Reading Activity Week #5 (Due Tuesday)

For Section 2.2
Prior to reading this chapter, I thought that behavior modification was all about the ABCs, reinforcement, punishment, and tying all of it in with the language of behavior. I thought this because that is what we have learned in class and in the textbook thus far. But, as always, there is more to learn and build off of the material that we already know!

There are definitely many things that I will remember from reading this section. One is that Pavlov is associated with classical conditioning because of his work with dogs, meat powder, and ringing a bell. He found that when the dog smelled the meat powder, it would elicit a drooling behavior, or an unconditioned response, therefore making the meat powder the unconditioned stimulus. He would then ring a bell as he brought out the meat powder, and soon enough the dogs would emit the drooling response just by hearing the sound of the bell alone without the presence of the meat powder. This would mean that the bell is the conditioned stimulus and the drooling in response to the bell is the conditioned response. I know I will remember this concept of classical conditioning because I have learned about it in other classes. Therefore, reading more about it in this section just solidified what I already knew.

Other concepts I know I will remember from the reading are primary reinforcer and secondary reinforcer. Primary reinforcers serve our basic needs, such as hunger, thirst, and sex, and they are considered to be unconditioned. Secondary reinforcers, on the other hand, are associated with primary reinforcers. I know that I will remember the difference between the two concepts because the practice exercises within the reading really helped me sort them out. Writing my thoughts out on paper really helps me absorb and retain the information we are learning about.

A final thing I know I will remember from the text is that context is very important when it comes to different stimuli. This is because something that is considered intrinsically valuable or extrinsically valuable here in the United States may not be considered valuable elsewhere in the world. This is important information to know, especially if you are traveling to a different region or country. I know I will remember this because I have had personal experience trying to use U.S. currency in Mexico. It didn’t work out too well, and I had to go get my money exchanged so that I could purchase things.

One thing that I especially enjoyed from reading this section was the review on reinforcement. It is always nice to get a refresher on how positive reinforcement involves adding a pleasing stimulus to increase desired behavior, whereas negative reinforcement involves removing an aversive stimulus to increase desired behavior. It made me realize that I really have a nice grasp on what reinforcement is and what it entails.

One thing I disliked from reading this section was when it discussed generalized reinforcers. It was hard for me to understand what generalized reinforcers were and then use them in the practice examples. I was mostly confused because I don’t know if generalized reinforcers can be anything other than money or alternate forms of money. If it were more clearly laid out for me, I’m sure I would be able to pick up on it, but as for now, I am still unclear about what it means.

Reading the chapter did not really change what I originally thought about behavior modification, but it definitely reiterated certain concepts and topics for me. This section definitely stressed on reinforcement, which is something we have already covered. There were also some new terms added, such as primary reinforcer, secondary reinforcer, generalized reinforcer, and limited value and broad value. Therefore, I have realized that behavior modification encompasses everything we have learned thus far, plus the newly added terms that were discussed in this section.

For Section 2.3
There are tons of things I will remember from reading this section. One is that whether you use reinforcement or punishment, you still need to make sure everything you’re doing is ethical. It discussed the United States Military using torture as punishment by doing a water boarding technique, which I personally think is absolutely not the right way to go about things. This method is by no means ethical, and I am sure that there is another way to get information out of the enemy than by water boarding them. I know I will remember this because it shocked me that the U.S. government still uses torturous methods like this. Ethics are something that is very important to me, so I know that this topic will stick in my mind.

Another topic I will remember from this section is that punishment is often used in our legal system, but the punishments that we use may be different than punishments in other cultures. The book discussed how we use the death penalty for people who commit serious crimes, whereas people in other cultures may use punishments such as public caning, where the person who committed the crime is publicly caned to death in front of the entire community. These modes of punishment are obviously different, and I know I will remember this because of the fact that there are many aspects that vary from culture to culture.

A final topic that I know I will remember after reading this section is that using the technique of disrupting operant behaviors can be an effective alternative to punishment. For example, if a student is sleeping in class and a teacher calls on him to answer a question, this will definitely disrupt the sleeping behavior, but it is not a form of punishment. This makes it easier on both the teacher and the student because neither of them has to deal with the aversive nature of punishment.

One thing that I especially enjoyed from this reading section was when it discussed B.F. Skinner’s views on punishment. He was completely against using punishment because he favored using effective reinforcement. Skinner also believed that it was possible to have a society without punishment. I liked this section because it made me really think about whether or not Skinner’s ideas were possible. I’m still not sure if I agree with him or not, but his ideas brought forth much to think about.

Something that I disliked from this section was when I had to fill out the questions throughout the workbook about what my position on punishment is. I found this to be somewhat uncomfortable because of the fact that I am not sure how I view punishment now that I know what punishment actually means in the language of behavior.

All in all, reading this section has changed what I originally thought about behavior modification in terms of what punishment is and how it is used. I realized that punishment is actually a really serious thing, and that sometimes it is not used in appropriate ways. Delving deeper into the realm of punishment has opened my eyes and made me realize that behavior modification is more complex than I originally thought.

Terms: antecedent, behavior, consequence, reinforcement, punishment, language of behavior, classical conditioning, elicit, unconditioned response, unconditioned stimulus, emit, conditioned stimulus, conditioned response, primary reinforcer, secondary reinforcer, needs, context, intrinsically valuable, extrinsically valuable, pleasing stimulus, aversive stimulus, generalized reinforcers, limited value, broad value, ethics

Section 2.2

Prior to reading these chapters I thought of Behavior Modification as a way of reinforcing behaviors through either punishment or reinforcement. The ABC's became a major part of BM after I read through previous chapters.

1. The first thing I’ll definitely remember form this section is the explanation of classical conditioning with Pavlov. This helped me understand the material that much more. This helped me realize how many things in life that are conditional responsive. I believe I will be able to remember this concept easier now. The way it was presented was a lot easier to grasp, compared to the way other instructors presented it.

2. The primary reinforcers are really easy for me to spot in everyday life after reading through this chapter. I never knew that reinforcers could be linked to Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs pyramid. I don’t know why is was so hard of a concept until now but to know that water, food, sex, and air are reinforcers makes it a lot easier for me to know what reinforcers are.

3. Something I found interesting were the terms Intrinsic and Extrinsic. I didn't know these terms could be directed in a behavioral perception. The fact that these terms could be linked to reinforcers helped me realize how important they are to behavior modification.

The thing I really appreciated about this section were all the examples. The way the terms were tied into Pavlov and Maslow's concepts made it so much easier for me to understand. Not only did it help me understand their concepts more but along with behavior modification too.
As I have said before I don't look for things I dislike because all of this information is either new to me or is helping me understand the concepts even better. So there is nothing I could complain about in this book.

Section 2.3

1. One thing I won't forget is that there is a such thing as extreme negative reinforcement. Prior to reading this section I didn't know there was a such thing. After reading it got me thing about what people define as torture is really extreme negative reinforcement. For example, water boarding is looked at as torture, to me. But to others id could be determined as negative reinforcement.

2. I wont forget effectiveness of punishment for one reason, my mother. This helped me realize why the punishment my mother used was never effective. The punishment she used was never aversive enough to decrease the behavior being emitted.

3. The intensity of punishment was another concept I could relate too. Although, I didn't realize this until I read this section. Another reason my mother could not modify my brothers behavior was because the intensity of her punishment was not high enough to stop the behavior being emitted.

I liked how this section went through punishment in more depth. I think its really interesting to be able to recognize things how these concepts have been present in your everyday life.
After reading these chapters my thought of behavior modification has changed. Now knowing that there are different ways to really look at punishment and how its used. I think overall my thought of behavior modification was not complex enough. I know there is much more to behavior modification that I will learn throughout this class.

Behavior modification has become much more mechanical to me. Observing people and their everyday actions, with a better understanding of behavior and behavior modification, it seems to me that it is much more mechanistic.

2.2

1. We talked about these concepts before, but positive/negative reinforcement/punishment. The introduction of a positive stimuli would be positive reinforcement, the taking away of a aversive stimuli would be negative reinforcement, and visa versa for punishment.

2. I've learned about this before, but conditioned and unconditioned stimuli. Responses to a unconditioned stimuli don't need to be learned, but responses to a conditioned stimuli need to be learned.

3. Finally the different types of reinforcers. Primary reinforcers are needed for basic survival (food, water, shelter). Secondary reinforcers are associated with the primary reinforcers (for example the bell with Pavlov's dogs). Generalized reinforcers are used to obtain primary reinforcers (the best example would be money).

