Topical Blog Week #6 (Due Thursday)

I decided to do some more research on positive punishment, so maybe I could elicit others to start talking about it as well. The discriminative stimulus tells the punisher what punishment would be appropriate for that situation. In every situation not every punisher is adversive for everyone. For some people the punisher could act as a reinforcer. I decided to find a couple video clips to demonstrate the different discriminative stimulus people are under and the different positive punishers they use.

In one clip from the television show Weeds you see U Turn throw a knife into another guys leg. He does this after telling the guys to "shut up", and that fails. U Turn now has all of his men under stimulus control because they're all afraid that he will throw a knife into their leg if they speak up. If they don't come back with the knife clean they are all afraid that U Turn will emit a knife into their heart. This situation is quite different than another situation he is in at another time. In another one of the video (start at 50 seconds) clips Pilar gets hit in the head with a croquet mallet by Shane. This is another form of positive punishment. She is being punished by being hit in the head, and it's positive because that's something that is being added to the situation. The croquet mallet then becomes an establishing operations, because to some people this is just a croquet mallet, but to Shane it is now much more. The croquet mallet is now a weapon. In the final video clip Celia begins to strangler her daughter as a form of punishment because she has been conditioned to do that because of her experience in jail. She is adding the strangling, and it is very adversive, so it is a form of punishment.

As you can see from all of these video clips they all demonstrate positive punishment in different ways. Under every discriminative stimulus you see different results. Behavior modification has taught me that punishment is not the way to go about getting a desired target behavior. Reinforcement is the way to get the desired target behavior. As I learned this I started to notice more and more how much punishment is used instead of reinforcement.

positive punishment, elicit, discriminative stimulus, punisher, punishment, punishing, adversive, reinforcer, stimulus control, emit, establishing operations, conditioned, behavior modification, target behavior, reinforcement, positive reinforcement

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TEwVI5XhzpQ&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jnlnSEsbcbE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mqt9IjbXc2s&feature=related

Last week I talked about Skinner and how he used punishment, reinforcement, and extinction to look at operant learning in animals. After reading this week’s readings I decided to look at Skinner a little bit more in depth and look at schedules of reinforcement. Schedules of reinforcement are extremely important in determining the effectiveness of reinforcement. Skinner used several different schedules of reinforcement in his experiments. A ratio schedule is based on a certain number of completions of the target behavior to get the reinforcer. An example of this would be the rat has to push the button five times to receive a food pellet. The ratio schedule can be fixed which means the reinforcement comes after an exact number of successful completions of the target behavior such as the example above. This style of reinforcement often produces a number of responses until the reinforcer is delivered then a drop off in responses is seen. A ratio schedule can also be variable which means that it is based on an average, or you will give the rat a food pellet for on average every five button pushes. The actual numbers might vary; as you might give it the food pellet on the fourth push or the sixth push, but it will average out to be the fifth push. This schedule of reinforcement supports a steady stream of responses, because the participant isn’t quite sure when the reinforcer will come. A great example of this can be found at any casino where people can be seen putting loads of money into slot machines hoping for a payoff because slot machines operate on a variable ratio schedule of reinforcement. The other type of reinforcement schedule is referred to as an interval schedule of reinforcement. This means that a certain amount of time elapses before the reinforcer is delivered. A fixed interval schedule of reinforcement means that the reinforcer is delivered after an exact amount of time, such as, a rat receives a food pellet after five minutes regardless of how many times it pushes the button. This produces a sped up response rate up until reinforcement is given because the subject will eventually catch on to when exactly reinforcement is coming. A variable interval schedule of reinforcement means that reinforcer is delivered randomly based on an average. An example would be if you gave the rat a food pellet after four minutes and then after six minutes and it averaged out to be that the rat received reinforcement after an average of every five minutes. This type tends to produce a constant response rate because the subject isn’t sure when it is going to receive reinforcement. Another schedule of reinforcement is referred to as extinction. Extinction is when reinforcement is stopped in an effort to get the subject to stop a target behavior. The idea is that if the subject stops receiving reinforcement in anyway after completing the target behavior that the target behavior will cease to be emitted. The final schedule of reinforcement is called continuous reinforcement. This schedule simply consists of the subject being reinforced after every successful completion of the target behavior.

http://www.psychology.uiowa.edu/faculty/wasserman/glossary/schedules.html
http://academics.rmu.edu/~tomei/ed711psy/b_skin.htm
www.webster.edu/~woolflm/personalityskinner.ppt

Terms: Punishment, Reinforcement, Extinction, Schedules of Reinforcement, Reinforcer, Fixed Ration, Variable Ratio, Fixed Interval, Variable Interval, Continuous Reinforcement, Emit

The topic that I decided to research further is the use of positive reinforcement in parenting. After concentrating so much on punishment and reinforcement in class on Thursday, I became very interested in the use of positive reinforcement in parenting and wanted to learn more about it. I remember talking about that fact that parents do not really know how to positively reinforce so I wanted to see what articles on the internet had to say about the topic.

This topic goes along with section 2.2 that covered reinforcement. Reinforcement is a very effective way to increase the frequency of a target behavior and I wanted to learn more about how parents implement this in their day to day lives. We have concentrated a lot on punishment and reinforcement in this class so I knew that this topic would add to my understanding of what we have already discussed about reinforcement.

I am interested in this topic because I plan on starting a family in the next five years or so and I want to learn as much as I can about being an effective parent so that I can be the best I can be. Also, I have several friends that are already parents. When visiting them I see how they often struggle to get their children to emit the target behaviors they are looking for. They often resort to punishment and aversive consequences to change behaviors. From what I have learned in behavior modification, this is not the most effective way to change target behaviors. So, I would like to learn more about this topic so that I can try to avoid some of the mistakes I have witnessed my friends emitting. I would like to elicit target behaviors without hurting my children’s self-esteem in the process.

Positive reinforcement is very effective in increasing the frequency of target behaviors. Although some parents do not realize it, children, just like everyone else, want to please those around them and receive approval from others. When you reinforce your children for emitting pleasurable behaviors, you are giving them exactly what they are looking for. Many parents find it difficult to use reinforcement because it means that you have to pay close attention to everything that your child does so that you can catch them being good and can therefore reinforce that behavior. It is much easier to notice aversive behaviors and just try to punish these but always punishing your child can actually lead to low self-esteem and self-confidence in your child.

Often parents are reluctant to use positive reinforcement because they think it is bribery and will make their children spoiled. This is not true at all if reinforcers are used correctly. If a reinforcer is given in response to a pleasurable target behavior, then it is not bribery.

According to the articles I read online, there are four things that make positive reinforcement effective. First of all, you have to clearly define the behavior that you would like to increase. You need to used specific target behaviors and not behavioral classes such as you need to behave at the dinner table. If you use specific target behaviors, then your child will know exactly what is expected of them. Secondly, you need to choose age-appropriate reinforcers so that they will be appealing to your child. A child is not likely to listen or change their behaviors if they do not find the reinforcer appealing. You could use establishing operations of talking about how cool the reinforcer is so that the value of reinforcer changes and seems more appealing. The third idea brought up was that reinforcement should be consistent. This does not mean that you need to use continuous reinforcement, but the reinforcer does need to immediately follow the target behavior. When a behavior is first being learned, reinforcement should be given every time. But after the behavior has been learned you should use intermittent reinforcement because if a child expects a reinforcement eveytime they emit the target behavior and do not receive the reinforcer then they will actually cease to perform the behavior unless they receive the reinforcer. Using variable ratio or variable interval reinforcement would both be effective. Continuous reinforcement could also lead to satiation and then the reinforcer would no longer be reinforcing. And the fourth idea was that you should praise and encourage as you reinforce. This motivates the child to continue emitting the target behavior. Be consistent with praise and vary your statements of praise. If you say the same thing every time your child does something positive, then they will begin to think you are not sincere and the praise will no longer have a reinforcing value.

