Please read sections 3.5
After reading section 3.5, 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 that came to mind when you were reading the section?
Once you are done with your post make list of the terms and terminology you used in your post.
A piece of information I will emit the behavior of remembering is that Skinner believed that the behaviors can be predicted and controlled based on the environment. I agree with this in a sense that the environment someone or something is in elicits what behavior, whether it be pleasurable or aversive, will be emitted.
This information helped me to understand Skinner's sociological engineering. He thought that behavior modification could be used to improve pleasurable and aversive behaviors in society. I'm not sure if I actually believe this could work only because society is well it is society and it would take an extensive amount of time to accomplish. Think about it, behavior would have to be constantly manipulated, reinforced or punished. There would have to be so many people willing to do this. The people (society) would also have to be willing to change their aversive behaviors. Being humans we don't exactly like change.
Another piece of information I emitted the behavior of remembering is that while using shaping to modify a behavior another technique is used, successive approximation. These are both used to shape a desired behavior. Successive approximation is to reinforce any behavior that is close to the desired behavior. This is important because we can't just expect the behavior to magically occur, the desired behavior has to be molded.
While reading this section I was trying to think of how Skinner would go about in today's society and try to manipulate and change behaviors. Would he start with the environment by bettering the conditions people live in? Or would he go straight to the people and work on target behaviors?
All of the historical figures made important contributions to the field. I don't think you could have one without the other. I would however like to learn more about Watson. I feel that Skinner, Pavlov, and Thorndike are discussed more in my psychology classes than Watson.
Terms: Target behavior, behavior, emit, elicit, emitted, successive approximation, aversive, pleasurable, reinforcement, punishment, manipulate
Section 3.5
1.) One of the most memorable facts from this section is the fact that Skinner was an inventor. He invented almost all of the equipment he used in his opernant conditioning. A couple of his inventions included the opernant chamber, which was the cage that was used for the rats and pigeons to emit certain behaviors in and the cumulative recorder, the graph that measured the lever pressings. The opernant chamber was also referred to as the Skinner Box and the lever was referred to as manipulanda, because its the object the animals would manipulate. Another thing I thought was interesting about the opernant chamber was the whole concept of it.It would have something that could function as a discriminative stimulus, something to dispense reinforcers, something to manipulate and something to deliver punishment.
2.) The term shaping seemed to be easy to understand. The concept of how it tied to the animals was interesting to me. Skinner says, shaping is used to train rats to press a lever which involves successive approximation where the rats is reinforced each time it elicits the desired response. This interested me because of the concept of opernant chambers, they are very similar and very understandable.
3.) Skinner elicited discrimination training in his experiments. Discrimination training involves differential reinforcement, meaning some responses are reinforced while others are not.
One thing I liked about this section was the explanation of Skinner's background such as his inventions and concepts. By the explanation in this section, I was able to better understand what Skinner dealt with and how he dealt with it.
I didn't dislike anything in this section. I always appreciate the information given for the simple fact that I am learning along the way. This information helps me grasp the concepts better also.
Out of the four historical figures we read about I thought and have almost always liked Skinner the best. I have always thought that his experiments were interesting and I was always fascinated with the pigeon behavioral response. I would have to say all four made tremendous contributions to psychology. Each of these individuals have brought new concepts into behavior modification and psychology. They have all been inventors of some sort either with concepts or equipment used in their experiments. I think they've contributed equally.
I think I would like to find more information on Thorndike, simply because I don't know as much of his findings and opinions as I do the other these.
Terminology: Opernant Conditioning, opernant chamber, cumulative recorder, Skinner box, manipulanda, discriminative stimulus, reinforcers, manipulate, punishment, successive approximation, reinforced, elicit, emit, Skinner, discrimination training, differential reinforcement, responses, Thorndike
3.5
1. The first thing I will recall from this section is the concept of successive approximations. This is when you have to start with small behavior steps to eventually reach larger behavior. The example given in the book was trying to get a rat to reach 25 lever pushes. The rat wouldn't go straight to pushing the lever 25 times, it needs to be taught gradually that pushing it 25 times is the desired behavior. The next thing that I will recall is the species specific response. This is a behavior that is unique to an organism in response to a stimulus. In the case of lab rats freezing up when shocked is specific to them. Since is is such a apparent behavior it is easily measured when the shocks are used in classical conditioning. The last thing that I will recall is that Skinner wrote books on Utopian societies such as Walden Two. This is potent in my memory because of the abstract concepts he was displaying. He believed that we should not promote freedom and dignity because they stood in the way of advancing society. Instead we should focus on the environments in which we live.
2. I liked the fact that Skinner was a thinker. He invented the equipment that he used in his experiments. It gives him more control over the experiment if he knows how it works and parts that could be improved. He used his experiments that he designed to form Theories that he then wrote books on. He wrote Walden Two and Beyond Freedom and Dignity. He took the knowledge he acquired from this behavior research and applied it to real life situations for all to understand and I find that to be really cool.
3. The thing that was not my favorite was the Air bed. I understand that it probably works very well in regulating a baby's temperature and promoting their growth but it seems really impersonal to me. It is mechanizing the idea of raising a child. Is it not beneficial for a child to gain heat by being held by a parent? I just feel that either way is successful in helping a child grow and be comfortable and since they are the same why not utilize the option that makes the child feel most loved.
4. While reading the section I wondered about the air bed. If it was really more effective that simply wrapping a child in clothes and blankets or putting them in a diaper. Would the child feel detached from their parents and surroundings? As far as the operant chambers go I think that they were a great invention that led to many discoveries in behaviorism.
5. Of the different scientists I would have to say that I like Skinner the best. His experiments were easy to follow yet complex enough to produce great results. They utilized both operant and classical conditioning. I also felt that his experiments were a bit more ethical than Watson's little albert study or Pavlov's physical manipulation of the dogs.
6. I feel that the most important contributions came from Pavlov. He made so many great strides in the realm of classical conditioning. It began with just dogs and measuring their salivation but it became much more when he realized this could be done on all other animals as well. He also added to the topics of extinction and how the extinction bursts and experimental neurosis work. There were many different aspects of his research that contributed greatly.
7. The thing I would be interested in learning more about would be Thorndike and his theories on intelligence. I don't feel that it was discussed as much as the others and is something that there is more room for expansion in.
Terms: successive approximations, response, classical conditioning, species specific response, Walden Two, Beyond Freedom and Dignity, Air bed, operant, behaviorism, Little Albert,Skinner, Watson, Pavlov, extinction,experimental neurosis, extinction bursts,
One thing I remember from this chapter is the term or technique of shaping. Shaping is molding a desired behavior. This usually requires the use of reinforcement. Shaping may require the use of successive approximation, which is gives reinforcement when something is done that is close to the desired behavior wanted by the experimenter. I found this interesting because we do this all the time, especially in parenting. We want our kids to do something, but if they do something close to what we want we usually are still somewhat happy. It is also easy to recall the operant chamber aka the Skinner Box. A rat was put into this box which contained a water spout, light, bar (lever), food hooper, speaker, and a floor with bars. This was something that was briefly discussed in introductory psychology, so it was somewhat familiar to me. The part I always remember the most is that the bars on the floor can administer or emit an electrical current that will shock the rat. Another term I found interesting was species specific response. This means knowing what a unique response to fear is or emotion to a species that you are experimenting with. For the operant chamber, rats freeze up when they are scared, so if we observe how often or much they freeze up we will be able to understand how scared the rat is. One thing I really liked about this chapter was reading about Skinner’s “Air Bed.” This is a completely different concept as to how to tuck your kid in at night. The mechanism showed the importance of temperature. The idea of a child sleeping with no clothing or beddings seems quite odd, but it was interesting to read about because it is so out of the ordinary. I did not really like reading the section about Skinner the writer. It was a little too historical for my taste; it was difficult to take in the information for me. Plus, I am not too interested in social issues, like freedom. This section made me think about how society and our parents are truly the people to shape us into society. We have no order over what we want, they choose for us. We think we have free will, but the truth is not one really has free will because we all have someone to answer to or will have consequences if we don’t do something a certain way.
I enjoyed reading about Watson the most out of the four historical figures. I find systematic desensitization fascinating and as well as the idea of how we fear some things for reasons that do not even really make sense. The Little Albert study shows that we can instill a fear, which means we should be able to desensitize a fear. Plus, everyone has a fear of at least one thing. It is something anyone can relate to in psychology. I would like to learn more about Skinner. I would like to have a better understanding of what social engineering is and how it works. It would also be interesting to learn about some examples of discrimination training.
Terms: shaping, reinforcement, successive approximation, species specific response, operant chamber, emit, free will, consequences
For Section 3.5
After reading this section of the textbook, there are a plethora of topics, concepts, and ideas that I will remember. One thing that really stuck in my mind was that Skinner made sure to differentiate between Type S Conditioning (Classical Conditioning) and Type R Conditioning (Operant Conditioning). Type S is where the stimulus generally comes before the response, whereas Type R is where the response precedes the stimulus. I will remember these details because of the fact that we have been focusing on both classical conditioning and operant conditioning these past couple of weeks, and I realize that they are important to know and to be able to differentiate between.
Another part of the section that I know I will remember is when it discussed Skinner’s operant chambers. It told us that operant chambers would have something that can function as a discriminative stimulus (light or tone), something that would dispense reinforcers (food), something to manipulate (lever), and something to deliver punishers (shock from metal bars). In these operant chambers, all of the different elements are used for shaping and manipulating the behaviors of the rats. Essentially, if the rat presses the lever, it is reinforced with food. As the operant conditioning gets more and more in-depth, continuous reinforcement is replaced with an intermittent reinforcement schedule. Then, things like discrimination training, stimulus control, and even classical conditioning procedures like conditioned emotional response can occur. I am sure that I will remember this information because I have learned all about Skinner’s operant chambers in other psychology courses that I have previously taken. I find the topic to be interesting as well, so I know I will be able to keep it in my mind.