+ I really liked the examples given about the different types of reinforcers. These reinforcers are part of our everyday lives and are not contained just to Pavlov's dogs.

- I really liked this section and wish it went into more detail

This section has cemented in my assumption that behavior and the actions we make are mechanical.

2.3

1. We talked about these concepts before, but positive/negative reinforcement/punishment. The introduction of a positive stimuli would be positive reinforcement, the taking away of a aversive stimuli would be negative reinforcement, and visa versa for punishment.

2. The ethics of behavior modification. I doesn't matter how you are affecting someone's behavior, you must make sure that is ethical (i.e. no torture)

3. Our present government changes others' behaviors by punishing (fines, prison), but B.F. Skinner believed that effective reinforcement was better than punishment. He believed that a society without punishment is possible.

+ I liked the explanation of parts of B.F. Skinner's philosophy.

- I really can't say what I didn't like about this section.

Again, this section just confirms by beliefs that behaviors are mechanical.

terms: positive/negative reinforcement/punishment, conditioned/unconditioned stimuli, primary/secondary/generalized reinforcer, ethics of behavior modification

2.2

Before reading this chapter I thought there were only positive and negative reinforcers I had never heard of the terms primary, or secondary reinforcers. Also, I had never heard of the terms intrinsic and extrinsic values. The terminology is becoming more extensive then I thought it could be in behavior modification.

From this chapter I will emit the behavior of remembering that a secondary reinforcer is a stimulus that functions as a reinforcer after it has been paired up with another reinforcer. It is an unintentional reinforcer. As an example, whenever I emit the behavior of walking to the door my dog elicits the behavior of perking her ears up. Once I emit the behavior of manipulating the door to open my dog elicits the behavior of charging towards the door to go outside. I believe the secondary reinforcer would be my emitted behavior of walking to the door.

I will also emit the behavior of remembering the terms intrinsic and extrinsic value. Intrinsic value is the value of what you place on the object. Extrinsic value is the value others place on the object. An example of intrinsic values would be my grades. My grades are a great reinforcer to manipulate me to emitting my behavior of doing my homework. An example of extrinsic value is religion. In most cultures religion is very important. Going to church every Sunday reinforces people, it makes them feel like they are connected to someone and have something to believe in. However, not everyone in every culture goes to church every Sunday or is religious.

Another thing I will remember from this chapter is that context is important. I already knew this but it is always good to have a reminder because the context determines the behavior, reinforcer, and punishment.

One part about this chapter I liked were the examples of Pavlov and Maslow. They helepd me associate the unconditioned stimulus and unconditioned response, and also primary reinforcers.

2.3

Before reading this chapter I guess I never really thought about about what type of behavior I was using to change someones behavior. I think that most people use punishment and negative reinforcement because it is just easier.

I emitted the behavior of reading this chapter and one of the things I will remember is that when trying to modify someones behavior, aversive behaviors such as punishment and negative reinforcement should be used less. Extinction and positive reinforcement should be used favorably.

I will also remember that punishment needs to be immediate. If you simply say that you will punish them by emitting some behavior that is aversive it is merely a threat. In order for the behavior to become extinct the punishment needs to me emitted directly after the behavior is elicited.

Punishment also needs to be consistent. Sometimes an aversive behavior appears quite frequently no matter what the consequence is. This becomes problematic but it the punishment is consistent the behavior is more likely to become extinct.

In this chapter as well I liked the examples. The ones I liked were the ones used to explain extreme negative reinforcement and punishment. One thing I didn't like about this chapter was the abruptness of punishment and the immediacy of punishment. I guess I felt like they were the same things.

Terms: emit, elicit, behavior, secondary reinforcer, functions, reinforcer, manipulating, intrinsic value, extrinsic value, context, punishment, unconditioned stimulus, unconditioned response, primary reinforcers, modify, positive reinforcement, extinction, aversive

2.2
Prior to this chapter, especially before reading the last couple chapters, I did not realize how much little things in our environment effected our behaviors. Small discriminative stimuli such as what we are wearing or being among a crowd have a large impact our actions and how we carry ourselves since we often take cues from others on how to act in various situations.
I will remember from this chapter the difference between unconditioned stimulus/response and conditioned stimulus/response. If it is unconditioned (also referred to as primary reinforcer) that means that the response or stimulus do not have to be learned and are natural to the subject and are reflexive. If it is conditioned (also referred to as secondary reinforcer) , the stimulus or response have to be learned by the subject. I also thought that Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs was very interesting. To actually see it broken down in a graph makes it all come together. Although I agree on the order the pyramid is formed up, after doing a little independent research there are some criticisms such as the ranking of the needs or that needs can still be met without achieving a category below. Another new term that I will remember is the concept of intrinsic and extrinsic. Intrinsic is the value that the individual puts places upon something and extrinsic is the value that others place on some. The value of a single item or idea may be very different depending on the values of the individual compared that to another. For example the value of chicken alfredo is likely much more to that of someone whose favorite food is chicken alfredo compared to someone who finds it aversive.
There really isn’t anything I disliked about this chapter, although I found it somewhat challenging to come up with all these examples of the vocabulary words, but I would recommend maybe including a page with the just the vocabulary words and their definitions or maybe the vocabulary defined simply somewhere on the page it appears on.
After reading this chapter my views on behavioral modifications haven’t changed largely, but I do like how it did build on information learned in previous chapters. It seems behavioral modification takes a few main ideas and breaks them down making them more complex.

2.3
Things I will remember from this chapter:
1. The first concept I will remember is that if punishment is used to stop a behavior, instead of reinforcement, that punishment must be severe enough to make the individual being punished afraid and stop the behavior.
2. Another way to make sure that punishment is effective is that it has to be immediate. Waiting even a little while to punish makes the punishment less effective.
3. To make punishment the most effective it can possibly be frequency is key. If you are likely to get away with the targeted behavior without being punished, you are much more likely to do it. That is why punishment needs to be there every time the behavior occurs. The book has a very good example using a parking ticket since sometimes you get away with parking somewhere you are not supposed to you are more likely to do so.
I actually didn’t dislike anything about this chapter. It was my favorite in the book so far. I like how it was more traditional then most of the others focusing on concepts instead of terminology, thus making it an easier read. It also made me realize if you are going to use punishment as you chosen form of behavioral modification the punisher must be on top of their game and be very strict to make it effective.

Terms: Discriminative stimuli, Unconditioned, Conditioned, Stimulus, Response, Primary Reinforcer, Intrinsic, Extrinsic, Aversive, Punishment, Frequency, Targeted Behavior

Section: 2.2

I though behavior modification was all about using REINFORCEMENT, and avoidance of PUNISHMENT. The whole purpose of behavior modification is to get people to EMIT DESIRABLE behaviors. However, it seems that behavior modification, is much more than that. Each section we read more, and more is discovered about the do's and don't's of behavior modification.
1: On thing I learned in this section was that there are different kinds of reinforces. There are PRIMARY, and SECONDARY reinforcers, and they are both used in different situations. Primary reinforcers, are used to fulfill our basic, daily needs. Whereas secondary, are usually referred to with animals. These STIMULI, are often related to something else. Pavlov's dogs are an example of secondary stimuli. In this experiment, dogs became CONDITIONED to expect food, when they heard the sound of a bell. The result was them salivating when the bell was sounded, even when no food was present. I will remember this because it was a term that I found important. This term seemed like it would be used frequently in behavior modification, and central to the language used in reference with modification.
2: GENERALIZED REINFORCER, these are reinforcers, that are used to obtain other reinforcers. Money is a good example of a generalized reinforcer. Because money is itself a reinforcer, and can provide you with a REINFORCEMENT. Another good example of a generalized reinforcer would be food; because you need food to live, but it can also be reinforcing. I will remember this term because of the examples used in the book. Putting information into a real world perspective helps me understand, and comprehend information on a real world level. This also helps me use these terms in rail life.
3: INTRINSIC AND EXTRINSIC VALUE, there are two types of value a reinforcer can have. Intrinsic, is a reinforcer that means a great deal to you, but not necessarily everyone else. Extrinsic is a reinforcer, that has no value for you. The example used in the text was in reference to drugs. Intrinsic drugs, are drugs that you feel you need to survive. However, extrinsically people see that you don't need the drugs, and would rather have them. When reinforcing someone it is important to know what they feel is intrinsic, and extrinsic, because if you try to reinforce them with a extrinsic reinforcer, it might not mean that much to them. I will remember these terms because they were the last things mentioned, and important to the central theme of reinforcement. To be a successful modifier you need to know the difference between the two types of reinforcers.

