What I would like you to do is to find a topic from section 1.3 or 1.4 that you were interested in and search the internet for material on that topic. You might, for example, find people who are doing research on the topic, you might find web pages that discuss the topic, you might find youtube clips that demonstrate something related to the topic, etc. What you find and use is pretty much up to you at this point. Please use 3 or more resources.
Once you have completed your search and explorations, I would like you to say what your topic is, how exactly it fits into the chapter, and why you are interested in it. Next, I would like you to take the information you found related to your topic, integrate/synthesize it, and then write about it. At the end, please include working URLs for the three websites. Keep in mind that it will be easier if you keep it to one topic.
By integrating/synthesizing I mean to take what your read/experienced from the internet search (and from chapter 1 if you like) organize the information into the main themes, issues, info, examples, etc. about your topic and then write about the topic in your own words using that information. This is hard for some people to do - many students write what we refer to as "serial abstracts." They are tempted to talk about the websites rather than the topic proper and this what you DON'T want to do! They will talk all about website #1, start a new paragraph and talk all about web site #2, start a new paragraph and talk all about web site #3, and then write some kind of conclusion. Serial means one after the other...again, this what you DON'T want to do! If all three sites are on the same one topic it will be easier.
At first it is a real challenge to get out of the habit of writing "serial abstracts," but I assure you once you get the hang of it it is much easier to write using the integration method. And besides this is the way researchers and scientists write their technical reports and findings - many of you will have to be able to do this for other classes and for jobs that you may eventually be hired for so now is a good time to learn this skill. At this point don't worry about a grade, worry about doing your best to have fun with the topic and then integrate it into your own words to share what you found and now know. We will work on citing the sources later....
Let me know if you have any questions.
I decided to focus my topical blog on the difference between negative reinforcement and punishment. This topic fits into this chapter because reinforcement and punishment are big parts to how certain behaviors either come about and are increased or decreased. I decided to focus a little more on these two concepts because I myself still have some difficulty remembering the difference between the two.
I understand pretty well that a negative reinforcement strengthens a behavior, while punishment weakens behaviors. Its the concepts behind them that I get confused at times. Just because its seems to me that things are always being removed. I just need to pay closer attention to the actions/ behaviors that result in the end. In negative reinforcement something negative is taken away or removed to encourage or promote a response. Such an example is when a parent complains or bothers a kid about all his dirty dishes. However, the kid does not clean the dishes, so the parent(s) will keep asking or bothering the child to do the dishes. The child may get so fed up with the bothering or nagging, he then goes and cleans his dishes and notices that his parents stopped bothering him about all his dishes. This is a negative reinforcement because the negative stimuli of the dishes was removed and the encouraging behavior was that the parents stopped nagging and bothering him.
In punishment the goal is to decrease a behavior. So an aversive condition or is added to help decrease a certain behavior. One of the most basic and easiest form of punishment is the idea of spanking. Children will avoid bad or wrong behaviors because they can associated spanking with bad behaviors. They most likely learned this because after they performed a behavior they may have gotten spanked and then they associated being spank with doing a bad behavior. So children will most likely not do bad behaviors because they don't want the punishment of being spanked.
Both of these concepts still do seem simple, but I just feel that I still get them confused. I feel that I over think negative reinforcement too much and that is why i confuse myself and that is why other people get confused.
http://www.mcli.dist.maricopa.edu/proj/nru/nr.html
http://allpsych.com/psychology101/reinforcement.html
http://www.edpsycinteractive.org/topics/behsys/behmod.html
After thinking more about the terms elicit and emit, and using and hearing these terms in class, it struck me that we use these terms in a really mechanical way: The stop sign elicited a stopping behavior in me. When someone holds out their hand to me, I emit a hand-shaking behavior.
It's the same with reinforcement: as Dr. Maclin explained in class today, if a reinforcer does not actually result in an increase in the target behavior, then it is not a reinforcer. Actual reinforcement works every time. Should this worry us?
I'm not sure if this topic is to large or heavy for a topical blog, but something that I'm interested in--which I think is relevant to behavioral terminology--is the implications conditioning has for free will. When I "decide" to stop at that stop sign, or to respond to a discriminate stimulus (in the form of an outstretched hand) by emitting a handshake behavior, am I actually the master of my own behavior?
From a behavioral perspective, Skinner would argue that we have no free will at all, and that every behavior is a result of conditioning: "The essence of Skinner's work was that we could manipulate the environment in ways that would permit us to produce any kind of behavior that we wished". (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D-RS80DVvrg)
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radical_behaviorism#Explaining_behavior_and_the_importance_of_the_environment)
I think I agree. When we talked about responses in class today, and how a response is a behavior elicited by a stimulus, I found myself writing, "All behaviors are responses", and I thought, well Dr. Maclin didn't exactly say that, but I think it could definitely be argued.
For example, one could argue that we have all been conditioned to obey authority over the course of our lives. Skinner probably wasn't surprised to read about Stanley Milgram's infamous obedience experiment. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milgram_experiment)
I think personally I'm inclined to take the view that we have no real free will in emitting our behaviors. Every behavior I emit as I type this comment (every impatient face rub, every syntax edit, every glance at my watch) is elicited by some stimulus. It's quite mechanical. Even my decision to emit the behavior of clicking "submit" after I finish this sentence is caused by a discriminate stimulus (my mental fatigue at trying to think and write about an abstract topic in behavioral terms).