I had a good time exploring this topic further and I learned a lot about how positive reinforcement should be used in parenting.

Terms: Positive Reinforcement, Punishment, Reinforcement, Frequency, Target Behavior, Emit, Aversive, Consequences, Behaviors, Behavior Modification, Elicit, Pleasurable, Reinforce, Reinforcer, Punish, Behavioral Classes, Establishing Operation, Continuous Reinforcement, Intermittent Reinforcement, Variable Ratio, Variable Interval, Satiation

http://kidsgoals.com/positive-reinforcement.shtml

http://life.familyeducation.com/parenting/discipline/45283.html

http://www.kidsmakingchange.com/ArticleDirectory/article/EfectiveParentingSkills-InstillGoodBehaviorThroughPositiveReinforcement/article.html

I chose the topic of group support as an effective positive reinforcement for dieters. I am interested in the idea that group support is a kind of positive peer pressure, something we usually are taught to avoid. Support groups for dieters are designed to provide a place to talk to others who are trying to lose weight, exchange ideas and encouragement.
Dieting is a continuum of bad behavior (too much or the wrong kind of food), the withdrawal of the reinforcing deliciousness of that food (extinction) in an effort to extinguish the behavior (overeating). Almost everybody has extinction bursts in the course of a diet (eating a whole bunch of bad food) because the positive reinforcement(losing weight) is just too slow.
One of the traditional diet plans that uses group support is Weight Watchers, where dieters go to meetings like alcoholics. The dieters weigh in and perhaps talk to each other about their food problems, or more likely, their too much food problems. The leader at a Weight Watchers meeting provides “nutritional education and emotional support.” http://www.ehow.com/way_5616331_diet-support-groups.html#ixzz1mSgACMaN It is a kind of conditioning, where the behavior emitted is eating the wrong kinds of food, the reinforcement should be losing weight, but because that reinforcement is not enough or not quick enough, the group support can help. The antecedent would be the support group the behavior would be eating right and the consequence would be to be fit and healthy.

While the original idea was that face-to-face meetings were necessary reinforcement to keep dieters on their diet, online support groups now apparently work as well, at least for some people. http://www.ehow.com/way_5616331_diet-support-groups.html#ixzz1mSgACMaN A study has shown that computer-generated praise (positive reinforcement) sent to a dieter in response to dieters’ answers to a daily questionnaire did not affect the dieters’ eating habits, suggesting that some human contact, even if online, may be necessary. http://www.bing.com/search?q=diet+reinforcement+groups&qs=n&pq=diet%2520reinforcement%2520groups&sc=0-0&sp=-1&sk=&first=41&FORM=PERE3 ,
Persuasive Interaction Strategy for Self Diet System:
Exploring the Relation of User Attitude and Intervention
by Computerized Systematic Methods
Youngho Jeen1, Jiyoun Han2, Hyodong Kim2, Kyungwon Lee2, and Peom Park3

An interesting experiment studied the idea of enhancing the reinforcing effects of a support group by adding a social contingency: the dieter gets thrown out of the group if he or she did not meet their weight loss goal. http://www.bioportfolio.com/resources/pmarticle/185381/A-Randomized-Trial-Testing-A-Contingency-based-Weight-Loss-Intervention-Involving-Social.html
This aspect would have to be considered a punishment for failing to accomplish the expected weight loss, and so would be the opposite of the positive thinking that is sometimes recommended for dieters. http://www.livestrong.com/article/542890-how-to-lose-weight-using-positive-reinforcement/ As we have discussed in class, the punishment aspect did not improve the weight loss of the randomly selected participants.

Terms: positive reinforcement, punishment, conditioning, contingent reinforcement, behavior emitted, reinforcing, extinction, antecedent, consequence

http://www.bioportfolio.com/resources/pmarticle/185381/A-Randomized-Trial-Testing-A-Contingency-based-Weight-Loss-Intervention-Involving-Social.html
http://www.livestrong.com/article/542890-how-to-lose-weight-using-positive-reinforcement/

http://www.ehow.com/way_5616331_diet-support-groups.html#ixzz1mSgACMaN

http://www.bing.com/search?q=diet+reinforcement+groups&qs=n&pq=diet%2520reinforcement%2520groups&sc=0-0&sp=-1&sk=&first=41&FORM=PERE3

The topic that elicited me to do more research on for this assignment is superstitious behavior. This topic was in section 2.4 and discusses emitting a behavior believed to lead to a reinforcement.

Superstitious behavior is said to be a byproduct of adventitious or random reinforcement. Some psychologists even call it "magical thinking". In other words superstitious behavior occurs when a random action or object leads to an unrelated reinforcement. For example, people cross their fingers when hoping for a desired outcome because they have been reinforced by that behavior in the past. Because their behavior of crossing their fingers lead to the desired consequence they attribute the success to the crossing of their fingers. In reality, however, crossing your fingers does not increase the likelihood of a desired outcome.

B.F. Skinner is credited with showing that superstitious behavior can occur in animals as well as humans. The following link is to a video about Skinner's experiments with pigeons.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7XbH78wscGw
Skinner found that when pigeons were reinforced based on Variable Intervals they developed superstitions based on what they were doing when the reinforcing treat was presented.

Superstitious behavior develops when we are children by watching others and due to our experiences. According to a recent study done at Kansas State University people who believe that fate and chance control their lives are more superstitious. Fore example, in the antecedent of a basketball game a player might emit the behavior of tapping the ball a certain number of times to bring about good luck. He emits this behavior because it has been unintentionally reinforced through the winning of a previous game. Researchers also found that despite the participants beliefs about life when they were less likely to be superstitious when talking about death.

Superstitions are so prevalent in our culture because of the "placebo effect"--if you think something will help you it might just help. One reason people emit superstitious behavior is because they wish to have more control--or illusion of control--or certainty in their lives. False certainty can be better than no certainty. People also emit superstitious behavior to decrease aversive feelings, such as helplessness, and because it is easier to blame superstitions. For example, the behavior of walking under a ladder is often linked with an aversive behavior that occurs later, such as tripping as you continue walking. People will create a correlation between the two behaviors because it is easier to blame bad luck gotten from walking under a ladder than on one's own clumsiness.

We must keep in mind that there is a difference between superstitious behavior and rituals or anxiety disorders such as OCD. Using the basketball example again, it is not superstitious behavior if the player touches the ball a certain number of times because it calms him down. This is a cause and effect relationship and not a superstition. Behaviors become superstitious when an individual places a magical significance to the behavior. The behaviors emitted by individuals with anxiety disorders are seen to be a consequence of irrational thinking not superstitions. However, some people with OCD have reported that they "believe that if they don't worry about something, then the likelihood of it happening will go up." Some individuals do believe that they must do certain behaviors in order to avoid aversive consequences.

