the dog was losing his marbles or would this be classified as spontaneous recovery?
Before reading these sections I didn’t think punishment should ever be used over reinforcement, but the examples of cops arresting criminals and the kid throwing rocks at a playground made me change my mind. Reinforcement would help these situations but when the aversive behavior needs to be stopped pronto than it is unpractical to wait for the opportunity to reinforce while a kid is getting rocks chucked at his face. The behavior needs to be stopped immediately and punishment then is really the only option and I do not know how BF Skinner would argue this one. There is never going to be a utopic world where criminals just do not exist or where kids don’t throw things
Terms: positive punishment, aversive stimulus, reinforcement, behavior, reinforcer, extinct, extinguished, schedules of reinforcement, spontaneous recovery
I found both sections to be really interesting and informative. Section 2.3 was good because it had a lot of real life examples I enjoyed about using punishment in society. The parts about extinction in section 2.4 was good, it helped me learn the differences between adverse behaviors when extinction happens and when punishment happens. I also liked the part about superstitious behavior and how people actually believe that it can make a difference in the outcome of situations they are in. I also thought the new information about generalizations was interesting. I liked the example about the person who doesn’t like vegetables because they tried a carrot once and didn’t like it so now they think all vegetables are bad. They have over generalized all vegetables as tasting bad.
All though I like section 2.3 a lot to I don’t think it was a useful as section 2.4. Even though it had some new information about punishment, I felt I knew most of what was said about positive and negative punishment. The info was good though because I felt it was good review, and it helps to get the info drilled into my head.
The best info from section 2.3 was definitely learning about Skinner and his views on a society without punishment. I found it very interesting how we can develop a world with using punishment. I agree with Skinner that reinforcement is a better way of teaching and learning than using punishment.
I think the best piece of information I took away from reading section 2.4 was learning when adverse behaviors happen in extinction and in punishment and the difference between them. When adverse behaviors occur in punishment, it’s because something adverse has been added to the situation (positive punishment) or something pleasurable has been taken away (negative punishment). Adverse behaviors in extinction occur when a person or thing isn’t being reinforced for a specific behavior anymore.
Before reading these sections, didn’t know much about extinction or how it really worked besides the extinguishing of a behavior after not being reinforced. Now I understand that it’s a tool used to get rid of behaviors we don’t want by not reinforcing them anymore. I also didn’t know about all the negative consequences that come with using punishment. An organism who is being punished might punish the punisher back by, like the example given in section2.3 not checking Id’s at the door of a bar. Three things I will take away from the sections are the differences between adverse behavior in extinction and in punishment, spontaneous behaviors that people do that they think will make an outcome go in their favor (ex. Pulling lever of slot machine over pressing the button), and spontaneous recovery which is the return of an emitted behavior after it has been previously extinguished. My thoughts on B-Mod are always changing because I keep learning more and I’m able to add this information and expand it the terms and things I’ve already learned.
Two things I would like to be discussed more are Generalization and discrimination.
Extinction, reinforcement, punishment, generalization, superstitious behavior, spontaneous recovery, positive and negative punishment, adverse, organism,
I liked section 2.1 the most so far becuase it broke down a lot of the information that we previously reviewed that I was confused about. For example, this section talked about B.F.Skinner and reinforcement and punishment. For some reason I always get Skinner and Pavlov confused. I think this chapter helped me distinguish the two. I also liked that the chapter started out asking the reader to label ten vocabulary words that we have recently learned. Also, the association this section made between the ABC's and elicit, emit, and establishing operations was very helpful.
Section 2.4 was my least favorite because the whole time it was talking about extinction. I like the term but I don't think that extinction is that complex. However, I may be wrong.
The most useful piece of information in 2.3 was dirupting operant behaviors. I have been trying to pick one or two things out of each chapter, focusing on them throughout my day and trying to relate them to my everyday life. I decided to focus on disrupting behaviors. My friend and I were talking in the kitchen while my boyfriend was waiting on me to go run some errands. While we were in the middle of our conversation (operant behavior) he jumped into the kitchen in an attempt to scare us, disripting our conversation.
I thought the term variability was the most useful in section 2.4. It is exciting when you learn something you didn't know before and when you experience it, you know what is happening and how to explain the individual behaviors. Our society has become more and more impatient. The example for variability where Stewie is trying to get his mom's attention is very relatable. I notice similar behaviors in at least one person nearly everyday. For example, my Dad gets frustrated when he can't get ahold of me. So instead of calling me once and knowing that when I get the missed call I will call back as soon as possible, he calls twice, leaves a message or two, then texts me, then calls my friend to find out where I am. While the whole time I was just to busy to get to my phone. The voice messages, calls, texts and calling my friend are all topographically similar behavior, because they are all different ways to try to get the same outcome.
I stick by the same thing I say everytime about behavior modifcation. I never really took time to think about it, therefore I never realized how complex it is.
Section 2.4 went into extreme detail about extinction and extinction burst, those are two terms that are embedded into my brain. I will also remember immediacy of punishment. I think this will help me in the future discipline my nieces and nephews, and any future children in my life. None of the material I have learned so far has changed what I originally thought about behavior modification, because I never really thought about it consciously. However, the material I have learned so far is very useful and I like that what I am learning now I can utilize in my life and others. I wish I could say the same for all of my other classes.
I would like to talk more about DRO and the behavioral difference of extinguish and extinguished.