In this section I really like the review, I find that review built into text helps me remember terms, and helps me use them more, and more; as I gain comfort with them.

Some of the concepts I found a little more challenging than others, and had to go back and read, I disliked that, there might have been some ways to go about explaining things, a little more clearly.

Section 2.3

1: I did not know that EXTREME NEGATIVE REINFORCEMENT was a form of torture. To produce extreme reinforcement you need to put the SUBJECT in an ENVIRONMENT where they wish to be reinforced. The example used in the text was water boarding. Because the subject is so willing to be removed from that context, they might ELICT to sharing information. They then would be reinforced with being removed from the harsh environment. I will remember this because of its real world context in the book.
*Wouldn't Extreme Negative Reinforcement be a form of positive punishment? Because you are removing the behavior of them not keeping secrets? Is there an Extreme Positive Punishment?
2: There are cultural differences in punishment, because each culture operates differently; punishment is different for each culture. Everyone has there own opinion on punishment, for example; the death penalty in the United States. Some view this as to harsh, and others view it as just. I will remember this because I did not realize that culture (ANTECEDENT) played a role in punishment.
3: B.F. Skinner was against the use of punishment. Skinner thought that punishment should only be used if absolutely necessary, and that it was never necessary. Skinner believed that punishment just delayed the behavior, and stopped it from occurring in that once antecedent. I will remember this because it was mentioned in another section, and I find it interesting. The father of behavior says that punishment is not very useful in modification, and if you think about it punishment is rarely used in experiments where behavior is tested. Reinforcement is much easier to modify behavior because it gives the subject something they desire.

One things I did not like in this section was disrupting operant behaviors. This concept has me confused, and I don't understand it. I hope we cover this in class.

Over these two section my view of behavior modification has changed. I did not realize the points listed about. Reading these section will greatly improve my modification skills.

Section 2.2

Prior to this reading, I still think behavior modification is allowing you to recognize why certain behaviors occur. The language is still growing and allowing you to better understand each term. What I have learned is you can emit a behavior from the term elicit, which means to make a behavior occur. You can emit a behavior by being manipulated through reinforcement, punishment, operant conditions, and etc. Also each behavior emitted can be aversive or pleasant.

1. One thing I will remember is the review of the terms positive and negative reinforcement. I found this part of the section pleasant because I have emitted a behavior of learning the language better. Positive reinforcement is presenting a desirable stimulus from emitting a target behavior. The desirable stimulus allows the behavior being emitted to increase the frequency of the response. Negative reinforcement is the removal of an aversive stimulus from emitting a target behavior. The removal of an aversive stimulus also allows the behavior being emitted to increase the frequency of the response.
2. The second thing I will remember is classical conditioning dealing with conditioned and unconditioned stimuli. Classical conditioning was introduced by a psychological researcher named Ivan Pavlov. Pavlov emitted a behavior of examining dogs’ digestive systems and he discovered something fascinating. Pavlov realized that when the dogs smelled the meat powder it would elicit a drooling behavior, also known as unconditioned response (this made the meat powder an unconditioned stimulus). Pavlov then emitted a behavior of ringing a bell right before giving the dogs the meat powder. The bell elicited the dogs to drool due to receiving meat powder. This than made the bell a conditioned stimulus and the drooling to the response to the bell a conditioned response.
3. The third thing I will remember is the term primary reinforce. Primary reinforcers are biologically relevant and are required for basic needs to survive (unconditioned). The examples provided in the book were water, food, sex, and air. The Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs helped me emit a better understanding of this behavioral term.

I thought this section had a lot of information, but I enjoyed learning more about reinforcement. I thought the example provided were very helpful. I didn’t like how intrinsic and extrinsic were explained in this section. I found had a hard time understanding these terms.

I think this section has emitted me to have a better understanding of how uncontrolled and controlled stimulus works. Also this section has emitted me to realize how complicated reinforcers may be.

Section 2.3

1. One thing I will remember is punishment needs to be aversive enough for the behavior to actually stop and needs to be punished immediately. It is important to make sure the punishment is not coming off as just a threat. Also you need to consider changing the environment, also known as the antecedent to help reduce or decrease the behavior.
2. The second thing I will remember is the cultural differences in punishment. Types of behaviors being emitting may lead to different punishments due to cultural background. The examples provided helped me have an aversive understanding about this topic. The example that I will remember the most is when someone emits an undesirable behavior and has to be beaten with a cane in the town square while being watched by others.
3. The third thing I will remember is B.F. Skinner believed that society without punishment was possible. I think everyone should emit the behavior of reinforcing rather than punishing. I think it is important to know that punishment is not always acceptable.

I really enjoyed learning the cultural differences in punishment in this section. There wasn’t anything that I didn’t like in this section. I enjoyed learning more about reinforcement and punishment from both these sections.

This section didn’t really change what I thought about behavior modification. However, I think this section has emitted me to understand how important reinforcement and punishment can be.

Terms: Elicit, Emit, behavior, reinforcement, punishment, operant conditions, aversive, pleasant, positive reinforcement, negative reinforcement, target behavior, antecedent, consequences, stimulus, unconditioned response, unconditioned stimulus, conditioned response, conditioned stimulus, primary reinforce, intrinsic, extrinsic, and reinforcer

This chapter was chapter was informative and help give more examples to the previous work I have learned in the course. I like that these chapters look at reinforcing behavior without punishment because I think there are better ways to modify behavior. 1. I learned about intrinsic which is where the individual has value on something while extrinsic is the value others place on it. 2. We talked again about pavlov and his understanding with conditioning and stimuli. 3. I learned about the secondary reinforcer in a place that help elicit and emit a response. 4. I like the heirarchry system which helps put into place the levels of it. 5.I did not like the punishment techniques used to elicit positive punishment. I am learning and becoming familiar with the different techniques of punishment and consequences needed to condition people around me!

1. That levels of negative punishent can either increase or decrease the frequency of behavior for organisms. 2. I learned about disrupting a persons target behavior is another way to emit a consequence. 3. I learned that consequences have limited or broad value depending on the action. This is an important feature that one must take into account with their behavior. 4. I like that punishment is secondary to positive reinforcement which can elicit behaviors also. 5. Although reinforcement is a good way for target behaviors to emit desirable consequences, punishment is a necessary for certain individuals. I am learning the different techniques that you can change target behavior and how to systematically use antecedents to elicit desirable operant behaviors.

After reading section 2.2, please respond to the following questions.
Prior to reading this chapter, what did I think about behavior modification? Why?

Prior to reading this chapter, I think reinforcement and punishment can be confusing and interesting, because I have heard of them before.

What are three things I will remember from what I read in the chapter? Why?

I will remember Maslow’s triangle because of the picture, very nice. I will remember more about Pavlov and conditioning because that was explained in clear languages, I feel. I will remember punishment and reinforcement as processes, because they are processes.

What was one thing that I really liked that was in the chapter? Why?

I like the descriptive language used in Pavlov description. This experiment is referenced so often but somewhat ambiguous in the actual method and results and story.

What was one thing that I disliked that was in the chapter? Why?

I didn’t like the line about [a person] and their alleged addiction/mental health obstacles, these comments are out of context and inappropriate...I feel.

How has reading the chapter changed what I originally thought about behavior modification? How so?

I did not much elaborate on intrinsic and extrinsic values. These are so difficult to assess. The differences are clearer now, after reading.
After reading section 2.3, please respond to the following questions.

What are three things I will remember from what I read in the chapter? Why?

I learned that all forms of punishment are aversive procedures, because reading the first few pages on the topic was feeling like punishment. I acknowledge that policies are best applied to each individual, each time. I also learned that I have a particular feeling about certain feelings, and I trust my feelings.

What was one thing that I really liked that was in the chapter?

I liked the section on Skinner, I enjoy that.

Why? What was one thing that I disliked that was in the chapter? Why?

I do not enjoy the topics of the examples in this chapter, because I feel they did not relate to me.

How has reading the chapter changed what I originally thought about behavior modification? How so?