I loved the fable about the Crow. It showed all of these terms we are learning together and showed behavior modification as a problem solving formula. What I thought was interesting was the idea of establishing operations. As I see it, establishing operation is the begin all for behavior modification. Quite simply, I understand it to be motivation. If we want or need something(established operation) an operant behavior will occur (do or avoid a specific beh.) so we receive the consequence(reinforcement or punishment), of that action, we are looking for. Establishing operation seems to be the arrows that link the ABC's together and circle back around.
Lets say my mothers death elicits I grieve(establishing operant), so I attend the funeral, which sets the occasion for me to look upon her dead body and see it buried in the ground at which point I emit tears. The consequence of crying is that I feel better; some tension of the grief is relieved. Crying becomes a reinforcer for relief of tension/grief. Going to the grave and crying is the procedure that will make my feel better whenever I am overcome with the grief of her absence.
I thought the story of the futball players stranded in the Andes mountains and resorting to cannibalism was an interesting case for using b.mod terminology to explain their established operation. Note time 3:40-4:00 on the link. The behavior that will be emitted is not shown but referred to.
.
note time 3:40-4:00
http://www.allhatnocattle.net/aesop_crow.jpg
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jLu1Ol7nZTA
http://www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/motivating_operation
I decided to do my topical blog on the effects of positive and negative reinforcement when used by teachers, parents, or other mentor-like people in children’s lives, particularly one’s with developmental disorders like Autism. I decided to write about this topic because the sections are based heavily upon reinforcement and punishment. In my last topical, I wrote about the effects of both punishment and reinforcement, and came to my own conclusion that reinforcement is probably a better way of changing behavior in most cases. Now I will delve a little deeper to understand how to apply reinforcement to children with these disorders.
Children with diseases like autism have a harder time learning and behaving the way normal children do, so they need to be taught a little differently. Positive reinforcement has been seen to be one of the most effective ways of changing and behaviors in children with autism, and not only changing adversive behaviors, but instilling new life-skills as well. It is important to remember that one must be very careful in distinguishing what will be used as reinforcers for the children, as many autistic people have problems verbalizing their general likes and dislikes, so it’s important to know the child well, realize their preferences and what has worked in the past, and have specific reinforcers in mind.
The way in which one applies the reinforcement is different than that of a normal child, one must be very specific and clear about what the target behavior is, and when it must be used, so modeling the behavior is an important step to take before the reinforcement process begins. After deciphering what the appropriate reinforcers will be, one should always pair the physical reinforcement (like a snack, or a toy) with verbal praise. It’s very important to apply the reinforcement directly after the target behavior, as to not reinforce any possible wrong behaviors that could follow the desired one. At first, it is usually best to apply the reinforcement after each time the behavior is elicited until the child gets the hang of it, then the parent/teacher should fade the reinforcer as the behavior continues.
Many parents and teachers have a hard time accepting positive reinforcement because they believe that the child should not have to be reinforced for eliciting behaviors that should be expected in the first place. However, if a child does not ever get any reinforcement—like attention, for example, for eliciting expected behaviors than the child may begin to act out in aversive ways for attention. So it’s important to reinforce good behavior with ALL children—not just those with developmental disorders.
http://www.autism-help.org/behavior-positive-reinforcement-autism.htm
http://www.newsforparents.org/expert_autism_reinforcement.html
http://kirkhamsebooks.com/Education/Education_Articles/PositiveReinforcementLongTerm.htm
I decided to do my topic for this blog on operante behavior or conditioning as it were when actually being applied. As well as to understanding it a bit better. I was curious on just how much of operante behavior is applied when dealing with animals. I've always seen dogs, some birds and a few large aquatic animals conditioned with operante behavior. So I looked for information on conditioning animals.
Operante behavior is are factors and events involving behaviors of human or non-human animals. Discovered by B. F. Skinner he used operante conditioning on pigeons with a feeding box. These days this form of conditions is used in a wide of verity of animals I found. Training them to emit a desired behavior.
All the animals a part of Sea World are trained to emit a desired operante behavior. Gradually they are trained to act a certain way or introduced to a stimulus to inspire the operante behavior of a trick. Reinforcing the performance with a treat and later indicated by a hand gesture or sound; a whistle for example. And it's just not these animals that can be conditioned. There have been less intelligent animals that have been trained with operante conditioning. Dogs, domestic cats as well as large cats, squirrels, raccoons, ect basically with time and handling all animals can be conditioned. I was surprised to see though on a youtube video that an individual was able to operante condition his fish to emit an operante behavior of going through a tunnel along with other operante behaviors. (this is the video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NqS0QPr3_E4)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ecpSXSWm1uo
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operant_behavior
http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Animal_Behavior/Operant_Conditioning
http://www.articlesbase.com/pets-articles/what-are-operant-and-respondent-conditioning-and-how-do-we-use-them-to-change-a-dogs-behavior-1294694.html
I found Section 1.4 very interesting. While reading through the section I kept thinking back to a show that I watch sometimes called Nanny 911. In this show, real families that are having trouble controlling and disciplining their kids call the show and an expert, "The Nanny", comes and observes and tries to help the parents control their kids. What a great example of the terms presented in this section. When disciplining children it is important to keep in mind that reinforcement and consistency is key. Depending on the child's operant behavior will cue the parent as to reinforce or punish the child. Target behaviors are important because it is what the ultimate goal is for the parent, the target behavior could be brushing their teeth or getting to bed at a reasonable time. Eventually down the road, through a good parenting system, as a parent you hope that all the good behaviors that you have taught your child or children to preform eventually become second nature and therefore become emitted behaviors.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nanny_911
http://kidshealth.org/parent/positive/talk/discipline.html#a_Ages_6_to_8
http://www.keepkidshealthy.com/parenting_tips/discipline/index.html
The topic i'm going to look at is that of positive and negative reinforcement. Reinforcement is a consequence that follows some type of response. the consequence from the response is supposed to to increase the chances that, that response will occur in the future. In positive reinforcement a stimuli is given to increase the chances that, that behavior will happen again. for ex. a child does good on a test, the parents may give them a treat, or sticker. by the child getting this reward they will want to keep doing this. Another ex. would be a brother and sister fighting. they may be forced to spend more time in their rooms. the kids will learn that by fighting they will be forced to spend more time in there rooms.
