Please read sections 3.1 and 3.2
After reading section 3.1, please respond to the following questions.
Prior to reading this chapter, what did you think about behavior modification? Why? What are three things you will remember from what you read in the chapter? Why? What was one thing that you really liked that was in the chapter? Why? What was one thing that you disliked that was in the chapter? Why? What were some ideas you had while reading this section?
After reading section 3.2, please respond to the following questions.
What are three things you will remember from what you read in the chapter? Why? What was one thing that you really liked that was in the chapter? Why? What was one thing that you disliked that was in the chapter? Why? What were some ideas you had while reading this section?
Once you are done with your post make list of the terms and terminology you used in your post.
This isn't an example of you're assignment. However, this is a fun/funny video of an example of Pavlov's Classic Conditioning in action!!! I wrote about it a little in "ABC" below.
(Two and a Half Men-shots at Pavlov’s Bar) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xEDxRCa_wfc
The video is from Two and a Half Men. When the bar that the men are attending elicits the ringing behavior of the bell, the people in the bar elicit a drinking behavior of their shots. Basically the purpose is to emit encouragement for attending the bar and playing the drinking game with the bell.
1. Emitting the behavior of ringing a bell is the target behavior in the bar
2. The consequence of ringing the bell is that everyone (first barks) and then takes a shot.
3. The consequence will increase the frequency of the bell ringing because people first, are at a bar and want to drink, and second, the bar makes more money every time someone takes a shot. People want to take a shot, and it is part of the game to take one when the bell rings. Taking a shot and the bar making money will increase the frequency of ringing the bell.
4. It involves the addition of something. That is the addition of a shot and more ringing of the bell and possibly even attending the bar more.
5. The antecedent is=At a bar.
A=At a bar
B= Bell Rings
C= Take a shot
The consequence of the bell ringing is that everyone takes a shot. Taking a shot increases the frequency of the bell ringing, and the frequency of the bell ringing is directly related to the consequence of taking the shot. The bell ringing alters the individual behaviors to encourage taking a shot when a bell rings. This is a clear example of continuous reinforcement. The schedule of continuous reinforcement is the practice of getting reinforced every time a behavior occurs. So every time someone rings the bell, it is reinforced with a shot. *****Every time someone emits the behavior of ringing the bell, it is reinforced by people taking shots.
Section 3.1:
Prior to reading this chapter my thoughts of behavior modification have stayed relatively the same. I understand behavior modification as a manipulation of behavior. One of the things I will remember from this chapter is Thorndike's "trial and error" theory and more attempts equal more success and more likely the behavior will be repeated and learned. For example, the more a child attempts at reading the more likely the child will succeed and learn to read. Secondly, I will remember the terms 'stamping in' and 'stamping out'. They involve strengthening our weakening, respectively, of associations. Third, I will remember that it was not uncommon for researchers, such as Thorndike or Skinner, to build equipment to test animals. Researchers believed that they can generalize what smaller animals do to higher order species. I really liked getting to know who Thorndike was, before this chapter I have never heard of him. I could not find anything that I did not enjoy about this chapter, especially because it was brief and to the point. I didn't really have any ideas when it came to this section.
Section 3.2:
The first thing I will remember from this section is the background of Pavlov and how he originally studied digestion and later coined the term psychic secretion, which applies to the dogs ability to know when food is coming. Secondly, I will remember how Pavlov researched classical conditioning and how American researchers were mostly interested in this aspect of Pavlov's research on learning. Lastly, I will remember the term neutral stimulus and how it must be heard and clear in order for it to be salient. I really like how this chapter explained classical conditioning, without confusing the reader. Most books that I have read about Pavlov's classical condition over-explain and in return confuse me. Because of this, I could not find anything in this section that I didn't like. An idea that I had while reading this section was, how you can use this when raising children.
Terms: Behavior modification, trial and error, stamping in, stamping out, Thorndike, Pavlov, psychic secretion, classical conditioning, neutral stimulus, salient
Section 3.1:
Prior to reading this chapter my thoughts of behavior modification have stayed relatively the same. I understand behavior modification as a manipulation of behavior. One of the things I will remember from this chapter is Thorndike's "trial and error" theory and more attempts equal more success and more likely the behavior will be repeated and learned. For example, the more a child attempts at reading the more likely the child will succeed and learn to read. Secondly, I will remember the terms 'stamping in' and 'stamping out'. They involve strengthening our weakening, respectively, of associations. Third, I will remember that it was not uncommon for researchers, such as Thorndike or Skinner, to build equipment to test animals. Researchers believed that they can generalize what smaller animals do to higher order species. I really liked getting to know who Thorndike was, before this chapter I have never heard of him. I could not find anything that I did not enjoy about this chapter, especially because it was brief and to the point. I didn't really have any ideas when it came to this section.
Section 3.2:
The first thing I will remember from this section is the background of Pavlov and how he originally studied digestion and later coined the term psychic secretion, which applies to the dogs ability to know when food is coming. Secondly, I will remember how Pavlov researched classical conditioning and how American researchers were mostly interested in this aspect of Pavlov's research on learning. Lastly, I will remember the term neutral stimulus and how it must be heard and clear in order for it to be salient. I really like how this chapter explained classical conditioning, without confusing the reader. Most books that I have read about Pavlov's classical condition over-explain and in return confuse me. Because of this, I could not find anything in this section that I didn't like. An idea that I had while reading this section was, how you can use this when raising children.
Terms: Behavior modification, trial and error, stamping in, stamping out, Thorndike, Pavlov, psychic secretion, classical conditioning, neutral stimulus, salient
Prior to reading sections 3.1 and 3.2 I thought that behavior modification was a branch of psychology where psychologists paid attention to why different organisms emit the behaviors that they do. I also believed that psychologists mainly paid attention to how reinforcement and punishment will affect the frequency in which different behaviors will be emitted.
3.1
1. One thing that I will remember after reading this section is the Law of Effect. The Law of Effect was created by Thorndike and basically states that when a behavior is reinforced then it will be stamped into the mind, but if nothing becomes of a behavior then it will be stamped out.
2. The second thing that I will remember about this section is his Law of Exercise. I found this one to be very true and agreeable. The Law of Exercise is when a behavior is emitted over and over again then the association is strengthened. Basically it means that when you do a behavior repeatedly while being reinforced for that behavior then that behavior is strengthened.
3. The third thing that I will remember is how to make a graph. When making a graph it should have a title, the x and y axis should be represented with labels, the x axis should represent how often it was measures, and the y axis should represent what we were measuring.
4. One thing that I really liked about this section was the video about how the cat got out of the box. I like the visual because you were able to see how Thorndike operated his puzzle box and how he chose to record his data. I also liked his idea that once something is reinforced than that behavior is then stamped into the memory of the organism.
5. one thing that I don’t really agree with is that animals and humans all learn in the same way. I do think that there are a lot of similarities, but I feel like humans still learn in a different way just like animals all have their differences.
After reading this section it made me think about what my cats do to get out of situations. When one of my cats is hungry he will get into the cupboard and open up his food container. I know that in order to get to that point he had to of tried multiple scenarios because we put his food into an ice-cream bucket. One time he elicited the behavior of getting the cupboard open, pulled out his food, and made it fall on the ground with enough force to open up the lid. He then continued to do that until we made it impossible for him to drag out.
3.2
1. One thing that I will remember is that Pavlov was given credit for what we call classical conditioning. This is a stimulus response relationship. Basically he found that when there is a presence of a stimulus a response will occur.
2. the second thing that I will remember about this section is to not over think something when I am trying to figure out if it is a classical condition of not. When I am trying to figure out if it is classical I just need to ask myself did the stimulus come before or after the behavior. I need to not think so much about the antecedent but more about the stimulus and the behavior.
3. The third thing that I will remember is that a neutral stimulus must be salient. Salient is something that can be noticed in the environment like a car horn when driving. A neutral stimulus must also have regularity in its presentation, and it must be presented a sufficient number of times.
4. This section did something like a different section and I really liked it. That is that when introducing new vocabulary like conditioned stimulus and unconditioned stimulus they will pair the word with the abbreviation multiple times before dropping one of them.
5. I honestly hate animal experimentation which involves any sort of harm to the animal. Yes I am one of those people that has a hard time even reading about this type of thing. I actually almost refused to read through this because on the first page it goes into detail about how Pavlov basically tortured animals in order to gain knowledge on something that really isn’t that important, but it did change into talking about non-torturous animal testing.
After reading this section I started to think about my dogs and how they do the things that they do. Like when someone knocks on the door my dogs will then run to the door barking. I think that it is a conditioned response for them to run to the door barking.
Terms: behavior modification, punishment, reinforcement, frequency, emitted, emit, organism, psychology, psychologist, behavior, Thorndike, reinforced, puzzle box, law of effect, reinforced, law of exercise, elicited, Pavlov, stimulus, response, classical conditioning, antecedent, neutral stimulus, salient, sufficient, regularity, conditioned stimulus, unconditioned, stimulus, conditioned response.
Prior to reading this chapter I was starting to get confused about remembering and understanding all of the different terms and definitions from the readings. This is a class where you need to understand how to apply what you read to make up situation or find videos. I have found out that there are many different variables when it comes to manipulation how we examine behavior modification. We looked at different types of ratios and intervals last chapter. I found this to be a little confusing, but I realized it was because I was over thinking it.
One thing I found interesting from the reading was Thorndike’s research on animal intelligence. A cat was put in a box and needs to learn how to escape. There were strings and levers in the box that had to be pulled in order for the door to open. These could potentially free the cat. After doing this several times the cat should get faster and faster at escaping and that is what happened. I found this interesting because we can apply this to our daily life. The cat is using trial and error to get out the box by emitting a behavior. We do this all the time. An example is when our computer doesn’t turn on by moving a mouse. We try seeing if the monitor is only off, we seeing if the tower needs turned on, and we check if the computer is plugged in. So, the next time we go to a computer and have the same problem, the solution from last time will be the first thing we check. I also liked reading about the Law of Exercise. The Law of Exercise says that our most recent response is the one most likely to reoccur. This makes a lot of sense. If the last time two times my mother called me unexpectedly it was bad news, then most likely I would assume the third time I received an expected call from her that it was bad news. I found the graph for Thorndike’s research interesting to look at. Seeing the measurements in graph makes it a lot easier to understand and compare all of the results from a research study. I really liked the part that talked about how researchers used to believe that they could generalize all the learning techniques they used on animals that evolved on a continuum to humans. There some animals this works with, but not all. Humans have a much more complex brain and learning system than a lot of animals, mostly because they are a higher species. I didn’t like the use of the terms “stamping in” and “stamping out.” They confused me a little and I think you could use a better way to describe the idea of how we remember what works and what does not. The first part of the reading really reminded me of a lot of the different research I learned about in Introduction to Psychology. It also made me think about the fact that someday I am going to have to do my own research and come up with an original idea to gather data on. It seems difficult to me. There are so many extremely talented people that have done research studies like the puzzle box.
In this next section I found it interesting to learn that Pavlov did surgical procedures on dogs. All I really knew about Pavlov was the conditioning of salivation with the dogs. He also took some time to study neurons. He believed that dogs that were aggressive were controlled by excitatory neurons and unresponsive dogs were controlled by exhibitory neurons. I also found it interesting to learn that Pavlov and his research did not become popular in America until his work was translated into English. It is amazing to think of all the amazing research people do and realize that it has been around for quite a while, but it is still new to us. I enjoyed reading about stimulus classes. They are classes that can look the similar and have the same function. It was nice to read about something that tied back into something we have already read about, topographical and function. I really liked reading about salient stimuli. Mostly because it is something we have around us all the time. The first examples I thought of were fire alarms and smoke detectors. Something that is designed to be noticed in an environment, it is noticed. I did not really enjoy part about conditioned stimuli at the end of the chapter. I realized I am still a little confused when trying to apply this to situations. An idea I had while reading this section was conditioned and unconditioned stimuli around us. We deal with all these things daily and don’t even realize it. Salient stimuli are an extremely regular thing we deal with.
Terms: emitting, variables, behavior modification, manipulation, ratios, intervals, law of exercise, stamping in, stamping out, topographical, function, conditioned stimuli, salient stimuli.
3.1
1. Prior to reading this section what I have learned has been based mostly on reinforcement and punishment. Most recently the schedules of reinforcement with fixed and variable and ratio and interval. I have also learned that reinforcement is better than punishment and that extinction is a form of reinforcement although it can be aversive. My knowledge on the details of behavior modification is becoming more in depth with each section I read. It continues to add on to each other. I have also am learning to distinguish between the different terminology that goes along with the different aspects of behavior modification.
2. The first thing that I will remember from this section is as an animal learns to get the correct behavior they will perform the correct behavior faster in the future. Like the cats that learned what correct behaviors opened the doors and then next time they were able to do it sooner. I will also remember the law of recency which is that the most recent response is most likely to occur. This is easier to remember because it is relevant to every day life and the things that go on in our personal lives. The third thing I will remember is the different parts of the graphs and what each axis means and the different things that are needed to have a complete graph. This is easy to remember because it is review. It is something stressed in every math and research class so it was simply just recalling the information.