Finally, most superstitious behavior is non-aversive and is emitted to prevent a particular consequence. However, phobic superstitions can interfere with lives by causing so much anxiety that an individual reschedules their life. For example, missing a doctor's appointment because it is Friday the 13th can lead to serious consequences. Also, studies have shown that more women emit superstitious behavior than men and that intelligence level has nothing to do with the frequency or intensity of superstitious behavior.

Terms: antecedent, behavior, aversive, emit, elicit, consequence, variable intervals

http://www.medicinenet.com/script/main/art.asp?articlekey=46749&page=2
http://www.medicinenet.com/script/main/art.asp?articlekey=46749
http://psychcentral.com/news/2010/09/03/scientific-view-of-superstitious-behavior/17698.html
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7XbH78wscGw
http://www.essortment.com/superstitious-behavior-cause-cure-36002.html

I have chosen to elicit a behavior of reading and studying the work of Pavlov (Sect.3.2), and the founding of classical conditioning. “Classical conditioning is a reflexive or automatic type of learning in which a stimulus acquires the capacity to evoke a response that was originally evoked by another stimulus”.
Pavlov would later go on to win a Nobel peace prize for his work in digestion. Is creation of the “Pavlov pouch” which isolated a section of a dog’s stomach so that ingested food would not contaminate the saliva, which he was collecting with a surgically placed tube into the dog’s saliva gland. (Text 3.2)
When working with the dog he came to find that the dogs would begin to salivate even though the meat powder had not yet been presented, and even found that the dogs would salivate by the mere sounds of Pavlov’s shoes coming down the hall, known as psychic reflex, he would try soft soled shoes as well.
Pavlov would continue onto change the stimulus by using a metronome, bell, and a lght. By doing this he found that the stimulus didn’t matter, the dog had been conditioned to respond to the stimulus being presented knowing that the reinforcement was going to be presented, the food.
Topographically a behavior is serving a general purpose or a natural response, but each general behavior/response as a functional purpose. Most people become tense when a loud bang from a gun is heard (aversive), but tend to duck or something of that nature. But learning to dive to the ground when the bang is heard as those in the armed services may have learned, the function is different because of different conditioning, and staying alive is always a positive reinforcer. As in the video, Zimbardo says, relax, then shoots a gun. After a few times, your usual learned reflex, becomes reconditioned to accept the correlation of the word relax, then the bang from the gun, thus you’ve been reconditioned, which extinguishes the previously learned reaction.
http://www.learning-theories.com/classical-conditioning-pavlov.html
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hhqumfpxuzI
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ZRV4OV-6Wo

Terms: elicit, behavior, reinforcement, topographical, aversive, functional, reinforcer.

This week I decided to cover a subject that I had no previous knowledge of before being in this class and reading the chapter of ABC's. I was initially going to cover the extinctin part of the chapter and go into detail concerning extinciton burst and so forth but I noticed this had already been done. I did not want to be "that guy" so I chose a different topic that has not been covered yet in detail and I was still unaware of before this course began. My topic is How people show superstious behaviors even with no reinforcement and why they do what they do. I found good material on this point and went from having a vauge understanding of the concept to understanding it much clearer and in much more detailed context. It is actually a vocab word of my topic that was in this chapter of the week so I guess that explains how it fits into this assingment and I personally love seeing people behaive in nature when there is no apparent reason for doing the act. If I am not reinforced for most things in my day to day life I tend not to do them. So why do people do what they do?

What I discovered through my research was very interesting and knowlegable. In most cases people like to have a pattern in their life that they are familier with. This is a small part of why people are introduced and begin superstious behaviors because they think it is reinforcing to there schema. There are three different supersitous behaviors that are learned in our environment. The first one is learned by a organism in a environment that is reinforced at a indepenedant schedule. So if you were to be walking down the street one day and someone came up to you and gave you a hundred dollar bill for no reason, you would may form a superstious behvior of walking down that street in hopes of one day recieveing another hundred. Next is unneccesary responding to continious schedules of reinforcement. This would be like you checking your phone for that text you get at noon from your mom everyday but check early just out of habit to look. Lastly, biased responding to stimulus control. This is also know as sensory superstious behavior. This is classified in skinners experiment when the pigeon continues to peck at the button out of just being tranined to do so.
People are incredibly superstious animals who in our daily lives have come up with so many superstions mostly from reinforced independent schedules in our lives. Everyone has them even if they do not know it. I personally hate listening to voicemail because it has in the past been bad for my life, so I think getting a voicemail is superstious bad luck for me. It goes agaisnt everything logical but we people are bizarre creatures.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l-EzwD5XEC0
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pfoGFoqtrxY
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1348309/pdf/jeabehav00040-0007.pdf

Terms: exctinction, exctinction burst, superstious behvior, superstion, behavior, reinforcement, indepedent schedule, responding, continuos schedule, stimulous control, sensory superstious behavior.

My topic is the schedules of reinforcement (specifically a variable ratio schedule) and how they exactly work in the real world. It fits in with the last chapter we talked about because that chapter was over the schedules of reinforcement. I am interested in this because it seems like it would be a good thing to know about and use in different places. I am also interested in it because I have been going to some casinos lately and many of their machines use a schedule of reinforcement I’m sure, so I want to understand that some more.

The four different types of schedules of reinforcement are: 1. Fixed ratio schedules, 2. Variable ratio schedules; 3. Fixed interval schedules, and 4. Variable interval schedules. In a fixed ratio schedule, a behavior is reinforced after a specific number of times the behavior is emitted. In a variable ratio schedule, a behavior is reinforced after an unpredictable number of responses has occurred. You never know when you will get reinforced; it varies from time to time. In a fixed interval schedule, the behavior is reinforced after a certain amount of time has passed. In a variable interval schedule, the behavior is reinforced after an unpredictable amount of time has passed. Again, you never know when it will come; it varies. There is also another type called continuous reinforcement. You usually use this when you are trying to teach a new behavior. Once the behavior is learned, then you stop reinforcing it. An example of this would be teaching your child to use the restroom. You don’t continue to praise them after it becomes natural for them; that would just be silly. If you want to maintain the learned behavior, then that is when you switch to one of the above schedules of reinforcement. The variable schedule is the most powerful. The variable ratio is what slot machines are on at the casinos. If you got something every time you put a coin in, you would lose interest, so to make it more interesting and fun, the payout is variable. You have no idea how many times you have to put in money. It could be the first try or the twentieth. This is why slot machines are so hard to leave because the next time you push the button is when the big payout could be, and then you would just be giving that to someone else. I do have to say from personal experience, gambling is pretty addictive. You just have to walk away and say no, I’ve had enough. Another example of the variable ratio schedule is golfing. Sometimes you hit the ball well and then the next shot could be horrible. Just the few good shots is what makes you keep playing. Another example of this would be why people stay with the abusive partner. The partner starts with being very sweet and loving and makes the other partner love them, and then things start to get bad. The partner stays because they see the good side of that person every now and then, which reinforces why they are with that person. As long as people get reinforced every now and then, that is fine with them, which is interesting to me. The fixed interval schedule is the least effective. The person or thing doesn’t emit the target behavior until right before the time is up because they know that is when they will be reinforced. So overall, I believe the variable schedules are the best to use, rather than the fixed schedules.

http://psychology.about.com/od/behavioralpsychology/a/schedules.htm
http://www.betabunny.com/behaviorism/VRS.htm
http://www.limbicnutrition.com/blog/20-dont-shoot-the-dog/

Terms: schedules of reinforcement, fixed ratio schedules, variable ratio schedules, fixed interval schedules, variable interval schedules, reinforced, emitted, behavior, target behavior

For our past readings, we learned about how many people emit certain behaviors because superstitions elicit them. I found this to be a very interesting way to look at behaviors, so I decided to do my topical blog on this phenomenon this week. I also took it one step farther and looked up superstitious behavior on the extreme end. I googled sports superstitions and definitely didn’t come up empty handed. I had no idea so many athletes emitted superstitious behavior. I guess when your job is to win, winning can be a strong stimulus control. So strong in fact that famous athletes like Tiger Woods and Michael Jordan will emit unusual behaviors because they were reinforced for them at some point it time.

