Please read the chapter assigned for this week.
(Reading Schedule: http://www.uni.edu/~maclino/hybrid/bm_book_s11.pdf)
After reading the chapter, please respond to the following questions:
Of the various aspects of Behavior Modification presented in the chapter, which did you find the most interesting? Why? Which did you find least interesting? Why? What are three things you read about in the chapter that you think will be the most useful for you in understanding Behavior Modification? Why? What are some topics in earlier chapters that relate or fit in with this chapter? How so?
Please make sure you use the terms, terminology and concepts you have learned so far in the class. It should be apparent from reading your post that you are a college student well underway in a course in psychology.
Make a list of key terms and concepts you used in your post.
Let me know if you have any questions.
--Dr. M
I found the most interesting piece of information in these sections to be the idea of behavioral hierarchy. I never would have thought that that you should take the behavioral hierarchy into great account when deciding on a reinforcer to changing behavior. It is very important to look at each individual’s behavioral hierarchy to decide what behaviors are high frequency behaviors and which ones are low frequency behaviors. People have different hierarchical behaviors that they prefer, so choosing one behavior for everyone may not work to help enforce or change a behavior. The least interesting piece of information I found in this section was the topic on primary and secondary reinforces. Even though it is just stating the important fact of primary and secondary reinforcers, I just felt that it is not as important as the other material in these two sections.
The first important information I got from these sections was the idea of the Premack Principle. In the Premack Principle, people will engage in a low frequency behavior for the opportunity to engage in a high frequency behavior. Example is when your mom says “do your homework and then you can go out and play.” The second important information is that you need to look at each individual’s behavioral hierarchy. This illustrates the fact that what is reinforcing for one person may not be for another person. The final important information is the idea of the behavioral chain. The behavioral chain is the series of behaviors (or links) that start with one behavior and continue through other behavior until they lead to the last behavior of the chain of behaviors. For the Premack Principle to work, you may need to change the behaviors in the behavioral chain to accomplish the behavior you want to change or increase. When you rearrange the links in the chain and reinforcing low frequency behaviors with the opportunity to engage in more desirable behaviors, it is possible to change the good or bad behavior.
Terms: Behavioral Hierarchy, Premack Principle, Behavioral Chain
Section 5.5 was all about behavioral chains, DRO's, and reinforcers! I found this section to have a ton of useful information. I liked the idea of redirecting an undesireable behavior to reduce that behavior. The example listed was quitting smoking. If you want to quit smoking, it may be more useful to chew on something so ocupy that oral fixation you may have. This is also an example of a DRO behavior because you're getting rid of an undesirable behavior and redirecting it into a more desirably target behavior. This is helpful because it's not just using punishment as a form of stopping a behavior, it also uses reinforment to help the behavior stop much more quickly. This section also reintroduced the different types of reinforcers-and i totally forgot about them so i'm going to discuss them again! There are primary and secondary reinforcers. Primary reinforcers are biologically relavent and untrained (so, natural instincts), whereas secondary reinforcers are lead and leads to obtaining a primary reinforcer. An important thing to note, as discussed in this section, is that a reinforcer can also be an event!
The premack principle was also discussed in this section, and beings that we talked about it in class it was a nice review. This principle says that you can get humans to emit a behavior, while in exchange give them the opportunity to do something that they like to do. This also states that people will engage in a low frequency behavior (one they wouldn't usually do) in exchange for a high frequency behavior (something they enjoy doing). This reminds me of an if-then sitation. Such as "if you do your homework, we'll go out for ice cream". In order to figure out someones low and high frequency behaviors it is important to keep a behavioral hierarchy. This is most typically done by observation.
Section 5.5 also talks about a behavioral chain. This is the order in which behaviors occur. In order to be suggesful at emiting a target behavior using the premack prinicple, you must establish a behavioral chain using little target behaviors that will eventually build up to the main target behavior. Once that behavior is reached, the peron will then be able to engage in the rewarded high frequency behavior.
Three thing I'll remember: behavioral chain, hieracrchy, and premack principle.