I feel I thought Behavior Modification would be applicable professionally. I learning now that it still is applicable, because I have inspiration in applying what I learn each day in life experience with individuals. I just thought I guess that Behavior Modification would be presented in a different professional style so I could feel as though I was being reinforced by being treated as a professional individual. Thanks!! -ebs- 9/18/12 @ 1603hrs CentricTime

Term% reinforcement, punishment, intrinsic, extrinsic, Skinner, Behavior Modification,Context, reinforced,Maslow

Before reading this chapter I couldn’t see how there would be more to behavior modification than the ABCs, simple enough. But like usual, let’s just add more stuff on to this already complicated subject!
The first thing I remember is the positive reinforcement and negative reinforcement. Positive reinforcement is introducing a desirable stimulus. Negative reinforcement is the removal of an aversive stimulus. The only thing that is in common with positive and negative reinforcement is that they both increase the target behavior as a result of the consequence. I got confused at first about the negative reinforcement. I’ve got it down now though! First I wrote for the parent example that taking away the cellphone would be an example. I realized I was to take something away that’s aversive so then I wrote stop yelling at the children and that’s a much better example. I did the same thing with the teacher example I first wrote take away recess, then I went back and changed it to I won’t make them emit the behavior of cleaning erasers.
Second thing I remember is the primary reinforcers and secondary reinforcers. Primary reinforcers are things like water, food, sex and air. We need these things to meet our ability to survive. The hypothalamus is devoted to the motivation toward these primary reinforcers, because they’re our basic needs. Secondary reinforcers are stimulus or situation that has acquainted its function as a reinforce after pairing with a stimulus which functions as a reinforcer. Primary reinforcers are unconditioned and secondary reinforcers are conditioned. An example of secondary in the world is money and an example of secondary in my present personal life is wearing shoes.
The third thing I remember is generalized reinforcers which is a conditioned reinforcer that has obtained the reinforcing function by pairing with MANY other reinforcers. I think it’s weird that I did money in the last one and that was the example in this category. It was hard to think of one at first because I think money is kind of the obvious one. I had to think out of the box. For examples I ended up coming up with Eating healthy. The benefits of eating healthy are losing weight, live longer, more active, not sick as often. It was even harder to come up with drawbacks but I came up with you don’t get to eat a lot of fatty foods that taste so good!
I really liked thinking about primary and secondary reinforcers I thought it was really interesting to think of it that way. Then adding on to that how generalized reinforcers are secondary reinforcers that are nearly just as important as primary reinforcers. What I didn’t really find that interesting is Pavlov and the condition unconditioned responses. I just think it’s because I’ve learned about Pavlov so many times it’s just old news for me. However I can understand why it’s important to learn and be in the chapter in case others haven’t heard of him as often as I have. After reading this chapter I realize that there is more to behavior modification than just the ABC’s and it does get a little bit easier to understand if you just stick with it.

The first thing I will remember is the positive punishment and negative punishment. Positive punishment is introduction to an aversive punishment. Negative punishment is the removal of a desirable stimulus. This was just really confusing at first because I was thinking wait, okay so positive equals aversive and negative equals desirable. Then I tried to think of it in terms of positive equals adding and negative equals removing and that made it so much easier. Positive and negative punishment have one thing in common and that’s that they are both trying to make the undesirable behavior decrease in frequency. An example I had of a positive punishment is if you spills someone else’s drink (behavior) then you’re going to get into a fight (consequence). An example I had for negative punishment is if an employee loses money (behavior) then that employee is going to lose their job (consequence).
The second thing I remember is in the punishment section. It asked about what examples we could think of where the punishment decreases the frequency of the target behavior but also decreases the frequency of other behaviors. I responded with an example of spanking. When a child is spanked as a punishment it can be a very effective or very ineffective thing. If done wrong it can leave the child wondering what they did wrong and make them start trying to change every behavior they could think of that would have caused the spanking. If done right, however, by first warning the child when will happen if they do it again and then after the behavior occurs again ask the child what they did wrong and what the child thinks has to be done because it was wrong. Then after the child has been spanked again confirm that it was because of the target behavior. If done this way I believe it can be effective.
The third thing I remember is when thinking about my behavior that I continued to do even when I was punished I came up with two really good ideas and struggled with the third, but I’ll share two. The first is from when I was young. Whenever I get sent to the corner or my room for a punishment it didn’t really matter to me. I had a big imagination so I could honestly just close my eyes and “play” in my head until I was let out. It wasn’t much of a punishment for me. The second thing is from getting a ticket for speeding. I still speed all the time I’m just so much better at it than I used to be.
I really liked thinking about how punishment can be not so effective and how it has to be consistent and done the right way every single time. I enjoyed thinking about if we could have a world without any punishment. I didn’t like thinking about the dark side of behavior modification. It was interesting just least interesting out of the rest of the chapter. I’m not sure what my opinion is on aversive techniques when taken to the extreme. I do believe that behavior modification is okay even though I also believe it’s manipulation. But why does manipulation have to be such a bad thing? I’m more and more convinced by this chapter that behavior modification is manipulation and that we’ve been conditioned to believe it’s a bad thing when in reality maybe it’s not.
Terms: target behavior, punishment, consequence, behavior, positive punishment, negative punishment, generalized reinforcers, conditioned, unconditioned, stimulus, primary reinforcers, secondary reinforcers, desirable, aversive, emit, positive reinforcement, and negative reinforcement.

Section 2.2
Prior to reading these chapters I was excited to learn more about behavior modification. I still am. Three things I learned are that 1) Positive reinforcement is the introduction of a desirable stimulus, 2) that negative reinforcement was the removal of an aversive stimulus, and 3) that context really matters. I will remember these things because if I don’t, I won’t pass this class. And that would be bad. One thing I really like about this was the Maslow’s Hierarchy pyramid because it was very helpful in understanding how badly a person needs something. One thing I disliked about this chapter was that there were a lot of examples of things, but not a lot of definitions that were clear and concise. These chapters have not changed my opinion about behavior modification.
Section 2.3
Three things I learned from this chapter are 1) positive punishment included the introduction of an aversive stimulus, 2) that negative punishment is the removal of a desirable stimulus, and 3) that punishment is not as effective as reinforcement. I will remember these things because they are the complete opposite of reinforcements. One thing I liked about this chapter was that it explicitly told us how to make punishment more effective. There wasn’t anything I really disliked about this chapter. This chapter has made my excitement to learn more even more strong. It has reinforced me to continue learn, so to speak.
Terms: positive reinforcement, desirable, stimulus, negative reinforcement, aversive, positive punishment, negative punishment, reinforcement, punishment.

2.2
Prior to reading the section, I believed there was only a few things involved with behavioral modification. I believed it was not possible for there to be more new material within the book. However, this is untrue, for the book keeps adding new information and connecting it back to the old material form the sections before.

There are three different concepts that I will remember from this chapter: verbal praise, Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, and the concept of generalized reinforcer.

The first concept, verbal praise, is easily remembered because individuals hear these praises every day. Within a day in class, a student could hear a verbal praise in two different contexts: a pleasurable praise, or an aversive praise. When a student emits positive valences, or positive qualities, to the teacher, the student is reinforced with a pleasant verbal praise. However, when the student emits negative valences, the student is punished with an aversive verbal praise. When the student receives pleasant verbal praises, this can be viewed as a self-reinforcement, for the student is not receiving any material items, just a verbal “Good Job” or something similar to that.

The second thing I will easily remember, Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, because it contains to primary reinforcers. The book gives four good examples of primary reinforcers: water, food, sex, and air. These four things are vital to life, therefore making them and the concept they connect to easy to remember. In Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs the triangle provides a good representation of the primary reinforcers an individual needs to survive, starting with self actualization and ending with physiological needs.

The third thing, generalized reinforcer, is easily remembered mainly due to the example the book gave, money. Because money is a large reinforcer within society today, it was a great example and a great way to explain generalized reinforcers. Money can be viewed as a great reinforcer because a large majority of today’s society would not turn down money and is widely favored, unlike other things such as ice cream, TV time, etc.

One thing I liked about the section was how it made the point that context matters, and all the examples that were given. The context matters, especially when it comes to reinforcement and punishment. Because I do not like ice cream, using it as a positive reinforcement would not be beneficial, therefore the context is not a correct one. Because I did not like ice cream, there was no intrinsic value placed on this item. Context also matters in the sense of punishment. When I was younger, being sent to my room was never viewed as punishment because I enjoyed reading books, and all my books were kept in my reading nook in my room. My mother later caught on and would send me to my parent’s room because I did not see anything that was in their room to entertaining or fun.