Every Sunday, the last day in every golf tournament, Tiger Woods wears a red shirt. One site believed this was due to certain findings in psychological research. One study found that SEEING red negatively impacted performance. Another study found that teams who wore red jerseys won more games than those who wore white or blue jerseys. These findings have elicited the behavior of Tiger wearing red to psych out his opponents during the golf tournament. This color red is just a theory, not fact. However, it has lead Tiger Woods to emit certain suspicious behaviors.

Any even more bizarre superstitious behavior than wearing a red polo, is what Michael Jordan used to do when he played for the Chicago Bulls. If any of you have seen the movie “Space Jam”, you should know what I’m referring to. Jordan used to wear his UNC shorts under his Chicago Bulls uniform. Michael Jordan was a phenomenal basketball player not only in the NBA, but in college as well. Because Jordan was reinforced with success when he emitted the behavior of wearing his UNC shorts, he continued to emit that behavior in hopes to be rewarded again. I do not think he was disappointed.

http://www.fftodayforums.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=270453

http://www.golf-mental-game-coach.com/why-tiger-woods-wears-red.html

http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/DyeHard/superstition-michael-jordans-success/story?id=11210274

Terms - emit, elicit, reinforcement, reinforced, superstitious behaviors, topical, stimulus control,

Topic: Schedules of Reinforcement

I chose this particular topic because when I first learned about the schedules of reinforcement, it took a little bit to grasp the complete idea of its' use within behavior modification. After attending class yesterday and the thorough discussion we had on this topic, I felt like I understood it more and left class fascinated by the way in which these reinforcement schedules manipulate the occurrence of desirable behaviors by determining when and how often to reward the emitted behavior. This topic fits into the chapters in that we have discussed numerous times the ideas of reinforcement and punishment and how they effect the responses and behaviors of others, but in order to be successful at either of those you need to time the scheduling of them perfectly. Whether or not we realize it, we have all been manipulated by this very concept numerous times throughout our lives.

In this instance, I will be particularly focusing on the reinforcement of behaviors. As far as the scheduling of reinforcement goes, it is a very important component of reinforcement and its' success. To get an individual under your stimulus control and to elicit them to emit the desirable behaviors that you seek, you must provide an effective schedule of reinforcement. First though, you must make sure that the reinforcement being used is reinforcing enough to keep the individual under your stimulus control. In the beginning, you may want to provide a type of reinforcement called continuous reinforcement, which would basically mean to reinforce the individual each and every time they emit the desirable behavior in order to make the association between the emitted behavior and the reinforcement. Once the individual has a strong understanding of the relationships between the behavior emitted and the reinforcement, you would introduce a more complex schedule of reinforcement or otherwise known as partial reinforcement.

The first type of schedule of reinforcement is the fixed or variable ratio. What this means is that the reinforcement is provided following either an established number of times the desirable behavior is emitted (fixed) or following an irregular or variable number of times the behavior is emitted. The ratio part of this schedule of reinforcement focuses on the idea that the reinforcement is provided following the number of times the behavior is emitted.

The second type of schedule of reinforcement is the fixed or variable interval. What this means is that the reinforcement is provided following a set break of time between the emitted behavior (fixed) or an irregular or variable break of time between the emitted behavior. The interval part of this schedule of reinforcement focuses solely on the gap of time between the emitted behavior and the reinforcement.

When rewarding a behavior it is a good idea to provide the varying schedules of reinforcement once the connection has been made instead of consistently using continuous reinforcement so that the individual does not become satiated. The deprivation that these schedules provide is a great way to develop stimulus control over the behavior, strengthen the likelihood of the occurrence of the desired behavior,and it also makes the reinforcement more rewarding for the individual.

In the sea lion training video below you see the concept of continuous reinforcement at its best. The sea lion is rewarded with fish for each and every target behavior that is emitted. It is obvious that the sea lion is under stimulus control of its trainer and depends on the trainer for the fish. The trainer is acting as a discriminative stimulus in this particular case. As perceived from this video, I am guessing that the sea lion is in the earlier stages of its' training due to the use of continuous reinforcement.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HxHO7pYjdiI

On the other hand, in the otter training video below you see a more advanced behavioral training in that the otter is reinforced less often. The otter must perform a number of tasks before receiving the reinforcement of fish. It is hard to determine from the short length of the video which schedule is actually being used.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=twf5x74QZeA

As you can see in both training videos, the reinforcer used was fish which is definitely something that both animals find desirable enough to assist the trainer in eliciting them to emit the desired behaviors.

All in all, these schedules of reinforcement are vital in the development of stimulus control as well as providing strength in the likelihood of desirable behaviors occurring. The schedules of reinforcement are something that each and every person has or will use throughout their lives. This concept is important in understanding behavior modification.

http://psychology.about.com/od/behavioralpsychology/a/schedules.htm

Terms Used: Schedules of reinforcement, behavior, emitted, reinforcement, punishment, response, stimulus control, elicit, continuous reinforcement, fixed ratio, variable ratio, fixed interval, variable interval, satiated, deprivation, discriminative stimulus, reinforcer.