A final thing from this section that I will definitely remember is when it discussed Skinner being a prolific writer. It said that he wrote about how people can use social engineering to create better societies. In other words, he did not think that freedom, dignity, and free will were important when it came to improving society as a whole. He firmly believed that manipulating the environment would pave the way to a better society. For instance, if you were to focus on improving schools, you would create a building that would facilitate learning, safety, and other important values. This would in turn lead to a better society. Many people are angered by Skinner’s views on social engineering, but he stuck by what he thought throughout his life. I know that I will remember this because I found it to be very interesting that he had such bold views on how to create a better life. I am impressed that he was able to come up with the ideas that he had, and I am astounded by the fact that people still get upset over it today.
One thing that I really liked from this section was when it discussed the air beds that Skinner invented. These air beds provided the child with a controlled environment, meaning that the temperature was controlled, and there was no clothing or bedding to interfere with normal exercise and growth. As the child grew, Skinner was able to find that raising or lowering the temperature by more than a couple of degrees would result in changes in the baby’s condition and behavior. This was an interesting find. Also, when talking to the children who were raised in the air beds, they stated that it was perfectly fine being raised that way and they thought that it was good. I enjoyed this part a lot because I found it neat that Skinner worked on projects other than his operant chambers for rats and other small animals. The fact that he also worked with humans is cool to me.
Something that I kind of disliked from this section was when it once again covered the different schedules of reinforcement (variable ratio, fixed ratio, variable interval, fixed interval, and continuous reinforcement). I think I did not like this part because of the fact that all of the different schedules can sometimes get kind of confusing, so I get frustrated easily when I can’t fully comprehend what I am reading about. Obviously, that is something that I need to work more on so that I am able to fully understand what is going on. Other than that, I enjoyed reading this section.
While I was reading this section, some ideas definitely popped into my mind. For instance, I thought about Skinner’s stance on free will and I wondered how he came to believe what he believed. I wish I knew his thought process on the whole topic. I also thought that it was kind of mean to subject small animals to electric shock in the operant chambers. I know that they were working on operant conditioning, but I wish there was a more humane way to go about it. I also thought that the air beds were a very unique idea. I wonder if they would actually be more beneficial than using the regular baby cribs that we do today.
Of the four historical figures I read about in the previous sections, I would have to say that Skinner is my favorite. I think he is my favorite because I feel as though I know more about him than I do about the other figures (Thorndike, Pavlov, and Watson). His studies and experiments were easy for me to follow and understand, and I feel as though he was someone that was definitely ahead of his time when it came to the field of psychology. Skinner is a very interesting man. Although I may like Skinner the best, I feel as though Pavlov may have made the most important contributions. I feel this way because of the fact that Pavlov seemed like such a smart man. He was not initially interested in psychology, but digestion, and through his work was able to open up our eyes to what is known as classical conditioning. Learning about this was a huge step in psychology, and I believe that Pavlov paved the way for many other psychologists and professionals in the field today. The figure that I would like to find out more information about would have to be Thorndike. I feel this way because I always learn about Pavlov, Watson, and Skinner in my psychology courses, but I have not been subjected to very much information about Thorndike. I feel like I don’t have as firm of a grasp on him as I do the others, so that is why I would like to learn more about him and what he did.
All in all, this section was a great read. I loved learning about Skinner as well as all of the other historical figures of psychology. It was neat to delve deeper than I had before because I ended up learning more than I had previously known! Awesome!
Terms: Skinner, type S conditioning, type R conditioning, classical conditioning, operant conditioning, stimulus, response, operant chamber, discriminative stimulus, reinforcer, manipulate, punisher, shaping, behavior, continuous reinforcement, intermittent reinforcement, discrimination training, stimulus control, conditioned emotional response, social engineering, free will, air bed, controlled environment, schedules of reinforcement, variable ratio, fixed ratio, variable interval, fixed interval, Thorndike, Pavlov, Watson
3.5
1) I will remember that B.F. Skinner was the behavior psychologist who developed the operant chamber and the cumulative recorder. I will remember this because I think it is important to remember which scientist created, which instrument like Thorndike and his puzzle box. The cumulative recorder was a recording device that graphed the levers that were pressed in the cage, known as an operant chamber. I will also remember that operant chambers were used so that Skinner could observe organisms and how they reacted to being punished and reinforced.
2) The second thing that I will remember is that when you are training an animal to press a lever you can’t assume that they will just know to press it 15 times. We have to shape the behavior we want in the animal being used in the experiment. To get the animal to even understand that the lever is important we have to use successive approximation so that when the animal get close to the lever then it will be reinforced until eventually it learns that the lever is key. After that we will have to use continuous reinforcement because we want the animal to get used to the fact that pressing the lever will get them a pellet. Then the animal will be rewarded intermittently because we want to build him up to 15 presses without the animal giving up on the task. Some extinction is good, but if they do have an extinction burst, and are never rewarded then they will give up.
3) The third thing that I will remember is about the species specific response. This is one thing I found interesting and something that I will remember. I think that it is interesting to know that different species have a different way of expressing that they are scared. For example, in the book it talks about how a rat will freeze up when scared. In my own experience I know that when my dog is frightened he will shake uncontrollably.
4) One thing that I liked/found interesting was Skinner’s Air Bed. I found it interesting that he was able to find out that a baby’s behavior can be controlled just with temperature, and that as the baby aged it was more comfortable at lower temperatures then when it was born. I also found it fascinating that his daughter remembered being in the air bed even though she was young.
5) One thing that I didn’t like was that Skinner believed that free will didn’t exist. I think that it does to an extent. I do agree that in a lot of cases people can be manipulated into thinking or doing certain things, but I still think that free will is around. I don’t’ agree with Skinner that it is in the way of advancing society. Dignity, yes I do believe dignity could be something that stands in the way of advancing society because to many people worship the idea of dignity.
This made me think about how long he had his daughter in the Air Bed because if she remembered it then you would think she had to be in it for quite some time. Another thing that I thought about was my dogs and how they show fear. I have a rescue dog and he is scared of so many things so the species specific response idea was easy for me to understand.
Scientists
I think that I liked Watson the most just because he was willing to experiment on a human being in the Little Albert Study. I think that took some serious thought even if he didn’t take into consideration that what he was doing could have serious effects. I think that he has made a big contribution in the way that he is the main reason that people in modern society are able to get therapy to get over there phobias. I think that B. F. Skinner did the most to contribute to behavior psychology because of all the things that he created. He was able to find out that if you kept a baby at a certain temperature then you could control their behavior. He also created the operant chamber, which to me is one of the biggest contributions to be made. Without that box we wouldn’t know a great percentage of what we know now. I think that I would want to get to know Watson more because I would want to know why he basically stopped his research and dropped off the grid. I think that it would be interesting to know what he was all thinking when he had an affair and then just stopped doing research. I would also want to know if he thought the affair is what ruined his ability to continue research.
Terms: B.F. Skinner, behavior psychologist, operant chamber, Thorndike, cumulative recorder, puzzle box, organisms, punished, reinforced, shape, continuous reinforcement, intermittently, extinction, extinction burst, successive approximation, experiment, Skinner’s Air Bed, behavior, manipulated, species specific response, Watson, Little Albert, phobias,
After reading section 3.5, please respond to the following questions.
What are three things you will remember from what you read in the chapter? Why?
I will remember shaping, leaning out, and successive approximation because of how it is explained and included in the rat modification example.
What was one thing that you really liked that was in the chapter? Why?
I liked the examination of how to maintain ideal comfort for new born babies. Providing safety and comfort for infants is a good thing to value, I feel.
What was one thing that you disliked that was in the chapter? Why?
I don’t understand the connection to Walden Pond and Walden Two. One is an actual account of an individual willing to live a lifestyle prescribed and one is an individual speculating. I don’t get it.
What were some ideas that came to mind when you were reading the section?
Pigeons and Rats control their behavior. Wow...I get the no dignity thing.
Of the four historical figures you read about (Thorndike, Pavlov, Watson and Skinner) which do you like the best and why? Which do you think have made the most important contribution(s). Why? Which would you like to find out more information about? Why?
I liked reading about Watson because I found out more about Mary Cover Jones. She conducted case studies and treated participants with dignity. I would like to find out more about her because she seems to care about individuals.
Term% lean out, shaping, successive approximation, Walden Two, behavior
3.5
1. The first thing I will remember is the concept of social engineering. This is Skinner’s belief that we can predict and control behavior to benefit and shape society simply by creating the right environment. He even wrote a book called “Walden Two” which was about a utopian community based on behavioral principles and social engineering. In this book children were raised separately from their parents and jobs were made and behaviors were directed strictly for the betterment of the social community instead of themselves. The social engineering concept was part of Skinner’s foundation for modern behaviorism.
2. The next concept I learned in this section that Skinner developed was operant conditioning. Skinner developed this concept by studying animals in an operant chamber. In this chamber the animal would be elicited to perform a behavior and would either be reinforced or punished depending on what the researcher wanted. Operant conditioning is different than classical conditioning in the aspect that the target behavior (response) comes before the reinforcement/punishment (stimulus).
3. The last concept I want to remember is shaping. This is when you teach the animal what target behavior you are wanting them to emit. You accomplish this through a technique called successive approximation. This is when you reinforce the animal for a behavior that is close or resembles the target behavior you eventually want them to do.
The thing I liked best about this section was the schedules of reinforcement. This is partially because we had already gone over them so I already had some idea as to what they were. When the subject is reinforced every single time they perform the behavior it is called continuous reinforcement. The schedule of reinforcement comes into play when a behavior is only reinforced intermittently.
I disliked the idea of Skinner’s air bed. This bed could hypothetically do everything for the baby, including regulating temperature and even inducing sleep. I dislike this whole concept because it takes away the personal element.
This section left me thinking what life would be like if we took Skinner’s view or ideas and actually put them into play. If we had children growing up in an air bed and raised away from their parents to groom them into what society needed them to be. I can’t help but think we would become a society of mindless robots. Becoming as unfeeling as a computer. I’m sure the crime rate would go down and the economy might even thrive. However, I don’t think anyone would truly be happy.
After reading about everybody so far I’d have to say I like Skinner the best for the simple reason I really didn’t like any of the others. I felt that Skinner was the least invasive about how he came up with his knowledge and experimented. I also think he is the one who made the most contributions out of everybody because he is the one who laid a lot of the groundwork.