There really was not one thing I did not like about the section. One thing that I usually do not like is the amount of examples. However, there was a good amount of examples, but were not so many that it was annoying, nor not enough to not be able to understand the new material.

After the reading, behavioral modification has changed, for I am seeing that behavioral modification is involved in every aspect of life, from the way we act and the way we don’t act.

2.3

The three things I will remember from this chapter all involve punishment: abruptness of punishment, intensity of punishment, and the immediacy of punishment.

Because punishment is so widely acknowledged in our society, these three different attributes of punishment easily stick out when reading this section.

The abruptness of punishment is necessary, for there are some behaviors that need to be extinct at that exact moment, or they will not be terminated. In an extreme case, murder should be punished as soon as possible, or the murderer will possibly continue to emit the behavior and cause harm and disruption to others. This also goes along with babysitting; if the punishment does not occur right away, the child may think they get away with the behavior and continue to emit the aversive behavior. For this reason, remembering this concept is easy, for I have babysat a lot in the past years.

Alongside of the abruptness of punishment, the intensity of punishment is important too. If the intensity of the punishment is not great enough, it may not be viewed as a punishment at all. In babysitting, if the child receives just a “slap on the wrist” opposed to a more intense punishment that is needed, the child may continue the behavior because he or she did not learn, nor saw the punishment as a punishment at all.

Together with those two concepts, the immediacy of the punishment is important. With a small child, if the punishment occurs after the behavior has occurred, the child may not understand or remember which behavior is being punished and will not know which behavior to stop doing. This is easily remembered because it has occurred frequently with child and parents. Some parents I have babysat for have told me they will punish the children when they get home, opposed to me punishing the child. When this occurs, the child does not remember which behavior is being punished, and in some cases, the child is not punished at all.

One thing I liked within the section is the part that discussed the cultural differences within punishment. There are a lot of behaviors that are followed by punishment in some countries that are not punished in the United States. Form this, it was interesting to actually put this into account and realize that punishment can be loosely translated in many cultures besides our own.

Again, there was nothing I disliked about the chapter. It was a great length with information that was easy to understand and full of knowledge, but was not overwhelming like other sections in the past have been.

After reading this section, my views have no changed, just grown. I know realize that not only do behaviors change from society to society, but also reinforcements and punishments as well, aka context matters!

Terms Used: Verbal praises, pleasing, aversive, emits, positive valence, reinforced, punished, self-reinforcement, primary reinforcers, reinforcement, punishment, positive reinforcement, intrinsic value, extinct,

2.2
One thing I will remember from this chapter is the difference between positive and negative reinforcement. Positive reinforcement involves the introducing a desirable stimulus and negative reinforcement involves the removal of an aversive stimulus. Most reinforcement is positive but it will be useful to properly recognize negative reinforcement. Another thing I will remember from the chapter is that primary reinforcers are unconditioned and secondary reinforcers are conditioned. A third thing I will remember from the chapter is the difference between an intrinsic and an extrinsic value. An intrinsic value is the value that an individual places on something and an extrinsic value is the value others would place on that thing. One thing I liked about the chapter was the brief introduction to Pavlov’s work. I look forward to reading about it and discussing it in more depth later on. I didn’t dislike anything in the chapter. Reading the chapter didn’t change how I view behavior modification but it did reinforce the idea in my mind that context is very important in behavior modification.
2.3
One thing I will remember from the chapter is the difference between positive and negative punishment. Positive punishment involves the introduction of an aversive stimulus and negative punishment involves the removal of a desirable stimulus. Another thing I will remember is that in order for punishment to be effective, it needs to be immediate and intense enough to stop the unwanted behavior. A third thing I will remember is that punishment needs to be consistent or the unwanted behavior may come back. One thing I like about this chapter was the example of torture as an extreme case of negative reinforcement. I didn’t dislike anything about the chapter; everything was explained well and helped me further understand punishment.

Terms: negative reinforcement, aversive stimulus, positive reinforcement, desirable stimulus, primary reinforcers, unconditioned, secondary reinforcers, conditioned, intrinsic value, extrinsic value, positive punishment, negative punishment

While I was reading 2.2 a lot of it for me was a review from previous classes I have taken such as learning about Maslows Hierarchy of Needs. I did find this section interesting learning about reinforcement some more.
One thing I will remmeber from this Chapter is definetly the Maslows Hierachy of Needs just because I have learned a lot about that before.
Another thing that I will remember is that Context is very important and influences whether or not a primary or secondary reinforcer will actually have reinforcing priorities.
Finally I will remember Intrinsic and Extrinsic and how intrinsic is important to the individual and extrinsic is important socially
Overall this section was interesting and i feel like im catching on to these terms a lot more. I didnt dislike anything about this section

2.3

In this section I thought that it was awesome learning about more details on punishment instead of just the standard definition this section actually went into a lot of detail about punishment and I really enjoyed that
One thing that i will remember is Negative Punishment and Positive punishment because we went over these already in class but not into much detail as it did in this section
Also I will remember there are various types of punishment and some are more severe than others.
Finally I will remember that for punishment to work you need to be intense so it will stop the behavior that is uneccessary.
I really enjoyed this section and also the other one going into more detail about reinforcement and punishment and the different variations of both. It was very interesting and their wasnt anything I didnt like about it.

Terms: Reinforcement, Punishment, Positive Punishment, Negative Punishment, extrinsic, intrinsic, context, secondary reinforcer, primary reinforcer

Section 2.2

As I elicit in reading this behavior modification section and going about my day, I seem to remove the aversive stimulus in my daily routine day by day. Aversive stimulus such as reducing the hours I spend on watching TV. But I also tend to reinforce myself by emitting a lot of readings for this and my other classes for better grade. I never really thought of anything that I would know prior to reading this section.
Three things that I would remember are as followed: the defining of positive reinforcement in deep detail. When we are presenting a positive reinforcement, we are introducing a desirable stimulus. Telling a worker, “good job” and “nice work” are stimulus that our supervisors tell us after being satisfied with our work. Another thing would be the commonality that negative and positive reinforcement have, which is the increasing of the behavior. I never really thought negative and positive can have commonalities. As your insurance company takes away 20% of your payment, it increases your behavior of driving safe. The third things that I will remember are the conditioned and unconditioned stimulus. I like how things are activated due to a certain response. The dog salivating to a bell even though, the meat powder (USC) was not present. I really like everything especially the Ivan Pavlov experiment. It teaches us how we too behave sometimes. I also do not dislike anything, everything were interesting. As previously stated, reading this chapter, has improved my skill in that, I eliminate aversive stimulus in my daily routine.

Section 2.3

Prior to reading this section after reading section 2.2, I thought of behavior modification as a situation which helps improves a person’s behavior. Or it helps a person tell of other’s behavior by looking at them. One of the three things that I will remember from this section is positive punishment. I didn’t know that a word with positive in it can be aggressive as well. One of the examples given was that, when you punch your friend for stealing your stuff, this punishes him to stops what he’s doing. In order word, hitting him reinforces him to be positive (stop the stealing act). The second thing that I will remember is that, even though if I know how to punish and reinforce a behavior or so, I will not use it against others by making them do irresponsible things because, it will be unethical of me to do such thing. I will also remember the abruptness of punishment. The reason for that is, when someone is doing something that is wrong, such as throwing rock at another person, it will be better to stop them right away before the situation become worst. I like how this section or chapter explained the given terms in detail for better understanding. There is nothing that I dislike, everything is fine. The overall thing that I have learned in this section is how to operant my behavior. I will be careful of what I say or do around people. But, in order for me to do that, I will have to target a particular behavior of mine that needs change, to help me better assist myself.