Terms: premack principle, emit, target behavior, punishment, reinforcer, primary/secondary reinforcer, behavior hierarachy, behavioral chain, DRO.
Section 5.5 was mostly about choosing a reinforcer, the Premack Principal, and behavior chains. It is important to choose a really good reinforcer because if you don't then the target behavior that you are looking to reinforce may not be reinforced correctly. To determine a really good reinforcer, one could use the Premack Principal. By using this, the tester could use different behaviors as reinforcers. By observing behavior chains, the tester could determine the correct reinforcer to incorporate into their test. An example of this would be a mother telling her child that if he picks up his room then he can go outside and play. The act of picking up the child's room is reinforced with the idea that the child can go out and play after the act of cleaning their room is completed. I didn't feel that there was anything not interesting in this section. Although, I felt the bit in there about the primary and secondary reinforcers may not have been needed to get the point across about the section.
Three things I will take away from this section is that 1)when choosing a reinforcer it is important to look at using the Premack Principal as a logical technique in reinforcing. 2) Behavior heirarchys can be used to get the subject to emit the target behavior. 3) A behavior chain can be viewed as a series of behaviors where one behavior leads to another behavior.
Terms: behavior chain, behavior hierarchy, primary and secondary reinforcers, Premack Principal
I thought the most interesting part about section 5.5 was the parts about behavioral chain and behavioral hierarchy. Behavior chain is viewed as a series of behaviors where one behavior leads into the next behavior. An example would be getting ready to go outside. First you must check the temp, put shoes on, put on your jacket, put on your gloves, your hat, turn the knob on the door, etc. behavior hierarchy is the high and low frequencies people have towards things. An example would be going to the pool (high) and cleaning your room (low).
When I read section 5.5, didn’t really find anything not interesting in this section; I thought that it was a good review over all the material we have already learned. Reading over the parts about the Premack Principle helped me understand it more and it also helped me correlate it with behavior chain and hierarchy.
Things that I will remember better out of this chapter are the Premack Principle, behavioral chain, and behavioral hierarchy. Premack Principle states that people will engage in a low frequency behavior for the opportunity to engage in a high frequency behavior. An example would be doing your homework first so that you can play basketball with your friends later. This leads to behavior hierarchy which is a list of behaviors that you like (high frequency) to behaviors that you dislike (low frequency behaviors. Finally, behavior chain is about all the events/behaviors we do so that we can complete a task. Example would be getting your homework out and doing it, putting it away, getting dressed for basketball, fetching your basketball, walking outside to the hoop and so on.
This section again relates to all the previous sections we have had in our class. It’s all about putting the knowledge we have learned into each other so we can behavior change different things. An example would be that we learned about reinforcement, punishment, behavioral hierarchy, and so now we can use those concepts to understand what the Premack Principle. The same can be said for all the theories we have learned later in the sections.
Behavior, Premack principle, reinforcement, punishment, behavior hierarchy, behavioral chain.
Section 5.5 was useful in helping us understand how to determine and use reinforcers effectively. The most intersting part for me was the the idea that we as humans have language to rely on and an ability to dealy our gratification. I like the idea that these make it so we don't have to be reinforced each time a behavior we wish to increase is emitted during out self-directed behavior modifications. There were many useful ideas for helping modify behavior in this section. There are two way to reinforce; give access to another activity or use a tanglible object. The idea that a reinforcer can be an event makes the most sense to me. I find wehn looking back that most behaviors I have tried to increase in the past have been most successful when I utilize this reinforcment. This is also part of the premack principle in which low frequency behaviors need to be emitted in order to elicit high frequency behaviors (ones we want to do more. I also found it interesting that if we want to sue bmod in a group setting it will be important to use time sample. Every __(specific amount of time) record the different behaviors being emitted by the memebers of the group. THis will help us create a behavioral heirarchy which we can engage in implementing the prepack principle.