Terms: social engineering, BF Skinner, behaviorism, “Walden Two”, behavioral principles, operant conditioning, operant chamber, elicit, behavior, reinforcement, punishment, classical conditioning, target behavior, response, stimulus, shaping, emit, successive approximation, schedule of reinforcement, continuous reinforcement, intermittently, Skinner’s air bed
This chapter focuses on B.F. Skinner and his contributions to behavior science. Instead of focusing on Classical Conditioning or Operant Conditioning, his experiments many times utilized both methods. He used operant chambers, or cages with learning mechanisms, to study the behavior of animals in certain environmental situations. In his operant chambers, he used discrimination training which is a way of reinforceing certain behaviors and not reinforceing other behaviors. Through extinction he can manipulate the subjects into certain fixed ratios. This is shown by a rat knowing that if it presses the button three times it will get reinforcement compared to touching it only once or twice. This is known as stimulus control, because the rat knows what circumstances should be present for him to emit the target behavior. Using operant chambers he also studied conditionied emotional responses.This involves how subjects deal with aversive stimuli. For example, after pairing a light with a shock through classical conditioning, the light can elicit a freezing behavior in the rat that can be measured as a conditioned emotional response. These responses can be strenghtened and weakened depending on the negative valence of the stimulus. Certain species have species specific responses that are emitted only by that species and no other in the presence of stimlui. Aside from Skinner's work with operant chambers, he was also known for his writing. In his book Walden Two he examines a society that is run through operant and classical conditioning to explore the benefits of having a society thats environments are specifically tailored to elicit target behaviors from it's citizens. This loss of free will is controversial to most. The operant chamber part of the chapter was mostly review of things we have already studied, but I did like the chapter including some of the written works of B.F. Skinner. These aspects were knew and to me very interesting. After reading the chapter I got to thinking of the ideas of his books and will probably have to read them at some point.
I like B.F. Skinner the best of the listed figures. I think that all contributed great aspects to the science of behavior modification but I think that his use of all the ideas combined is what makes him my favorite. His ideas are thought provoking and at times controversial. He wrote books expressing the ideas that he developed through experimenting with operant chambers. I think that Ivan Pavlov had the most important contributions to the field. I think this because he was the one who stumbled on the idea of training someone/thing to act in a certain way. He was the one who got the ball rolling in the field (accidentally). I think that Classical Conditioning is the foundation to everything that the science is today. B.F. Skinner is the figure that I want to learn more about. I am interested in his ideas and how this conditioning practice could help benefit societies and how they already have for the most part.
Classical Conditioning, Operant Conditioning, Operant Chamber, Discrimination Training, Extinction, Fixed Ratio, Stimulus Control, Emit, Target Behavior, Conditioned Emotional Responses, Aversive, Negative Valence, Elicit,Species Specific Responses,
One of the first things that I will remember is B.F Skinner, he came up with the modern ways of eliciting consequences of animals through the operation chamber. The operation chamber helped people understand the abc's of behavior. The other interesting thing about this chapter was the air bed where the baby is put in a "operant chamber". This provides an antecedent environment that elicits responses. Another important concept from Skinner was the Conditioned emotional response which helped continue the work of behavior. This allows us to understand some of the natural occuring reponses. I liked the idea of a uptopia of a place where things could be guided by social engineering of people. I wonder if there has been a place constructed with these determinstic ideas. Although I do find the baby crib to be very interesting and allowing the baby to use continuous reinforcement, it is too artificial for me right now. I find Skinner very interesting and would like to read more about his ideas/lectures.
Although I think Skinner had some of the most prophylactic measure for society, I have liked Thorndike since my history and systems class. His work with puzzle box are very intriguing with target bheaviors of conditioning. The puzzle box was able to help people understand the learning behaviors and consequences. I believe that Pavlov made an incredible discovery of learning theory with conditioned stimulus, this maps a lot of how behaviors are made and established. Pavlovs work has been influential in many ascepts of theories. I would like to learn more about Skinner and behavior modification techniques used, I have learned the basics for conditioning but would like to understand it more in depth. I really like the social engineering and would like to see how that theory has progressed.
terms: antecedent,behavior,consequence,discrimnant, continuous reinforcement, target behavior, social engineering, classical conditioning, operant, operant chamber, deterministic, elicit, emit, conditioned emotional response, conditioned stimulus
Section 3.5
1. The first thing I will emit to remember is the term shaping. Shaping is a technique used to actually shape the desired behavior. An example from this section is a rat in an operant chamber emitting to press a bar twenty-five times. Also during shaping another technique is used which is called successive approximation. Successive approximation means being reinforced when doing something close to the wanted behavior. An example would be the rat just looking at the lever and being reinforced.
2. The second thing I will emit to remember is discrimination training. Discrimination training involves differential reinforcement. This means some responses are reinforced while others are not. For example one response may signal reinforcement while the other response may signal extinction. During this process continuous reinforcement is used so it is clear what is exactly being reinforced.
3. The third thing I will emit to remember is difference between Type S and Type R. Type S is known as classical conditioning where the stimulus usually comes before the response. Type R is known as operant conditioning where the stimulus follows the response. The book states Type S responses are more automatic behavior and Type R responses are more voluntary.
One thing I really enjoyed reading about was “Skinner’s Air Bed”. I found this to be very interesting and couldn’t imagine being raised in an air bed (aversive). I didn’t dislike anything from this section; overall I found it to be very pleasant.
One idea that came to mind was why Skinner decided to use electrical current as a punisher on the rats? Did Skinner have any other ideas on how to use punishment? Also another idea that came to mind was about Skinner’s Air Bed, how did this affect the child’s social skills and how long was she actually in there for?
If I had to pick who I like the most it would have to be Skinner. I find Skinner to be very intelligent and have a lot to do with what behavior modification is today. I perceive him as a risk taker and enjoy reading about all his experiments. I think Pavlov and Skinner have made the most important contributions. They both came up with important procedures dealing with behavior modification, which are classical conditioning and operant conditions. I also don’t know as much about Thorndike and Watson.
I would like to find out more information on Thorndike because I know the least about him compared to the other historical figures. I have never heard anything about Thorndike in my other psychology classes.
Terms: emit, shaping, desired behavior, operant chamber, successive approximation, reinforced, behavior, discrimination training, differential reinforcement , responses, reinforcement, Skinner’s Air Bed, continuous reinforcement, Type S, Type R, classical conditioning, aversive, pleasant, stimulus, extinction, punisher, punishment , and behavior
Section 3.5
1. The first thing I will emit to remember is the term shaping. Shaping is a technique used to actually shape the desired behavior. An example from this section is a rat in an operant chamber emitting to press a bar twenty-five times. Also during shaping another technique is used which is called successive approximation. Successive approximation means being reinforced when doing something close to the wanted behavior. An example would be the rat just looking at the lever and being reinforced.
2. The second thing I will emit to remember is discrimination training. Discrimination training involves differential reinforcement. This means some responses are reinforced while others are not. For example one response may signal reinforcement while the other response may signal extinction. During this process continuous reinforcement is used so it is clear what is exactly being reinforced.
3. The third thing I will emit to remember is difference between Type S and Type R. Type S is known as classical conditioning where the stimulus usually comes before the response. Type R is known as operant conditioning where the stimulus follows the response. The book states Type S responses are more automatic behavior and Type R responses are more voluntary.
One thing I really enjoyed reading about was “Skinner’s Air Bed”. I found this to be very interesting and couldn’t imagine being raised in an air bed (aversive). I didn’t dislike anything from this section; overall I found it to be very pleasant.
One idea that came to mind was why Skinner decided to use electrical current as a punisher on the rats? Did Skinner have any other ideas on how to use punishment? Also another idea that came to mind was about Skinner’s Air Bed, how did this affect the child’s social skills and how long was she actually in there for?
If I had to pick who I like the most it would have to be Skinner. I find Skinner to be very intelligent and have a lot to do with what behavior modification is today. I perceive him as a risk taker and enjoy reading about all his experiments. I think Pavlov and Skinner have made the most important contributions. They both came up with important procedures dealing with behavior modification, which are classical conditioning and operant conditions. I also don’t know as much about Thorndike and Watson.
I would like to find out more information on Thorndike because I know the least about him compared to the other historical figures. I have never heard anything about Thorndike in my other psychology classes.
Terms: emit, shaping, desired behavior, operant chamber, successive approximation, reinforced, behavior, discrimination training, differential reinforcement , responses, reinforcement, Skinner’s Air Bed, continuous reinforcement, Type S, Type R, classical conditioning, aversive, pleasant, stimulus, extinction, punisher, punishment , and behavior
3.5
One thing I will remember was how Skinner distinguished between Type S (classical conditioning) and Type R (operant conditioning). I will remember that with type s, the stimulus generally comes before the response emitted, where as in type r the response preceeds the stimulus.
Second, I will remember the successive approximation; or a response that is reinforced when the animal is close. When the animal begins to continue emit this pleasant response, the reinforcement will become discriminate in hopes to have the animal emit the desired response.
The third thing I will remember is the species specific response. This was very interesting to me, for I never thought about this before. This is an unique response specific to the species they are testing.
One thing I really liked was the species specific response. It was interesting to think about because I hadn't thought about that before. I really liked reading about it because each species is different, so the tests have to accomidate for that. For some behaviors emitted are different than other animals, and aversive responses from one animal may not be aversive to others.
There wasn't one thing I didn't really like. The section was interesting because I didn't know that Skinner was also a writer. It was the right length with just enough information.
Out of the 4 historical figures, I liked Skinner the best. To me, Skinner was the most interesting to me for he did more the experiences, but was also a writer. Skinner is the one who can be credited for modern behaviorism and what we consider behavior modification today. Skinner also believed that when the right environment is created, one can predict and control the behavior. I would like to find out more about Skinner's writings, for they sound interesting and to actually be able to see what he actually felt about behavior modification opposed to the overview books give.
Terms Used: classical conditioning, operant conditioning, emitted, reinforced, emit, pleasant, discriminate, species specific response, aversive,
3.5
Three Things I Will Remember About This Chapter:
1. Shaping is the technique used to teach the organism an action. With shaping another technique is used called successive approximation, which means if the rat or organism does an action that is closed to the desired one it gets reinforced as well.
2. Skinner also invented an Air Bed for babies to be put in instead of a crib. The box controlled the temperature in it. The box would start out at 86 degrees F and as the baby grew older they would lower the temperature. Skinner felt that clothing and bedding interfered with normal exercise and growth. He even went as far as raising his own daughter in the contraption.