3. One thing I really liked from the section was learning that Thorndike built his own contraptions for experiments like the puzzle box. He used whatever raw materials he could get his hands on. I enjoyed this because it demonstrated that you don't need fancy things to discover something new. That everything you need is in your mind and just waiting for you to discover it. He had an idea and he made his contributions by doing whatever necessary to get the word across and I think that is pretty cool.
4. One thing that was not my favorite was the law of exercise which was that through repetition the associations would be strengthened. It just wasn't my favorite because it seemed like common sense. It was kind of the boring part that we need to know but is not always the most fun to learn about.
5. After reading this section I understand more how learning is mostly universal across species. I can see how the cats trying to get out of the puzzle box are related to people trying t find more efficient ways to do things in their daily lives through trial and error. I think that this universality is very helpful in understanding how we learn and devising new and better ways for people to learn more efficiently.
3.2
1. The first thing that I will recall from this section is that the unconditioned response and the conditioned response will be very similar. This is easy to remember because it would make sense that the responses should be the same if you are trying to change the stimulus to get the same response. You don't want to response to change with the conditioned stimulus. The next thing that I will remember is the term salient, which is something noticeable in the environment. These things are around us every day and elicit different responses. Such as a fire truck coming up behind you blaring its sirens, you would pull over for this without even thinking about what you should do. The final thing I will remember is that stimuli must have regularity in presentation. Meaning there must be a rhyme and reason. They must occur at the same time together each time other wise the subject will not associate them together. We can elicit the same responses for something that is not present.
2. One thing I found really interesting in this section was that Pavlov surgically manipulated his dogs to separate the saliva and measure it more directly. It is crazy to me that he can just go in and direct the saliva to a certain place that he can measure more accurately and that the dog is still able to function normally.
3. I did not enjoy the concept of experimental neurosis. I was kind of confused because some dogs experienced this and some did not and the reading was not specific as to why some developed this and others did not. Was it because of something in their brains or like their personality style? I just did not quite grasp the whole concept of it and how it was related to the conditioning to get saliva production.
4. After reading through the section I understand the idea of conditioning and the process you go through to condition a new stimulus. Something previously neutral needs to be paired with something that already produces the desired behavior to get the neutral stimulus to become the conditioned stimulus. This is knowledge that can apply to every day life and learning how to get something to elicit a response. It also makes it easier to recognize things in our lives that are already conditioned.
Terms: law of recency, aversive, reinforcement, punishment, extinction, fixed, variable, interval, ratio, puzzle box, learning, trial and error, unconditioned response, conditioned response, salient, elicit, experimental neurosis, neutral stimulus
I have liked learning about the behavior modification techniques and terms used to understand. The process of the antecedents, behavior, consequence can be used to understand many processes used everyday. I thought that behavior modification was a manipulation but have learned it is more complicated and it is something learned and available. Everyone learns behavior through induction of desirable consequences. 1. This chapter we learned about Thorndike and his studies of learning with animals. 2. Thorndike use a puzzle box to elicit the cats to emit behaviors of escaping, the reinforcement of aversive target behaviors. 3. The law of effect which states that desirable behaviors will increase with higher frequency if desirable results are reinforced. 4. I enjoyed learning about Thorndike again from History and Systems and his theories such as the law of recency and law of exercise which reinforce behaviors that become conditioned responses. 5. I enjoyed history and learning of the first ways of psychology being done. I did not like that he used cats in the experiment because I like cats and do not want them to get hurt. I was wondering if we could use other animals in the puzzle box.
This chapter was memorable because it talks about Pavlov and his famous experiments with dogs and classical conditioning. 1. I really liked the explanations of the SR and RS which are discriminant things. Stimulus response is a relationship that occurs because of the stimulus while the repose stimulus refers to the abcs of behavior. I did not like how long it was and how the examples did not have answers to them when given. I have been wondering about the behavior modification and how it has developed over the years and why it is not discussed more often by modern psychologist.
Terminology: antecedent, behavior, consequence, elicit, emit, discriminant, stimulus response, reponse stimulus, aversive, desirable, conditioning, frequency, law of effect, law of exercise, law or recency, target behavior, reinforce, puzzlebox
3.1
1. The first thing I will remember is Edward Thorndike. I remember learning about him in history and systems but that was a while ago. He is the guy who behavioral psychology, particularly applied to animals. Thorndike was the guy who put cats in puzzle boxes and watched how they learned how to escape and their rate of learning.
2. A vocab word that I came across that I’ll remember is methodological construct. This is defining something in a way it can be observed. The example of this from the book was Thorndike’s methodological construct for intelligence, which was the faster a cat could escape from a puzzle box.
3. Two other concepts that go hand in hand that I will remember are the law of recency, which states that the most recent response is the most likely to reoccur, and the law of exercise, which simply means that the more a behavior is practiced the stronger the associations will get.
The concept I liked learning about was the law of effect. This is when a behavior or response is emitted and followed by a positive outcome or reinforcement so it the two then become associated with each other. The law of effect also states that behaviors not reinforced or followed by aversive outcomes will not be remembered or learned. This is why the cats only remembered or learned what it took to open the puzzle box and not all of the other attempts/ behaviors they tried.
The thing I didn’t like about this section was the explanation of the graph and its components because it just seemed like review. Every graph obviously needs a title and then there are usually two axes. The y-axis goes up and down and measures the dependent variable, while the x-axis goes across and measures the independent variable.
3.2
1. The first guy I will remember from this section is Ivan Pavlov because the section is all about him. He was the guy who discovered the concept of the conditioned reflex by experimenting with dogs and their saliva. He also got a Nobel Prize and was remembered for his surgical techniques and invention of the Pavlov Pouch (which was to isolate a section of the stomach so food could not enter and contaminate the saliva.
2. Next I will remember the conditioned reflex. This is when a response becomes associated with something else that is a natural response so it eventually happens on its own to the stimulus. The example in the section was every time a bell rang the dogs would be feed. Salivation occurs naturally when you get food. However, the dogs started to salivate every time they heard the bell because they associated the bell with getting food.
3. The last thing I will remember is the conditions that are necessary for a neutral stimulus to become a conditioned stimulus. They are that a stimulus has to be salient, which means it must be noticed in the environment, it has to meet the regularity of presentations, which means it must occur regularly with the naturally occurring stimulus to increase the association, and finally it must be presented a sufficient number of times, which means it has to occur enough for the subject to associate it with the natural stimulus.
I liked the discussion about experimental neuroses. At the time Pavlov was experimenting with dogs they were just discovering neurons and how some could excite other neurons while others inhibited subsequent neurons. Pavlov used experimental neuroses to classically condition the dogs to discriminate against a circle (which was associated with getting fed) and a square (which meant the dogs wouldn’t get fed). Eventually Pavlov made the circle and square look alike so the dogs didn’t know how to respond. This either elicited aggression or a listless (uncaring) behavior. The aggression was supposed to mean the dogs were under control of excitatory neurons while unresponsive behavior meant the dogs were under control of inhibitory neurons.
I dislike how much the psychologists experimented with animals. Especially how Pavlov would perform unnecessary surgery on the dogs just to learn about saliva. I know we gained a lot of knowledge threw him but it seems wrong.
Terms: Edward Thorndike, behavioral psychology, puzzle boxes, methodological construct, law of recency, law of exercise, associations, law of effect, behavior, response, emit, reinforcement, aversive, graph, title, x-axis, y-axis, Ivan Pavlov, Pavlov Pouch, conditioned reflex, neutral stimulus, conditioned stimulus, salient, regularity of presentations, presented a sufficient number of times, experimental neuroses, experiment, classical conditioning, discriminate, elicit, excitatory neurons, inhibitory neurons
Section 3.1
Prior to reading this chapter, I had no idea who Edward Thorndike was. I’ve learned about other psychologists, such as B.F Skinner and Pavlov but I’ve not had a lecture on Edward yet. But it seems like all his ideas are great. The three things that I will remember from this chapter are as followed:
I will remember the Law of Effect. This Law of Effect states that, when behaviors or responses are followed by positive outcomes, that association is stamped. I will think this means that, let’s say you drove a friend’s car and came back without damaging the car, if this occur over and over again, that will reinforce your friend’s behavior into letting you drive the car next time. I will also remember the Law of Recency, which states that the most recent response is more likely to reoccur. The third thing I will remember is that, I will remember that all of the above terms and information had great impact on operant behaviors. I like how Edward was trying to learn about animal’s intelligence. Not many people are patient to devote their time into learning about animals. I used to have dogs but I won’t be able to sit down and learn about their intelligence. They understood me and I did the same, so I guess they were born with it. One thing I dislike about this chapter was that, while reading this chapter, it was hard trying to think about anything outside the topic since the section was not long enough to read. This made me not to be able to think about any idea regarding this topic. But I am learning about others idea and I think it will help me in the near future come up with a better one or so.
Section 3.2
The three things that I will remember are as followed:
I will remember Pavlov psychic secretion, which states that an animal, in this case dog, salivate as they sense the arriving of the researcher. I think this is kind of relevant. Let’s say you have an uncle who gives you money every time he comes over, whenever you hear about him or his voice, you will get excited because you think he will give you money. Everyday, our behaviors are reinforced with either positive or negative things and punished with positive and negative behaviors. I will remember salient because, situations like this triggers our behavior into emitting a certain behavior. For an example, if I turn my laptop on, the sound or chimes that sounds, triggers my behavior that it is time to enter the password. I will remember his experimental neurosis. I will remember this because of how he described the concepts in that, any unresponsive behavior is called learn helplessness and any responsive behavior is aggressiveness. I like how he explained the terms and scenarios in much detail for others to understand. Some researchers use codes or acronyms to identify a scenario but he explains it along with an example with it.
Law of Effect
Law of Recency
Reinforce
Pavlov
Learn helplessness
Aggressiveness
Psychic secretion
Salient
Reinforcement
Punishment
Emitting
Triggers
Scenario
3.1-Prior to reading this chapter I felt that I had a good grasp on terms and how to use them, but didn’t know a whole lot about actual behaviorist and people who contributed to behavior modification. Thus far most of the chapters have been explaining terms and not so much about the people involved.
One thing I will remember from reading this chapter is Thorndike was the psychologist who did intelligence research with a cat. I will remember this because he did an experiment with a cat in which he timed how fast a cat could escape a cage by using a mechanism. He called this the methodological construct for intelligence. The second thing I will remember from this chapter is that Thorndike also brought notice to the trial and error of learning. This is how we all learn, if something doesn’t work when we emit one behavior we will emit another until something works. The third thing I will evoke into my memory is the fact that many psychologists such as Thorndike built their own experiments. He built the “cage” where the cat had to find a way out. This lets them elicit specific behaviors within the experiment.
One thing I really liked about this chapter was the videos. It helped me to emit a watching behavior so I could see exactly how Thorndike did his experiment and what his contraption looked like.
One thing I found undesirable about the chapter was it was short. I usually like short chapters but I would have liked to hear more about Thorndike’s research on behavior modification.
While reading this chapter I thought about my dog when we used to stick him in the kennel as a puppy. The kennel would elicit him to emit a clawing behavior to try and get out. If clawing didn’t work, he would emit a biting behavior. He was trying different behaviors unlike he would get reinforced by getting out.
3.2-The first thing I will remember from reading this chapter is that Pavlov was a researcher who also did experiments with animals. His experiments had to do with digestion and other learning techniques. This will help me distinguish him from Thorndike. The second thing I will evoke into my memory is Pavlov came up with psychic secretion at which a dog would salivate once a sound was presented that is salient. This shows something can be controlled and taught within animals. The third thing I will evoke into my memory is that Pavlov presented a lot of different research; however the only stuff that got accepted in America was the research on learning. It is important to know this so you can understand his actual research goes beyond what is presented here.
One thing I found desirable about this chapter was the research Pavlov did was interesting and easy to read about. It wasn’t hard to follow along or understand what he was trying to do. There was nothing in this chapter that I found undesirable.
While reading this chapter I thought about my own dogs and how every time they hear the opening of plastic bags ,they start salivating excessively. This is because their treats are in plastic bags and they sound of the bag opening elicits a drooling behavior.
Terms: elicit, behavior, desirable, undesirable, reinforcement, evoke, methodological construct, salient, emit, pavlov, Thorndike
Sec 3.1:
Before reading this chapter I feel like I have an almost complete view of Behavior Modification. I know the difference between EMIT, ELICIT, REINFORCEMENT(Positive and Negative), PUNISHMENT (Positive and Negative), TARGET BEHAVIOR, BEHAVIOR CLASS, and REINFORCEMENT SCHEDULE. I feel that my view of behavior modification is almost complete, and application to the real world need to begin. Behavior Modification is a very useful tool in life, and you can do it so subtlety, many people don't know that their behavior is modified everyday.
I liked the picture of the puzzle box, it actually provided a clear example, and made the text easier to understand.