After emitting the behavior of reading the chapters assigned this week I found the most interesting concept mentioned to me was the variability that happens in different behaviors as they are going through extinction.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RlkPkLUcaB0
This youtube clip demonstrates very well the concept of emitting variability. This clip demonstrates what happens when one cartoon character gets upset with his computer when he feels as though it is not working. He begins by pressing a button and when the button doesn't work then he tries pressing it faster and harder until his fingers start to bleed. His fingers windle down to nothing and he is elicited to emit the behavior of using his head to smash the keyboard. He is using variability because he switches both the frequency and the body part in which he uses to smash the keyboard.
Variability is induced by the environment (antecedent) a person is put into. If they had previously been subject to operant conditioning in which they were reinforced for a certain target behavior, they have become accustom to using that behavior to acquire the reinforcement. Extinction is the concept that begins once the reinforcer is reduced or even withheld from the subject. The subject then undergoes an extinction burst which is where variability comes into play. The extinction burst is evident when the subject begins to vary their emitted behavior to something maybe similar to the original target behavior in order to elicit the reinforcer to return. A common example used is when a spoiled kid in a grocery store is told "no" for a certain item by their parent. Since the child is not used to being told "no" they may try to ask the question in a different way, rephrase it so the parent would be more likely to answer with the more common response of "yes". This is also an example of variability.
Another way to integrate the concept of variability into this week's topics would be to consider that the variability in a specific emitted behavior may be caused by the schedule of reinforcement changing. This is to say that if a subject was reinforced on a continuous reinforcement where everytime they emitted the behavior they were reinforced before and the experimenter changed the schedule so that the subject was only reinforced everyother time they emitted the behavior (a fixed ratio schedule) or they were reinforced every 5 minutes no matter how many times they did the behavior (a fixed interval schedule) the subject would understandably come under some stress. Their routine has changed and until they find out why they may become confused. This is where variability comes into play. The subject is frustrated by the change that has happened and because they are not accustom to this change they may originally exhibit an increased frequency in emitting the target behavior and when they come to realize that that is not working they may try changing their behavior only slightly to see if the experimenter now wants something new out of them (variability).
One thing that I encountered in research that I found fairly interesting was the concept that the variability can be controlled.
http://www.psychologie.uzh.ch/fachrichtungen/allgpsy/Publikationen/Souza%20et%20al.%20(2010).pdf
This author suggests that there is a way that you can control the amount of variability that the subject emits. He calls it the "degree of variation". This can be controlled by different reinforcement contingencies (meaning the temporal, intensive, and topographical conditions under which a response is followed by a positive or negative reinforcing stimulus or the removal of either of these).
This author also mentions that you can control the type of extinction you will exhibit in a subject. Meaning that you can control whether the subject will repeat the behavior as a extinction burst or if they will attempt to vary the type of behavior they are emitting. He does this siting research where the experimenter may have exposed the subjects beforehand to the type of variability or the repetition (extinction burst) that can be done with the target behavior. Using establishing operation they can show the subjects that if they may try this new way in the future, whether it be repeating the behavior or varying it, it is possible to be reinforced.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=An8NqC1SO8o
As a final example this little girl in this clip has obviously found reinforcement in many ways due to her variability. She is reading a book upside down (also singing). We may assume that when turned rightside up she wasn't able to read the book out-loud, thus elluding her from the reinforcement of laughter and applause from her family. But when she tried to vary it and put the book upside down and started singing she realized that she was being reinforced by the assumed smiles and audible laughter of those in the background.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=An8NqC1SO8o
http://www.termwiki.com/EN:contingency_of_reinforcement
http://www.psychologie.uzh.ch/fachrichtungen/allgpsy/Publikationen/Souza%20et%20al.%20(2010).pdf
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RlkPkLUcaB0

Terms: emit, variability, behavior, extinction, elicit, frequency, antecedent, operant conditioning, target behavior, reinforcement, reinforcer, extinction burst, schedule of reinforcement, continuous reinforcement fixed interval, fixed ratio, reinforcement contingencies, topographical, degree of variation, positive or negative, stimulus, establishing operation,

After the discussion on Tuesday I was very interested into the general topic of extinction burst but to gain a better understanding of it I wanted to research the topic that will give me example on how it occurs in the world. Along with this topic I am adding variability and mainly on how extinction burst can lead to a person emitting an aggressive behavior.
Extinction burst occurs after a target behavior has been emitted that would result in an immediate reinforcer or a reinforcement that is no longer present. Extinction burst causes an increase in the behavior that is being emitted. While an extinction burst is occurring variability occurs by emitting different behaviors to still obtain the reinforcer, this can cause a person to become very aggressive. Research done by D.C. Lerman, B.A Iwata, and M.D Wallace, suggested that aggressive behavior is a side effect of extinction burst, this type of reinforcement can actually cause more harm to the person then helping. (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1284537/)
I think it very helpful to know that certain types of methods that you use to modify a behavior it is good to be aware of the consequences on both ends of the spectrum. This clip of a boy named Stephen is an example of extinction burst that results in aggressive behavior.
Extinction burst occurred in a clip when Stephen’s target behavior was cooking his food in his microwave. The microwave in this would be the reinforcer by when he put his food in it expecting the microwave to cook his food. When the microwave was not eliciting the desired behavior he was not receiving the reinforcement he usually would get from it. Instead the microwave was broken and this became very aversive that he began emitting a hitting and yelling behavior at the microwave that he got so frustrated and the experience became so aversive that the consequence of that resulted in Stephen throwing the microwave and breaking it. This is a aggressive behavior because the extinction burst became so aversive that it caused Stephen to act in a very aggressive manner which as a consequence he has smashed his microwave.
I really liked the information I found about extinction burst related to aggressive behaviors. I know the positive side effects of this behavior method but finding out information that was related to how a consequence of extinction burst resulted in emitting aggressive behaviors.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1284537/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0a8CWuX1TTI&feature=related\

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extinction_(psychology)

Terms: extinction burst, consequence, elicit, reinforcement, aggressive behavior, behavior, emit, aversive, target behavior, behavior modification, reinforcer, variability

For my topic, I chose extinction burst. I am interested in this topic because extinction bursts reinforce that the extinction procedure is working. If somebody is emitting an aversive behavior and you are trying to make that target behavior extinct, that person will try harder to make you cave and emit the behavior they want you to. It is interesting to see how an extinction burst elicits a pattern of aversive behavior because people get what they want. It fits into our class because the aversive behavior increases and eventually the reinforcer is presented. If you want to decrease the frequency of a behavior, you need to emit being strong and not giving in to the desired reinforcement.

In the videos I found on extinction burst, the people emit a target behavior to receive a reinforcement. When the reinforcement is not presented, the person starts to emit a more extreme target behavior. With emitting the target behavior more rapidly and excessively, they think they will be reinforced. The one video is of a child crying for a toy, and eventually the dad has an extinction burst and says ok because he is sick of the child's target behavior(crying). When you have an extinction burst, a different consequence is made. If the father would have said no and been firm in his decision, the extinction procedure would have been successful. In the other video, many examples show extinction bursts. Not only does the target behavior increase, but there is also variability. Variability is similiar behaviors to reach reinforcement. The kid does not get a pop when he hits the button on the machine, and eventually he emits hitting the machine to try and get the reinforcer(pop). Some behaviors may turn very extreme, or turn into an aggresive behavior. The kid let his emotions be present and he started to hit the machine because he wasnt being reinforced. The father gives into the child because she is showing aggresive behavior and causing a scene in a public place. Extinction bursts are extremely important in the extinction process because it is a reinforcer to show it is successful.

Terms: extinction burst, reinforce, extinction, emit, aversive, behavior, target behavior, elicit, reinforcer, consequence, variability, aggresive behavior, reinforcement

Sources:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jn97UnozDb4&feature=results_main&playnext=1&list=PLAACD3318283C1E93

http://voice4dogs.blogspot.com/2010/02/extinction-burst.html

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5IM1p-Tn-jA

I thought one of the more interesting topics in these past two sections was spontaneous recovery. It's so interesting to me that after a specific behavior has been extinguished for such a long time that it can just come back like it used to in the exact same way.