Terms used

Operant Behavior
Target Behavior
Elicit
Behavior modification
Aversive stimulus
Negative reinforcement
Reinforce
Emitting a
Positive reinforcement
Desirable stimulus
Unethical
Abruptness of punishment

2.2
The chapter focuses on Reinforcement. We already knew a little about reinforcement. But this chapter dives farther into it. We learn the distinct definitions of Positive and Negative Reinforcement. Positive has to do with the introduction of a desireable stimulus and the negative has to do with the removal of an aversive stimuli.
We learn that Primary Reinforcers occur naturally and have no need for the paring of another stimuli, while secondary reinforcers have acquired their function from a reinforcer pairing. We also learn that Generalized reinforcers are those that are paired like secondary reinforcers, but with many more other stimuli. Intrinsic and Extrinsic value are introduce comparing the value of something compared to the individual and the value of something that others place on it. Some have limited value and are only valuable some of the time, and others have broad value and are valuable in almost any circumstance. I really liked how the chapter again focuses on clearing up any misconceptions of previous terms, while adding new related terms that focus on them more in depth. I didn't really find much about the chapter I disliked.
2.3
This chapter again focuses on going in depth of terms and creating a better understanding of them. This time it examines punishment. Positive punishment involves the introduction of an aversive stimulus, while negative punishment involves the removal of a desireable stimulus. You learn that punishments have to happen immediately. They also need to be Intense in how they are administered. The Punishment has to be aversive enough to the person that they do indeed modify their behavior. I like how the chapter goes into depth about the ethical questions of punishment. It poses a great question in why punishment is used so much more often than reinforcement. I don't know if we could live in a world without punishment. The chapter really makes you think and understand the terms. Again there wasn't much about the chapter I didn't find somewhat interesting.

Positive Reinforcement, Negative Reinforcement, Aversive, Positive Punishment, Negative Punishment, Intrinsic Value, Extrinsic Value, Primary, Secondary, Generalized Reinforcers, Broad and Limited Value

Section 2.2

Before I read this section, I didn't know the specific influence of reinforcer on human behavior. This section demonstrated different attributes of reinforcer, so I had a closer look at how this process was integrated into our daily actions, as well as the evaluation constantly done in our cognitive process.

I can recall three sets of terms in this section. They are primary and secondary reinforcers, generalized reinforcer, and the intrinsic, extrinsic, limited, and broad values. The primary and secondary reinforcers vary in the presence of biological or direct influence, such as food, physical stimulus, and body comfort. Thus secondary reinforcer does not affect us until it is attached to a primary reinforcer. A generalized reinforcer is a secondary reinforcer that is even broadly attached to a multitude of results, such as money. This kind of reinforcer can promote many kinds of behavior. Finally, the values show the fact that we evaluate items in our lives all the time. We determine if something can fulfill our basic needs, or be traded later for something we can use. We also decide how useful something can be and compare different items accordingly.

I like the example of can opener. The sound of opening a can tells the kitty that food is ready. This is a great example of secondary reinforcer. It shows how a kitty can associate a sound to food and emit the behavior of "come and get it."

I dislike a statement in the summary section. Here is the quote: "Responses and stimuli are referred to as conditioned when they do not have to be learned and are associated with unconditioned stimuli." It is really confusing as it stands side by side with the statement of UCR and UCS. Both statements say that "they do not have to be learned." Is this right? I am not sure what is going on here.

After reading the section I realize there is a broad category of secondary reinforcers. We learned about all kinds of secondary reinforcers when we grew up, and the whole education process seems to be a gigantic behavior modification project. Moreover, these reinforcers are also evaluated by people receiving education, so there is still certain extent of autonomy despite all these reinforcers falling upon us.

Section 2.3

I remember three main ideas in this section. They are immediacy and consistent frequency of punishment, misting, and disrupting operant behavior. The effective methods of punishment are outlined in the section, telling us that punishment should occur right after the undesired behavior. It should also occur at a consistent rate. The term misting is really an interesting word to describe spraying water. Is that always unpleasant? I guess that is not the case in the advertisements of water park. The method of changing behavior by disruption is also interesting. I guess this method can be used quite often since it is not as aversive as punishment.

I like the story of Skinner writing to promote reinforcement and the idea of utopia. That really puts things in perspective, especially in an era when the budget in criminal justice system has exceeded the amount in education in some states. Should we not reflect on our excessive usage of punishment in our society? Maybe now is the time to look at how reinforcement can really improve our lives.

I dislike the example of beer stolen by roommate. I think this is not a proper example for a sophomore class. How many of us are allowed to drink? Maybe the behavior of publishing this example is not so bad, but the antecedent of sophomore class in college makes the behavior unsuitable.

After reading the section I noticed that punishment requires careful observation by people administering the punisher. It takes immediate and consistent actions from the administrator to be effective. Even if the punisher is given properly, it still does not always lead to desired behavior. Therefore punishment is really not a good option. Disrupting behavior is obviously a better choice, as it is less aversive.

Terms: primary reinforcer, secondary reinforcer, generalized reinforcer, intrinsic and extrinsic values, limited and broad values, emit, unconditioned response, unconditioned stimulus, immediacy of punishment, consistent frequency of punishment, misting, disrupting operant behavior, reinforcement, antecedent, punisher

Section 2.2:

Prior to reading this chapter I thought behavior modification was confusing how many terms are used, how to use them and when to use them. I was especially confused with negative and positive reinforcement.

Three things I will remember from this chapter:

1.) The difference between NEGATIVE and POSITIVE REINFORCEMENT because now I understand the positive reinforcement is giving a desirable response and negative is taking away an aversive stimulus. This will also make identifying future youtube clips.

2.) I got a better understand of PAVLOV's experiment and UNCONDITIONED and CONDITIONED stimulus, UNCONDITIONED and CONDITIONED RESPONSE. I thought that it was important to build on the knowledge that I have learned in other classes, as well as, how it relates to behavior modification through PRIMARY and SECONDARY REINFORCERS.

3.) INTRINSIC and EXTRINSIC VALUE are important when reinforcing. If the reinforcement has not intrinsic value to you then it is not considered reinforcing and sometimes it can be considered a punishment.

The one thing that I really liked about the chapters was getting a better understanding and the feeling that there was more depth in BEHAVIOR MODIFICATION. I found it to be very informative. As for finding something that I disliked will be difficult because I found this section to be interesting.

I would say that reading this section brought a sense of relief and I now better understand what behavior modification is and how to use reinforcement effectively.
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Section 2.3:

Three things I will remember from reading this chapter:

1.) The difference between POSITIVE AND NEGATIVE PUNISHMENT. This was such a hard complex for me to understand but now after reading this chapter I have a much better picture. Positive punishment is introducing an AVERSIVE stimulus and negative punishment is removal of a DESIRABLE stimulus.

2.) Making sure that you are using reinforcement or punishment in an ethical manner is very important. You can not use EXTREME NEGATIVE PUNISHMENT because that is considered to be torture. Also, our government uses punishment everyday.

3.) Reinforcement is more effective then punishment. Using punishment can be more difficult because you most be consistent and used in a timely manner. The longer you wait the less likely the punishment will be effective.

The one thing that I really liked was the, again, the depth of the chapter. I really liked getting a better understanding of positive and negative punishment, before I was so confused and I am sure I was using the terms incorrectly at times. Like in the pervious section, I could not find anything that I disliked about it because I learned a lot of information regarding behavior modification.

Like the section before, I have a better understand on how to effectively reinforce and punish behavior.

TERMS: Negative reinforcement, positive reinforcement, negative punishment, positive punishment, Pavlov, unconditioned stimulus, condition stimulus, unconditioned response, conditioned response, primary reinforcer, secondary reinforcer, intrinsic value, extrinsic value, behavior modification, extreme negative reinforcement, aversive, desirable

2.2

Before reading this chapter I knew a lot more about why we change our behaviors and that reinforcement is better to learn a behavior over punishment. And also that when we describe a target behavior, we need to be very specific so we don’t cheat ourselves out of the behavior.

Something I will remember is a better understanding of positive and negative reinforcement. It is really interesting how they both go hand in hand sometimes. In the activity where we had to write down a target behavior an employer might want to increase I put selling the store credit cards. Positive reinforcement fro this area would be like getting a free shirt or perfume if one can sell the cards. By receiving these things, one would increase their behavior to trying to sell more cards and would be reinforced to continue to try to sell credit cards. For negative reinforcement in this situation I put the manager would stop breathing down the employee’s neck. Sometimes managers are very gung-ho about selling credit cards and will get on employee’s cases about selling so many a month or whatever, so by selling cards then something aversive is taken away, meaning that the employee will keep trying to sell the credit cards.

Another thing I will remember is unconditioned stimulus/response and conditioned stimulus/response. All intro to psychology classes talk about Pavlov and his salivating dogs, so it wasn’t something super new to me, but I enjoy a refresher. Something I remember about this is from the TV show, The Office. There is an episode where a character Jim, actually mentions Pavlov and he wants to try his own experiment on his co-worker Dwight. He decides that every time he restarts his computer, it makes the little ding sound of turning on, so every time he plays that ding he’ll offer Dwight a tic-tac or something. He does this frequently and eventually it gets to the point where he plays the ding, and Dwight puts his hand out expecting a tic-tac. Jim asks him what he wants, and Dwight isn’t sure what just happened. The ding became a conditioned stimulus and Dwight putting out his hand became a conditioned response. I think it is pretty funny.