3. Skinner believed in social engineering, which means that the government or private group should manipulate the environment to reinforce desired behaviors, and wrote a book about it called Walden Two.
I like more background information about famous behaviorist, such a Skinner, because you often learn about them in other classes, but never learn about other projects they were involved in. The only thing that I disliked about this chapter is that it was a very front heavy chapter and there wasn't much content towards the end. When I read about the baby being raised in the air bed, I kind of thought it wasn't a good idea because babies have been raised for centuries without it and were brought up just fine. Don’t try and fix what isn't broken, especially when there could be drastic negative unforeseen consequences.
The most interesting of all the historical figures we read about was John B. Watson because the experiment on Little Albert is very controversial and there is an interesting that Albert was never desensitized to the experiment. I also thought the scandal about him cheating on his wife with the teaching assistant was interesting.
Terms: Shaping, Successive Approximation, Organism, Skinner’s ‘Air Bed’, Social Engineering, Walden Two, Manipulate, Reinforce, Desensitized
Three things that i will remember after reading this section are shaping, the operant chamber, and skinners air bed. Shaping is a technique used to shape a desired behavior. In the case in the book it was used to get the rat to press the bar twenty five times in the FR25. The operant chamber is the contraption Skinner created to for the rats and pigeons. It was used to study punishment and reinforcement on animals. The pigeons had something in the cage to peck at with their beak and rats had something to push with their feet. I found it interesting that Skinner also put the floor with electrical currents so he could shock the rats feet. The last thing, Skinners air bed that he created was something that I had done previous research about in a psychology class. It was his actual child that he used in the experiment. He kept his daughter in there with no clothes and at a certain temperature and found that when he adjusted it she had a change in behavior and attitude. This was really interesting to me because its such a big chance you are taking and using your own child. One thing that I really liked about this chapter was species specific responses. I liked this because it was interesting to learn that these things can be observed in animals everyday life. One thing that I disliked about the chapter was all the vocabulary words, I kept getting them mixed up and confused as I was reading through. One thing that came to mind while reading was about all the risks Skinner was taking in testing his hypothesis out on his own child and what if it was a bad reaction, I would just never be able to do that to my own child knowing the potential risks.
Of the psychologists we have learned about I liked reading about Skinner best because I think the baby in a box was such an interesting and risky experiment. I think that Pavlov was the most influential because of all the information he discovered about the dogs salivating, this lead to so much more discoveries and its readily applied. Id like to find out more about Thorndike because I have learned so much more about all of the other ones that I dont really know what his major contributions were to the psychology field.
Terms: Skinner, Pavlov, Thorndike, species specific response, shaping, operant chamber, Skinners air bed, FR25, punishment, reinforcement,
Section 3.5
Three things that I will remember from this chapter are as followed: I will remember Skinner’s operant chamber (the cage where the rats pressed levels and the pigeons pecked the disks). I like this idea because; animal behavior is shaped into displaying the same behavior as humans. The interesting part is trying to imagine a rat thinking like a human in looking for food to eat. I will also remember the term manipulanda (the object on which the rat manipulated, which is technically the lever). This reminds me of the pigeon relying on the amount of pecks to get food. I will remember successive approximation. I will remember this because, I think this happens all the time. For an example, when answering a test question and you kind of put what the answer may or might be; a kind professor or teacher will at least give you 50% of the points given to that particular question. Another example will be reinforcing a child in that you reward them for even asking to go to the bathroom even though they already peed in their diaper. I really liked reading this article because it has a lot of words that I am learning and relating to daily life. I will just say all of the reading are teaching me a lot so far, so there is nothing to dislike, all are well. As I was reading this section and about the term manipulanda, the idea that came to mind was that, this term is relevant and that this occurs almost every day in our daily routine. An example will be depending on money to buy food or something that relates to survival. We depend on our parents to feed us. So, we these are an example of manipulation.
Of the four historical figures, I like Edward Thorndike because, he was trying to learn about animal’s intelligence. I like his Law of Effect which states that, when behaviors or responses are followed by positive outcomes, that association is stamped. I compared this with a friend allowing you to drive their car due to positive previous situations. I would say that Ivan Pavlov made a contribution to psychology. I say this because of the conditional and unconditional stimulus scenario that he brought about using his dog. I would like to learn more about Thorndike and his contributions because we have not gone into depth about his work in psychology yet.
Terms:
Skinner
Operant Chamber
Shapping
Manipulanda
Manipulate
Successive approximation
Thorndike
Law of Effect
Ivan Pavlov
Week 9
Tuesday
Ch. 3.5
Before reading this chapter I had only heard about B.F. Skinner in passing. I had not really gotten to know him other than knowing he had some things to do with psychology, but never remember what.
3 things I learned:
1. Skinner created an operant chamber and a cumulative recorder. The chamber had more to do with the physical response that the rat or pigeon emits. While the recorded graphed how hard the lever was pressed.
2. The lever that the animal manipulates is called the maipulanda. I will remember this because the word is so closely related to manipulate which is what the animal is doing.
3. The air bed I think is pretty neat. It is what he would put a baby in instead of a crib. The purpose of the air bed is to keep the baby from being in unnecessary clothing or covers that may harm the baby. It’s like manipulating the air around the child. Hence air bed!
I liked in this chapter the different inventions that Skinner made. I really like the idea of the air bed, if babies can be put into something safer and less hazardous to their health .
I didn’t like all of the different terms/ vocabulary in the section. I got confused easily for some reason and wasn’t picking up as quick.
Vocab terms: manipulate, emit, classical conditioning, experiment.
I liked Pavlov the best, he helped with classical conditioning. He was one of the founders of the classical conditioning concept. I thought that it is neat that he isn’t a physiologist but a Russian Physiologist. Plus I think that is experiment is more layman terms and easiest to remember. I believe that he made the biggest contribution because he paved the way for classical conditioning. Which is studied by every entry level psychologist. I would like to find out more information about him just because I think that he contributed a major concept to psychology.
3.5
The chapter about B.F. Skinner is an interesting one. It discusses a lot of the important things that he has done to shape behavioral modification. There were a lot of things that I learned while reading this. I found it interesting that he laid the foundation for behaviorism even though Watson was the one that made it popular. One of the more interesting things in this chapter was learning that Skinner could distinguish between Classical conditioning which is referred to as type S and Operant conditioning, which is referred to as type R. I think one of the things that makes Skinner so famous is his invention of the operant chamber which is used for all sorts of experiments.
Of the four historical figures we read about I think Pavlov is the most interesting. His work with the salivating dogs is amazing. I think it is fascinating how he developed the process of getting them to salivate from the sound of the bell.The work he did with classical conditioning was important to the field of behavior modification. I would like to learn more about Pavlov because I am sure there is more information and interesting studies that I have not learned or heard about yet.
Terms: Classical conditioning, operant conditioning, operant chamber, behaviorism, and experiment
3.5
Throughout this section, i learned a lot about skinner.
1. Skinner believed in a concept called social engineering. He believed that by creating a right environment we can control and predict behaviors to benefit society. I think we can do that and control the environment which can lead to controlling the behavior. I find it very interesting to think about and to know that it can be done.
2. Skinner created a box like structure. He used operant chamber, which was where the rat was located along with the cumulative recorder, which was a device used to record the lever pressing. I thought it was cool how it included a speaker, light, water spout, and a food hopper. it's crazy to think that rats can condition themselves to these types of things.
3. Another thing that I learned is about successive approximation. this means that if the rat does something close to the needed behavior, the rat gets reinforced. I feel like it's kind of like positive reinforcement, just different terms and meaning so i feellike it will be easy to remember.
The one thing that I really enjoyed was Skinner's Air Bed. I found it neat that he created this air bed instead of a crib. It is suppose to help control babies body temperature. I just thought the whole experiment was very creative. The one thing that I didn't like very much was all of the vocabulary terms. I found it hard to keep up with them all and to try and remember all of them.
I feel that out of all the psychologists I found Skinner to be the most interesting. I think all of his experiments were very interesting and unique. He did a lot with conditioning. I think that all 4 psychologists have made their own contributions to psychology with their terms and experiments. I would like to find out more about Thorndike because I feel like I don't know asm uch about his work like I do the others.
This chapter elicits a remembering response due to it desirable information. One thing that I will evoke into my memory from this chapter is that Skinner was a believer and follower of social engineering at which you elicit the right environment to allow an individual to become what you want them to become. The second thing I will evoke into my memory from this chapter is Skinners air bed. This was a interesting creation and is something that would never happen today. The third thing I will evoke into my memory from this chapter is that Skinner wasn’t just a psychologist who created weird experiments, but a man who wanted to make society better by using his techniques such as social engineering.
One thing that I found desirable about this chapter is Skinners interesting experiments. The air bed is something that is never discussed today and would never be able to happen today. The air bed elicits an environment that can be controlled by the experimenter. By having control over this Skinner believed that the child would be better off my being in a controlled environment. He even put his own daughter in the bed. There is nothing I found undesirable about this chapter. I received a lot of reinforcement by reading it and I was left wanting to know more.
One idea that came to my mind while reading this chapter was has anyone else used the air bed? Obviously Skinner was a big believer in it and put his daughter in one, but how popular did the bed really get? I don’t think it became that popular since today the only time you hear about it is in a psychology class. It would be interesting to find out how many others tried to duplicate the bed.
Out of all the historical figures that have been discussed thus far, I find that Skinner is the most desirable. He really believed in what he did and emitted it in his everyday life. For example the air bed wasn’t just an experiment. He knew it would work to elicit good behavior and he put his own family members in it. He was very confident and most of his research (whether it was popular or not) made sense. You could get a lot out of what he did and his impact that he made on behaviorism is incredible. His contributions he made are used today in reinforcing and punishing desired and undesired behavior. His research on manipulation was emitted on rats but has spread to humans as well as other animals. People emit reward behaviors on their pets to help train them. He is also one that I would like to learn more about. He is interesting and I feel there is more to learn about that applies to behavior modification. His thoughts on behavior are unique and I would like to know what helped him spark his ideas.