Negative reinforcement is the idea to increase the likelihood of a behavior occurring again in the future by taking away a stimulus. this would be for ex. if the brother and sister from above start acting better and dont fight, the parents wont make them spend time in their rooms. or if these children continue to fight they may not be able to watch TV. in both situations stimuli is taken away to try to get a continued response in the future.
These two ideas fit into the chapter for me when thinking about Locke's idea and others on how we learn most from our experiences. these two concepts on positive and negative reinforcement are learned over time by them being implamented in our lifes. This is also important for me to understand as a future teacher. if i can understand how best to discipline my students for them to learn, i can create a better learning environment for all the students.
http://www.psychology.uiowa.edu/faculty/wasserman/glossary/reinforcement.html
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B_9ZZaPDtPk
http://www.stresscenter.com/mwc/depression-treatment/positive-vs-negative-reinforcement.html
http://www.mcli.dist.maricopa.edu/proj/nru/nr.html
The topic I chose to research was discriminative stimuli. I was interested in researching the topic of discriminative stimuli because discriminative stimulus was a term in the reading that I didn’t fully understand, so I felt that researching the topic might clear up my confusion. In section 1.4, a discriminative stimulus was described as any stimulus that sets the occasion for an operant response to occur. The reading provided an example of a stop sign, which sets the occasion for some individuals to slow down to stop or to go right through the stop sign. The reading also mentioned that discriminative stimuli allow organisms to respond based on the situation in which the stimuli occur. The reading mentioned that discriminative stimuli can be people, places, or aspects of the environment. The example I came up with when doing the exercise included in the reading for the term was a sign in a hospital stating that there were no cell phones allowed. The sign serves as a discriminative stimulus because it sets the occasion for an individual to turn off their cell phone, putting their cell phone on silent, or choosing to walk past the sign and ignore the instruction.
The first research item I cam across was a you tube video. The video is an animal study that displays how a rat reacts to a discriminative stimulus. In the video, a light that is turned off in the rats cage serves as a discriminative stimulus that tells the rat to turn clockwise in order to be reinforced. The light being turn on serves as a discriminative stimulus that informs the rat to turn counter-clockwise. The light being either on or off serves as a discriminative stimulus because it tells the rat how to behave in each situation if the rat wants to be reinforced.
I found another you tube video that projected the same idea when displaying a video about a discriminative stimulus. The video is another animal study that showed how a gold fish reacted to a discriminative stimulus. In the video, a light that was turned on served a discriminative stimulus to the gold fish to inform the fish that if it pushes a button in the fish tank, it would be reinforced with food. However, when the light was turned off, the fish could push the button as much as it wanted but would not be reinforced with food. Over time, the gold fish learned that it would only receive food when it pushed the button only if the light was on. After realizing that it would only receive food when the light was on, the fish would no longer try to push the button once the light turned off. The light acted as a discriminative stimulus because the “on” light set the occasion for the fish to swim up and hit the button to receive food. The “off” light also served as a discriminative stimulus because the fish soon learned to ignore the light when it was turned off.
The last research item I found helpful was a website. The website described a discriminative stimulus in an animal study setting. The webpage talked about an animal having to discriminate between two different stimuli in order to know how to behave in each situation. The webpage further described how a stimulus can be a positive or negative stimulus, signaling different responses from the animal. The webpage used an example about a dog approaching one individual who pet the dog, causing the dog pleasure (reinforcement). The dog then approached another individual who treated the dog poorly. The nice individual served as a discriminative stimulus for the dog, setting the occasion for reinforcement. The mean individual also was a discriminative stimulus, setting the occasion for the dog to ignore the individual so the dog won’t be punished. The webpage also included an example of a pigeon study that was done in 1964. The study reinforced pigeons after they correctly identified humans in pictures. The pigeons identified the humans in the pictures by pecking at the pictures containing humans and were reinforced after correctly identifying the pictures displaying humans.
After doing further research on discriminative stimuli, I now understand that set the occasion for an operant response to occur. Discriminative stimuli act as signals to inform organisms on how to behave in certain situations. Discriminative stimuli come in various forms including: people, places, and aspects in the environment. I didn’t realize how many discriminative stimuli are present in the every day lives of humans until doing further research on the topic.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J8VS0VB-2Ms
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FsonPCR6EZg
http://www.psywww.com/intropsych/ch05_conditioning/discriminative_stimuli.html
The topic I chose to look at was operant behaviors, however everything I researched had to deal with positive reinforcement. So, I chose that instead!