I disliked the lack of real world applications in this section, nothing was applied to the real world, outside of Thorndike's research.
Three things I will remember from this chapter:
1) LAW OF RECENCY: Thorndike stated that a behavior that has recently been PUNISHED, will be the one to most likely occur. I found this to be interesting, because that behavior should now be AVERSIVE, because of the punishment; and that should DECREASE the EMITTED BEHAVIOR. However, according to this Law, that behavior will now be ELICITED due to the punishment.
(Would it be elicited if the punishment brought on the behavior?)
2) LAW OF EFFECT: Behavior followed by POSITIVE REINFORCEMENT is stamped in, while behavior followed by punishment is stamped out. I will remember this because it differed from what the previous law states. If the punished behavior is going to be stamped out, why would they emit the behavior again (Law of Recency)?
3) Methodological Construct: Learning from trial and error. I will remember this one because it relates to human lives. We as humans learn by trial and error almost everyday, and things get better and better. One example that comes to mind is making coffee, when you first start drinking coffee you have no idea how many grounds to put it. However, after you have been making coffee for a while, the coffee is more tailored to your taste thanks to trial and error.
sec 3.4:
Before I read this section I had not yet related behavior Modification to science, but as I found out reading this section, it clearly does relate to science. The correlation between Pavlov and behavior modification was one that I had tentatively made, but was still unsure. It's clear the role that Skinner played in behavior modification, but Ivan Pavlov, was not a psychologist, he was a scientist.
One thing I liked about this section was its description of UNCONDITIONED and CONDITIONED RESPONSE, and STIMULI.
One thing I disliked about this section was the last writing square, that really confused me, and I had to leave it blank.
Three things I will remember from this chapter.
1) NEUTRAL STIMULUS is a stimuli that has no response they need to be salient enough to just be noticed. Once its paired with a US successfully it becomes a CS. I will remember this because these are the little things that make you ELICIT a response, but don't relies that it modified your behavior.
2) SALIENT is a noise or object that is noticeable, but not uncommon. I will remember this because it is not something I have ever heard of before. I also found it interesting the we are currently surrounded by salients, and they can produce responses to things.
3) UR-CR Unconditioned Response and Conditioned Response. The result of a US or CS; and unconditioned stimuli can produce and unconditioned response, while a conditioned stimuli produces and conditioned response. I will remember this because it is one of the most important things for science, and this section.
Section 3.1
Prior to reading this chapter my thoughts of behavior modification are the same. I know that behavior modification as a manipulation of behavior. Also, most of what we have learned is about reinforcement and punishment. Most recently the schedules of reinforcement with fixed and variable and ratio and interval. I have also learned that reinforcement is better solution than punishment and extinction is a form of reinforcement even though it can be aversive. I will remember Edward Thorndike and his main primary interest being in animal intelligence. I had no idea who he was until reading this section. I will remember that he is the man who put cats in puzzle boxes and observed the cats on how they learned to escape and their rate of learning. I will also remember that Thorndike brought notice to the trial and error of learning. This is how everyone learns. If something does not work when we emit one behavior, we will emit another behavior until it works; you keep trying over and over again until you get results.
Section 3.2
I will remember that Pavlov was a researcher who did experiments with animals, like Thorndike. His experiments had to do with digestion and other learning techniques. I remembered from my previous psychology classes learning about Pavlov. When I think of him what comes to my mind is the dog salivating for food and operate conditioning. His research findings was very important to studying animal and human behavior. However, I did not like that he elicited unnecessary surgery on the dogs. After reading through the section I understand the idea of conditioning and the process you go through to condition a new stimulus.
Terms used: Behavior, reinforcement, punishment, fixed, variable, ratio, interval, aversive, extinction, observe, learning, emit, trial and error, Pavlov, Thorndike, experiment, operate conditioning, salivate, elicit, stimulus, condition.
Prior to reading this chapter, what did you think about behavior modification? Why?
I thought behavior modification would be compelling because UNI students are brilliant, I was right about one thing, UNI students are brilliant!
What are three things you will remember from what you read in the chapter? Why?
I may remember that Thorndike studied cats to study animal intelligence because I read about it. I remember I am ill with advertising hosted websites being the holding of “educational” material because I did not watch the video clip on Thorndike. I will remember that Law of Effect is a way of learning process because I read that in the chapter.
What was one thing that you really liked that was in the chapter? Why?
I like the portion of the ‘how to make a graph’ because that was a relief to study basic math and be reminded of the good old days when education was free in public schools.
What was one thing that you disliked that was in the chapter? Why?
I didn’t like how Thorndike could construct a box and get a cat out but he didn’t try to help a fireman motivate a cat down from a tree. This does not seem beneficial for the cat, only his self.
What were some ideas you had while reading this section?
.Free Cat.
After reading section 3.2, please respond to the following questions.
What are three things you will remember from what you read in the chapter? Why?
Salient Stimulus have to be noticed in the environment. Pavlov was published in 1927. The UR and CR will be similar. Because I read this in chapter 3.2
What was one thing that you really liked that was in the chapter? Why?
I like the explanation of neutral stimulus, because it explained the topic.
What was one thing that you disliked that was in the chapter? Why?
I dislike the length of this chapter, examples of different variables were nice, I just had hard time focus.
What were some ideas you had while reading this section?
I don’t want to pay for school anymore. Thanks!! -ebs- 10/2/12 @ 1531hrs. CentricTime
Term% UR, CR, neutral stimulus, stimulus, salience, Thorndike, Law of Effect, animal intelligence
Section 3.1
Before reading this chapter, I had heard about Thorndike and the tests that he performed with cats. I didn't hear about some of the results and theories produced as a result of the tests.
One thing I liked about this chapter was how the author tied the new information about Thordike into the ABC's of behavior modification. Specifically operant conditioning via reinforcement. Putting these two concepts together elicited a greater learning behavior.
Three things I will remember, The law of effect, the law of recedency, and graphs have been around a long time.
The reason I will remember the law of effect is because it's so similar to reinforcing behaviors using reinforcers. I thought the law of effect was interesting because it said that the reinforced behaviors will be stamped in. Skinner says if you want a certain behavior repeated, then reinforce it. Thorndike is also saying that the behavior will be stamped into the brain.
The law of recedency is interesting to me because Thorndike says that an adverse condition will stamp out the behavior emitted prior to the consequence. This reminds me of Skinner's learning machine. The machine give you the correct answer immediately after answering the question. Answering correctly will stamp the information into the brain, getting it wrong will have an adverse effect and stamp it out of the brain.
I thought it was interesting to see a graph form that long ago. I didn't realize people were using them back then. I will remember the importance of correctly drawing the graph. In the picture of Thorndikes graph it's hard to determine what it is illustrating. It was interesting seeing it from this point of view.
I didn't find anything that I didn't like about the article. It was short and concise. Straight to the point. It taught me new things I hadn't heard before.
Section 3.2
One thing I liked about this section was how it went in depth into some of the things Pavlov learned. I took Intro to Psychology and we learned about Pavlov, but we didn't learn about some of his work on inhibiting vs. exciting nuerons.
Three things I will remember are, excite vs. inhibit, salient, R-S vs. S-R.
I thought it was interesting to learn about the difference between exciting and inhibiting by using a conditioned stimulus. I thought the consequence of having an aggressive dog was very interesting. This explains why our horses prance around the pasture when my sister yells the conditioned response "HAY".
Salient was an interesting word that I haven't heard before. Reading about the clicking noises, reminded me of the dog trainers that use clickers to create a conditioned response by using a nuetral stimulus.
Response to stimulus vs. stimulus to response to me a little while to grasp. Because it took me longer to understand, I will remember it well. The way I understand it response to stimulus is the behavior emitted as a result of the consequence. The stimulus to response is the behavior being emitted because of an antecedent.
The one thing I didn't like about this section was the confusion about the R-S vs. S-R. It seems like maybe another example or two would have helped.
After reading these sections I have a better understanding of the ABC's by learning about more things that effect the ABC's.
Terms: Behavior, antecedent, emitted, consequence, stimulus, response, conditioned response, nuetral stimulus, exciting, inhibiting, conditiioned stimulus, salient, law of effect, law of recedency, adverse, reinforcers, reinforcing, reinforced, operant conditioning, elicited.
For Section 3.1
Prior to reading this chapter, I believed that behavior modification was all about the ABCs (antecedent, behavior, consequence) of behavior, reinforcement and reinforcement schedules, punishment, and all of the other terms that make up what is known as the language of behavior. I thought this because we have only learned about those things thus far. But, after completing the assigned readings for class this week, I have more information that I have learned to add to my conception of what behavior modification truly is.
There are many ideas that I will remember from reading this section of the textbook. One in particular is that learning involves the ‘stamping in’ and strengthening of associations, whereas trials followed by failures or aversive outcomes will be ‘stamped out’ and the associations will be weakened. An association is strengthened and learned if there are pleasurable or desirable consequences to our behaviors. Because we got what we wanted, we are more likely to act in the same way again in the hope that we will once again get what we want. But, when a trial is followed by failure, these associations will be weakened because of the fact that you did not get what you wanted from the way you behaved. I know I will remember this because it just makes sense. We don’t enjoy doing things that don’t get us a desirable outcome, so it is obvious that we will repeat the behaviors that lead us to desirable outcomes rather than ones that lead us to aversive ones.
Another piece of information I will remember from this section is that Thorndike used homemade contraptions called puzzle boxes to evaluate how cats learn to escape from the box. He made these by himself and timed, in succession, how long it would take the cats to escape. It discussed how the cats would flail around and attempt to get out, and when they finally found something that worked and set them free, their times started getting shorter and shorter. This told Thorndike that the cats were learning because they were being able to escape faster than they had during the prior trials. I will remember this information because of the fact that it is interesting and because animal intelligence is something that I think is cool to learn about. If animals and humans really are on some type of continuum and behavior that animals emit can be applied to humans, then I think it is really important to learn what different animals are all about.
A final part of the section that I will definitely remember is when it discussed the different parts of a graph, such as the title, y-axis label, y-axis numbering, x-axis label, and x-axis numbering. It also discussed that the y-axis represents what we are trying to measure, or the dependent variable, and the x-axis represents the measurement periods, or the independent variable. I know that this information will for sure stick in my mind because of the fact that I have learned all about it in previous psychology courses that I have taken. It was nice to get a refresher, though!
Something that I especially enjoyed from reading this section was when it discussed Thorndike’s trial and error. It talked about how over a period of attempts, some of the attempts will lead to success, and those attempts are more likely to be repeated and learned. I liked this part because I was able to apply trial and error to my daily life in multiple situations. Life is all about trial and error, and I was happy that I could make that connection.
Something that I did not particularly enjoy from this section was when it discussed methodological constructs for intelligence. The text said that they are ways to indirectly measure something, but just that information didn’t really make clear to me what that entails. The only reason that I disliked this part was because I didn’t fully understand it, and I hope that I will get a better grasp on it when we discuss the reading in class on Thursday. Other than that, I liked reading this section!
While reading this chapter, I thought a lot about animal intelligence. Does animal intelligence really have an impact on human behavior? Can we really compare ourselves to animals? Do animals emit a behavior solely because they realize it gets them what they want, or do they actually understand their actions and learn why certain behaviors will lead them to a desired response? I am very curious when it comes to these questions and ideas. I wish that animals could converse with humans so that we could figure out what is really going on inside their heads!
For Section 3.2
There are many things that I will remember from reading this section, but one in particular is something called psychic secretion. Pavlov found that his dogs would begin to salivate at the sound of footsteps that happened before they were even exposed to any food. He called this psychic secretion. Because this happened, he made sure the dogs were in soundproof rooms and he wore shoes that did not make a lot of noise when he walked. I know that I will remember this from the reading because it was interesting to me. It shows me that the dogs were smart enough to make the association between someone walking towards them and them receiving food.
Another thing that I will definitely remember from this section is these terms: neutral stimulus, unconditioned stimulus, conditioned stimulus, unconditioned response, and conditioned response. The different stimuli and responses are what make up Pavlov’s classical conditioning. I know that I will remember these terms and what they mean because I have learned them in other psychology courses and because I was able to apply them to my life in multiple different situations and scenarios.
A final piece of information that I will remember from reading this section is that sometimes the unconditioned response and the conditioned response will be similar because of the fact that the unconditioned stimulus and the conditioned stimulus may elicit the same response. This may be confusing to differentiate, but you have to remember not to make it too confusing. I know that I will remember this because I was able to go through the practice examples thoroughly and efficiently. I am able to use the different terms without many problems.
Something that I really liked from this section was when it discussed how Pavlov redirected dogs’ salivary tubes to make their salivation be external rather than internal. He did this so that he could visually measure how much salivation was going on and when the salivation was going on. I enjoyed reading about this because it made me realize how smart Pavlov was. It was interesting to learn about. I found it neat that he began his career as a physiologist studying digestion and then became very well known for his work on classical conditioning and conditioned reflex in dogs.