Terms: elicit, emit, Skinner, social engineering, air bed, desirable, undesirable, evoke, behavior modification, behaviorism, manipulation
One of the things that I will remember from what I read in this section is B.F. Skinner's beliefs of social engineering. I find it to be an interesting, yet baffling concept because of the terms the members of the society had to live. I do think that if we took part of his thoughts and incorporated them in to our government we may be better off. Secondly, I will remember Skinner's 'Air Bed'. Although, I still do not completely understand the purpose of this bed or how he even thought of this. I would be interested in learning more. Lastly, I remember that shaping, teaching the desired behavior, and successive approximation, when the subject is close to the desired behavior it is reinforced until the desired behavior is shaped, are important when operant conditioning is being applied. The one thing that I really liked about this section, was it was all about B.F. Skinner. I find him to be interesting and I always like learning his wild ideas and because of this I don't have anything that I disliked about this section. Two ideas came to mind when reading this chapter. One was about shaping and successive approximation and how it can and is used when raising children (and pets). The second idea I had, was if Walden Two and social engineering were true today, we could have good health care, no poverty, and a lower crime rate.
Out of the four historical figures B.F. Skinner is my favorite. His theories and inventions are interesting and helpful to our society. I think Skinner's most important contribution was his concept of social engineering, some parts are a little out there but I think it was be an interesting experiment, if ethical, to see what a real society would thrive. I find all the historical figures interesting and would appreciate learning more about all, however, I am still intrigued by Skinner.
Terms: B.F Skinner, social engineering, Skinner's 'Air Bed', shaping, successive approximation, operant conditioning
Terms: Social engineering, environment, operant chamber, behavior, cumulative recorder, condition, reinforcement, successive approximation
One thing I will remember in this section is that Skinner invented pretty much all of the equipment used in his operant conditioning including the operant chamber and the cumulative recorder. I thought that was interesting that he invented all of equipment so he could do his experiments.
Also another thing that I will remember is what the operant chamber was. An operant chamber is a secured chamber where a laboratory animal like a rat is placed to study reinforcement and punishment in non-human animals.
Finally I will remember is that Skinner wasn’t only an inventor he also was a writer. Skinner wrote about how people can use social engineering to create better societies.
There were a couple things in this section that I liked and one of them was that Skinner wasn’t only an inventor and he actually did other things such as writing and I thought that was pretty cool. Also another thing that I liked about this chapter is that Skinner invited most of all of equipment used in his experiments.
Of the four historical figures I think my favorite is Pavlov because I know so much about him already and I think he has made the most important contributions to psychology. He’s made a huge contribute to classical conditioning starting with the dogs and the salvation and moving on to other animals.
I would love to learn about Watson more because you don’t hear about him as much in psychology classes as you do about the other three scientists. They are all very interesting and made a huge impact in psychology.
Terms: Skinner, operant conditioning, operant chamber, cumulative recorder, reinforcement, punishment, inventor, experiments, Pavlov, classical conditioning, Watson
Sec 3.5
1.) I found it particularly interesting that Skinner took information from Watson, and changed, it. He also invented most of the equipment he used in his opernant chamber. An operant chamber was the cage that was used for the rats and pigeons to emit specific behaviors, tis involved shaping the animals behavior, because when they first put the animal in the chamber they do not know what to do. Opernant chamber are also referred to as Skinner Boxes and the lever referred to as manipulanda, because its the object animals are elicited to manipulate. Skinner Boxes also function as discriminative stimulus, reinforcers, manipulators and punishers.
2.) The term shaping was very clearly defined in this section; how it was tied to the animals made it a little easier to understand, and also more interesting. Shaping is used to train rats to press a lever or push a button which involves successive approximation where the rats emitted behavior is reinforced each time it emits the desired response.
3.) Skinner elicited discrimination training in his experiments. Discrimination training involves differential reinforcement, meaning some responses are reinforced while others are not.
One thing I liked about this section was the explanation of Skinner's history, and information about his inventions, and contributions to the psychological society
I didn't dislike anything in this section.
I like Skinner the best out of the four historians we have covered, because of his excessive contributions to the field of psychology. The reason I chose Skinner was because I like what he studied, and the changes he made to behavior studies; started by Watson. The reason I didn't chose Watson was because I don't believe he was that ethical; his treatment of Baby Albert was not in his best judgement. Then there was his whole affair with his assistant. The reason I didn't chose Pavlov was because he was not a psychologist, he was not interested in behavior, and just stubbled upon it. Thornide isn't my favorite because he's not that memorable to me.
Terminology: Opernant Conditioning, opernant chamber, cumulative recorder, Skinner box, manipulanda, discriminative stimulus, reinforcers, manipulate, punishment, successive approximation, reinforced, elicit, emit, Skinner, discrimination training, differential reinforcement, responses, Thorndike
Section 3.5
Reading this section elicited the memory of these three concepts:
1.) I will remember the operant chamber or the Skinner box used to study reinforcement and punishment of rats and pigeons. The operant chamber needs to have key features for both species to be capable of emitting their limited behavioral repertoire. The pigeon needs something to peck at because it doesn't have hands while rats do to be able to grasp and push levers.
2.) I will remember the technique of shaping which is used to shape and create a desired behavior. The start of shaping a behavior calls for the use of the technique called successive approximation. This technique reinforces an emitted behavior that is close to the desired behavior until it gradually becomes the target behavior. This happens all the time with students and their studies. After doing an assignment, you may get some points but not the full points until you fulfill all of the requirements your professor has given you. It may take a few tries, but you will gradually get better scores.
3.) I will remember the concept of ratio strain which is an organism experiencing a schedule change too much, too fast. If anyone is forced to change too quickly or too much, it can cause some confusion and strain. This can make it difficult to increase the frequency of a desired behavior.
I really liked learning more about B.F. Skinner and the fact that he is an inventor and writer. I understand his inventions and use his developed schedules.
I did not dislike anything within this section. I am still in frustration rather than boredom. I am continually learning new things in the readings.
The idea that came to mind was finding more out on the air bed because I'm not sure I understand it's concept too well and how it works.
I like B.F. Skinner the most because I understand his concepts the most, and I conveniently use his schedules of reinforcement within my field of choice. They are an important part of my future career as a speech-pathologist. Plus, I really liked learning about his experiments on rats and pigeons. It helps me understand how our environment manipulates our behaviors. I also have read his book, Walden Two, which was very interesting. I believe Skinner has made the biggest contributions with his experiments on rats and pigeons using reinforcement and punishment schedules. These schedules makeup routines in daily living. I would like to find out more about Thorndike because I really didn't hear much about him before this class. I want to know more about his contributions to psychology.
Terms: Target Behavior, Desired, Emit, Elicit, B.F. Skinner, Thorndike, Reinforcement, Punishment, Operant Chamber, Skinner Box, Limited Behavioral Repertoire, Shaping, Successive Approximation, Ratio Strain, and Schedules of Reinforcement
Section 3.5
I have studied Skinner's work before so I am familiar with him but I did not know him in detail. Social engineering is a concept Skinner deeply believed in. He believed that by creating the right environment we can predict and control behavior to the benefit of society. I wasn't aware before reading this section that Skinner was the one responsible for inventing the operant chamber. It was neat to see the features of the operant chamber and how it is used. The technique shaping is a term I am familiar with and it was a nice refresher with the examples provided. I enjoyed how we were given the steps in reinforcing the rat. Before this section I always wondered where they started at and finally my question was answered. I can relate to successive approximation because when I wanted to teach my dog how to lay down, I would get so excited when he was close to that behavior. I never was aware of Skinner's experimenting with babies sleeping in air beds. I don't think I would enjoy it but then again I don't know any different. Maybe if I was raised like that I would love it. I enjoyed learning about how the government manipulates us through taxes and tax cuts, but was a little sad after. One thing I did not like and do not agree with is Skinner believes that instead of promoting freedom, the world's attention should be focused towards environments, social and physical, in which people live. The environment as a whole is more important than individuals. The community comes first, not the people as individuals.
Out of the four historical figures I enjoyed learning about Skinner the most. Not necessarily because I agree with him but because I enjoyed learning about his theories, ideas, and his experiments. I do think Pavlov was the most influential because of all the information he discovered about the dogs salivating, this lead to so much more discoveries and is now very popular in training not just dogs but all animals.
Terms used: Skinner, social engineering, behavior, operant chamber, shaping, reinforce, successive approximation, Skinner's air bed,
Section 3.5
Three thing I will remember from this section are successive approximation, intermittent reinforcement, and ration strain.
Successive approximation reminded me of a concept I learned called shaping. When you see a behavior emitted close to the behavior you wanted elicited, then you provide positive reinforcement. You slowly work to the point that the person/animal performs the task desired. The reinforcement can vary from clicks to treats, or even praise.
Intermittent reinforcement is memorable because it reminds me of a concept I learned in sports psychology called fading. You reinforce a behavior every time it is emitted, then slowly start reinforcing the behavior less frequently. It also reminds me of intermittent fasting, you are resetting the normal expectations. Intermittent fasting resets normal blood-glucose levels.
Ratio strain was interesting because it's very important when trying to maintain a balance between the behavior being emitted and extinction. Extinction behaviors are good, but extinction is bad.
I liked that Skinner was trying to make additions to Watson's original ideas.
I didn't like how Skinner's ideas were impractical. Skinner's ideas were very good in theory, but no mother is going to allow her baby to be grown up in a "air bed".
When I was reading this section I was wondering if you could teach animals to hear several words in a row and understand several step command. For example "Go upstairs get your toy and bring it to me".
I think that Watson made the biggest contribution to behavior modification. Watson's research was the base for Skinner's work and sets the platform for all types of reinforcement.
I liked Pavlov the best because I really enjoyed learning about how schedules of reinforcements effected slot machines.
I would like to learn more about how classical conditioning might effect somatic pain. I would like to look at how conditioned stimulus's (stress) cause conditioned responses of muscle tightness creating pain.
Terms: Classical conditioning, conditioned stimulus, conditioned response, schedules of reinforcement, behavior, emitted, extinction, ration strain, intermittent reinforcement, elicited, excessive approximation
3.5
What are three things you will remember from what you read in the chapter? Why?
1. Skinner and the operant chamber. I will remember the operant chamber but more importantly that everything within the chamber has purpose and a name is well. We know the purpose of the chamber but to get the rat to use the and learn how to use the things in the chamber requires shaping by using successive approximation.