The last thing I will remember secondary reinforcers. This is something that I didn’t very much think about or realize how that if we weren’t conditioned to it, we wouldn’t be reinforced to act a certain way. An example I thought of is a certain ringtone for an alarm. The moment I hear that ringtone I know to wake up, but for anyone else if they heard it, they wouldn’t think really anything about it. This example is also an intrinsic value because it has value to me individually but not to society as a whole.

I liked the examples used, I was able to understand the concepts really well. I didn’t like that parts were kind of repetitive, but it helped me understand things better. This has helped me learn more about behavior modification, by adding new terms to my vocabulary.

2.3

One thing I will remember is positive punishment. The example in the book was being pulled over by a police and getting a ticket which one has to pay. I thought of an example of skipping classes and because of that one will get a bad grade. Because one gets the bad grade they are punished, but they are more likely to emit a behavior of going to class which is a positive or good thing.

Another thing I will remember is negative punishment. The example in the book is friends stopping inviting one to parties because one is crazy and rowdy. Something I thought of is when one is late getting home one ends up locked out of the house. Being able to sleep in one’s bed is a comfort and because they were late they are not able to stay in their bed and sleep in comfort and have to face an adversive punishment. This will likely help reinforce them to not get home late.

Another thing I will remember is the section about the usage of punishment. The question asking about a behavior that is decreased in one situation but might be decreased in others as a result got me thinking. I thought of like if a professor reprimands a student for a certain behavior, making them not want to speak in class again for fear of being wrong. This behavior might make it so a student doesn’t want to talk at all in other classes for fear of that same behavior.

I liked that we were able to think more in depth about situations, and the questions asked what we thought about situations then give me an example of this. There wasn’t anything I particularly disliked. I have learned more about punishment as a result of this section.

Terms: behavior, reinforcement, punishment, target behavior, positive reinforcement, negative reinforcement, aversive, unconditioned stimulus/response, conditioned stimulus/response, secondary reinforcers, intrinsic value, positive punishment, negative punishment, emit

When I thought of reinforcement I always thought of those treats you give dogs when they do a trick right. I always saw it as something positive that was being given. I would see it as someone/thing would have to emit a behavior to receive the desired reinforcer. The goal being to increase the desire to display the desired behavior and in some instances to change the way we think or accept as a social norm. With punishment I think of time-outs or having a like object or hobby (watching TV) taken away. The goal being to decrease a specific behavior.

Section 2.2

1) I like how the situational context was brought up and is now being added in as something that can have a direct impact on the quality of a reinforcer. It is made very clear in the reading how important it is when it comes to something like money and what forms of money places will accept. 2) Intrinsic and Extrinsic. This kind of reminded me of the show American Pickers. The ‘pickers’ want to make money by buying old things and re-selling them for profit. But they tend to run into some problems when the intrinsic cost of an item they want is to close to the extrinsic value of something. The original owner has put a price on an item because it may have some personal or sentimental value and the ‘pickers’ know someone else may also like the item may not want to pay as much as the original owner is asking. Some items may have a very high intrinsic value while the extrinsic value is well below that. For another example; I have a metal cross necklace. The extrinsic value of the necklace my not be very high at all, but it has a lot of intrinsic value because I remember the trip, the place, and the person who bought me the necklace. 3) Limited and broad values. I kind of saw this as more of a time span issue with some reinforcers. If the values are limited or only last for a set amount of time, then the organism will need a larger quantity of the one reinforcer because it’s effect will not be long lasting. While broad values will last a longer span of time and not have as many limitations as limited values.

I liked how it added to the ways reinforcements can be more effective or less effective based several components including having the proper reinforcer in the right context. The organism will become confused if the context is off.

About the only thing I didn’t like about this chapter was how Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs was mentioned by not gone into detail. Specifically with examples that show the difference between each level. I remember it from a few of my earlier psychology classes but we didn’t stay on the subject long enough to really work with it before moving onto the next topic. Knowing what you need to know for the test is fine but that doesn’t mean that the subject was really ‘learned’.

I don’t think that what I originally thought has changed but I do feel like I know more in-depth information about what makes a reinforcer into an effective reinforcer.

Section 2.3

1) B.F. Skinner did not support punishment but encouraged reinforcement. I thought this was interesting because when you think about modifying someone’s behavior you tend to think of reinforcement and punishment as a means of accomplishing the increase or decrease of a target behavior. 2) That B. F. Skinner wrote fiction. I am kind of interested in reading Walden Two to see how he would depict a society without punishment. I would see this hard to accomplish unless you could achieve a society without crime. Crime is often avoided due to some of the punishments connected to specific behavior. If someone is hungry and they don’t have the money they need to pay for some food, what is there to stop them from just taking the food they want? This seems like it might be an interesting read but I will only pick it up after I finish the book I am already on, at least that is what I am telling myself right now. 3) The text used students but I think there is a bigger social dislike of punishment because we associate the word ‘punishment’ with something very negative. A long time ago, if your kid was acting out, parents used to physically hit them with a belt and everyone around them either looked the other way or thought the kid deserved to ‘have some sense knocked into them’. Today, if you raise your voice to loudly in the store or even mention physical punishment other than time-out or no TV, the general public seems to lean more towards less physically punishing punishments. I think that because our cultural view of punishment has changed that punishment itself has changed in some ways.

Like with the different elements to reinforcement, punishment also relies on many elements to determine its effectiveness. The intensity needs to just right to have an impact on the organism but it also needs to happen right after the behavior is emitted so that the organism knows that the target behavior is linked to specific consequences.

Nothing really stood out in terms of not liking something. But if there had to be one thing I would change I would add in a new term. I like reading then feeling like I can walk away with an new word to use in future posts that I was either not used to using or very rarely use.

I don’t think this chapter changed my thoughts about behavior modification very much. I feel that is did allow me to go back and re-visit some subjects and terms that I either haven’t used in a while or haven’t used since History and Systems of Psychology (over a year ago).

Terms: reinforcement, emit, reinforcer, punishment, context, intrinsic, extrinsic, limited values, broad values, Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, B.F. Skinner, target behavior, intensity, and consequences.

I dont think anything different about behavior modification.
3 things I learned in this section:
I learned about classical conditioning. Classical condtioning is different because it is set up to get a certain response, whereas, operant conditioning can have different consequences to different situations.
I learned that a primary reinforcer is something that is a necessity to live, like air or food, this is also called the unconditioned stimulus. The secondary reinforcers is the conditioned stimulus, meaning that it is the stimulus that can change.
Last thing is the intrinsic and the extrinsic values. Intrinsic is the value our ownselves give and extrinsic is the value that others give goods or services. The reason I will remember these is because the "in" starts out individual and "ex" goes with exterior.
One thing that I liked was the comparisons between intrinsic, extrinsic and primary, secondary. These comparisons like the broad value and limited value or the values individually and exterior values.
One thing I didnt like was how much was in this one chapter, I felt that there was a lot of stuff discussed.

Chapter 2.3 in reply

posted for JM:
Tuesday
Prior to reading these chapters I have just thought of behavior modification as a certain act/ behavior and then using different techniques to changing a certain behavior to a more desired one. I also was more confused with the differences between positive and negative punishments and reinforcements.