From this sections idea that we can delay gratification, I was reminded of when we covered schedules of reinforcments. Delaying gratification could take on any of the schedules but brings to mind fixed ratio and fixed interval because when I have done this in the past it usually runs on these schedules. For every 60 minutes of exercise I do a day, I get to watch one TV show episode: FI. Or I get to eat pizza and drink beer, if I can make it 5 days or 15 meals of eating healthy: FR. I am delaying my reinforcer for doing high frequency behaviors.
Terms: Reinforcers, emitted, self-directed behavior, Low frequency, high frequency, elicit, premack principal, time sample, behavioral heirarchy, schedules of reinforcement, fixed interval, fixed ratio.
I found it really interesting that animals can be reinforced by events and that the monkeys were able to understand a token economy without having it directly explained to them. I figured that since they can't really delay gratification, the tokens would have little value to them, if they even understood the process of getting and cashing in tokens for a chance to look out the window. Obviously, animals are a lot smarter than I give them credit for sometimes.
The part on primary and secondary was a little redundant for me, but I can see why it'd be a good idea to bring it up again just to make sure people remember what they've read.
It will be useful to remember that behavior chains are things like our morning routine that we can apply the Premack Principle to in order to modify our own behaviors. If we decide that we need to rearrange our after-class behavior chain to do homework first, we may decide to use getting on Facebook, which might normally happen first, and move it to after homework. That way, Facebook time reinforces getting our homework done after class. The behavioral hierarchy will also be very useful for behavior modification. If I can understand what my population or each person in my population finds to be reinforcing, I can tailor a program to elicit the target behavior from them more efficiently. It is also important that gratification can be delayed as long as it's clearly understood and worded properly. This keeps the process of modification from being disruptive.
Because of that,this ties in really well with the reinforcement schedules section. The 'when' of a reinforcer is really important to shaping new behaviors and increasing current behaviors.
Terms: reinforcer, target behavior, elicit, population, premack principle, behavior chain, behavior hierarchy, token economy
It is just amazing how smart animals truely are!
What I found to be interesting in section 5.5 were the aspects involved in choosing a reinforcer to control behavior. Instead of punishment you should use reinforcement of a different behavior which with decrease the aversive behavior by competing with it (DRO). For example, if I want to quit biting my nails, I could reinforce my gum chewing behavior rather than punish my nail biting behavior. The two types of reinforcers are primary and secondary. Primary reinforcers are biological instincts such as food, water, oxygen, safety, social acceptance. A secondary reinforcer is learned and leads to a primary reinforcer at some point. Gift cards, tokens, and money are examples of secondary reinforcers. A reinforcer can also be an event or opportunity to do something. An example is the Premack Principle- The concept of getting an organism to emit a behavior for an opportunity to do something they liked to do. According to the Premack Principle, people will engage in low frequency behavior (one that they ordinarily wouldn’t do) for the opportunity to engage in a high frequency behavior (something that they really like to do). Example, if you do the dishes then you can watch TV. Tangible reinforcers can also be used. For example, if I lose ten pounds then I can eat one cookie. You can determine which behaviors can act as reinforcers by creating a behavioral hierarchy, which organizes high frequency behaviors and low frequency behaviors. Most of the time a behavioral hierarchy is completed by observing behaviors. A time sample should be included within the behavioral hierarchy so you don’t have to constantly monitor the behavior. The amount of time depends on the level of behavior and the available resources to make the recordings. The time sample recordings provide a frequency char which shows activity. Different behavioral plans are needed for each individual because what is reinforcing for one person isn’t necessarily reinforcing for another person. We can create our own behavioral hierarchy by observing out behaviors and keeping record in our behavioral diary. Another way is to make a list of all the things we do during the week and place a number from 1 –low to 7 high on how much we like to do that behavior. A behavioral chain is the order or sequence in which behaviors occur, which can be reorganized to put the Premack Principle into effect. A behavioral chain is the series of behaviors that start with one behavior and continue through other behaviors until they lead to the last behavior or chain of behaviors. An example is going to work: turn off alarm, get out of bed, shower, dry hair, get dressed, put on makeup, eat breakfast, put on shoes, open door, walk through the garage, open car door, drive to work. You can rearrange the links in the chain to reinforce low frequency behaviors with the opportunity to engage in more desirable behaviors. The four things that I will remember after reading the chapter are the different types of reinforcers: primary, secondary, tangible, and opportunity to do something. The topic of reinforcement is a concept mentioned in previous chapters, as well as the different types. Also the concept of keeping record of behaviors in a behavioral diary have been previously mentioned.