I am interested in this because, well a lot of cool studies are being done on the topic and it is one that is most commonly associated with behavioral psychology. Reinforcement is something that one does to increase the likelihood of a behavior occurring again.
What I found about positive reinforcement is that it is most likely to be used on animals to have them do tricks. The owner/trainer would give the animal a positive reinforcer (such as praising them or giving them food) in hopes of the animal performing that behavior again!
This concept can apply to almost all aspects of behavior. If a child gets a good grade, the teacher will praise him/her and that will increase the likelihood that the child will want to get a good grade again. The child will them emit the behavior of studying more in hopes of getting another good grade so that he/she will be positively reinforced again.
Here are some sites that I found:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fLoHH03QAAI&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4muo6jXzLX8&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t7Dna0677m0
I decided to do a little bit more research on the topic of discriminate stimuli. I chose this because I was a little confused when we were talking about it during class. Section 1.4 in the reading defined a discriminate stimulus as any stimulus which sets the occasion for an operant response to occur-it tells us what to do. The reading gave a very good example which when thought about makes perfect sense. A stop sign is a discriminate stimulus. It tells us that we should stop when we see one. It does not matter what we do (whether we make a full stop, not stop fully, or just go right through it), it is still a discriminate stimulus-it is telling us what we should do.
Another example I really liked was the "Traffic Light Prank." In this, a man was dressed in an animal costume and hiding behind a barn. He had a control that when he pushed it, he would change the colors on a stop light. He wanted to see how people would respond to it. A man in a tractor shows up and he turns the light red. So, the man stops. The light then flashes green for a couple of seconds and just when the man starts to go, the light turns red again. This example shows us that even though we know something is not right, we are still influenced by discriminate stimuli.
A good way for me to remember what this is, is to think of the word "cue." It is essentially bringing about a behavior. A music conductor waving his arms is a discriminate stimulus because he is setting the occasion for the band to start or stop playing.
After doing some further research in the topic of discriminate stimulus, I now understand the concept. A discriminate stimulus is setting the occasion for some behavior to happen. This can be in the many different forms, such as, people, places, or certain things in the environment. In certain situations, it does not matter what kind of behavior you emit in reaction to the stimulus, but that it is still a discriminate stimulus.
http://books.google.com/books?id=rLCBEvhNwfIC&pg=PA49&lpg=PA49&dq=examples+of+discriminant+stimulus&source=bl&ots=8oubd1E3r3&sig=IiynsM30_o0YNkGgoehTFGKK3YU&hl=en&ei=KxI5TamGF8L58AbH_rXmCg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CBgQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=examples%20of%20discriminant%20stimulus&f=false
http://www.thefreedictionary.com/discriminative+stimulus
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YWMk2OaI0T0&feature=player_embedded
When I was reading section 1.4 in our reading blog, I found the part about satiation to be interesting. The text says that satiation indicates that introducing any additional reinforcement to an organism will not alter the frequency of the behavior which is being reinforced. When I read the example of when someone eats a pint of ice cream and then is offered more Ice cream it is no longer appetizing to them, I thought about how food can be satiating to us. People are always attempting diets these days and it’s important to use the rules of satiation when going on a diet. You want to eat food that will fill your stomach up without over eating. When we get hungry, are first desire is to fulfill our hunger by eating a bunch of food to feel satiated. Thus, we are reinforced every time we are hungry by eating food to make are hungry go away. This is a normal feeling for everyone, but the key to diets is to learn how to reinforce our hungry with foods that are healthier for us and will provide sufficient satiation.
It’s very important when attempting a diet, to eat the right types of food. Often though, healthier food doesn’t always seem to satiate us in the way we would like. This is because most of us are eating foods that don’t fill us up and are very unhealthy for us. Foods that contain a lot of fat, sugar, caffeine, and salt are foods that you want to avoid. These foods are highly addictive and often times people over eat them because they don’t make you feel full. So when on a diet a person needs to find foods that will fill them up and at the same time are health. Some health foods that can satiate a person are ripe sweet fruit, non-sweet fruit, leafy greens, and small amounts of nuts, seeds, and meats in healthy quantities. Foods with high protein levels support the highest satiation levels. Some foods with to look for on a diet that contain a lot of protein are fatty fish which are things like salmon, tuna, mackerel, and herring. This fatty fish can lower your cholesterol, boost your metabolism and keep you satiated for long periods of time. Whole wheat bread is another good food full of fiber and protein. It digests slowly so it makes your body fill satiated and full for long periods of time. Potatoes that are boiled or baked are full of protein and can make you feel for full for long periods of time. Other foods that can make you feel full for long periods of time are citrus fruits and popcorn. Citrus fruits like oranges, grapefruits, tangerines and clemetines can make person feel full for hours. Their high volumes of vitamin C, fiber, high water content helps boost your body’s metabolism and makes you feel fuller for longer. Finally a good snack food you can eat on a diet is popcorn. Popcorn without added butter gives the body the feeling of fullness. By constantly opening your mouth and putting popcorn in, we trick the body into feeling full. Another key thing to know when eating these foods is to avoid cooking them. Cooking food can reduce the foods volume and concentrate its calories which can make a person feel unfulfilled when eating and cause weight gain.