Something that I did not particularly enjoy from this section was the structure of the information. I thought that it was set up in a very confusing format and some of the sentences did not flow or make sense. That made it sort of difficult for me to follow along and comprehend what I was reading. Other than that, I have nothing to really complain about!
Some ideas I had while reading this section included the thought that Pavlov was brilliant for coming up with the things that he did. I also wondered how many different kinds of animals have gone through classical conditioning procedures. I found it sort of cool that humans, as well as animals, fall into the groups of species that can be classically conditioned.
All in all, I learned a lot from these two sections on Thorndike and Pavlov. They both contributed a lot of information to the field of psychology, and I am excited to move forward and learn more about behavior modification in the weeks to come!
Terms: behavior modification, antecedent, behavior, consequence, reinforcement, reinforcement schedule, punishment, language of behavior, aversive, association, Thorndike, puzzle box, learning, animal intelligence, emit, graph, title, y-axis, x-axis, dependent variable, independent variable, trial and error, methodological construct, psychic secretion, Pavlov, neutral stimulus, unconditioned stimulus, conditioned stimulus, unconditioned response, conditioned response, classical conditioning, elicit, conditioned reflex
3.1
Prior to reading this chapter I just never get into learning about researchers it never really gets my interest but this chapter wasn’t all that bad.
One thing I will remember about this chapter is the trial and error. Trial and error means that over a period of attempts some attempts will lead to success.
Another thing that I learned about was the Law of Effect. This law states that when behaviors or responses are followed by a positive outcome, that association is stamped in.
Also I learned that Thorndike began by studying things such as how cats could learn how to escape from the confinement of a wooden cage.
The only thing I didn’t like in this chapter was how cruel they are too these animals when they do these experiments. It makes me really sad! Other than that I already said I don’t like reading about researchers but this chapter wasn’t all that bad it was actually kind of interesting learning about what this researcher studied and what his findings were.
3.2
One this about this chapter that I will remember is that Pavlov started his career by studying digestion.
Also I will remember psychic secretion. This is when a dog would start salivating when he heard footsteps coming toward him.
Another thing that I learned in this chapter is UR and CR are very similar and it can be difficult to tell them apart.
Over all these chapters weren’t bad but I just have a hard time getting being interested in these chapters about the researchers.
Section 3.1
Prior to reading this chapter my thoughts about behavior modification have stayed the same. Three things I learned are that 1) Thorndike developed 3 different “laws” (effect, recency, exercise), 2) Thorndike was interested in animal intelligence and that 3) Thorndike never labeled his graphs. I will remember the laws because I can relate them to my everyday life. I will remember that he was interested in animal intelligence because I can connect that with the puzzle boxes he used to measure that. And I will remember that he never labeled his graphs because I will need to in the future. One thing I liked about this chapter is that the laws were actually explained and I could easily understand them. I can’t think of anything I disliked about this chapter. An idea I had while reading this chapter was that I would like to see an example of these puzzle boxes with a human rather than an animal.
Section 3.2
Three things I will remember from this chapter are that 1) Pavlov was studying the digestive system when he discovered the salivation response, that 2) it took 37 years before Pavlov’s research was translated to English and that 3) Pavlov was known for his success in surgeries. One thing I liked was all the diagrams. But I did not like that there was no explanation of anything. The only way I found out what the definitions for neutral stimulus, conditioned and unconditioned stimulus, and conditioned and unconditioned response is by googling them. It was very frustrating while reading this chapter. Frankly, the only idea I had during this chapter was frustration for not understanding the examples of bunnies blinking and what not.
Terms: response, neutral stimulus, conditioned stimulus, unconditioned stimulus, conditioned response, unconditioned response, Thorndike, Pavlov, Laws of Effect, Recency and Exercise.
Section 3.1
Prior to this reading section, I think behavior modification is still allowing you to recognize or manipulate why or how behaviors occur. Behavior modification can be elicited through desirable reinforcement or aversive punishment. I know now different reinforcement schedules can elicit different responding patterns.
1. The first thing I will emit to remember is learning about researcher Edward Thorndike. Thorndike created a puzzle box or a “maze-like contraption” as the book states to evaluate how cats learn to emit the behavior of escaping from the box. Thorndike measured the reduction in time to know how much the cats learned. Thorndike found it pleasant to evaluate animals’ intelligence.
2. The second thing I will emit to remember is the difference between the law of recently and the law of exercise. Law of recently is when the most recent response is the most likely to reoccur (happen again). Law of exercise is through repetition the associations are strengthened. I found it difficult (aversive) to think of some examples of the law of recency.
3. The third thing I will emit to remember is being reminded how to use a graph to record behaviors. It is important to remember to emit the title, y-axis, and x-axis of the graph correctly. The y-axis shows what we are trying to measure and the x-axis shows the actual measurements.
I enjoyed learned about Thorndike and reading about his experiment with cats (puzzle box). Also I found it pleasant being reminded how to use a graph correctly. There wasn’t anything I disliked about this section especially with how short it was.
I didn’t really have any ideas while reading this short except wondering why Thorndike decided to use cats for his puzzle box experiment?
Section 3.2
1. The first thing I will emit to remember is learning more about Ivan Pavlov. I found it interesting that Pavlov was first studying digestion. He later realized the dogs’ saliva wasn’t only caused by the arrival of the food, but also the sound of his footsteps bringing the food. Pavlov referred to this “psychic secretion”. It’s pleasant to know how his research got started with classical conditioning
2. The second thing I will emit to remember is understanding that the neutral stimulus needs to be salient. Which means the neutral stimulus needs to be noticed in its surroundings (environment). An example from the book is a door bell which is loud enough to hear and the door is answered. However, if the door bell was not loud enough to hear, it would not be considered salient. The salient must be presented a sufficient amount of times.
3. The third thing I will emit to remember is uncontrolled response and controlled response will be similar. UR and CR can both be topographically and functionally similar (learned in certain section). However, uncontrolled stimulus and controlled stimulus are not similar to each other. This section stresses how it is important not to over think this.
I really enjoyed learning Pavlov’s background and working on the examples provided in this section about classical conditioning. The only thing I disliked about this section was the how the bunny example was the only example provided. I think having more examples provided allows me to have a better understanding of that topic.
An idea that came to mind while reading this section was what types of controlled responses occur in my everyday life.
Terms: behavior, emit, elicit, punishment, reinforcement, aversive, pleasant, behavior modification, desirable stimulus, law of recently, law of exercise, psychic secretion, classical conditioning, neutral stimulus, salient, uncontrolled response, controlled response, uncontrolled stimulus, controlled stimulus, topographically similar, functionally similar, and stimulus
3.1
Prior to reading this chapter, what did you think about bmod?
Without thinking much, I assumed that most modifications that can be made to behavior occur mostly in humans, and can't be translated effectively into other animals. This chapter showed me that other mammals aren't much different to humans in respect to behavior and behavior modification.
What are three things you will remember from what you read in the chapter?
First, I will remember the puzzle box and how it was important in research with cats. Even though it was a complex system of levers, the cats eventually got out.
Secondly, I will remember that Thorndike believed that there was no burst of insight, but only trial and error, and the reinforced actions would prevail.
Finally, I will remember the graph of learning, and how it is not perfect and not sudden. Even after you figure something out, it may take you a couple of tries to completely resolve something that is learned.
What was one thing you really liked that was in the chapter?
I enjoyed the video linked, the way it showed how pivotal research can be done with a simple plywood box.
What was one thing that you disliked that was in the chapter?
I liked Thorndike's research and I wish the chapter was longer.
3.2
What are three things you will remember from what you read in the chapter?
First, I didn't know that Pavlov was involved with digestion and invented the "Pavlov pouch" and how this led to his discovery of conditioning.
Second, I will remember what is an unconditioned response and a conditioned response.
Finally, I will remember that conditioning is a stimulus->response theory of behavior rather than response->stimulus theory, what we have been learning before.
What was one thing that your really liked about the chapter?
I enjoyed the short bio of Pavlov and how he came about to discover classical conditioning.
What was one thing that you disliked?
This chapter did go over Pavlov in more depth that what I have been before, but I have read about Pavlov so much as a psych major.
Prior to reading this section, my thoughts on behavior modification still hasn't changed. I think it has to do with the manipulation of a behavior.
3.1
1. I will remember how Thorndike believed that associations with successful attempts were stamped in and associations with unsuccessful attempts were stamped out. I find this to be true and kind of cool to think about.
2. I also will remember the part about about animal intelligence. I thought it was crazy how Thorndike used a puzzle box to evaluate how cats learn to escape from the box.
3. Lastly I will remember that the x-axis was what we are trying to remeber and the y-axis is measurement periods.
I liked the idea of the puzzle box and how Thorndike used it to figure out animal intelligence. I didn't like how he trapped the cat in the box to try and figure that out.
3.2
1. I will remeber how Pavlov used his dogs and found out his dogs would salivate at the sound of footsteps. This was called psychic secretion.
2. I will also remember that the unconditioned response and the conditooned response will be similar and sometimes hard to tell apart.
3. I will remember the examples they used for CS, US and UR;
Conditioned Stimulus: Bell
unconditioned Stimulus: Food
unconditioned Response: Salivation
I really liked how they pieced all of the thig about responses as well as the examples that they used to do so. There wasn't anything that I didn't like in this section.
terms: behavior, y-axis, x-axis, psychic secretion, Conditioned stimulus, unconditioned stimulus, unconditioned response, conditioned response
3.1
Prior to this section, my views of behavior modification haven’t changed. But I have found that with each section I read, my views become reinforced, or change due to new information that is added.
The three things I will remember all involve Thorndike’s ideas on cat learning. The first involves his experience with the cats and the puzzle box. Thorndike’s ideas reminded me of reinforcement and punishment. If the cat was able to get out of the box in an efficient way, he was rewarded with and pleasant reward, being free. However, if the cat took a while, he was negatively reinforced. He was still allowed to leave the box, yet he was slower and struggled more. The second thing I will remember is the concept of association with success. If one is success with a task, this behavior emitted is positively reinforced. This is easily applied to any behavior that is deemed pleasant in today’s society. The third concept remembered is the opposite, association with no success. If the behavior is not successful, the behavior is followed by an aversive outcome.
One thing I liked about the section was that the example of the cats and puzzle boxes was throughout the whole section, adding to each portion of the example. It was nice because it was easy to follow and understand.
One thing I disliked was the statement about what is learned about the behavior of rats is comparable to humans. Although this is used throughout the scientific world, I sometimes wonder if this is true. This leads into my ideas that I had during the section.
During the section, I found myself wondering if rats and humans are comparable, due to many obvious physical differences.
3.2
The first thing I liked about this section was the Pavlov connection, and the information involved in the dog experiments. Throughout many psychology classes you learn that Pavlov was connected to dogs, saliva, and classical conditioning, but I never really understood nor got a full view of his work and that experiments he emitted, and this positive and negative punishments received.
The second thing I liked was the stimulus/response concept. I liked that is was easy to understand once it was put in the context that if there is a presence of a stimulus, there is a response to follow. Usually, the stimulus is pleasant, and is followed by a positive reinforcement. Rarely does is stimulus followed by a negative consequence, for those stimulus will probably become extinct.
The third thing I liked was the opposite, response/stimulus. If there is a behavior, there is a consequence. In this one, the behavior could be positive or negative, and followed by a positive reinforcement, positive punishment, negative reinforcement or a negative punishment.
One thing I liked about the section was the understanding and explanation of the stimulus/response and response/stimulus concepts. These concepts were easy to understand after they were eplained. However, one thing I disliked was the condition stimulus, unconditioned stimulus, etc. Those became confusing due to the many examples given.
From this section, I really didn’t find any new ideas, but concepts became more clear and were learned.
Terms Used: reinforced, reinforcement, punishment, pleasant, negatively reinforced, positively reinforced, aversive, emitted, negative punishment, stimulus/response, extinct, response/stimulus, positive punishment, negative reinforcement,
3.1
In this section I learned a lot of interesting things that I had not previously known about behavioral modification. One of the things I learned from this section was that methodological construct is a way to indirectly measure something. Another thing I learned was that the law of effect basically states when behaviors or responses followed by positive outcome. The last thing I thought was interesting was that the law of exercise states through repetition the associations are strengthened. Some ideas I had while reading this section was about how methodological construct was formed over time.
3.2
There were a lot of things in this chapter that were knew to me. I found learning about Pavlov very interesting. I found learning about the dogs salivating at the sound of foot steps because they had associated the foot steps with food. I also found learning about how the neutral stimulus must have regularity in its presentation in order to be effective. If there are a lot of changes then it will not be as easily presented. The last thing that interested me was how Pavlov's work is associated with a lot of different names. I have heard of classical conditioning but never have been able to remember Pavlov's experiment. Some ideas I had when reading this section were about how they performed this experiment and how I would like to try this out and see if I can get the same result.
Terms used: methodological construct, law of effect, law of exercise, psychic secretion, reinforcement, neutral stimulus, and classical conditioning.