Terms: reinforcement, punishment, DRO, primary reinforcer, secondary reinforcer, aversive, tangible, behavioral hierarchy, behavioral plans, behavioral diary, behavioral chain, Premack Principle, emit.
There are many ways to select a reinforcer but many people struggle to pick what they are going to use for their reinforcer. I enjoyed this chapter for two reasons. Number one it was the last chapter I have to read, which means school is almost done. Second this chapter allowed a recall of past terms which I enjoyed by all means. For instance primary and secondary reinforcers. Primary is biologically relevant and is untrained or instinctual (food water, air). Whereas secondary is typically learned and leads to obtaining a primary reinforcer at some point. They can also vary on rage. Like the money and gift cards. I also liked how we talked about Premack again. This is where people will engage in low frequency behavior to obtain high frequency behaviors. So they will do behaviors they do not like or would not normally do in exchange for a behavior they would normally do. This chapter overall was like a review chapter but it was very helpful in so many levels. I find that no matter where you are in your life you are able to change the behavior that one is emitting or eliciting. This is a way to make not only your life better but those who are around you as well. I felt like this chapter when over lots of things that we have already talked about in other chapters so it was a very helpful chapter. I feel that some terms should be brought up again this was people can remember what they read!
Section 5.5 is very informative. It relays back to many other sections we have already covered such as Differential reinforcement of other and what priamry and secondary reinforcers are. One of my roommates has had a problem with binge drinking lately, as I am sure many college students have. But my roommate is smart when it comes to her academics, yet lately she has been letting them slide. As an example of selecting a reinforcer from my own perspective, I think that she should tell herself that she can only go out to the bars or a party if she gets a certain amount of her homework done. Although it is using alcohol as a reinforcer, it seems to work for her and at least will minimze her use. It seems like common ssense but it is easier said than done. Perhaps while she is studying she could snacks, gum, listen to the radio or drink an energy drink in place of the alcohol. If she goes along with this and her grades go up she can reinforce the studying behavior by going out and having a drink or two with some friends. This particular situation relies on delayed gratification, she needs to tell herself that if she gets this done, then she can go out. In this case the reinforcer is an event rather than an object. It also relates to the premack principle. She must study (low frequency behavior) in order to go out and have fun with friends (high frequency behavior). This also means that she will have to use self-directed behavior, because she is the only one that can control the outcome of her grades and her binge drinking.
When considering this same situation, some people may be different, they might like studying and would rather do good in school, get it done and party later, or not at all. Clearly, My roommate's behavioral hierarchy starts with socializing over studying.
I thought this section was very informative, I liked all the information I read and I will remember how to select a reinforcer, create your own behavioral hierarchy by observing your behaviors and to reorganize that hierarchy into a behavioral chain to enforce the premack priciple and ensure that it will be effective.
Terms: DRO, Primary and secondary reinforcers, delayed gratification, premack principle, low and high frequency behavior, self-directed behavior, behavioral hierarchy, behavioral chain.
This section was very interesting and informative. It really emphasized the importance of finding and implementing a proper reinforcer for an individual. The section stated the not all reinforcers are reinforcing for all people, someone might like to read and another person might like to play with legos. Therefore, the approach must be tailored to fit the individuals preferences. It also talked about Premacks Principle when you use a low frequency behavior to later have the opportunity to engage in a high frequency behavior. The example given was a mom telling her son to do his homework (low) before he goes and plays (high). It is also important to use punishment the least amount of times possible by utilizing the ideas of the DRO, reinforcing other behaviors rather than using punishment to achieve our target behavior. We can use behavioral hierarchy and behavioral chains to rate our own behaviors and incorporate Premacks principles to get use to achieve our low frequency behaviors. Behavior chains are a series of sub behaviors that result in a target behavior.