I think it’s very important for people on diets to realize what kinds of food will make them feel satiated. Often times I people think eating less food will result in weight loss but you have to eat the right foods kinds of food to see real results. So after doing the research on satiation I really learned a lot on how eating the right kinds of food can make a person feel satiated and also be healthy at the same time.
http://www.ehow.com/list_5935640_list-foods-make-feel-satiated.html
http://www.livinggreenmag.com/archives/food_and_health/satiation_diet.html
http://www.eufic.org/article/en/artid/what-makes-us-feel-full/
The topic that I decided to focus on is deprivation, mainly because I wanted to learn more about what it is and possibly ways that it is used with parents grounding their children. While looking more up about grounding I discovered that it also has a lot to do with punishment as well. So I will be focusing on deprivation and punishment around grounding children. This was a term in the section that I thought was pretty interesting and it fits into the chapter because the parent will deprive that child of either a social life or something as simple as television. Also, punishment is a large part of all the sections that we have read so far. Deprivation is defined in the chapter as withholding any stimulus which serves as reinforcement to an organism. Punishment is defined as a procedure used to decrease the frequency of a behavior.
I personally have never been grounded but I had two brothers and we often got in fights with each other over little things. My parents didn’t officially “ground” us but we were deprived of items such as the computer. We had a common computer that everyone used and was taken away, quite often (actually just the cord so we could turn it on but the monitor wouldn’t work). The television was another item that once we fought over it over and over my dad would then say no TV today or tomorrow and when we would come home from school there would be a lock on the TV. For those couple of days without a computer or television was horrible because couldn’t chat with our friends online or surf the internet. For a while after that punishment we wouldn’t fight over the computer or what to watch on television. It served as a great punishment because it reduced our behavior to fight because we didn’t want to be deprived of those items that we used almost every day. They didn’t do the whole “taking it away” very often where it wasn’t effective but they would make sure that we knew they had the ability to take it away at any time.
The technique of grounding is a punishment because the parent wants that child to reduce that child’s behavior that made him grounded in the first place. So deprivation I believe is a form of punishment because punishment wants to reduce the frequency of that behavior, such as fighting over a computer, or staying out to late. There are certain ages that punishment through grounding is effective and not, usually when they are old enough to understand the consequences of what they do. The parent has to deprive them for the amount of time that was originally said (1 week-no going out; or 2 days without the computer) to make them want that item or go out with their friends. If parents do stick with the time frame the child will know that they can get out of grounding and they will be able to have that item or going out with friends sooner. They really aren’t punished and they aren’t really deprived of that item if they know they will get it back a lot sooner. Another way that could reinforce the child to have good behavior is giving them something when they do something good, such as a sticker or a privilege, but that can be used or taken away if bad behavior is emitted.
So depriving a child of going out or getting on the computer will help when punishing a child. As long as the parent uses it effectively and the child will some want to go out and to be given those privileges will be a reinforcement for the child that was grounded, such as no Xbox for a week and they will wanted it even more by the end of their grounding “sentence.”
http://www.drphil.com/articles/article/249
http://www.ehow.com/how_5878150_ground-children-effectively.html
http://www.mentalhelp.net/poc/view_doc.php?type=doc&id=38374&cn=1262
I found myself most interested in the term target behavior from section 1.4 and would like to do some more researching on it for this assignment. As stated in our text, a target behavior is the behavior of interest for which you are attempting to increase or decrease in frequency.
I found that typically there is more than one behavior of interest, and when more than one behavior is identified the behaviors must be prioritized. Once these target behaviors have been identified, they must be defined. It is important to decided in advance, which target behaviors we are trying to increase and which ones we are trying to decrease. Some examples I found of target behaviors for children are: keep your hands to yourself, wait your turn, play quietly, follow directions the first time asked, and stay in your seat.
To define the target behavior, one must gather information about the problem or multiple problems from different sources. If there appears to be more than one example of the target behavior, a descriptor that covers the range of specific examples should be made. Then it is important to review the definition to ensure that it describes actual behavior rather than an outcome of behavior and observable, measureable, and repeatable behavior.
Vague descriptions of target behaviors are not useful. To say that someone was aggressive or has bad outbursts isn’t enough to fulfill the description of a target behavior. Some examples of vague target behavior descriptions that cannot be used are: aggressive, has outbursts, runs away all the time, screams at adults, grabs food all the time, and off task.
I found myself most interested in the term target behavior from section 1.4 and would like to do some more researching on it for this assignment. As stated in our text, a target behavior is the behavior of interest for which you are attempting to increase or decrease in frequency.
I found that typically there is more than one behavior of interest, and when more than one behavior is identified the behaviors must be prioritized. Once these target behaviors have been identified, they must be defined. It is important to decided in advance, which target behaviors we are trying to increase and which ones we are trying to decrease. Some examples I found of target behaviors for children are: keep your hands to yourself, wait your turn, play quietly, follow directions the first time asked, and stay in your seat.
To define the target behavior, one must gather information about the problem or multiple problems from different sources. If there appears to be more than one example of the target behavior, a descriptor that covers the range of specific examples should be made. Then it is important to review the definition to ensure that it describes actual behavior rather than an outcome of behavior and observable, measureable, and repeatable behavior.