The first website I found discusses what spontaneous recovery is and then gives an example of what it would be in real life. The website's definition of spontaneous recovery is, "is the reappearance of a response (a Conditioned Response; CR) that had been extinguished. The recovery can occur after a period of non-exposure to the Conditioned Stimulus (CS). It is called spontaneous because the response seems to reappear out of nowhere." Their definition is basically the same one that our book has, so it's reinforcing that our definition is correct. It then goes on to give an example about conditioning a rat to push a lever after it hears a beep, then changing the conditioning stimulus to seeing a light flash. It then goes on to say that after the rat was conditioned to react to the light flash instead, and if at some point he went back to react to the beep again, that would be classified as spontaneous recovery.
http://www.alleydog.com/glossary/definition.php?term=Spontaneous%20Recovery

The second website I found seemed like a project that someone had to make for a class. It went over the same definition again that both the book and the previous website had, but it went more in depth with it to explain what it was and how it worked. This website closely linked spontaneous recovery to extinction. Before reading this one, I didn't really think about them being that closely related, but their explanation makes quite a bit of sense. After it gave a definition, it went on to talk about how going to certain websites displays spontaneous recovery. It talks about how someone can go on a certain website, like icanhascheezburger.com, can at some point be a regular routine for someone. After a while, it could slowly dwindle down to someone not going on it as often. A person could see a link relating to that website one day, and then remember that website and go back to it like nothing happened.
http://www.slideshare.net/Noellawood11/spontaneous-recovery

The third website I found talks about how spontaneous recovery is linked to stammering in children. It's a website for linguists, or people who study language and language therapy, and it talks about how if a child develops a stammer, (usually at the age of three), that even if they "grow" out of it, they'll have a 2/3 chance of redeveloping it before adulthood. When a child elicits the behavior of stammering, it can be conditioned out of them, but anything can be a trigger to re-establish the behavior.
http://www.stammering.org/growout.html

Terms: spontaneous recovery, behavior, extinguished/extinction, conditioned stimulus, reinforcing, conditioning stimulus, elicit, conditioned

I was interested in the topic of ethics in behavior modification because it goes back to how people view manipulation negatively, while Behavior modification uses manipulation as a term to define all influence on behavior. I was also interested in the little Albert study, even though this is more often cited as a classical conditioning example. This study is also Behavior modification because Albert’s behavior was changed due to manipulation, and then his reaction was reinforced. First I emitted the behavior of reading the original Little Albert study, which called Albert a happy normal baby. He was not afraid of the rat. They did the loud sound stimulus, which elicited Albert’s emitance of scared behavior class actions, like crying, and falling away. His actions were a result of the aversive loud noise, which decreased his former lack of fear. Crying and turning away from the white and fluffy was the conditioned response.

What I was really interested in was what happened to baby Albert after the study, and did they try to fix him/uncondition him. I feel this is a matter of ethics, because the scientists could have ruined his life. They didn’t, it turns out. Little Albert died at the age of six, from a disease that caused water to pool in his brain. It turns out he was never a healthy baby. This information elicited a wondering response in me. Were the researcher’s reinforced by scaring a baby, just because it illustrated a psychological idea? Why couldn’t they have tried to condition him, to associate nice feelings with an object, therefore making him like a snake, Instead of fear. It was probably pleasurable to the researchers to record his fear, because it corresponded with their ideas. His response was their reinforcer. It also seems that they used an already sick infant, who might have been more susceptible to the conditioning.
By today’s standards, (In the U.S) this sort of experiment would not be allowed. It would be aversive to the public who would not reinforce the researchers with pleasurable responses. Instead there would be outrage, punishing the researchers and decreasing their desire to do the experiment.
Could Little Albert’s conditioning be reversed? It turns out it could. There was another case study done on a two year old named Peter, who just so happened to be afraid of rats, rabbits and white fluffy things. (seems a little convenient, doesn’t it). Every time Peter saw a rabbit he emitted a crying and running away behavior. To decrease this, the researcher, had Peter play in a pen with other children. This was to be an establishing operation for decreasing the target behavior of crying when he saw the rabbit. The other children emitted no behaviors in the behavior class of scared. When the rabbit was introduced these children played with it. Peter swathe other children’s pleasurable response to the rabbit. This acted as a discriminate stimulus, because he thought that he too might be reinforced by playing with the rabbit. Another thing that might have also manipulated Peter’s behavior was the other children not wanting to play with him when he cried, (negative reinforcement, because it took something pleasurable away) and them teasing him (positive punishment, because teasing is aversive.)
I found reading these studies pleasurable, because I finally know what happened to Little Albert, and that he could have been cured. I found it a little aversive, because it is sad that he died so soon.

aversive, pleasurable, elicit, emit emitted, behavior class, classical conditioning, stimulus, uncondition. conditioned response. punish, positive punishment, establishing operation, target behavior, reinforce, negative reinforcement, discriminate stimulus,

http://psychology.about.com/od/classicalconditioning/a/sad-tale-of-little-albert.htm
tells what happened to him
http://psychclassics.yorku.ca/Jones/ the little peter study and unconditioning
http://www.scribd.com/Psych101/d/13768098-Little-Albert-A-Classic-Psychology-Study original study

The topic that I was most recently interested in was that of superstitious behavior. Superstitious behavior is something that I emit myself and I never really understood why. Superstitious behavior is emitting a certain behavior that we believe is associated with a reinforcer. An example of this would be every time that I play basketball or any other sport. I need to have my necklace that my dad gave me on or I feel “unlucky”. The reason that I started wearing this all the time was because the first game that I wore it to, I could not miss a shot. It instantly became my lucky charm because I associated it with a good performance.
We all have superstitious behaviors that we partake in throughout our day but the most well known superstitious behaviors occur in sports. Like my example, everyone has something that they do or wear because they associate it with an outcome in the past. Why professional athletes do something as trivial as wearing a lucky pair of socks or the same morning ritual the day of the game is beyond me. As behavior modification would say, these athletes developed a correlation between their behaviors and the outcomes.
The majority of the websites that I ran across all included examples of superstitions that were either somewhat known, but there were a few that I ran across that were just plain weird. For example: A knife placed under the bed during childbirth will ease the pain of labor. To me this is just plain crazy. How would somebody possibly associate the pain of childbirth with a knife being under the pillow? In instances such as this, I wonder how many things that we do throughout the day have something to do with superstitions.
Reading through these websites and learning more about superstitious behavior has really made me realize how susceptible we really are to behavior modification. If we can make somebody believe that the number of x’s in the palm of your right hand will equal the number of children you will have (I counted 27 on my hand), I’m pretty sure we can make children clean up their bedrooms or get people to stop interrupting when you are talking with a little work. This assignment has taught me that behavior modification encompasses more than just getting somebody to do what you want them to, but to change their behaviors entirely.

I have been unable to view past students blogging but I have chosen to do some more research on:
EXTINCTION BURSTS! I chose to learn more about extinction bursts because after discussing it in class, it really caught my attention, and you can see it in your everyday life!

What is extinction bursts exactly? And extinction burst is when the reinforcement is initially withheld, the behavior that used to lead to reinforcement will occur more often. There will also be an increased amount of the behavior as the individual tries even harder to obtain reinforcement. The organism no longer receiving reinforcement for a target behavior will emit that behavior over and over again in an attempt to receive the reinforcement to which it has become accustom.