A number of previous ideas were touched upon in this section, premacks principle, recording behaviors as with a frequency chart to determine behavioral hierarchy, Finally the importance of using DRO over punishment when seeking to modify a behavior.
Terms: Premacks Principles, DRO, Behavioral hierarchy, behavioral chain, recording behaviors, target behaviors, reinforcement, punishment
Section 5.5 has a lot of different good points. First it discusses how we should try to find a way to reinforce a different behavior other than the one we are trying to decrease, which will function to decrease the problem behavior by competing with it. This is called Differential Reinforcement of the Other. When setting up a behavioral change it is important to recall the primary and secondary reinforcers. A primary reinforcer is biologically relevant and is untrained or instinctual (food, water, air). A secondary reinforcer is one that is typically learned and leads to obtaining a primary reinforcer at some point (money, gift cards). Reinforcers can also be events, like the opportunity to do something we want to do.
The Premack Principle was comprised when researchers discovered that they could get humans and animals to emit a behavior for the opportunity to do something desirable. People will engage in a low frequency behavior, (a behavior they wouldn’t usually want to do) for the opportunity to engage in a high frequency behavior (something really desirable). How do we organize such behaviors?
The behavioral hierarchy is something we may develop ourselves by observing our behaviors and making a list of the things we do and rating them from low to high frequency.
A behavioral chain is used to reorganize our behaviors to put into the Premack Principle effect. It is the order in which the behaviors happen. The chain is the series of behaviors that start with one behavior and continue through other behaviors until they lead to the final behavior.
Choosing the right reinforcers gives us opportunity to have reinforcers that are compatible with the desirable behavior we are trying to increase (when trying not to watch tv, spend a day watching your favorite programs).
Terms: reinforce, primary reinforcer, secondary reinforcer, premack principle, behavioral hierarchy, behavioral chain
What I thought was most interesting was about the behavior chain. Behavior chain is the order or sequence in which behaviors occur. I thought it was interesting because I don’t think a lot of people put together all they do throughout the day as leading up some events. For example me getting ready for class in the morning. My alarming going off causing me to snooze it a couple times, and getting up, showering, getting dressed, doing my hair/makeup, putting on shoes, packing my bags, walking to my car, drive to campus and walking to class. There is so much to just going to class. Something I thought least interesting was choosing the right reinforcers. I think it’s important but I just didn’t find it all that interesting. It’s something that we learned about through the semester so it wasn’t really something new to read.
Three things that I thought were important from the chapter were the primary and secondary reinforcers. The primary reinforcers are biologically relevant and is untrained or instinctual. Secondary reinforcers are typically learned and leads to obtaining a primary reinforcer at some point. Another thing that I thought was important was the Premack Principle. This is where people will engage in a low frequency behavior for the opportunity to engage in a high frequency behavior. The third thing that I thought was important was while using this Principle you discover that what is reinforcing for one person may not be for another person and you have to adjust to differences.
This chapter is kind of the ending to learning about bmod (the last chapter :) ) But we are putting all we learned into practice with this last chapter. We broke down the pieces and this is putting it altogether. Such as punishment, reinforcement, schedules of reinforcement, etc
Terms: behavioral chain/choosing the right reinforcers/ primary/secondary reinforcement/ Premack Principle
i agree, chain of behavior was very interesting.
I enjoyed reading about the behavioral hierarchy and it seems like it would be very easy to apply to my life. A behavioral hierarchy can be used to see what your low and high frequency behaviors are. The example that was used is really easy to think about and apply. The teacher wanted her students to have a range of activities that they can do at play-time. She set a time sample where she set a timer for ten minutes. When the timer went off, she would look around at the children and see where they were when the timer went off. That way, she didn't have to observe and watch each and every child as they were playing in the different play stations. The teacher then created a frequency chart to look at the overall progress. The idea of a behavioral hierarchy is very similar to the Premack Principle. This states that an individual is likely to do a low frequency behavior for the opportunity to engage in a high frequency behavior. For me, a low frequency behavior would be reading a chapter from a boring history text. The high frequency behavior would then be watching an episode of Law and Order SVU. Even though I do not like reading the boring history text, I love to watch SVU, so that would be my reinforcer. An easy way to set up a behavioral hierarchy is to make a list of ten things and number them one through ten: 1 would be the highest frequency and 10 would be the low frequency behavior. Dr. Maclin's example on himself was having washing the dishes as a low frequency behavior. I would assume that this means that this is his least favorite behavior and by itself would not be very reinforcing. However, his high frequency behavior was eating. So, he is likely to do the dishes and the other low frequency behaviors in order to have the opportunity to engage in the high frequency behavior of eating.