2. I thought the species specific response was rather interesting. I will definitely remember that simply because I thought I knew what it was before I read the definition.
3. I found conditioned emotional response to be very interesting. It reminds me of all the things that we teach ourselves and our children to be afraid of like bugs or snakes.
What was one thing that you really liked that was in the chapter? Why?
I like the example given using taxes as punishers or reinforcers. I had never even really thought about it until it was brought up. It puts everyday things into perspective and made me realize that almost everything can be used as a punisher or reinforcer.
What was one thing that you disliked that was in the chapter? Why?
There wasn’t really anything that I disliked about this chapter. I felt that everything in this chapter tied in very well to what was being discussed.
What were some ideas that came to mind when you were reading the section?
The different examples that were given reminded me of nurture verse nature. I don’t feel that its either nurture or nature but a combination of both that creates shaping by using punishers and reinforcers.
Of the four historical figures you read about (Thorndike, Pavlov, Watson and Skinner) which do you like the best and why? Which do you think have made the most important contribution(s). Why? Which would you like to find out more information about? Why?
I do not have a preference on liking one more so than the other. I feel that that have all made considerable contributions with some more important than others. Some of the experiments I feel are rather self explanatory and it only took somebody taking the time to simply observe the behavior. Using logical thinking and thoroughness was all it took. Others though took a little more thought and planning and were still not as complex as they appeared to be.
3.5
Before reading this chapter on Behavior Modification I didn’t understand to what extent Skinner impacted and pretty much shaped much of Behavior Modification and the acknowledgement and use of behavior modification.
There are a couple of things that stood out to me in this chapter as I read, the background to these overarching ideas, concepts, and people elicited a learning and remembering response from me. The first thing I will remember is that Skinner believed in the concept of ‘social engineering.’ At first I didn’t understand this concept but as I read on it helped me emit a learning behavior. Basically Skinner thought that we can create the ‘right environment’ for controlling or modifying individual’s behavior to the benefit of society. This stood out to me because I think it goes against our general beliefs as Americans to let people become what they will and everyone has the freedom of choice. I think this belief faced with Skinner’s ‘Social Engineering’ come in conflict and I don’t think they are mutually inclusive. The other concept I will emit a remembering response of is the ‘Conditioned Emotional Response.’ This stood out to me because it was discussed in a previous chapter but I didn’t get all the information I needed to really understand it. Basically what I will remember about this is that it is a response that is initially elicited by the conditioned stimulus, to the extent that when the conditioned stimulus does not present itself but the original stimulus that was paired with the aversive stimulus the organism reacts in the same way. This is also in connection with what an animal does naturally to survive, taking that and being able to condition them to emit this behavior when there is no need or threat of survival. The last thing that stands out the most to me is Skinner’s “air bed.” I didn’t understand quite how it worked by reading the chapter so I looked up exactly how it worked. The baby’s bed was basically in a box shaped crib that held in air that could be regulated. This works with Skinner’s idea that environment can be changed to modify behavior. And from what I read this did seem to work for babies and parents who used it, with reports of healthy babies and babies that didn’t fuss as much. I think this again goes against American values of learned ideas of how to take care of a child; I think this is why it did not get popular. The thing I liked about this chapter was the in-depth look at the person of Skinner and what he was about. Things I disliked about this chapter was actually more of a critique of Skinner, I think that he saw too logically humans behavior and animals behavior and did not take into account human resilience and different personality types.
4.1 (opps did this without looking oh well)
The concept that I will emit a remembering response of was the main point of the chapter, self-directed learning. I thought it was interesting to differentiate self-directed and the behavior modification that is generally used on other people or animals. Self-directed learning is about “administering the consequences” ourselves to change or modify our behavior. The next concept goes along with the self-directed and that is choosing to reinforce something that could be punished. So with that is phrase in the chapter that struck me as odd which said, ‘reinforcing incompatible behavior’ or “differential reinforcement. So basically we convert something that we would originally punish into a reinforced behavior. The idea that was very much ingrained into me in this chapter is the idea of clearly defining the target behavior. This is needed greatly in self-directed learning for a couple of important reasons which are: needing to be able to measure change and changing an undesirable behavior to be punished into a desired behavior to be reinforced. So in order to do this I think first it needs to be laid out the behavior that is either undesirable or desirable in order to see how to make it into a desired behavior. Target behavior is also important because it gives us cues on what and when and how much we need to reward a behavior to be able to modify behavior. This chapter had a lot of great practical ideas that spelled out how to go about changing behavior, there wasn’t anything I didn’t like.
Emit, elicit, response, social engineering, environment, behavior, conditioned emotional response, conditioned stimulus, aversive, self-directed learning, differential reinforcement, punished, punish, reinforced.
I like Thorndike the best partially because I think he was the most ethical in his practices and basically was able to uncover how we learn and how to calculate how well we learn. Of the people who made some of the biggest contributions would probably be Watson. I did not like the Little Albert study and thought it was completely unethical, BUT it did contribute quite significantly to our understanding of how fears or different response are learned and how that can actually be changed. I think of the people I would like to find out more about is Skinner. His ideas often conflict with my own about human behavior but he is brilliant and I think I would like the challenge of challenging my own beliefs along with learning better the rationale for his understanding.
3.5
1) One thing I'll remember is the idea of Skinners air bed. It focused on using controlled air tempertures to keep a baby warm to avoid all the clothes and restrictive clothing. As it was described in the chapter you start at temperature that the baby is comfortable in (essentially the baby doesn't fuss at all). Then as time progresses you can lower the temperature until the baby can sleep at standard temperatures. I found it fascinating that they could elicit an aversive reaction out of the baby just by changing the temperature even 2 degrees!
2) The idea of social engineering really intrigued me. While it seems a rather utopian and optimistic thought, I find it interesting to think that everyone could be conditioned through behavior techniques. You could essentially by way of Reinforcement/Punishment make a totally obedient society. This is also my favorite thing from this chapter, as it highlights just how far behavorist techniques could go.
3) The final thing I'll recall from this chapter is the conditioned emotional response. In the chapter the rat would freeze up from a shock that would come after the light was let in the box. Soon enough by consequence the rat would freeze up when the light was let in. So by adding an extra stimulus that leads to a species specific response you can modify the conditioned behavior.
I didn't really have anything I disliked about the chapter. Although I will say I'm a little uneasy about the whole experimenting with babies. When Skinners other inventions were mentioned I looked up more info on Project Pigeon and wondered what would have happened if it had been successful.
My favorite researcher was Skinner. He was my favorite because he had some very interesting and unique inventions/ideas (pigeon guided missiles sounds like its from some steampunk scifi novel!) I think Watson and Skinner by extension had some of the most important discoveries to the field by just popularizing the science. I would like to find out more information about Watson as he's hardly mentioned and I would like to learn more about Skinners lesser spoken about inventions.
Terms: Reinforcement, Social Engineering, Skinners Operant Chambers, Reinforcement, Punishment, Consequence, Behavior, elicit, aversive
3.5
One thing I will remember is operant chamber or Skinner’s Box. I remember talking about this before, and it is really interesting to learn about it. It was cool to read more in-depth of what makes the box up and how it works from the inside. The book described the box having a lot of different parts in it, including the light, bar, speaker, water spout, and food hopper. If we had a lab on campus that would be cool to be able to test what we are learning and see one of these boxes in use.
Another thing I will remember is species specific response. It means that the response is a unique response that an animal does in a certain environment. The example in the book was that rats freeze up when scared. I thought of when cats bristle up when they get frightened or deal with an aversive situation, or when possums play dead when threatened. When people think of these animals, I think what they do is something that is very species specific.
I will also remember Skinner’s Air Bed. We have talked about this too, and it is very interesting, and I wonder how the public took this. I found it really interesting how that lowering the temperature in the box would make a baby stop fussing. I think that being raised in this box would be really weird, and would cause developmental problems. Especially if the child doesn’t get feeling from their parents, and are able to touch them.
I liked that this chapter was easy to understand. There wasn’t anything I particularly disliked. It was interesting how Skinner’s daughter that was raised in the air bed didn’t have any problems, and she was fine overall. I just can’t imagine raising my child in a box like an animal. I wonder if his daughter was his only child, and if he had more how they fared, and if they had to be participants in any of his studies.
Out of all the people we talked about I liked Watson the most. I don’t agree with sticking lots of furry things in baby’s faces, but I think that he made lots of contributions to the world of behaviorism and how we can reinforce children to be scared of certain things and then desensitize them afterwards. I think systematic desensitization is a good way to help people overcome their fears, and I think Watson definitely helped with this area. I think Skinner’s reinforcement research was really important and helped us learn how our behaviors can be shaped, and how we can go about changing and emitting the target behaviors we are trying to do if we wanted to. Like I said before, I would like to learn more about Watson and other studies he may have done. Like if he had his children or other family members participating in his research.
Terms: operant chamber, Skinner’s Box, species specific, response, environment, aversive, Skinner’s Air Bed, Watson, behaviorism, reinforce, desensitize, systematic desensitization, shaped, emitting, target behaviors
Chapter 3.5
Three things that I will remember about this chapter are: 1) social engineering was a theory developed by B.F. Skinner that suggested that by changing an environment, the behaviors emitted would be controlled and a better society could result from the changes, 2) stimulus continuum refers to the light intensity elicited by a computer developed by Skinner when studying animals in an operant conditioning chamber, and 3) successive aproximation is when an animal being observed emits a behavior that is deemed 'close' to the researcher's target behavior, and receives a food pellet as reinforcement to further push the animal towards the goal intended from the researcher. I will remember all of these new terms because they are all unique to Skinner; he invented so many new contraptions and was considered a founding father in the psychological study of human behavior. One thing that I liked about this chapter was how short and specific it was on the important details that you wanted us to know. One thing that I didn't like was what Skinner said about freedom was that personal opinions and internal struggling should be completely discarded and all people should go focus their attention on their environment at all times. This study made me think of classical conditioning because it sometimes a conditioned emotional response occur to further the investigatioin at hand.