Section 3.1
Before I read the chapter, I was not aware that temperament also affects behavior. This relationship is also a kind of chicken-and-egg question. Does temperament change the emitted behavior? Or does behavior form a unique pattern that we call the temperament? I guess there would be a dispositional factor that helps predicting behavior, and this has something to do with individual differences in the brain.
I can recall the term methodological construct and the three laws proposed by Thorndike. The term methodological construct reminds me of my research methods class. When we design an experiment we always have to figure out how to measure an abstract construct with observable events in real life. This aspect of research is one of the activities that makes psychology interesting. The Law of Effect tells us how an animal associates behavior with consequence. This theory explains how behavior is influenced by reinforcers or punishers. The Law of Recency says that the most recent action is most likely to occur, and the Law of Exercise says that repetition makes the association between the behavior and the consequence stronger. Both of these support the saying of "practice makes perfect." Overall these three laws explain the process of learning to some extent.
I like the movie embedded in the text. After reading so many pages of online text in the same format, seeing something that moves is really a refreshing experience. I hope there could be more vivid examples in this course and less text that explains the same concept over and over.
This section is pretty organized and there is not much to complain about. If I must pick something I would choose Figure 5 on the third page. The footnote of the graph is a little bit blurred. If the text can be clearly typed again, the information would be easier to read.
I think there is a possible research field regarding the relationship between behavior and temperament. In common sense people would take the personality of an individual into account when they try to guess what a person will do. We also use past records to predict someone's future performance. Maybe if we know better about temperament we can narrow the range of possible behavior and make predictions with higher accuracy.
Section 3.2
I remember the concepts of excitatory or inhibitory neurons, experimental neurosis, and stimulus salience. The different types of neurons are new to me, and I don't really know how they work that way. Maybe this is a concept similar to the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems. I hope in the future I will have a better understanding of this fascinating biological phenomenon.
The experimental neurosis looks somewhat pathetic to me. Basically these poor dogs are driven crazy by the experimenter. What is so fun to abuse the subjects with stimuli that they can not discriminate? That is like putting a traffic light that shows orange, blue, and purple on the street! I guess the responses to these ambiguous stimuli resembled the behavior during extinction, so these dogs essentially unlearned the responses. Finally stimulus salience simply means that the stimulus need to be bright or loud enough so an animal can perceive it. This makes sense because a stimulus would not be a stimulus if the animal can't detect it.
I like the graph showing the process of classical conditioning. It reminds me of the introduction to psychology class. This graph is one of the important things in that class, and almost everyone will have it memorized somehow after taking the class. It is like the foundation of studying psychology. This is the old good stuff that still stands after decades.
A couple sentences in this section are really confusing. On Page 2 the text says: "...he would make the square to look more and more like a circle until the dogs could tell which was which." Also there is a sentence on Page 4: "If the bell was of a certain pitch that we could detect it with the human ear, it would not be salient." These sentences seem to contradict the context around them. Maybe few adjustments can help conveying the idea to students.
I hope I will be able to read more about excitatory or inhibitory neurons. This finding in biology seems to explain very important mechanisms in animal behavior. Maybe this would be a major discovery in neuroscience. I just want to know more about it.
Terms: emit, methodological construct, Law of Effect, consequence, reinforcer, punisher, Law of Recency, Law of Exercise, experimental neurosis, stimulus salience, extinction
Before reading this chapter I thought I knew almost everything there was to know about behavior modification. I understand the terms that are used. I know the different between punishment and reinforcement. I also know that to manipulate someone isn't exactly a bad thing.
3.1
I will emit the behavior of remembering the Law of Effect. I will remember this as being a type of reinforcement. Behaviors that aren't successful and don't have positive reinforcers but have negative reinforcers will be "stamped out." I will also emit the behavior of remembering the Law of Recency is that the most recent response will keep re-occuring. I will also remember that the Law of Exercise says that repetition strengthens associations. I will also emit the behavior of remembering the trial and error concept. When emitting a trying behavior sometimes it doesn't work but once we find a way that works we keep doing it. So it is learned. Things that are learned are also referred to as being "stamped in" while things unlearned are "stamped out."
I like the photos and the charts in this chapter. It helped to make sense of the material. One thing I didn't like about this chapter was the lack of every day references. These generally help me to understand the information. Which is another reason I am glad the tables and charts were in the chapter.
3.2
In reading this chapter I will emit the behavior of remembering what salient is. Before this chapter I had never even heard of this term. For something to be salient it is noticed in the environment. So bright lights from a car is salient. I will also remember the neutral stimulus need to have regularity in its presentation. So when doing an experiment what you are using to test needs to be regular. I will remember that it also need to be presented numerous times before associations occur. It is like trying to potty train an animal, it needs to be taken outside to go to the bathroom multiple times before it learns not to go in the house. I found this chapter interesting because while I've heard Pavlovs experiment I didn't know the whole thing.
Terms: Emit, Behavior, Reinforcement, Positive Reinforcement, Salient, Punishment, Manipulate, Law of Exercise, Law of Recency, Law of Effect, Trial and Error, Negative Reinforcement.
Section 3.1
1) My thoughts about Behavior Modification have stayed the same. These past few chapters have just made me realize it is a relatively complex concept, yet at the same time, it's beginning to be easier to understand as we keep getting further into the material.
2) Three things I'll remember from this chapter are:
a) The Law and Effect Concept. It states that when behaviors/responses are followed by a positive outcome, associations become present and stronger. It also states that when behaviors/responses are followed by a negative outcome, the opposite will happen.
b) Graphs were used than to record behaviors and they are still a good mechanism for doing the same thing today. However, I think graphs have improved since when Thorndike used them. They are easier to understand now.
c) The Puzzle Box I'll remember because I thought it was interesting and I could see Thordike's logic behind it. That each reduction in time for the cat to escape meant that the cat was learning. It makes sense.
3) One thing I liked about the chapter was the video and pictures. It's interesting to go back in time and see what Pyschologists came up with to learn from.
4) There really wasn't anything I didn't like about this chapter.
5) One idea I had while reading this chapter is how so many psychologists learned through the use of animals. Even today. It's amazing how much we can associate rats to human functions.
Section 3.2
1) Three things I'll remember from this chapter:
a) Pavlov's Conditioned Reflex theory. I think it is interesting that Pavlov thought some dogs had aggressive behavior due to his procedure affecting the brain, directly through the neurons. This leading him to believe in unresponsiveness or learned helplessness or agressiveness concepts.
b) I won't forget the concept salient. The bell example really made this term stick for me. To be salient, it has to be noticed- loud noise (bell), flashing light, etc.
c) The similarities between UR and CR because I am afraid of getting them confused in later chapters. Although, at this point I think I got a pretty good idea of the terms and their meanings.
2) One thing I liked about this chapter was actually how the terms were presented. For some reason, as I was going through these terms, I was thinking ah that makes sense. In past chapters, when there are a lot of new terms, I usually get overwhelmed.
3) One thing I disliked about the chapter is that Pavlov used dogs for studying purposes, especially when he studied the digestive system. It just seemed like the poor dogs had to endure a lot.
4)I really didn't have any ideas while I was reading this chapter.
Terms used: Association, Conditioned Reflex theory, learned helplessness, salient, UR, CR, Law of Effect, behavior, responses, puzzle box, Thorndike, and Pavlov.
3.1
Before this chapter I thought that behavior modification is very complex. I’ve been realizing this more and more each week we read more for the assignment. I learned more about extinction and reinforcement, and like ratio and interval schedules in the previous chapter.
One thing I will remember from this rather short chapter is Edward Thorndike. Besides having an interesting name, it was really interesting learning about his research and what he did with cats. I know cats are really smart, but I wonder what was his reasoning for doing animal intelligence on these animals. It was really cool to learn how the cats were able to figure out how to open the box and would continuously get better at it. The opening of the door would be reinforcement for the cat to keep emitting whatever target behavior they did to get out of the box. He would have to make sure to not make it super hard to get out of the box otherwise the cats would go through an extinction phase and not do whatever behavior they were supposed to do to get out.
Another thing I will remember is trial and error learning. This would tie in with variability because one would do things differently until they find that one behavior that would reward them with what they want. An example I put for this would be like cooking without a recipe. If one is just winging how to make something, a lot of it would be trial and error in figuring out what to do and how much of what to do in order to make something pleasing to the taste buds and not aversive tasting things.
I will also remember the law of recency is the more recent we do something, the more likely that we will continue to do it. An example I have for this is remembering a phone number we just dialed. It is easier to be able to recall that number again after a bit then it is to remember a number that we dialed two days a go. With cell phone usage now, this might not be as important, but it still does happen I think.
I liked how easy it was to understand the concepts and that there wasn’t a whole bunch of review from previous readings. There wasn’t anything in particular that I didn’t like. I think it would be cool if we had an animal lab on campus. Especially for this class if we had an assignment of modifying an animal’s behavior, like in the video we watched of the mouse basketball thing that would be really cool to do and see the terms we’re learning about in action. I think that would make the class more interactive and hands on when we’re learning about behaviors.
3.2
I will remember about Pavlov. We’ve talked about him before and I’ve heard about his dog study, but it’s cool to learn about it more in depth. I didn’t ever really realize that he cut into the dogs mouth’s to measure saliva and would change the environments so they couldn’t hear him walking towards him or something. That was cool to learn about. And the rabbit thing was neat too. It was a little random I thought to pick a rabbit and then condition it to blink to a tone. But it definitely shows how conditioning works, and it’s simple to understand all the terms with that example.
One thing I will remember is salient stimuli. That is described as being something that is able to be noticeable within an environment. It can be heard or noticed in an environment. An example I had for this would be a cop car when it has its lights on and is blaring its horn. This is salient within a driving environment because most cars are not loud on the highway, and do not have flashing lights. It is very noticeable for a person to see what is going on and then emit the behavior of pulling over. The only time this might not be salient is if in a loud city or something where horns and sirens are common, or if the driver is listening to music really loudly and not paying attention to their surroundings.
Another thing I will remember is that the neutral stimulus must be presented regularly in order to become a conditioned stimulus. An example I thought of is yelling ‘four’ at a golf course, the word is a conditioned stimulus to elicit the conditioned response of ducking or looking up at the sky. Normally yelling four won’t really elicit anything other than weird looks. But at a golf course this is something that golfers are conditioned to listening for and reacting if they hear it.
I liked the multiple examples to practice US, UR, CS, CR. It’s still kind of confusing to me, but I think each time I do it, it gets better and better. So I didn’t like the confusion about it, but I’m trying to keep it all straight and not think to deep into it. I wondered while reading this chapter what other animals Pavlov dealt with. It’s interesting to read about his studies.
Terms: Edward Thorndike, reinforcement, emitting, target behavior, extinction, trial and error learning, variability, pleasing, aversive, law of recency, recall, Pavlov, conditioning, salient stimuli, environment, neutral stimulus, conditioned stimulus, elicit, conditioned response
Prior to reading these sections, I still think behavior modification is complex and involves the manipulation of behaviors.
Section 3.1
1.) I will remember the idea of the methodological construct for intelligence that Thorndike came up with by studying how cats learn. The cat was to manipulate strings and levers built into a wooden box allowing a door to open thus freeing the cat. The reduction in time to escape was a measure of how much the cat learned. The faster the time, the more intelligence.
2.) I will remember the Law of Effect that states that when behaviors or responses are followed by positive outcomes, that association (what worked) is stamped in. Trying different behaviors (trial and error) will eventually lead to the desired outcome. You are more likely to remember what behavior did work rather than all the other behaviors you tried that did not.
3.) I will remember the other laws Thorndike came up with because they both interrelated to the first law. The Law of Recency states that the most recent response is most likely to reoccur and the Law of Exercise states that through repetition the associations (what worked) are strengthened.
I did not like how this section involved testing animals but at the same time, it helped us figure out how people and animals learn.
I liked how everything was very straight forward and easy to follow. Also, the graph that was labeled is nice to look at for future reference when we will be needing to label our own behavior results.
I think we should do an intelligence study on each other to see how fast we can figure out how to get the desired outcome. I'm not sure what we could do, but I think it could be entertaining and we could graph our results as well.
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Section 3.2
1.) I will remember Pavlov's study of the salivary glands because it was interesting to read about because I had to re-read the paragraphs to make sure that's what I just read. Pavlov did a surgical process involving the isolation of the saliva ducts by cutting a small incision in the dog's cheek and rerouting the duct to the exterior. I thought it was weird that he could attach test tubes to the salivary ducts to allow collection, measurement, and analysis of the salivation resulting from different food stimuli and conditions.
2.) I will remember the psychic secretion concept because the dogs did not just start salivating at the sound of a bell but also to the sound of footsteps, before the arrival of food. My dog starts freaking out before I even get to the cabinet where his treats are. He assumes he's going to get some because I'm in the kitchen near the cabinet they are in.
3.) I will remember that a salient stimuli is a stimuli that must be heard or seen above the background noise such as a door bell because you hear the door bell ring and go answer the door. I would even consider someone calling out your name because we tend to point out and focus on the sound of our name. I know I immediately look around if I even remotely think I hear my name being called out.