Why did this catch my interest? I became really interested in this topic because of how common and easy it is to see in real life and in television shows. You can never fail to find you-tube videos of Family Guy and relate it to Behavior Modification! Extinction Bursts definitely fit into what we are learning in class because we discuss emitting extinction bursts and also eliciting extinction bursts.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B1Vcbm-XWtg&feature=results_main&playnext=1&list=PL79901FAA53F3ABF8
This video clip of Family Guy was actually on television aired as a commercial! In the commercial Brian (the family dog) was sitting on the couch with some wheat thins. Stewie (the families baby), comes and joins him on the couch and asks for some, “wHeat thins!” Brian refuses to give Stewie the wheat thins because he is overemphasizing the “h” in wheat thins. They go back and forth saying wheat thins, wHeat thins, wheat thins, and each time Brian said Wheat thins, he said it either louder or more clear than the time before to try and get Stewie to correctly say “wheat thins!” This is an extinction burst because normally once you tell someone to say a word a certain way they will say it the same way, but Stewie wouldn't do it, so Brian had to try a variation of ways to get Stewie to say what he wanted him to say.

http://youarenotsosmart.com/2010/07/07/extinction-burst/
This website does a very good job at describing what extinction bursts are and very good examples of it. It gives a misconception, if you stop engaging in a bad habit, the habit will gradually diminish until it disappears from you life. It then describes the truth of extinction bursts, any time you quit something cold turkey, your brain will make a last-ditch effort to return you to your habit. One of my favorite examples used was with Super Nanny! She uses operant and/or classical conditioning with the children that she “trains” to emit good behavior. For example, if you are taking a shower and someone flushes the toilet which then causes the water to become a scalding torrent, you become conditioned to recoil in terror the next time you hear the toilet flush while in the shower. This is classical conditioning. Classical conditioning is neutral, the toilet flushing becomes charged with the meaning and expectation, you have no control over it. Operant conditioning changes your desires. Your inclinations becomes greater through reinforcement, or diminish through punishment. Punishment and reward! Although these terms were from past chapters, it was a nice review!

http://seab.envmed.rochester.edu/abstracts/jabaabstracts/28/28-093.Htm
This is just a short little study done at a PubMed Central. It describes how extinction has been an effective treatment for behavior disorders, and can be associated with aversive side effects, the most common being an initial increase in the frequency of the target response called an extinction burst. Long story short, they have found that extinction burst do not occur as often as we may assume. I definitely assumed that this could be seen often but I guess they proved me wrong! This was interesting to read about because it changed the way that I looked at behavior modification and extinction bursts.

I learned a lot more about extinction bursts than I knew existed, but it was very refreshing to see the different forms of extinction bursts and what happens on the “road map” to it. There are many processes that occur before extinction bursts can even be considered!

Terminology That I Used in My Blog: Extinction Bursts, Reinforcement, Emit(ting), Target Behavior, Eliciting, Variation, Classical Conditioning, Operant Conditioning, Punishment, Reward., Diminish, Extinction, Aversive, Target Response.

The topic I chose to look into and write about is reinforcement schedules, how they differ from each other, and what type of reinforcement fits into each schedule. This fits into section 2.5 because that is what the whole section is about. I am interested in this, actually, because it is the most confusing to me. I thought maybe more extensive research on it would help me to better understand.

There are two main schedules of reinforcement, and that is continuos or partial. Continous means the desired behavior is reinforced every single time it is emitted. Partial is when the desired behavior is reinforced only sometimes, not every time.

Within partial reinforcement, there are four sub-levels.
1. First, is a fixed ratio. Fixed ratio reinforcement schedules reinforce an individual after a certain number of times the behavior is emitted. An example of this provided in one of the articles I found is, "if an assembly-line worker were to be given a bonus for each 1000 items he assembled, he would work fairly quickly to the first thousand, slow production and relax for a bit, then start working harder and harder until then next thousand, and so on."
2. Secondly, there's the variable ratio. Variable ratio deals with a number of times a behavior is emitted also, but it deals with the average amount of time, not a fixed amount. Slot machines at a casino are a really good example. Being reinforced at random times is very reinforcing for people to keep playing the slot machines, because it pays off at unpredictable times.
3. Thirdly, there is a fixed interval. Intervals have to deal with amount of time passed between behaviors being emitted. A fixed interval is when an individual is reinforced after a specific amount of time. According to one of the websites I found, "fixed interval schedules typically produce a stair-stepped pattern of behavior...after the presentation of reinforcement the production of responses levels off until just before the time for the next presentation, when the level of behavior increases rapidly, then levels off again, and so on." That explains it quite perfectly. For example, if a worker at a company knew the boss makes rounds at 3 every day, he might slack off until right around that time, and then work extra hard so it appears that he is hard at work.
4. Lastly, there is variable interval schedules. Variable interval is when an individual is reinforced after an average amount of time, not an exact time. An example of this would be if you were to call a friend and the line was busy. This would elicit you to call the friend back every few minutes because you don't know the exact time, but you know the conversation they are having with someone else has to end eventually.

http://www.polyxo.com/discretetrial/schedules.html
http://psychology.about.com/od/behavioralpsychology/a/schedules.htm
http://allpsych.com/psychology101/reinforcement.html

Terms used: elicited, emit(ted), reinforce(ment, ed), fixed interval, fixed ratio, variable interval, variable ratio, behavior, desirable, continuous reinforcement, partial reinforcement

I decided to further research the concept of superstitious behavior because it is so prevalent in many societies and cultures. One area where superstitious behavior is especially prevalent is the world of professional athletes. My husband is a huge Lakers and NBA fan so we watch a lot of basketball in our house and I have noticed that almost every superstar athlete has emitted some sort of pregame or in game ritual behavior that they follow every game, every time.

Once again, the inspiration for this week’s blog post is non-other than B.F. Skinner, in my opinion, the father of Behavioral Psychology. Skinner created something that he called Skinner’s Box which is essentially a box that holds an animal such as a pigeon or a mouse. Skinner would then randomly drop food into the box but the pigeon began to associate the consequence of receiving food with the behavior of flying to the left, thus the bird flew left consistently in the hopes of receiving more food. Superstitious behavior can be found all around us. Watch little old ladies in casinos, my grandma for example, loves to play the penny slots and she insists on hitting the spin button once, and then again immediately after so that the reels do not spin a full rotation. She has no basis for why she prefers this method, only that she feels this is the way she has to play the slots. Another prime example are those in the NBA. Many basketball superstars have their ritual, ranging from using Talc powder on their hands, to a paraffin wax dip, to blowing a kiss to the hoop before each free throw. These rituals have become commonplace in today’s society showing that humans are truly creatures of habit and find comfort in routines.

I find the concept of superstitious behavior to be interesting because of the fact that we, as human, and other species of animal look to make a connection or correlation out of nothing quite often. We read and buy into horoscopes because “that one time my horoscope was totally right on so I should subscribe just in case!” We can’t accept simple coincidence, rather we try to make a connection out of nothing and link random, unrelated events to the outcome of another unrelated event. In terms of the ABCs and athletics, the antecedent is preparing for the big game, the behavior would be a superstitious behavior such as performing pull ups on the rim at a game, and the consequence (or so Dwayne Wade believes) would be superior performance in the basketball game even though no empirical evidence has been discovered to support that.

http://psychclassics.yorku.ca/Skinner/Pigeon/
http://vidallena.org/skinpal.htm
Example videos:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4iOUubdyLLo
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=plwpWsAkWys&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8BDI7uM1AxA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wsM6cLka-xE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ETIjVc-hdKM&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l_ZAMfFSZGI
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-OhrdsmIV7E&feature=related

terms: Superstitious behavior, antecedent, behavior, consequence, emit, Skinner’s Box, correlation

Lately in class we have discussed the topic of superstitious behavior, this is a behavior that is reinforced without the subject meaning to emit it.
This topic particularly interests me because I like to look at the reasons behind a subject's behavior and what elicited the behavior. Why do people generalize their behaviors even when it's obvious that there will be no reinforcement as a consequence? Mostly because that method has generally worked for them in the past. It has become like a ritual to them.