Out of the four big-time researchers, I would say that I like Pavlov brcause even though he had gagdets to put on dogs and tested their salivation patterms, he managaed to keep everything controlled and used a biggger animal than the others: dogs. He really focused on the cause and effect relationship between a stimulus and a response. I definately think that he did the most for laying the basic foundation of phenonemenon pertaining to behavior because his studies are still studied and regarded today as having huge importance in the pshychological study of behaviorism. Without Pavlov, there would be so many more questions about why animals act the way they do and researchers wouldn't have undrestood that animals can be conditioned according to a researcher's timing. If I could learn more about any researcher that we have discussed so far, I would like to learn more about Thorndike because I have heard about the other three in other psychology classes and I think that Thorndike is often overlooked, so I would like to better understand how his work with cats was so important. Perhaps animal discrimination affected the animals that all the researchers used? I bet so.
Terms used: social engineering, behavior, emit, stimulus continuum, elicit, operant conditioning chamber, successive approximation, target behavior, reinforcement, Skinner, classical conditioning, conditioned emotional response (CER), Pavlov, stimulus, response, Thorndike, discrimination
One thing I will remember from the chapter is the operant chamber. The operant chamber is a very useful tool that is still used today to study behavior in animals. An operant chamber can range from being a fairly simple design to something a bit more elaborate. Another thing I will remember is “shaping”. Shaping is a process used to condition a behavior in someone. Shaping involves rewarding behavior similar or related to the desired behavior initially and slowly rewarding only for behavior more specific to the target behavior until finally only rewarding the desired behavior. Shaping seems like a good tool for conditioning behavior and seems like it would be less frustrating to the subject than other methods. A third thing I will remember is Skinner’s “air bed”. The air bed seems like a really interesting way to raise a child early in development. It definitely seems to have a lot of advantages but it could be argued that it also has some disadvantages when compared to more traditional methods. One thing I like in the chapter was the discussion of Walden Two. I hadn’t heard of the book before reading this chapter and I think that it’s an interesting concept. The book describes an example of Skinner’s idea of social engineering. It seems like an interesting idea but from what was described in the chapter it seems a bit detached from the more human side of raising children that is usually present. I didn’t particularly dislike anything in the chapter. Everything was explain fairly well and was interesting. The description of Walden Two did seem a little strange though.
Out of the four historical figures we have discussed, I feel that Skinner was the most important and also the one that I like the most. Skinner came up with the operant chamber, which is still used today. He also paved the way for modern behaviorism. Skinner worked using the discoveries of those that came before him and helped continue the advancement of behaviorism to what it is today. I would like to find out more about Skinners various contributions, particularly Walden Two.
Terms: operant chamber, behavior, shaping, conditioning, behaviorism, condition
I remember the terms shaping, successive approximation, and differential reinforcement. The word shaping is interesting because it suggests that an organism is a sculpture which can be modified to present a new shape. Or it suggests that behavior defines the existence of an organism, so animal behavior constitutes the shape of the animal. Either way it seems to ignore the cognitive abilities of the animal. Successive approximation is basically a step-by-step guidance that lures the animal to emit the target behavior. This is a common trick in education. Differential reinforcement uses the discriminative stimulus, which was mentioned in earlier sections. The method also shows the cognitive ability of an animal.
The idea of social engineering is impressive to me and will remain important in political science. There are probably many processes of this kind already taking place in the government. The events in the book Walden Two already took place in communist countries. Things like public orphanage, group homes, and centralized production sites were already reality in the last century. The fiction of one man was the reality of many people on the other side of the earth. I agree with Skinner that the environment should be changed, but should we not ask why people made the environment the way it is in the first place? To me changing the environment blindly is as dangerous as leaving it alone.
I still do not like the term conditioned emotional response. The phenomenon it describes looks too similar to conditioned response, so I do not see why adding a word would make any difference. Quantifying the response is a nice thing to do, such as the frequency a mouse presses a lever. Yet the consequence still does not show any mechanism specific to emotion.
I think I should take a look at Skinner's books when I get the chance. His socialist ideas as a scientist is intriguing. Though we do not want to live in a world of his design, knowing his plans will help us detect the onset of such attempts in real life.
I think I like Pavlov a little bit more because his researches were more oriented toward biology. If he lives in our time, he probably will have more discoveries in neuroscience. This is not saying that psychology is not important, but I think important discoveries in neuroscience are foundations of psychology.
Skinner probably made the most important contribution to behaviorism. Operant conditioning put all the conditioning methods together and was the beginning of understanding learning. Many researches were built on this knowledge, so this learning mechanism is really important.
I want to know more about Pavlov's research on excitatory and inhibitory neurons. Or rather, recent researches on this topic. Somehow I feel this topic will be inspiring to both neuroscience and psychology. I also want to read Skinner's books, so I can know better how a scientist became a socialist.
Terms: shaping, successive approximation, differential reinforcement, emit, target behavior, discriminative stimulus, conditioned emotional response, consequence, operant conditioning, excitatory neuron, inhibitory neuron
The first thing I will remember is Skinner's concept of social engineering. To think in this mind set would be to see the world as a place we all need to handle in a different way. I think his intentions are good, but to change environments and social systems entirely to fit behaviorism techniques seems unrealisitc. I think psychology deals with much more than behavior, which is something Skinner did not believe in, so it is understandable that I do not agree one hundred percent with this concept.
Secondly I will remember what his operant chamber were and what took place in them. I find the concept of continuity of the species very fascinating because we see that in the Skinner boxes that rats learn to emit certain behaviors in response to stimulus, which in turn results in either a reinforcemtn of punishment. This is just how humans work and to see it be done on the rat scale is really fascinating to see. I forgot that we are animals, like rats, sometimes, and learn behaviors through the similar processes.
Lastly I will remember shaping and successive approximation. I can think of times growing up where I would be reinforced for almost emitting the behavior desired of me, and eventually working up to the full desired behavior. Maybe not in such a planned out scientific format, but this still occurs in real life.
I liked seeing the Skinner Box used because it shows how we learn behaviors. Sometimes we overlook all the compnents that make up the behaviors we emit or what eleicts them, but looking at the Skinner Box and using rats for the example we can see the ways we actually respond to our environment and discriminate stimului.
Out of all the historical figures, I enjoyed Ivan Pavlov the most. This is manily because I really liked his study with the dog saliva and the part where he merges the shapes and it reveals the different behaviors emitted from the dogs at this point. They are thrown off and emit either excitatory behavior or inhibitoy behavior. I would like to find out more about Pavlov and read more about experimental neurosis in general. Is it something that only happens in controlled experiements or do we experience this in life? I'm unsre if I can think of a time. I think Skinner contributed most to behavior modification. He wrote a book about an entire soceity that is based off behavior modification. I think that was very creative and his experimetns produced insightful findings regarding reinforcement and punishment.
terms: REINFORCEMENT, PUNISHMENT, EMIT, ELICT, STIMULUS, EXCITATORY BEHAVIOR, INHIBITORY BEHAVIOR, EXPERIMENTAL NEUROSIS, SKINNER BOX OR OPERANT CHAMBER, SHAPING, SUCCESSIVE APPROXIMATION, SOCIAL ENGINEERING
First, classical and operant conditioning. It is easy to come across both of these when taking about behavior modification and when training animals. The difference between these two is just the switching of the order of when the stimulus is present and when a response is emitted. Type S (classical) has the stimulus first and the response is second. While with Type R (operant) the response is emitted first before the stimulus. Second, Skinner looked at his work as social engineering. And third, Skinner’s Air Bed. For some reason I thought it was a different psychologist who created the Air Bed. It’s not a bad concept if you want your child to be comfortable. I just don’t see it being a big seller because it probably wouldn’t be cheap.
The training process for the rats seemed very long, but the chapter explained it well. Being able to explain parts of the operant chamber and how that component was used to train the rat was very interesting.
I would have like more information on why Sinner dismissed freedom and dignity. His argument for the environment being important I can agree with. But I would like to have known more about any studies he did that put environment before dignity and freedom. What had he based his argument on?
Skinner’s book Walden Two seems somewhat similar to the book The Giver. It has been years since I have read The Giver and I have never read Walden Two but some basic concepts seem the same. Children did not live with their biological parents, and they were assigned jobs because some quality about them shows that they would do well in that job. The book is a really good read (there are a few deaths in The Giver) and I wonder if it has any other similarities to Walden Two.
It is hard to say which out of the four I found the most interesting. But I would have to say Skinner for right now because he really dug deeper into what it takes to learn something and how you set up the steps to teach something complicated. But also because he had ideas that didn’t sit well with other people. When he proposed environment over the individual’s free will, a lot of people did not agree. I think that behavior can be very complicated but I also think that the environment an individual is raised in can play it’s part in shaping that person.
The Skinner Box I never saw as anything more then a fancy crib with a lid. But I think his operant chamber and how to train and organism to complete a series of tasks for a treat is a nice contribution. All four men had big contributions but I see the operant chamber or the study from it is something that can be used by many people for many needs.
I would want to know more about Skinner. I want to know where he got the idea that the environment played such a big role in defining us and why he thinks that free will doesn’t. Also I would like to know more about his book. To be able to write a book (even if it is just fiction), you really have to have a well-developed picture of the community that the book takes place in.
Terms: classical conditioning, operant conditioning, stimulus, response, emitted, Type R, Type S, Skinner Box, environment, operant chamber, and social engineering.
3.5
Three things I will take away after reading section 3.5 are shaping and successive approximations, discrimination training, and Skinner’s Air Bed. Shaping is used to shape or mold a desired behavior. This usually requires the use of reinforcement. Shaping may require the use of successive approximation, which is emits reinforcement when something is done that is close to the desired behavior wanted by the experimenter, such as the FR25 schedule of reinforcement found in the text. I found this interesting because we do this all the time, especially in parenting. We want our kids to do something, but if they do something close to what we want we usually are still somewhat happy. This is an interesting point because you are able to see it being emitted by parents, more so of young children. As the parents try to elicit a behavior from the children they will often use successive approximations when a behavior close to the one desired is emitted. You can also find examples of this when it comes to training animals or pets. I have emitted this procedure and have found much success while training multiple pets.
I will also take away the concept of discrimination training. Discrimination training involves differential reinforcement. This means some responses emitted are reinforced while others are not. For example one response may signal reinforcement while the other response may signal extinction. During this process continuous reinforcement is used so it is clear what is exactly being reinforced. The example of the rat given in the text was very helpful in visualizing the concept. I found it intriguing that in the end the rat will come under stimulus control of the light and wait until it turns off until it presses the lever again. This elicited a sense of curiosity in how I could emit this type of training at work with some of my employees.