I did not like how this section was written. I got very confused and then could not figure out what to focus on in the section. There was so much going on in this section but it all related.
I liked how it was easy to understand the differences between an unconditioned stimulus, unconditioned response, conditioned stimulus, and conditioned response. It made it easy to come up with my own examples.
I have been learning a lot in this class and a lot of it is transferring into my other classes. Some of my communication disorder classes actually talk about concepts I've already learned from this class and previous psychology classes. It makes me value this class so much more.
Terms: Behavior, Desirable, Response, Methodological Construct, Law of Effect, Law of Recency, Law of Exercise, Salient Stimuli, Unconditioned Stimulus, Unconditioned Response, Conditioned Stimulus, Conditioned Response, and Psychic Secretion.
Prior to reading this chapter, what did you think about behavior modification? Why? What are three things you will remember from what you read in the chapter? Why? What was one thing that you really liked that was in the chapter? Why? What was one thing that you disliked that was in the chapter? Why? What were some ideas you had while reading this section?
Before reading this section I had never heard of Thorndike and his studies on animal intelligence. Three things that I will remember from 3.1 are law of exercise, proper graph labeling, and trial and error theory. The law of exercise is about because of repetition associations are strengthened. This is something I will be able to remember because it is easy for me to understand and relate to real life situations. Graphs need to be labeled with titles, X & Y variables and how they are measure/what is measured. This is crucial in understanding what information is being shown. If not labeled correctly completely different conclusions could be drawn. Trial and error is something that I will remember because it makes sense and it can observed in everyday life. One thing that I liked about this chapter was little illustrations of the contraption used on the cats along with the youtube video. This helped me better understand how it worked and how the cats actually got out. There wasnt anything that I didnt like about this section. Some things that came to mind while reading this section was if thorndike studied animal intelligence in the little contraption on animals other than cats.
What are three things you will remember from what you read in the chapter? Why? What was one thing that you really liked that was in the chapter? Why? What was one thing that you disliked that was in the chapter? Why? What were some ideas you had while reading this section?
After reading this section one thing that I learned and will remember is the Pavlov won a Nobel Peace prize and was a surgical expert. His biggest contribution was the fistula. Another thing neutral stimulus' have to be salient. This means it has be been noticed in the environment. Lastly, UC and CR are easily confused because theyre topographically and functionally similar. One thing that I really enjoyed about this chapter is the chart included in the text with the bell, food, salivation chart. This helped me understand it so much easier actually being able to visualize it. There wasnt anything that I didnt really like about the chapter but I thought that there were kinda a lot of examples to fill in the blanks for. While reading the section something I thought is trying to think of examples of these things in my everyday life.
3.1
Edward Thorndike was a behavioral psychologist primarily interested in animal intelligence. Thorndike is best known for his work with cats and his puzzle boxes although he also experimented with chicks and mazes too; he very much enjoyed working with animals. These puzzle boxes had strings and levers that the cat had to manipulate to be set free. Thorndike measured how long the cat took to set itself free, as each trial the time lessened; he took the reduction as the measure of how much the cat had learned. This led Thorndike to develop the Law of Effect; associations that worked with successful attempts were stamped in while associations with unsuccessful attempts were stamped out. Other contributions to the psychology world Thorndike was noted for were the Law of Recency and the Law of Exercise. The Law of Recency states that the most recent response is the most likely to reoccur and the Law of Exercise states that through repetition the associations are strengthened.
The three things I will take away after emitting a reading behavior on section 3.1 are definitely the three laws: Effect, Recency and Exercise. I recently took the History and Systems course so section 3.1 elicited a sense of familiarity to me. This further drilled in the three laws, which wasn’t too terribly difficult because the behavioral college of psychology has always seemed to be easier and more fascinating to emit a learning behavior on. Another reason that I will take away the three laws is that they can still be applied to real life occurrences today. An idea I had after emitting a reading behavior on section 3.1 when I took History and Systems and first emitted a learning behavior on Thorndike.
3.2
My prior knowledge of Pavlov was most likely no different than most of my fellow classmates. I was aware that he was from Russia and this is where he first started his research. He lived quite a ways from the school and I believe he left his farm and walked there in the beginning of his schooling. If my memory serves me right, Pavlov was not the closest with the Russian government and in turn moved to the United States. It is also well known that Pavlov was another psychologist who loved working with animals, especially his dogs, and would much rather spend his time emitting learning behaviors in his lab than with his family. As far as his research went, of course I am familiar with the conditioned stimulus and conditioned responses with the meat and bell. I also was aware that he worked with the dogs’ salivation and meat powder, but not to the extent that section 3.2 covered.
Emitting a reading behavior on section 3.2 found very interesting and opened a whole new appreciation of Pavlov. From the opening of the section, it elicited new information such as the surgical experimentations in which he attached part of the small intestine to the abdominal wall. I didn’t realize all the work that went into the study of the salivation and food. I also found the fact he rerouted a dog’s salivation duct to the outside so he could collect saliva very fascinating. Having section 3.2 touch on the neuro part of Pavlov’s work was helpful; explaining how the neurons would excite or inhibit other neurons and the coining them either excitatory or inhibitory. I have been emitting a learning behavior on biopsychology this semester so this part of the new information elicited a connecting factor for me. A couple other new things I learned about Pavlov was his work with the dogs in discriminating between shapes and learned helplessness as well as experimental neurosis. There was also a bit of psychology drama with the statement of the only part of Pavlov’s work that lent direct support to the ongoing research of Thorndike and Watson was promoted in the US. I loved it.
Judging between the two, Pavlov and Thorndike, in which I found more interesting I’d have to choose Pavlov. The reason could be that throughout my course work we’ve covered Pavlov’s contributions a bit more so than Thorndike’s. I also believe that Pavlov took his behavioral work to the next level, at the same time not discrediting the work that Thorndike brought to the field. I also thought I could simply find Pavlov more interesting because I’m so much more of a dog person than a cat person! Again the first idea this section elicited was that again of taking History and Systems, or any psych course for that matter. You really can’t take a course in psychology without learning of Pavlov.
Terms Used: manipulate, behavioral psychology, law of effect, law of recency, law of exercise, response, emit, conditioned stimulus, conditioned responses, discriminating.
Before starting these chapters I had a pretty good handle on what Behavior Modification was/is. The thing I really didn't know were the faces so to say of the science. We have discussed Skinner before and Pavlov but beyond that I don't really have a face to say, oh yeah this guy was really important to behavior modification. I'm sure that'll change after this section.
3.1
The first thing I'll remember from this section is the idea of Methodological construct. I'll elicit the memory from work, the first time I did a task at the restaurant, like ringing up the bill. It took awhile because I was unsure of what was needed and all that. Then as time went on I progressively got faster at ringing up the bill. So I essentially learned Thorndikes Law of Effect which is essentially trial by error! Which is the second thing I'll remember seeing as I've uknowingly been doing this in my work places. Thirdly I'll remember his supporting laws for Effect which were recency and exercise which are the idea of the most recent successive behaviors (or the ones that lead to an aversive outcome) are thus repeated or led to extinction and then behaviors that lead to a postive outcome will lead them to be repeated. I really enjoyed the pictures of Thorndikes cat house as it was helpful in seeing how a cat would go through it. I didn't really have much to complain about from this section really. One idea that popped into my head is that an excellant example of trial and error is walking. One of my younger nephews is just learning to walk and its interesting to see him find different ways to stand, then to see him walk as well.
3.2
The first thing I'll recall from this section is the fact that Pavlov stumbled on his whole idea of classical conditioning while researching salivary glands.. but that does help in the eliciting of Classical Conditioning. Which is two paired stimuli that bring out a behavior. So in this case an example would be the school bell ringing, at 8:05 and you running because you know that bell means you'll be late if you don't hurry. The second idea that I'll remember is that the neutral stimulus must always occur. If it doesn't occur every time then the behavior won't stick. So if the aforementioned bell didn't always ring then you could start flipping a proverbial coin and decide to take a refreshing walk to class instead of sprinting a 100 yard dash. The thing I'll remember is that the neutral stimulus besides being always given must also be given numerous times as well. If not given enough the subject won't be able to make the lightbulb association and make that behavior a permanent fixture. I rather enjoyed the flushed out back story on what Pavlov did before his classical conditioning research, and all the examples too! Again I didn't really have anything negative to say about the chapter either.
Terms: Aversive, Behavior, Behavior Modification, consequence, Law of Effect, Law of Exercise, Law of Recency, elicit, Methodological Construct.
3.1
Prior to reading the chapter I had heard of Thorndike before but hadn’t heard of his experiment with cats in his puzzle box. One thing I will remember from the chapter is Thorndike’s puzzle box experiment with cats and how it demonstrates them learning. I will also remember Thorndike’s Law of Effect and how he describes reinforced behaviors as being “stamped in”. A third thing I will remember are the features that a graph should have in order to properly convey its data. One thing I liked in this chapter was the puzzle box experiment and that there was a YouTube video linked that helped to demonstrate how the experiment worked. I didn’t like Thorndike’s graph without the unnecessary labels because it was difficult to understand what it was trying to convey. An idea I had while reading the chapter was that humans also tend to learn through trial and error in certain situations just like the cats did while they were in the puzzle box.
3.2
One thing I will remember form the chapter is Pavlov and his experiments with dogs and classical conditioning. I will also remember the components of classical conditioning: neutral stimulus, unconditioned stimulus, conditioned stimulus, unconditioned response, and conditioned response. Knowing how all of these relate to classical conditioning will be useful when relating classical conditioning to real life events .A third thing I will remember is that in order for something to be a neutral stimulus it must be salient, it must have regularity in its presentation, and it must be presented a sufficient number of times. One thing I liked about the chapter was the description of Pavlov’s background and his experiments with classical conditioning. One thing I disliked about the chapter is that things got a bit confusing as I read through the chapter but re-reading helped me understand the chapter more completely. An idea I had is that I would like to try an experiment with classical conditioning sometime because I found it to be very interesting and would like to see the process in action.
Terms: Thorndike, puzzle box, learning, Law of Effect, reinforced, behaviors, experiment, classical conditioning, neutral stimulus, unconditioned stimulus, conditioned stimulus, unconditioned response, conditioned response, salient, Pavlov
Chapter 3.1
Before reading this chapter, I thought that up to this point, behavior modification was simply the memorization of a bunch of behavioral words and to understand their definitions. We had to use examples and put the words in sentences to learn how to use them correctly. The three things that I will remember from this chapter are: 1)the methodological construct of the puzzle box led Edward Thorndike to the development of the 'Law of Effect,' 2) trial-and-error data helped show that over time, learning could occur as a result of discovering successful actions, thus leading to reinforcing consequences, and 3) people 'stamp in' a behavior that leads to reinforcement and 'stamp out' the aversive behaviors that can lead to punishments. I will emit a memorization behavior to remember these because the reading was so short. One thing that I really liked about this section was that even though it was pretty short, it was very specific and had a youtube video that we got to watch in order to put Thorndike's theories into perspective. One thing that I didn't like was that there was a lot of space taken up by example boxes, thereby leaving less room for real, legitimate behavior talk. The first idea I had was in order to make this study less. Also, why did Thorndike only focus on cats instead of other lab animals.
Chapter 3.2
Three things that I will remember from this section are: 1) Pavlov won the Nobel Prize for training his dogs to salivate when they hear a bell that typically meant they were getting food, 2) Conditioned reflex is basically just saying that as a person or animal learns over time, one specific target behavior can be observed more closely, and 3) it is important for even a neutral stimulus to be salient so that a researcher has a better chance of accurately recording the proper information. The last section has elicited a desire for me to emit memorization ever more. One thing that I liked about this chapter was the fact that Pavlov's study was broken down into stimuli and responses/consequences that were easy to understand. One thing that I didn't like was the patterns at the end to explain the math and complexity of conditioned reflex. While reading this, I came up with the idea to see if there was a possibility to test Pavlov's conditioned reflex theory with other animals and their saliva to see if animals share these similar behaviors. Just a thought.
Terms used: behavior, methodological construct, law of effect, trial-and-error, reinforcing, consequences reiforcement, aversive, punishment, emit, Thorndike, Pavlov, conditioned reflex, target behavior, neutral stimulus, salient, elicit, stimuli, responses
3.1
Prior to reading the chapter I didn't know much about Thorndike or his experiments, but I have heard of puzzle boxes being used to assess intelligence. I also knew what that the y axis represents what your trying to measure and that the x axis represented the periods of measurement in those types of graphs. I had taken a history and systems of psychology class and we studied this. I learned that Edward Thorndike studied animal intelligence with maze like contraptions called puzzle boxes. He observed and timed cats to see if over time they would catch on to how to escape. Cats used a trial and error basis for learning how to escape. There are three laws that come with trial and error. The law of effect is when you are reinforced for an action, you will remember what it was that got you the reinforcement. The law of Recency says that the most recent response is the one that will most likely reoccur. The law of exercise states that the more times associations are made, the stronger the associations become. I liked watching the set up of the puzzle box and observing the cat using trial and error. I thought that the chapter was pretty easy to comprehend and there really wasn't anything I disliked about the chapter except that it was somewhat of a review. That is actually kind of a good thing. I was interested in finding other ways of assessing animal intelligence because I couldn't really come up with any more examples.