Vague descriptions of target behaviors are not useful. To say that someone was aggressive or has bad outbursts isn’t enough to fulfill the description of a target behavior. Some examples of vague target behavior descriptions that cannot be used are: aggressive, has outbursts, runs away all the time, screams at adults, grabs food all the time, and off task.
http://autismclassroom.com/home/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=72&Itemid=72
http://www.education.com/reference/article/defining-target-replacement-behaviors/
http://add.about.com/od/treatmentoptions/a/Behavioralmodi.htm
http://wps.prenhall.com/chet_cooper_appliedbeh_2/73/18705/4788683.cw/index.html
I found myself most interested in the term target behavior from section 1.4 and would like to do some more researching on it for this assignment. As stated in our text, a target behavior is the behavior of interest for which you are attempting to increase or decrease in frequency.
I found that typically there is more than one behavior of interest, and when more than one behavior is identified the behaviors must be prioritized. Once these target behaviors have been identified, they must be defined. It is important to decided in advance, which target behaviors we are trying to increase and which ones we are trying to decrease. Some examples I found of target behaviors for children are: keep your hands to yourself, wait your turn, play quietly, follow directions the first time asked, and stay in your seat.
To define the target behavior, one must gather information about the problem or multiple problems from different sources. If there appears to be more than one example of the target behavior, a descriptor that covers the range of specific examples should be made. Then it is important to review the definition to ensure that it describes actual behavior rather than an outcome of behavior and observable, measureable, and repeatable behavior.
Vague descriptions of target behaviors are not useful. To say that someone was aggressive or has bad outbursts isn’t enough to fulfill the description of a target behavior. Some examples of vague target behavior descriptions that cannot be used are: aggressive, has outbursts, runs away all the time, screams at adults, grabs food all the time, and off task.
http://autismclassroom.com/home/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=72&Itemid=72
http://www.education.com/reference/article/defining-target-replacement-behaviors/
http://add.about.com/od/treatmentoptions/a/Behavioralmodi.htm
http://wps.prenhall.com/chet_cooper_appliedbeh_2/73/18705/4788683.cw/index.html
The topic that interested me the most from section 1.3 was the idea of positive reinforcement. This idea seems to work so well with preschool age children, much better than a punishment. Preschool children are so active and always excited to learn new things so encouraging their positive behavior with verbal reinforcement is key to them. Preschoolers love to hear specific reinforcement language such as letting them know how well they did cleaning their room by putting all of the toys in the toy box, making their bed and putting all their clothes and shoes in the closet rather than just saying they did a good job. This reinforcement encourages these specific behaviors each time they clean their room. Using these positive reinforcements verbally also encourages preschool children to speak positive to others rather than a punishment for not cleaning their room where they are not learning anything from the punishment and most likely still not cleaning their room. In these positive communications as a reinforcement it is also important to encourage the behavior of the child rather than the child, and same as with negative language, by saying it is not nice to not share your toys, rather than you are not a good friend if you don’t share. This encourages the child to change or continue to emit the behavior rather than punishing the child. One of the best ways to reinforce childrens pleasurable behaviors is to do these behaviors as adult so the preschoolers will model. They look up to adults and teachers and copy what they see.
http://www.livestrong.com/article/138053-activities-behavior-modification/
http://life.familyeducation.com/communication/behavior-modification/29734.html
http://www.suite101.com/content/5-tips-for-teaching-preschoolers-manners-a76651
In Section 1.4 punishment is defined as “a decrease in the strength of a response following the application or removal of a stimulus.” For example of punishment, when I would say inappropriate words I would get my butt spanked or had to sit at the bottom of the steps with soap in my mouth as a punishment for my “undesirable” behavior.
One thing I researched about was if parents are punishing their children too harshly and there are many factors as to why this happens, low income parents and parents who have high stress jobs also. Parents should not act on emotion and stress when punishing their child, they lack praise when a child does a good deed or behavior, and they should praise a child for that instead of always punishing for undesirable behaviors, parents should do research on other ways to punish their child that aren’t so harsh and the article states that punishment for a child should be based on their age, maturity, and personality. Praising your child will encourage more desirable behaviors.
I am interested in punishment mostly dealing with children, because I think some parents are too harsh on their kids and some parents do nothing to punish their children for undesirable behaviors, I think parents should think before they act on how to punish a child and what is an effective way to punish a child, not scare or scare them.
http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/155455/are_you_punishing_your_children_too.html
http://www.cyc-net.org/cyc-online/cycol-0605-stein.html
http://www.popeater.com/2010/07/30/snooki-arrested/
For my topic I decided it would be interesting to explore discriminate stimuli. I feel this is a very interesting topic because we encounter discriminate stimuli on a daily basis in our everyday lives. According to the text, Discriminate stimulus is any stimulus which sets the occasion for an operant response to occur. These stimuli allow the respondent to emit a variety of different behaviors. These emitted behaviors can lead to pleasurable or aversive consequences.
We can be reinforced when we follow the schedules of reinforcement that are set or we can be punished if we do not follow these established discriminative stimuli. Take for instance a rat in a cage, the rat will repeat a behavior if the result of the behavior ends in pleasurable reinforcment. Therefore we set the occasion for an operant response with our discriminative stimuli. We can also relate this concept to playing musical chairs!! The music is the discriminative stimulus which elicits a response from the participant. When the music stops we are suppose to emit a frantic sitting behavior, for those of us who were really good at musical chairs we would be reinforced with the opportunity to play again. For those who unfortunately didnt get a chair would be punished with elimination from the game.