This video, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7XbH78wscGw, talks about Skinner's pigeon experiment. It start with the bird in the cage pecking around, after pecking a particular area food is released to the bird. Skinner was releasing the food in variable time lengths, but the bird thinking it had done something right continued to peck in that area. Realizing nothing was happening it moved on , then at another random time more food was released. Again thinking the bird had done something special it continued with this behavior. The pigeon was using superstitious behavior thinking that if it repeated the same behavior it would be reinforced with more food.
So why continue to be superstitious? Psych Central, http://psychcentral.com/news/2010/09/03/scientific-view-of-superstitious-behavior/17698.html, had an article based on multiple researches and stated that many individuals continued behaviors as a source of control over the uncertainty. This relates to Skinner's experiment because the cage scene was new to them and once they found something that works it was hard to move on to new tactics even if they are the better choice. As a kid it was easy to stick with the same thing because really it was the only thing you knew. People don't usually want to look around for alternatives when they have a solution, whether it is effective or not.
On the show "Hannah Montana" Miley is stuck home studying but can't seem to remember all the information for her test. She's always been good at memorizing dances and songs though so she uses those skills to memorize the information.
The next say she uses superstition to rehearse her dance one more time before her test just as she would before a concert. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Waxf9KZWpM She uses her rehearsals as a continuous reinforcement, reassuring herself that she will be able to perform well.

The thing about this type of behavior though is that If a superstitious behavior were to be extinguished it is most likely that the subject would experience spontaneous recovery. When a behavior becomes so familiar to one that they emit it without any thought about whether to or not it has most likely become a superstitious behavior, the subject has emitted a behavior without knowing whether or not that it will lead to a reinforcer simply because it is what they are use to or has been associated with a reinforcer in the past.

Terms: Superstitious Behavior, behavior, reinforced, emit, elicited, generalize, reinforcement, consequence, superstition, continuous reinforcement, extinguished, spontaneous recovery,

I decided to do a little more research in reinforcement and I related it to dog training. My grandparents’ dog, Lucy, gets a treat after every time she is taken out to go to the bathroom. I’m interested in this because sometime in the future I want a dog or two and reading on how to train a dog using reinforcement instead of punishment will show me how to not only be a good owner, but to have a dog that likes me. My grandpa reinforces Lucy’s after emitting the behavior of going to the bathroom by rewarding her with a treat. This type of reinforcement would be positive because not only do they want her to increase the behavior of doing her business whenever they take her out, but they are adding the treat as a reward for her good behavior. Many dog owners train their dogs in different ways, but usually when a dog does what the owner wants, the dog will receive a treat. It’s been found that in the early 1990s, trainers resulted to only using negative reinforcement and positive punishment as training techniques. Many trainers use spray bottles to punish dogs once they do something like eat food off the counter while others use shock collars which inflicts pain on the dog. It’s kind of like when you want to teach your child a lesson, but you punish him/her by spanking. It gives the child the wrong impression and now training programs suggest never using a technique for punishment that was be painful to your dog. The youtube video I selected for this example is a great way of showing how to reinforce your dog for good behavior. The owner elicits the behavior by saying ‘go get me a soda’ and the dog chooses to emit the behavior of going to the fridge to get a soda. The dog brings it’s owner a soda in order to be positively reinforced for its behavior.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CAmGCHw2_mY
http://www.dogmanners.com/punishment.html
http://r-plusdogtraining.info/pplus.htm

Terminology: positive reinforcement, negative reinforcement, positive punishment, elicit, emit.

The Clicker Training Method
1. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BJP9QCXhL1k&feature=fvst
--Shows the beginning stages of clicker training.
2. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dWb9_ZvsLbo
--Shows the entire process condensed down.
3. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O6wgbCmaD8o&feature=related
--Shows cats being clicker trained as well.

This topic fits into the chapter by being categorized as a secondary reinforcement method.
I am interested in this topic because I have a dog at home and will have at least one of my own someday. So I am actually using this for future purposes in training my dog. However, this method of training is not limited to use on only dogs.
This strategy is used often in training dogs because it is simple. Dogs are slaves to their stomachs; it takes a lot of food to satiate them to the presence of food (depending on the size of the dog of course). The clicker is paired with the addition of food after a target behavior has been produced. After the dog starts to recognize that they will be rewarded after completing the desired behavior (food) they notice that a "click-click" occurs right before the food. As the (2.) video illustrates well, after the dog gets the hang of what is going on, the trainer will stop presenting the reward when leading into the target behavior. The trainer will also decrease the exaggerations of his motions when leading the dog into what he wants her to do. Eventually the dog will perform the target behavior knowing that after the "click-click" is heard she will get food. When the trainer thinks she is conditioned to this enough, he will ween the food given after the target behavior occurs. This is done to reduce the required amount of reinforcement given while still having the target behavior occur. Reduce the amount of reinforcement too early by too much and the conditioning process will turn into extinction. This could result in completely ruining the method or at least cause a speed bump in achieving desired target behaviors occurring when desired.

Terms: secondary reinforcement, satiate, paired, target behavior, rewarded, desired behavior, decrease, conditioned, reduce, extinction.

I picked the term extinction to write/research. When reading about it in the chapter I didn’t quit understand what it meant and when it was displayed. Upon talking about it in class and looking at videos about it I realized it was a behavior that is displayed almost every day. I know I experience extinction at least once a day and it is usually aversive. It happens when you don’t get reinforced for something that you usually get reinforced for. For example emitting the behavior to turn on the TV usually turns on the TV, but when the TV doesn’t turn on you push other buttons on the remote. If this doesn’t work you might go behind the TV and take the cord out and plug it in again. You go through all these different behaviors to try and get reinforced. It can get very upsetting.
Through researching I have learned that extinction is the best way to deal with undesirable behaviors. For example if every time your child cries, you pick him/her up and hold them, the child is prone to emit a crying behavior anytime it wants attention. If the target behavior is the crying and you want to stop it, it is best not to pick up the child and coddle them every time they emit a crying behavior. When this first occurs the child may cry louder or use different pitches. They do this because they are not getting reinforced for their crying behavior and experience extinction. If you continue to ignore the crying, over time the child will discontinue the behavior. It works even faster if it is rewarded.
You have to be careful when using the extinction technique because a “frustration effect” might take place. Someone who is used to getting rewarded for something is now essentially getting nothing. This can aggravate an individual and tantrums can occur. This could involve throwing things, yelling, or becoming aggressive. This is something to know before using extinction. If this occurs and you still feel safe it is best to just let it occur. If you go back and reinforce the behavior they will know to throw the same fit next time the extinction technique is used.
There is debate on what extinction actually does. Some people say it is a new learning and others say it is unlearning a certain behavior. A lot of extinction research is done with rats or mice at which researchers take a look at their amygdala, hippocampus, and prefrontal cortex. Research is still going on today to determine what exactly occurs in the mind when extinction is put forth and an extinction burst behavior is emitted.
Terms: Extinction, extinction burst, behavior, reinforcement, emit, undesirable, aversive, amygdale, hippocampus, prefrontal cortex, target behavior

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extinction_(psychology)
http://specialed.about.com/od/glossary/g/Extinction-Eliminating-Problem-Behaviors.htm
http://animalbehaviour.net/Extintion.htm