3.2
Three things I will remember from the chapter: I was pretty familiar with the pavlov story on classical conditioining however I did not know the backstory that the dogs first reacted to the sound of the footsteps. Experimental Neurosis is when as subject is taken under control of inhibitory or excitatory neurons. I think of it as an extreme state of confusion. The necessary conditions to make the neutral stimulus become the conditioned stimulus is the stimulus' salience, the regularity of presentations, and the number of presentations. These were the things that I hadn't already learned. I really liked some of the chapters examples of topography and functionality because i thought they were spot on. I didn't really like some of the chapter because it was mostly things I had already known. Conditioned and unconditioned stimulus and conditioned and unconditioned response. I have had a few classes that required knowledge of those terms so I am very comfortable with them. I did learn a new term in that before the stimulus becomes conditioned it is known as the neutral stimulus. That is the first time I have been introduced to that term.
Trial and Error, Law of Effect, Law of Recency, Law of Excercise, Reinforcement, Classical Conditioning, Experimental Neurosis, Neutral Stimulus, Conditioned Stimulus, Topography, Functionality, Unconditioned Stimulus, Conditioned Response, Unconditioned Response
3.1
Before reading this I did not know much about either person, so I was all around enlightened. I had some idea of the topics discussed I just would not have been able to explain how studied the topics and the procedures.
In 3.1 I liked How Thorndike's mechanism's were essentially common. He got the crates from alleyways and used the crates to gain important observations in his experiemnts. This was cool.
I will remember trial and error. I will also link it to extinction bursts in a way. This is how we work, how we as people figure out what works for us. I see myslef learning better ways to do things all the time from how to straighten my hair faster and better or a better way of serving food as a waitress. This can be applied to so many aspects of everyday life.
Another thing I will is that this focus on behavior studies was during the last 70 years. I found this odd in a sense that it has been an area of focus for what seems to me a short time period. Why weren't people curious and wanting to explain behaviors sooner? Maybe they did and just never found it worth making foraml studies out of I suppose. I think it is worthwhile.
I will also recall the Law of Exercise. The more you emit the response the stronger the associations get.
terms: Law of Exercise, Emit, trial and error, extinction bursts
3.2
In this secion I liked the way his studies were complex that they ivolved more techincal set-up in regards to the physical body of the animal. This gave it a more scientific feel but still gave insight to behavior.
I will recall the S->R and R->S relationships. These two are simple if you just see the situation for what it is. Did the response come first or a stimulus. I find it easier to look for a stimulus rather than a response.
Another thing Is how to identify salient stimulus. These are stimuli that are apparent and noticed. They can not go unheard or seen they need to be present.
Lastly I will recall how to tell the difference between a CR and a UR. It is all about what caused it. Was it a CS or and US? Just keep in mind how it all connects to see which is which in each instance.
terms: CS, US, CR, UR, salient stimulus, S->R relationship, R->S relationship.
Prior to reading, I couldn’t remember what Edward Thorndike was known for. The name didn’t ring any bells but it didn’t sound new either. I do know Pavlov, mostly for his dogs. My Mom and I were considering re-naming one of your cats for Lizard (don’t ask how that name came to be, it’s a very long story) to Pavlov. Because like Pavlov’s dogs, when Lizard receives a stimulus (attention instead of food in this case) he begins to drool…a lot!
Section 3.1
1) Cats in puzzle boxes. I really think that pet owners and non-pet owners have different methodological constructs for intelligence in animals. If you know the animal, you might wait until they do something that you think is intelligent while a non-pet owner will judge intelligence in that animal the same as in other breads of that animal. 2) Trial and error learning. This seems like such a basic concept because many people can experience and identify trial and error learning without having taken one psychology class. Basically, when something doesn’t work you stop trying that method and move on (stamp out) to another one to see if the outcome changes. If the outcome does change then the method that worked is stamped in as a success and remembered for the next time the organism is in a similar situation as before. 3) Law of Effect, Law of Recency, and Law of Exercise. The definitions seem so simple and easy to apply that it is hard to remember that Thorndike took time (years) to develop each one.
I liked at the end how it talked quickly about what Thorndike’s graphs were missing. At Price Lab, we were taught and expected to remember all of these seeming small details. To me, when I see a graph that is missing these five extra labels I really feel like something is missing.
I kind of disliked that there was a YouTube video in the chapter. When you print off the chapters so you can read anywhere instead of having to lug around your computer, you really don’t want to put a lot of effort into going back to the chapter section and watching one video.
I kind of want to put my cats in some of Thorndike’s boxes and time them to see which one gets out first. Unfortunately for a some of my cats I think I would just be timing how long it would take them before they decided to lay down and take a nap. I have some very unmotivated cats.
Section 3.2
1) I guess that I thought Pavlov only surgically changed his dog’s mouths so that they would salivate from a tube so he could measure how much each dog salivated. I didn’t know (or at least remember) the Pavlov Pouch. Poor dogs, late 1800’s to early 1900’s were not known for medical expertise when it comes to being sanitary and fighting infections. I hope the all the dogs survived the surgeries! 2) Salient and neutral stimulus. A neutral stimulus happens in the environment and can elicit a conditioned or unconditioned response. While a salient stimulus happens in the environment but is noticed over background noise and elicits a conditioned response. 3) Conditioned response, unconditioned response, conditioned stimulus, and unconditioned stimulus. This was a lot of what the chapter focused on, it can be confusing but once you get it down its not that bad.
I really like how it went over CS, US, CR, and UR in many ways. I see a lot of people (myself included) get confused and mix the terms around. It just happens to be one of those things were you really have to use it repeatedly to understand what term is used when.
I think the end of the chapter could have been brought back to Pavlov in some way. It was Pavlov’s chapter but I felt that once his research was explained that he was kind of forgotten to focus on CS, US, CR and UR.
I had two ideas; 1: rename my cat, 2: give my sister this chapter when I am done with the course. She showed a slight interest in psychology not too long ago and I think this is a field she could find interesting once she got into it. These terms are not always easy to keep straight, but I think this chapter did a good job of not only explaining CS, US, CR, and UR but that it also did a good job of having the reader work with the terms.
Terms: methodological constructs, trial and error learning, stamp out, stamp in, law of effect, law of recency, law of exercise, stimulus, salient stimulus, neutral stimulus, elicit, conditioned response, unconditioned response, conditioned stimulus, and unconditioned stimulus.
3.1
Before reading this chapter I was thinking of behavior modification as a deliberately learned process, deliberate either by the person trying to modify others behaviors or the person themselves. I will remember the puzzle box that Thorndike made to elicit cats to emit certain behaviors to test learning. I will remember this along with the ‘trial and error’ learning, which; it was an example of. It helped me understand exactly the nature of trial and error learning by trying various things and the use of extinction bursts. Another thing I will remember is the Law of Effect. It made a lot of sense to me that behaviors that are given or followed with a positive consequence will be more remembered (stamped in) and that relation is strengthened. This made more sense to me by use of the puzzle box and cat experiment because it helped me to understand how this would happen so that I would be able to apply it to people. Another portion that I will remember is how Thorndike calculated intelligence by the shortened time it took an animal on each attempt to escape the puzzle box. I thought this was very interesting, I honestly think there is better ways of testing intelligence of people but I think it works for testing animal acuity. Again I liked the use of visual representation in the chapter it helped to associate a visual to the concepts I was learning. In the chapter, it wasn't necessarily something I disliked, I didn't quite understand the Law of Recency and couldn't really
think of examples.
3.2
The first thing I will remember has more to do with Pavlov’s experiment than behavior modification, I had no idea that in this process that he surgically collected the saliva from the dogs to test. I knew about Pavlov’s experiment but I didn’t realize he put that procedure in place to test. With that it was interesting to me and I will remember that through this process the dogs behaved in different ways and some thought they were insane. Some would be very agitated and some listless. I wondered it this happens to people as their behavior is modified and they are being conditioned. Another thing I will remember is the term salient in regards to a neutral stimulus. This clarified for me that in order to make a neutral stimulus a conditioned stimulus it has to be very noticeable in relation to the environment around it along with it being presented regularly a number of times.
Elicit, emit, law of recency, neutral stimulus, conditioned stimulus, positive, consequence, behavior, trial and error learning, Law of effect, stamped in
Response to Section 3.1
Prior to reading section 3.1 (entitled Edward Thorndike) I associated behavior modification with learning. This chapter included a language of learning, which I value more than references to manipulation. I may remember that an individual mentioned in the section was interested in animal intelligence, although I do not necessarily agree with mechanisms that he may have used. I may remember some named parts of a graph as being a title, a y-axis label and numbering and an x-axis label and numbering. I may also remember that a y-axis label represents what one may be trying to measure and that an x-axis represents the measurement periods. I liked to read that researchers, such as Thorndike and Skinner, may have made their own equipment. I feel that this shows creativity for a vision one may have. What I did not value in the section was the language of behaviors being “stamped in” or “stamped out.” I feel that although some behaviors and/or consequences are not strengthened, they may not be forgotten either. It was unclear to me what these terms referred to.
I had many ideas while reading this section. I thought of animal intelligence. Do dogs think in bark? I thought of learning as a result of “unsuccessful behavior.” The text states that this behavior may be called “unlearned,” however I disagree. I feel that the behavior was still learned and possibly emitted, but maybe not strengthened. If one learned from a behavior, I do not feel that it was unsuccessful. I thought about painting and desirable outcomes.
Response to Section 3.1
Prior to reading this section, I associated Pavlov with classic conditioning. I associated classical conditioning to behavior modification. I may remember content from this section, including a study conducted by Ivan Pavlov. I may remember the dogs discriminating different shapes and what response occurred when a circle was changed to look like a square and vice versa. I may remember an example about the bunnies and the eye blinks. I may also remember that salient means to stand out or get one’s attention. I liked that this chapter discussed Pavlov’s study in a manner that was easy to understand. I did not value repeated statements in which I am told to not “overthink” terminology and concepts. In reading this section, I expanded thoughts I have previously had regarding learning.
Terms: Consequences, Behavior, Discriminate, Learning, Response, Emitted, Thorndike, Skinner, Pavlov
SMW
Before reading these chapters my thoughts of behavior modification have stayed very much the same. I understand behavior modification as manipulation and change of behavior. I am learning as we go through the chapters and surprisingly the things were learning I didn't think would be apart of behavior modification.
Section 3.1
1.) One of the things I will remember from this chapter is Thorndike's "trial and error" theory. Knowing that the more attempts, the equal more success and more likely the behavior will be repeated and learned. For example, the more I elicit the behavior to study the material of behavior modification, the more likely I am to comprehend it.
2.) I will remember the terms 'stamping in' and 'stamping out'. They involve strengthening our weakening, respectively, of associations.
3.) I will remember that it was not uncommon for researchers, such as Thorndike or Skinner, to build equipment to test animals. Researchers believed that they can generalize what smaller animals do to higher order species. Something that really interested me was learning more about who Thorndike was, before this chapter I have only heard of him a couple times. I don't look for anything in these chapters to dislike because it is all new material to me and I just take it as a learning experience.
Section 3.2
1.) I will remember the background of Pavlov and how he originally studied digestion and later joined the term psychic secretion, which applies to the dogs ability to know when food is coming through a single ring of a bell.
2.) I will remember how Pavlov researched classical conditioning and how American researchers were mostly interested in this aspect of Pavlov's research on learning.
3.) I will remember the term neutral stimulus and how it must be heard and clear in order for it to be salient. I really like how this chapter explained classical conditioning, without confusing the reader. Most of the material that I have read about classical conditioning explain it in a confusing way and I see the different ways its explained which makes it more confusing. I also did not look for anything to dislike in this section. Just learning as I go through the material.
Terminology: Stamping In, Stamping Out, Thorndike, Pavlov, Psychic Secretion, Trial and Error, Classical Conditioning,Salient, Neutral Stimulus, Elicit, Behavior modification
I am trying to keep all of the definitions together and keep them straight.
3 things I will remember form the chapter:
Trial and Error learning. We learn in our lives through this. Look at learning math in middle school, we try and try and try until we get the answer right or if you look at parenting. The way i see it, the first child is always the "Trial Child." Thats how it was in my family. Jake, the second child in my family, was the second trial, and Todd, the youngest, lives a half-way perfect life.
Stamping out behaviors. There are so many things in life that we can use the stamp out concept on behaviors. Look at college kids, when they go out all weekend long, they then get drunk and do not get their homework done. by the time they get the grades back, they are not good. This can stamp out drinking on weekends.