Three things that I will remember from this section are 1: a behavioral hierarchy is similar to and branches off of the Premack Principle in dealing with low and high frequencies of behavior. 2: a reinforcer does not always have to be an object. It may be an event, and 3: a way of thinking about a behavioral chain is one behavior leading to the next behavior and so on.
terms: behavioral hierarchy, Premack Principle, high frequency behaviors, low frequency behaviors, reinforcer
I think the most interesting part of the section would be about the DRO (Differential Reinforcement of Other). This is reinforcing an alternate behavior, rather than punishing for one. This can be very helpful if you have a bad habit and want to do something different. For example if I had problems with biting my nails, I could try chewing gum instead so I am not punishing myself for it. One thing I didn't like was waiting to reinforce yourself for the behavior because I feel like it would be easy to emit a aversive behavior because you are not reinforcing the behavior right then and there. Three things I will remember from the chapter are:
1. Reinforcers can be events, such as earning a secondary reinforcer, like money.
2.A behavioral hierarchy can be created to determine what events can be used as
reinforcers.
3.When a variety of reinforcer options exist, it is often a good idea to choose a reinforcer that compliments the behavior you are modifying.
These concepts are important in understanding bmod because they help to understand exactly how and when we should reinforce and what kind of reinforcers come naturally.
reinforce, DRO, emit, secondary reinforcer
I think the most interesting aspect of behavior modification in this chapter is the Premack Principle, because it's simultaneously very intuitive and evasive at first. It's one of those ideas that I know works because I've been doing it for years without knowing what it's called: "If I do my homework, I'll give myself an hour for video games".
The least interesting section for me was the section called "Choosing the right reinforcers, because it seemed like so much of it was review from previous sections or class discussion.
Three things I think will be the most useful are the Premack Principle (because it's an effective method of reinforcement), creating a behavioral hierarchy, and utilizing behavioral chains (because these two concepts are very useful in effectively implementing the Premack Principle).
I thought the part on choosing the right reinforcer was very similar to previous sections about reinforcement and reinforcers. Some of the important information in this section was that it might be a good idea to use an activity that relates to the target behavior for a reinforcer, and the reminder that if a reinforcer doesn't work, it's not a reinforcer.
Terms: Premack Principle, reinforcers, behavioral hierarchy, behavioral chains, reinforcement
Section 5.5 along with 5.4 were interesting to me in many ways, I liked in section 5.4 how it explained about being able to change the antecedent and what ways you could do that in any situation to change the consequences and how it’s all ties into the ABC’s, nothing in the chapter was really new to me. I also think you need to be able to map out the different things you can do to change your behavior and know what reinforces you can use to modify and change your behavior. There is a difference between low and high frequency behaviors when dealing with the behavior hierarchy, which I think is needed for us to map out in our own lives, we also need to use the behavioral chain to recognize our behaviors and the sequence they happen, for example when I go out I have to get ready, I shower, do my make-up, do my hair, pick out an outfit, choose my jewelry, have a some pre-outing cocktails, and head out the door. Three things I will remember: How we as humans have the ability to delay gratification, so that we know every time we display a behavior that we don’t need the reinforcer right that moment, we know later on we can get it, we should note every time a desired behavior occurs, we can also use an event as a reinforcer instead of an object or reward, for example as long as I don’t smoke cigarettes I get to go get my nails done or if I spend less money going out, I can enjoy a nice meal at Red Lobster (example of premack principle: humans emit a behavior when they know they get to do something they like).