My exploration of the topic has left me with what I hope is a better idea of just what discriminative stimulus is and how it applies to modifying behaviors. If everyone responded to the discriminative stimuli appropriately then there would be no chaos in society. Men would stop entering womens bathrooms and people would obey all posted laws such as stop signs and speed limits! The world would be a much better place!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KUDWfATjJCs
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S2SqKRCa1a8
http://www.psychology.uiowa.edu/Faculty/Wasserman/Glossary/stimuli.html
So, I decided to look into extinction bursts. The idea seemed really interesting to me because at first I had no idea what it was. I read the definition twice and thought about it, and finally it dawned on me what it was (I think the term was what had me confused). It makes so much sense to me that people would emit extinction bursts, either for attention or for that innate sense of “If I just try it one more time…” type deal. Whatever it is we’re doing, we want reinforcement. If that means giving it our all and trying everything possible to get that reinforcement, so be it. I have cats, a dog, I’ve babysat, and worked in several restaurants and grocery stores to have seen my fair share of extinction bursts. Seeing them and spotting the behavior nows looks so easy, but dealing with them is something completely different.
Aside from a Youtube video that made me laugh, I found two parenting/school article and a dog training article that referred to extinction bursts and how to weather them. I think it’s funny that almost all the behavior modification articles I find are either in parenting or pet magazines. Odd little coincidence, right? But I digress.
Extinction bursts will happen. It is entirely impossible to provide reinforcement for good behaviors each and every time the child/pet emits them. Eventually you’ll run out of dog treats, stickers, or candy. They won’t necessarily understand why you’re taking their treat away, and so they’ll do what you’ve successfully trained them to do: perform the target behavior for reinforcement. When that doesn’t, in comes the extinction burst and they repeat the behavior more frequently, faster, and will probably make minor variations on the behavior to try and get that reinforcement.
As stressful as it is, the only way to “fix” an extinction burst is to let it run it’s course. If you give in and provide reinforcement before the child or pet has exhausted themselves and given up, they will then throw another fit or beg more the next time they want reinforcement. I’m sure you’re all familiar with the little kid in the grocery/toy/etc store who really wants their mom or dad to buy them something. Asking turns to begging then on to crying, screaming, kicking, lying on the ground, and many times the toy is purchased. I want to do a facepalm on behalf of the parent every time I see them do it. Literature on extinction bursts aside, it seems common knowledge that giving a child a toy for making a scene in WalMart might make the kid do it again the next time they want something. The articles I read all warn against giving in and instead stress weathering the storm while providing as little stimulation to the child/pet. Ignoring the fit until it’s completely over will nip the problem in the bud, or at least it won’t reinforce it.
http://www.mphomeschool.com/blog/?p=214
http://www.nashuatelegraph.com/livinghealth/904057-224/resolve-to-weather-the-extinction-burst.html
http://www.wagntrain.com/OC/Part2.htm
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jn97UnozDb4
Interesting addednum: writing a blog in Pages and saving it is not the same as posting it. When frantically flying out of bed to get it posted at 1:30am, the internet will, inevitably, decide to be a brat and go out of commission. Extinction bursts involving rebooting the computer, plugging and unplugging the jack, cursing at ResNet, and ending with a *headdesk* will be emitted. However, my behavior was rewarded by ResNet getting it’s slow self to work again. Sad to say I can see this happening again.
After reading the chapters I that I was enjoying the positive reinforcment which allows pleasurable behavior to increase. But in order to elicit pleasurable behaviors you have to find ways for the other personto react upon what you emmit. Positive reinforcement fits into the chapter because that is what was talked about mentioned. I am sure that throughout the rest of the chapters and the semester that we will continue to talk about and use reinforcement as examples of other things.
This interests me because it is just amazing how one can control another or how positive reinforcement can really help a child to be more pleasurable to be around! When we are around people who are emmiting behaviors that we like or find pleasurable the more likly that we are going to want to be around them. This will also allow us to elicit them to do the same behaviors that we found pleasurable.
One of my resources was showing how to keep children focused which is a reinforcement. When one is liking the behavior that the children are emmiting, we will continue to provide positive reinforcement. I do think that when you over use positive reinforcement that one will get use to the pleasurable feed back or reward and only emmit behaviors when they will recieve the reinforcement. That is one thing that does worry be about doing positive reinforcement every Sunday school session.
What caught my eye is the fact that you are able to do positive reinforcement with anyone. From infant to old, from handicap to mentally disabled or ill. Positive reinforcement is such a key to behavior its amazing! Positive reinforcement is something that is so strong that it can help the reinforcer with a troubled child or a mentally disabled child. These children are able to learn new pleasurable behaviors due to reinforcement. No child truly wants punishment instead they would like reinforcement. This way its like a win win situation for both parties.