Terms: reinforcement, punishment, elicit, emit, establishing operations, variability, extinction, extinction burst, topographically similar, disrupting opperant behaviors.
My favorite section to read about was the extreme negative reinforcement section. It is said that the use of water boarding is considered a negative reinforcement. I had always thought of this to be as a punishment, but it makes sense because removing the water (the aversive stimulus) you are reinforcing them. My least favorite was the part about Generalization (emitting the same behavior to a variety of
different stimuli and a variety of contexts and discrimination (detecting subtle differences between stimuli and contexts to be able to tell
them apart.) This terms were just difficult for me to put into everyday life. My favorite section from 2.4 would be the Superstitious Behaviors (behaviors are sometimes emitted that don’t directly lead to reinforcement.) I just found this funny because so many people have these beliefs. It almost reminds me of the rituals some OCD people have. My favorite part from 2.3 would be the part about disrupting an operant behavior. This is pretty much you getting distracted from whatever you are doing. I want to try some of these tricks on my two little brothers when they throw their fits.
Prior to reading this, I feel very informed about all of the terms we have used thus far, and I am becoming more and more comfortable with them. Three things I will remember are:
1. Punishment should be used on rare occasion.
2.Disrupting a behavior is a much better solution to punishment.
3.Extinction is related to reinforcement because it involves a previously reinforced behavior.
This has helped me come up with better ways to deal with those around me and react in a much more positive way.
The section I found most interesting was section 2.3. I continue to be interested in understanding types of punishment. What interested me the most from section 2.3 was about certain punishment decreasing not only the frequency of the undesirable behavior, but also results in decreasing that action in all other aspects of that person’s life. As well how to handle punishment for get the best outcomes was something I found interesting. As stated in section 2.3 “For punishment contingencies to actually work, the punishment needs to be aversive enough for the organism to actually stop, or reliably decrease the frequency of the behavior”. This is important to understand in certain circumstances. For ex. If a child continues to bully or beat up other kids in his school, it will most likely not be enough to tell the child to stop. The child will need another kind of punishment, possibly to be taken away from that situation or removed from the environment (aversive). Another thing mentioned in section 2.3 was to change the environment (antecedent). In this example you may have a teacher walk with the child so he doesn’t have the option to pick on other kids without being punished. The person giving the punishment has to be somewhat forceful with it to make sure, as in this example that the child understands the seriousness of the situation. As important is that the behavior is punished immediately after the behavior occurs. The longer you wait to punish the child above, the less of an impact it will have on his behavior. From section 2.4 I found generalizing and discrimination interesting. The thing that caught my eye is the general assumption that all psychologist majors are going to judge you or try and understand you. As well the discrimination idea caught my eye as many people tell him they don’t like history (as that is a minor of mine) because of a single class from high school or because of a teacher. They are discriminating because of one experience.
These concepts that I went over were interesting to me because of the importance they will carry in my future and currents jobs. Understanding how to handle people when you are in a position of power is important. Before reading this section I was unaware of the importance of styles of punishment. I feel like I now have a better understanding of different ways to use punishment.
Extinction and extinguished are two things I would like to hear more about as I had trouble trying to tell the difference from them in the reading.
i was looking through the posts and saw that mine wasn't up, apparently it never uploaded right so here is another try.
I liked section 2.3 the best because it focused solely on punishment. I felt I was able to connect what I had previously read. Section 2.4 I understood, but got a little complicated taking in more concepts that were related to both punishment and reinforcement with different meanings.
I'll remember that positive punishment can be considered "positive" by adding a stimulus. however, because punishment is considered a negative, the stimuli added is used for an aversive reaction (off putting.) I'll remember that negative punishment can be considered "negative" by subtracting a stimuli that desired. This reading made me think of my interaction with children when babysitting. When a child has misused a toy, by throwing or hitting with it, I will use negative punishment by removing the toy from the child. If the child does not comply with my punishment by throwing a tempertanturm, I will use positive punishment by adding more time between the child and the desired toy.
From section 2.4 I will remember that superstitious behaviors do not directly relate to reinforcement, yet reinforcement behavior occurs. I best think of it in athletics. When I was swimming in college, I had to listen to a certain song before I got in the water. I needed that song to be stuck in my head in order for me to swim fast. Even though the song does not direct effect my swimming abilities, I thought it was the reason for my increased speed not my increased training.
Terms: Superstitious, stimuli, negative punishment, positive punishment
I liked the section on punishment the most, because it's interesting to see the ethical issues involved in punishment (creating aversive situations) and reinforcement (issues with human freedom). The section I liked least was probably the one about punishment across cultures. It wasn't that I didn't like this section, it's just the one I was interested in least in the two chapters.
The most useful piece of information from section 2.3 is the required scope of punishment: it has to be aversive enough, abrupt enough, and consistently applied, which means that it requires returning to aversive scenarios over and over again. The most useful information from 2.4 was probably the section about extinction, since it's a way to decrease a target behavior without creating and revisiting aversive scenarios.
Prior to reading these sections, I had a more positive (not in the behavioral sense) view of punishment. I used to think that punishment was the best way to alter behavior, and that reinforcement was basically for people who didn't have the heart to punish. It's kind of twisted when you think about it.
Two topics I'd like to cover more in class are strategies of extinction and using reinforcement in place of punishment.
Terms: punishment, reinforcement, extinction