2.2
3 things to remember:
1. Pavlov- I will remember him with classical conditioning because of the study he did with his dog, the bell, and the meat. I’ll really remember this because I have heard about it before this class.
2. Primary Reinforcer- which has to do with your basic needs. Because your basic needs are primary like they normally come before anything else in your life.
3. Secondary Reinforcer- have to do with making your primary reinforcer a reinforcer. For example eating food is a primary reinforcer because hunger is a basic need but the beep of a microwave kind of reinforces the primary reinforcer.
4. One thing that I really liked about this chapter is how we went over positive versus negative reinforcement. It helped me to understand better the difference.
5. I had an extremely hard time with generalized secondary reinforcer, it wasn’t clicking with me. For some reason.
6. I don’t really think any thoughts have changed since reading this chapter. Only because everything that I am learning is pretty much a first.
2.3
3 things to remember:
1. Positive punishment is when you add an aversive or less desirable stimulus that helps to eliminate an undersirable behavior. I will be able to remember this because positive is adding something and punishment is when you respond with an undesired stimulus to decrease that unwanted behavior.
2. Negative punishment is when you remove a desired stimulus with hoping to decrease that behavior. I’ll rememb3er this because negative is removing.
3. Extreme negative reinforcement will be remembered because of the example of torturing. So its more extreme than negative reinforcement and torturing is extreme.
4. I liked in this chapter the positive versus negative punishment.
5. I didn’t like that there was so much going on in this chapter. I felt like there was a lot of information that I was trying to remember.
Terminology: Behavior, Classical Conditioning, Primary Reinforcer, Secondary Reinforcer, Reinforcer, Positive Reinforcement, Negative Reinforcement. Generalized Secondary Reinforcer, Positive Punishment, Negative Punishment, Extreme Negative Reinforcement,

Posted for JK:
Section 2.2

I thought behavior modification was not as complex as this book is telling me! I am learning new material that is even tying to the old material.

The reading will elicit memories of three concepts from this section:
1.) Responses that do not have to be learned and are reflexive in nature are unconditioned. An unconditioned stimulus (smell of steak) elicits a natural response or unconditioned response (drooling). The primary reinforcer or unconditioned reinforcer (food-steak) is biologically relevant for survival. When the unconditioned stimulus (smell of steak) is paired with a conditioned stimulus (Journey playing) repeatedly, eventually the unconditioned response (drooling) will occur without the unconditioned stimulus (smell of steak). When the unconditioned response (drooling) occurs only when the conditioned stimulus (Journey playing) is presented then a condition response (drooling) has been learned. The secondary reinforcer or conditioned reinforcer (music-Journey) is a stimulus that reinforces with a reinforcer.

2.) Generalized reinforcers are conditioned reinforcers that reinforce by pairing with many reinforcers such as money, debit cards, coupons, and poker chips. These generalized reinforcers can get many other reinforcers easily except when they cannot be used. Debit cards are not always accepted at certain businesses. Coupons expire and can only work at a specific business for a specific reinforcer. Poker chips mean nothing outside of a casino like Canadian coins have no value in Iowa.

3.) Intrinsic values are values that an individual places on something that is important to that individual. Where as, extrinsic values are values others place on something that is important socially/culturally. Intrinsic and extrinsic values may differ from person to person or culture to culture. One person might value money while another values a close family relationship. One culture might value not eating meat at specific times while another might value eating specific food groups at separate times.

I really like that this section has introduced new information for me to learn and get comfortable with because I was starting to get bored. Now I can get frustrated again!

I disliked how some of the concepts were very confusing because their definitions were wordy or all over the place. I had a hard time understanding them right away and had to read definitions repeatedly to myself to make sure I understood it correctly. Write out my own examples helped a little but even more in this blog response.

The reading has changed my boredom back into frustration because I am learning new material again and it all ties back into the information I learned previous. Behavior modification is interesting but very confusing as well.

Section 2.3

I emitted a memory behavior for these three concepts on punishment while reading this section:
1.) Positive punishment is the addition of an aversive stimulus to decrease the frequency of an undesirable behavior. For example, leaving an aversive note on my roommates door when she does not clean up her belongings in the living room. Negative punishment is the removal of a desirable stimulus to decrease the frequency of an undesirable behavior. For example, removing my wine from the fridge and placing it somewhere else so my roommates cannot drink it.

2.) Extreme negative punishment is an extreme case of removing a desirable stimulus (being physically okay) and adding a undesirable stimulus (water torture) to increase the frequency of a desirable behavior (giving up important military information) so the undesirable stimulus (water torture) will discontinue. This was an interesting section to read because it made me wonder what other extremes people would go to to get a desired behavior. This is over the top manipulation.

3.) The effectiveness of punishment depends on four factors: the abruptness, intensity, immediacy, and frequency of the punishment. The punishment needs to be aversive enough for the individual to actually stop the undesired behavior. The punishment needs to be intense or severe enough to stop the undesirable behavior. For example, putting cuffs on one drunk person being arrested may be intense enough while another needs to be pepper sprayed. The punishment needs to be given immediately after the undesired behavior is emitted, not later on. Finally, the punishment needs to be given often and consistently. This tells me why B.F. Skinner did not believe in using a punishment procedure... It may work but it is a long process and aversive for both the person being punished and the punisher. No thanks!

I really liked how this section went into so much depth over punishment and the different extremes because it helped me understand why it is better to use reinforcement. Punishment, in general, is so aversive for both parties.

I did not find anything I did not like about this section. Overall, it was very beneficial to me and my awareness of punishment.

Behavior modification is getting more and more complex by the chapter! I expect more ups and downs with my frustration and boredom, but I will get so much from this hybrid class.

Terms: Elicit, Emit, Behavior, Desirable, Undesirable or Aversive, Unconditioned Stimulus, Unconditioned Response, Natural Response, Conditioned Stimulus, Conditioned Response, Primary Reinforcer, Unconditioned Reinforcer, Secondary Reinforcer, Conditioned Reinforcer, Generalized Reinforcer, Reinforce, Reinforcement, Punisher, Punishment, Punishment Procedure, Positive Punishment, Negative Punishment, Extreme Negative Punishment, Intrinsic Value, and Extrinsic Value

2.2
REINFORCEMENT
I was hesitant going into this chapter because it opened with information I learned in 11th grade. Granted, the chapter did warn me this would happen, but we can never trust what we read can we? I wasn’t sure this chapter could have anything new to offer me. And I was wrong, of course, as we often are when we can’t learn to trust. The first thing I learned was how to connect Pavlov’s research with Skinner’s. While I was aware of the two types of behaviorism, they have existed as separate entities for me. Now I know about primary and secondary reinforcers (Skinner): essentially conditioned and unconditioned stimuli (Pavlov). Primary reinforcers satisfy biological needs; the organism needs the reinforcer for survival. Secondary reinforcers, like conditioned stimuli, are reinforcing only because they are paired with a primary reinforcer. Examples of this would be a voucher or a gift card.

Then I encountered the terms intrinsic and extrinsic. I learned every reinforcer has value to the individual (intrinsic) and to society/the masses (extrinsic). Something especially interesting is the intrinsic value of drugs for users. An individual who has never smoked marijuana won’t be motivated to do anything for a bag. But a frequent smoker would likely be motivated to accomplish certain tasks for the same reward. This brings me to the final (big) thing I learned: to always think about context. Alcohol isn’t reinforcing the morning after a giant party. Ice cream doesn’t have the same effect on a vegan as a vegetarian. Winning Francs in an American game show would be highly disappointing. The context of the reinforcer is very important because many reinforcers can have the opposite effect of what’s desired in the right (or wrong) context.

2.3
PUNISHMENT
Going in, I know I’m not a huge fan of punishment. When learning the basic concepts of reinforcement and punishment I noticed that most, if not all, behaviors can be changed for the better using only reinforcement. Why bother punishing? This chapter intensified my feelings by presenting information such as how punishment created negative emotions toward the one doling out punishment. Any form of punishment, positive or negative, taking away a favorite toy or smacking the back of the individual’s hand, will leave the one punished with ill feelings toward whoever caused their suffering, minor or major. Reinforcement doesn’t leave individuals with these feelings and still increases desired behaviors and decreases the undesired.

Something I found interesting, though not a large concept, is the act of “misting”. I never knew there was a term for spraying animals/people with water to stop unwanted behaviors. Of course, I was aware of the act, but I found it neat that there is an actual term to fit it. Toward the end of the chapter I found something that requires a follow-up. Skinner wrote a book entitled “Walden Two” revealing a Utopia that relies only upon reinforcement. I need to read this book! This sounds exactly like I’ve been saying for years! And Skinner said it first… well, before me at least.

I can’t say there was anything in this chapter I disliked, other than the topic. I, like B. F. Skinner, do not believe punishment has any purpose in modifying behavior. If you know what you’re doing, you can change behaviors using reinforcement only. I understand that punishment seems necessary now because of behaviors mentioned in the chapter that need to be stopped immediately because they hurt the individual or others. However, I hope that through cumulative research psychologists can work toward solutions like the playgrounds with rubber instead of rocks to eliminate the necessity for punishment.

Terms:
Primary reinforcers, Secondary reinforcers, Conditioned stimuli, Unconditioned stimuli, Intrinsic, Extrinsic, reinforcement, punishment, Misting