Third thing that grasped my attention was positive parenting positive reinforcement. A parent usually uses punishment to omit aversive behaviors in a child. The only problem with punishment is the fact that some times parents forget to praise or reward their children for the pleasurable acts and behaviors that they demonstated. With positive reinforcement it will allow your children to learn to goal set and achieve as well with the proper parenting!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5q_nXxnj4ZM&NR=1&feature=fvwp
http://www.autism-help.org/behavior-positive-reinforcement-autism.htm
http://kidsgoals.com/positive-reinforcement.shtml
The topic from 1.3 or 1.4 that interested me was satiation, that an organism can no longer be reinforced because the organism is satisfied. Reinforcement, in a lot of situations, is food. It is easy to understand when someone would be satiated if their reinforcement is food, when one eats the stomach expands sending signals to the brain that the stomach is full. There is a big problem today with obesity with America being the fattest nation in the world with Mexico as a close second. Perhaps satiation is not possible for all organisms if one can literally eat themselves to death. A lot of people attribute being obese to lacking self-control or just use eating as a mechanism to become not bored, but there may be another reason. If one can let themselves get to be five-hundred pounds perhaps it is because they never feel satiated. I cannot imagine what it would be like if I constantly ate and never felt full, it would be a punishment. According to Dr. Jeffrey Friedman of Rockefeller University the chemical Leptin is major contributor to obesity. Leptin is a protein hormone that plays a key role in appetite. Leptin, coming from the Greek root leptose meaning thin, because in reality the absence of this gene is what potentially causes obesity. The genetics of obesity is still in debate, but I think a lot of people would agree that obesity runs in the family. If your parents are overweight, there is a high probability that you are too, but is this due to genetics or to the environment. Nature vs. nurture? Twin studies show that the concordance rates for being overweight were twice as high for identical twins as for fraternal twins.
I believe the reason that obesity has increased is because unhealthy food is more readily available, people are more sedentary, people lack self-control especially in such an individualistic nations like United States, and the absence of leptin could potentially be a major contributing factor. Perhaps obese people need to be tested to see if they are leptin resistant and be put on a leptin injecting treatment plan just like people who are diabetic are treated with insulin injections.
People are reinforced throughout their life to stop eating when they feel satiated, but if one is never satiated one is not going to stop eating. I also suppose rats or other animals without the ability to feel satiated would be very good subjects to use in reinforcement studies.
http://www.eufic.org/article/en/health-and-lifestyle/diet-weight-control/artid/what-makes-us-feel-full/
http://www.rockefeller.edu/labheads/friedman/research.htm#genetic
http://www.newsweek.com/2009/09/09/the-real-cause-of-obesity.html
http://jama.ama-assn.org/content/256/1/51.abstract
In section 1.3 I was intrigued by the term topographically similar. I have never heard of this term in regards to psychology/behaviorism. Whenever I heard of topography I thought it had something to do with maps and geography.
In addition to my original thought, it was somewhat difficult to find the psychology term for topographically similar. In an effort to understand this term I found that individual's behaviors can be topographically similar. For example; Screaming, aggression, and self injury can be observed and seen as topographically similar. In certain studies, these behaviors are also known as target behaviors.
Unfortunately there are not many psychological studies that mention this term. When coined with psychology, topography relates to the way that people and animals recognize and remember topographic cues, and how they use these cues to navigate.
In conclusion, Topographically similar refers to two or more objects that look similar on the surface. Although I found few things to relate behavior with topography, I hope anyone reading this can comprehend it better then before.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1279859/pdf/jaba00006-0166.pdf
http://psychology.wikia.com/wiki/Topography
http://www.thefreedictionary.com/topography
http://books.google.com/books?id=L6rjmrz6J1sC&pg=PA539&lpg=PA539&dq=topographically+similar+(psychology)&source=bl&ots=gADr4Y-brc&sig=pjfbPH7wI5MihwPQ7yhz_J5G5iI&hl=en&ei=Nec-TeHxHMHogQf1vdXtCA&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=2&ved=0CBgQ6AEwAQ#v=onepage&q&f=false
In section 1.3 I was intrigued by the term topographically similar. I have never heard of this term in regards to psychology/behaviorism. Whenever I heard of topography I thought it had something to do with maps and geography. In addition to my original thought, it was somewhat difficult to find the psychology term for topographically similar. In an effort to understand this term I found that individual's behaviors can be topographically similar. For example; Screaming, aggression, and self injury can be observed and seen as topographically similar. In certain studies, these behaviors are also known as target behaviors.
Unfortunately there are not many psychological studies that mention this term. When coined with psychology, topography relates to the way that people and animals recognize and remember topographic cues, and how they use these cues to navigate.
In conclusion, topographically similar refers to two or more things that are similar on the surface. There were not as many topographically similar things related to behavior that I found on the internet. However, I am hoping that anyone that read through this can better comprehend the context.
Sorry, disregard this last post. I couldn't find my comment so I thought that it didn't post, that is why there are two posts of the same thing.
I chose to look at deprivation for my assignment. The first one is a psychology experiment that was done many years ago. A baby monkey was deprived of a real mother. It was given a wire mother with food and a cloth mother without food. It shows the effect of the deprivation of either security/love or food. The monkey would rather not eat than give up the cloth mother. This shows how detrimental deprivation can be when you take away something that would normally be reinforcing.
The next video is of a rat in a Skinner Box. This one involves the deprivation of food so it is then used as a reinforcer to get the rat to press the lever.
The third is pretty relevant study for college students. Sleep is a positive thing. Obviously we all enjoy the feeling of a good night sleep or a nice nap, so when that is taken away it can really damage our bodies and our abilities to fully function.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e5I6d_vq-Cc
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cl7jr9EVcjI
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pkwE0v2CIww