Law of recency. This is basically when a persons most recent behavior is most likely to occur again. Look at people who make one small lie, they then have to lie every time in order to keep that small lie from being revealed. Then they have to lie about anything about that. Like girls who pretend to be pregnant. They emit a behavior that shows that she might be pregnant. She then gets a pregnancy test and finds that she is not pregnant. Instead of telling everyone that she wasnt pregnant, she keeps on with the lie until she realizes that she cannot keep up that lie. Then she lies by saying she miscarried the baby to cover her first lie.
One thing I liked about the chapter is how they compare Thorndikes table to a completed table and shows the differences. I really didnt notice the difference until it was mentioned.
One thing that I didnt like was Thorndikes perspective on the learning. If they were learning, they would learn it in 30 seconds the first time, 20 seconds the second time and 10 seconds on the third try. I believe that learning doesnt need to happen that same way. If a person takes 30 seconds for a hundred tried and 20 seconds the next time, it has been learned.
Three things I learned:
Response Stimulus and Stimulus Response: It is exactly what it says. If you respond then get the stimulus it is response stimulus and if you get the stimulus then the response that is stimulus response. JUST LIKE IT SAYS! :)
Salient. It is what is noticed in the background. A good example is when a clown is at a fair. They can be picked out because of the crazy makeup and the bright outfit. They are noticed. Unlike if you are looking for your mom in that same crowd, she wouldnt be noticed, so she is then not salient. Our responses are different in each situation too. With the clown, we emit a behavior of either being scared or happy. When a person is looking for their mom, they could become really anixous or scared because they are alone.
Conditioned Stimuli. This is huge in peoples lives. We do procedures all day long in order to get through the day. Look at getting clean, you have to walk to the bathroom, shut the door, take off clothes, turn on the shower, test the water, moved curtain, climb in, shut curtain, the list goes on and on. Then by the end, are clean.
I like how the conditioning process is in picture form to show the relationship between the steps in the process of conditioning. It shows how with each step, there is a step "skiped." With the dog salivating, there was the step of no response at first, then that step is taken out in the next part of the process, then the food is taken out of the process to get the CS and CR alone.
NOTHING THAT I DIDNT LIKE
Response, Conditioning, emit, behavior, salient, Stamping out, trial and error, CS, SC
Week 7 Topical Blog
I chose to investigate more about target behaviors. As I ponder said topic, I think of goals.
According to a behavior modification text, a target behavior is a behavior of interest for which one is attempting to increase (or decrease) in frequency. Depending on situational factors and individual differences, aspects of goals may vary. One may have a specific plan regarding how they may want to achieve their goal or modify their behavior. One may journal or document what approaches are valuable to them personally. One may be a pet looking up at dinner with hopeful eyes and a very clear plan in mind.
A target behavior may be a behavior an individual has emitted in the past or may be action that has not yet been experienced.
In a field of psychology, some folks may feel that taking certain steps is vital to achieving goals. These could possibly be some steps: describe a target behavior in clear, observable terms; describe antecedent events that occur and conditions that exist immediately before a behavior happens; describe consequences that immediately follow a behavior; examine an antecedent, a behavior and a consequence in sequence; devise new antecedents and/or consequences to teach new behaviors or change existing ones; evaluate the outcome. {http://www.parrots.org/pdfs/all_about_parrots/reference_library/behaviour_and_environmental_enrichment/The%20ABCs%20of%20Behaviour.pdf}
Or one may… Value a goal; Comprehend how individual circumstances may effect a goal; weight possible outcomes, play the tape through(!); consider effects on persons involves; focus on motivational techniques consistent with valued goal; journal, document, share, discuss, respect confidentiality.
http://www.associationofanimalbehaviorprofessionals.com/glossary.html
http://www.funderstanding.com/educators/self-efficacy/
SMW
Posted for BW:
Reading Activity Week #7 (Due Tuesday)
I have been taking Psychology classes since high school and I have never heard of Thorndike that I can remember. So before reading this I had no idea who he was or what he had done to contribute to psychology. Now after reading this I have found out that he was the one who made puzzle boxes. He was mainly interested in animal intelligence. One thing I will remember from this section is that we use trial and error in our everyday lives. Anytime I thought of trial and error I just thought of math. They used the example of not being able to start a car, you try something different and if that does not work you try something different again until you get the car to start. This is trial and error. You try something it does not work so you try something different. I also will remember what stamped out means. This is when behaviors that are not followed by positive or aversive outcomes may just quit. Another thing we call this is unlearned behaviors. This is also called the law of effect. Something else I will remember from this section is the law of recency. This is just saying that the most recent response is the one that is most likely to reoccur. The reason this is easy for me to remember is because it reminds me of when you try to remember things in a list, you always remember the most recent part of the list that you put in your brain. This was easy for me to store in my memory because of past information. Something I liked about this section are the graphs. I am really into math. So graphs are always great for me to see and use because I understand them so well. I am used to reading things off graphs because of my background. Something I did not like from this section was that it did not completely explain stamping in. I understood stamping out really well, but not necessarily stamping in. I was just a little bit confused on what that meant. An idea I had after this was to just monitor my behaviors more and see if I could see any behaviors from myself that are being stamped out, because I think that is a very interesting topic.
Something I will remember from this section is Pavlov study with the dogs. He made dogs salivate at the sight of food. He also rang a bell as he brought the food to them. So over time the dogs just began to salivate to the sound of the bell because their brain connected the salivating with the bell sound instead of just the food. Another thing I will remember is that he did this study through classical conditioning. This experiment is a prime example of classical conditioning. This is when you associate some conditioned stimulus to a unconditioned response to create a conditioned response. Another thing I will remember is that the unconditioned response and the conditioned response are usually very similar. One if just before they use the conditioned stimulus and one is after. Something I enjoyed about this section is the chart describing US, UR, CS, and CR for before, during, and after the conditioning. This was very helpful for me to put in a visual manner because I always learn better that way. Something I did not like about this section was it was a little hard to follow compared to the other sections for me. I am not sure why, but it just seemed a little too wordy and maybe not as many good examples as previous sections have had.
Terms: puzzle boxes, animal intelligence, trial and error, stamped out, behaviors, positive, aversive, unlearned behaviors, law of effect, law of recency, stamping in, classical conditioning, conditioned stimulus, unconditioned response, conditioned response
Posted for JM:
3.1
3 things to remember
1. I learned that cats can learn how to escape from a puzzle box! Which I always knew that cats were smart and sneaky now all along it’s proved to be right.
2. Trial and error is when you don’t get the response you want you emit a variety of behaviors to reach that response. I will remember that because the name sounds like the actual action.
3. The difference between law of Recency ( the most recent response is more likely to occur) and the law of exercise (repetition the associations are strengthened. Recency is recent and exercise is like you can’t just exercise once and expect anything to be strengthened.
4. What I liked is the examples that were given throughout the example they were more lay person examples.
5. I don’t like that the puzzle boxes were very crude, sometimes I wish that these scientists would volunteer for these experiments themselves.
3.2
3 things to remember
1. Psychic secretion is where
2. Unconditioned Stimulus and Unconditioned Response this is when it’s a natural stimulus like hearing a cell phone ring and then a natural response would be like checking your cell phone. I will remember these because unconditioned is where you don’t realize that it’s happening.
3. Conditioned Stimulus and Conditioned Response is when the stimulus has been repeated over and over to get the exact response that was wanted.
4. One thing that I liked about this chapter was that at the end we had to figure out the neutral stimulus, CS, US, CR, and UR.
5. There wasn’t anything that I really disliked.
Before any of these chapters there isn’t really anything that I specifically think about behavior modification.
Terminology: Trial and Error, Emit, Behavior, Response, Law of Recency, Law of Exercise Conditioned Stimulus, Conditioned Response, Unconditioned Stimulus, Unconditioned Response, Psychic Secretion, neutral stimulus.
3.1
EDWARD THORNDIKE
After the last two sections I was slightly relieved to find this one was rather brief. I’ve never thought of someone experimenting with behavior before Pavlov, so hearing of Edward Thorndike was interesting. I really enjoyed the video regarding his puzzle box. Watching the cat escape was fantastic; I couldn’t believe how easily he/she was able to open the door. I’m sure he/she had been placed in there before that specific instance, but still. One just doesn’t think about animals figuring problems out and operating levers/wires to accomplish something. At least I don’t, usually.
Thorndike’s “Law of Effect” is intriguing because it seems to be the first theory about how behaviors start. As the video states, the law says that behavior changes based on the consequence following it. Today, that’s almost a giant “Duh!” But imagine back in the early 1900s, who was thinking about such things? Why would we care about what causes behavior, things just behave! But there are always those who question everything, and then history gets someone like Edward Thorndike who singlehandedly began a school of psychology.
Finally, I found Thorndike’s graph interesting. Nowadays we’re so picky regarding the format of displaying data. Graphs have to set up just so, so that the data can be compared to other data. But no one worried about such things back in 1900. His graph is crude and hard to interpret. How do we know what number to assign to each data point when there are no numbers on the axes? That’s how mistakes are made.
3.2
IVAN PAVLOV
There was so much in this chapter that I didn’t know about Pavlov! Even in my History and Systems class we only talked (briefly) about his experiments with dogs. I knew he was a physiologist, not a psychologist, but the news that he actually performed surgeries on the dogs before the well-known experiments is mind blowing. This is back in the early 1900s, when human doctors didn’t know what the hell they were doing. I can’t picture Pavlov working on his dogs without the black and white gritty image of a doctor maniacally tearing into an unconscious dog. I highly doubt this was the case; the chapter section made it sound like Pavlov at least somewhat knew what he was doing. But then, it did also say that the dogs began to display neurotic symptoms after their surgeries, so ethically I have a slight issue with them (the surgeries).
I was really pleased that this section didn’t focus on the experiment with the salivating dogs (especially after hearing they were surgically altered), but instead focused on one with a rabbit and a puff of air. This is the first psychology course to no rely on the dog experiment when discussing Pavlov and his ideas. Finally, something new. The rabbit experiment was similar to the dog one, in that they both involve exposing the animals to a natural stimulus to elicit a natural response. Then a neutral stimulus is paired with the natural stimulus and eventually the neutral one elicits the natural response. In other words, the puff of air is blown in the rabbit’s eye and he blinks: an unconditioned stimulus eliciting and unconditioned response. Then, a tone is paired with the puff of air and eventually the rabbit blinks in response to the tone without the puff of air. The tone is now a conditioned stimulus eliciting the conditioned response to blink.
And that brings me to the final thing I’ll never forget. This has been pounded into me since high school and I vow from this point on to never confuse these four terms again: conditioned stimulus, conditioned response, unconditioned stimulus, unconditioned response. The conditioned and unconditioned responses are the same behavior. I’ll say that again: the conditioned and unconditioned responses are the same behavior. It only becomes conditioned when it’s in response to the neutral stimulus, now conditioned stimulus. I will never confuse myself over this vocabulary again. Hopefully…
Terms:
Law of Effect, Consequence, Behavior, Elicit, Neutral stimulus, Unconditioned stimulus, Conditioned stimulus, Unconditioned response, Conditioned response
3.1
Prior to this chapter I really enjoy learning about behavior modification. It is very interesting to look back on previous experiences and see how behavior modification was used on me or on others without even realizing behavior modification was taking place. What I liked about this chapter was that it was all about Thorndike and his experiments to see if the law of effect had any effect on animals. There was not anything I did not like about this section.
Three things I will remember:
1. The law of effect- When a behavior is followed by a positive outcome, that behavior is most likely going to be done again to get the same positive effect. Example: This weekend I went home, the day after I got home I got in my car to go somewhere and my car wouldn't start. We jumped it and it started right away but when I would turn my car off and try to start it again it wouldn't start and we would have to jump it again. When I hooked up jumper cables for probably the 5th time I noticed the connection was loose so I tighten it(behavior) and my car would start without jumpers(positive consequence). Next time my car doesn't start I guarantee the first thing I will check is the connection on my battery because of the positive consequence I had when I tightened it.
2. Law of recency- The most recent response is most likely to reoccur. Example: My most recent response with my car was tightening the connection on the battery. Next time that happens I wont get jumper cables out, I will tighten my connection again because that is what worked the last time.
3. Law of Exercise- Through repetition the associations are strengthened. In basketball free throws can win games. When I played in high school we would spend so much time working on free throws. We would shoot hundreds of them at a time because the repetition made us better free throw shooters and we would find little things while shooting that would help us make them.
This section made me instantly thing of examples for the law of effect, recency and exercise.
3.2
One thing I liked about this section was that it was about another researcher and his experiments. I enjoy learning about different experiments used to collect information about how humans/animals work. Again, there was nothing I did not like about this section.
Three things I will remember:
1. Conditioned stimulus- The dog salivating when it sees, smells, or anything that has been a positive reinforcement for food is a conditioned stimulus.
2. Pavlov was a researcher that did experiments on animals- putting small tubes to the saliva glads to see when the dog would start salivating.
3. Unconditioned response- Getting a puff of air in your eye is a reflex and an unconditioned response. You dont have to tell your eye to blink. It just happens.
Law of effect, law of recency, law of exercise, positive consequence, conditioned stimulus, unconditioned stimulus.