Lastly I found the Skinner Air Bed of some interest and will emit a remembering behavior on it. I have previously emitted a learning behavior on this subject but forgot how incredibly unique and different this idea was, especially given the era it was produced in. The concept logically makes perfect sense as children often do toss and turn and throw off their blankets. It can also pose quite a danger to the child if you have too many blankets, bumpers, etc in the crib. I had firsthand experience with this as my cousin lost her son to SIDS and has since limited the number of objects in her children’s’ cribs as they’ve slept. However, it still elicits an uneasy feeling having to place a child in a box or chamber.
I really enjoyed emitting a reading behavior on section 3.5 overall because it was another section that focused on B.F. Skinner and his contributions to psychology. I found it pleasurable to have an additional section in order to reinforce my continued learning on his concepts and contributions to the science. I also found it very pleasing to emit a reading behavior on a shorter section. When the sections are shorter in length I tend to be able to retain more of the information.
I can truly say that there was nothing terribly aversive about section 3.5. I found History and Systems very enjoyable so any section that brings a bit of history into it I am fond of. Adding to that a few ideas that this section elicited in me were that of how to apply some of the concepts, such as discriminative training, in the work place. I also found myself examining the last question of the text on government taxes and tax cuts more thoroughly. Perhaps this elicited an interest in me due to the approaching election and the fact that I am transitioning from my twenties into my thirties thus causing me to reevaluate my political stance.
Of the four historical figures I have emitted a reading behavior on, I tend to find myself drawn to Thorndike the most. It stems from learning about him in history and systems class. I really enjoyed his work with animals, especially the baby chicks and the mazes. Also, the cat puzzle boxes were quite a contribution to the science. I believe his work in comparative psychology and educational psychology is vast and great. That being said, I believe all four have made amazing contributions the science of psychology; why else would we bother to learn about all of them? Of course the majority of the population tends to emit a remembering behavior more on Pavlov due to the ageless example of the dogs and classical conditioning. I also believe the majority of the population tends to remember Skinner due not only to his great contributions but to the fact that he is a much more recent figure the science. I would be very interested to emit an additional learning behavior on any of the figures we have read about thus far, but perhaps more so on Skinner.
Terms Used:
Shaping, successive approximations, discrimination training, reinforcement, schedules of reinforcement, emit, elicit, differential reinforcement, extinction, pleasurable, aversive.
Week 9 Reading Response
Prior to reading section 3.5, I was familiar with B.F. Skinner, who is discussed in the chapter. Parallel with Skinner’s beliefs, I feel that environment plays a key role in behaviors. I may remember from this section that Skinner invented the operant chamber and the graphical recording device called a cumulative recorder. I enjoy reading about psychologists that invent their own equipment. I may remember a mention of shaping. In psychology, shaping is a behavioral term that refers to gradually motivating an organism to perform a specific response (behavior) by reinforcing any responses that are similar to the desired response. I may recall that stimulus control occurs in situations when an individual learns to emit a proper behavior under the proper circumstances. Within the section, I did not enjoy reading about the metal bars in Skinner’s operant chamber. The thought of an electrical current shocking little rat paws was not pleasant, then again, in my opinion, neither are rats. I did enjoy reading about Skinner, a prolific writer. I feel that writing about ideas is an important way to communicate one’s values. As for whom I like best of Thorndike, Pavlov, Watson and Skinner, I do not have a “favorite.” I feel that Skinner’s ideas on environment are an important part of psychology and adaptation. When reading about Thorndike, I did not agree that associations were “stamped out,” I feel that associations may be modified instead. I feel that Pavlov’s study with dogs is interesting to read about and that Pavlov was a progressive psychologist. Watson also contributed thoughts of environment to a realm of psychology and believed that individuals are born with 3 basic reflex emotions, fear, rage, and love. I feel that I would enjoy learning more about Skinner. Even if I do not agree with each idea that I associate with Skinner, I feel that he explored notions outside of the (Skinner) box, which I find intriguing.
Terms: Skinner, environment, behaviors, response, reinforce, communicate, Thorndike, Watson, Pavlov, associations
SMW
There really isn't anything thing that I am having issues with in the chapters. One thing I do find myself having trouble with is keeping certain people straight. Like skinner with operant conditioning for example.
Three things that I will remember:
Operant Chamber. The reason I will remember it is because this is the only type of "cage" they have or that I have learned about. This is a secured chamber where animals are place to study reinforcement and punishment. They do different studies in them like having a small amount of electricity goes through the rails, training the animal to move to a different area of the cage or to press a button. This would be punishment. An example of reinforcement would be if the animal were to push a button a bunch of times and getting a piece of food every 5 pushes. When a rat does the behavior wanted, it is called successive approximation. This is the second thing That i will remember. When this happens, the animal then realize that if it does the behavior, it will be reinforced. The animal then perfects the behavior. This then is called continuous reinforcement, one press, one pellet. Last thing I will remember is that the government trains our behaviors. look at what is put on the media for the presidential election. They put different things for us to dislike both Romney and Obama. Then look at the ads thats emit behaviors, aversive behaviors, like drinking ads. That is exactly why cigarette ads. They caused children to choose aversive behaviors.
One thing that I liked about this chapter is how it was kind of an overview of the last sections. It makes it a lot easier for me, someone who has a lot of issues with memorization.
There really wasn't anything that I didn't like in this section.
Terms: aversive, behavior, continuous reinforcement, successive approximation, emit, operant conditioning, operant chamber.
Posted for DT:
3.5
The three things that I remember all come from Skinner’s experiment using the operant chamber that would be used on animals. The first thing that I remember is the term that they would use as a technique to teach the rat is called shaping. It is to shape the desired behavior. The other term I learned that ties with shaping is successive approximation. Successive approximation means when the rat does something close to the behavior it gets reinforced. The last term that I remembered was discrimination reinforcement. It’s when you’re reinforced under one condition and not the other. Once the rat got used to pushing the button so many times then Skinner turned it to whenever the light turned off it would get reinforced with food. The one thing I liked this chapter was I thought the material was easy to understand. It was nice one you gave us the term/ vocabulary word then relate back to the Skinner’s experiment with the rat and that made it easier to understand how the experiment went. It was also nice to state our own opinion because it made me think of how I would react to the situation and how I think about our government with the tax cut and how Skinner would have affected it. There truly wasn’t anything that I didn’t like about this chapter cause I thought it was well written and very easy to understand. One of the things that I thought about while reading this question was when Skinner made the air bed for his daughter instead of a crib. Then the question got brought up saying,” how would you feel about being raised in the air bed?” then after I put down my opinion then I saw that Skinner’s daughter thought the process was perfectly fine and it was good for her. Why would being in an air bed be fun? I would think that it wouldn’t be fun because you wouldn’t feel that you aren’t getting enough attention and be grumpy/ picky about everything.
I’ve always been Skinner fan through all my years of learning about psychology. I like his theory cause it really stops and makes you think on not just how his experiments affect the animals but he also ties it into society. I truly think Skinner has made more contributions to the society because after I got done reading his plan on social engineering it really inspired me or made me think on how much his reinforcement theory comes from society. His example was that the government raises taxes for people that keep smoking so people will stop. Then once the population decreases in smoking he will reinforce us with lowering taxes. Then you also think what else the government raising taxes to make us stop are. I would like to learn more about Skinner’s theory and how many governors are actually using skinner’s theory or if they even know if they are using Skinner’s theory.
Terms:
Reinforcement, shaping, successive approximation, discrimination reinforcement, punishment
Section 3.5
Three things I'll remember from this chapter are:
a) Skinner's Operant Chamber. The operant chamber actually seemed like an effective method for emmitting unwanted behvior. In addition, the manipulanda will also stick in my memory because it makes sense that it's the object that is manipulated by the animal.
b) A concept I'll remember is successive approixmation because I think in order to shape the animals desired behavior, the must be reinforced for getting closer to it, before they will actually get to the end result.
c)Extinction - discontinueing reinforcement of a previously reinforced behavior- because I've been looking forward to learning more about this topic, since day one of this class. It seemed to be the topic that everyone enjoyed the most. This chapter explained how it tied in with modifying behaviors.
One thing I liked about this chapter is applying what we previously learned and the new material to the different senarios that were given.
One thing I disliked about this chapter is Skinner's Air Bed because I work at a daycare and have nephews and I just don't think it would be acceptable to use this, even if it may seem more convienent, as Skinner thought.
An idea that came to mind was that I felt bad for the babies who actually were introduced to the Air Beds because I feel like the tempterature is not the only reason they were crying and fussing, they were also lacking attention/love/affection, and in my opinion, experiencing types of neglect.
Out of the four historical figures we have learned about, Pavlov is the best and my favorite. I have done a lot of research on him in the past and find him fascinating. His work on the digestive system, led to great advances of classical conditioning.
I feel like all psychologists are equally important and have all made important contributions in the field of psychology. Without each of them, we wouldn't understand why people are the way they are and how to work on changing the behaviors we posses.
If I had to pick one psychologists to learn more about right now, it would be Thorndike because he is/has been covered the least in my psych classes, although I feel like his contributions are just as important as the other psychologists. I feel like he gets less recognition than he deserves.
Terms used: Thorndike, Pavlov, Classical Conditioning, digestive system, Air Beds, Extinction, Reinforcement, Successive Aproximation, Emitting, Skinner, Operant Chamber, and manipulanda.
Section 3.5
3 things I will remember from this chapter are that 1) operant conditioning is opposite of classical conditioning in the fact of stimulus vs. response, that 2) Skinner believed in social engineering (creating environment to control behavior) and that 3) he invented the operant chamber and cumulative recorder. I will remember these things because I have to, or I fail. That would be bad. One thing I liked about this chapter was the distinguishing between Classical and Operant conditioning. One thing I disliked about this chapter was that there weren’t any diagrams showing the different between classical and operant. It would have been more helpful in understanding how they both work. When reading about the air bed Skinner invented, I was curious about how temperature helped “shape” a child, other than making it less fussy when lowering the temperature to a more comfortable setting.
Out of the 4 figures I read about I think that Watson was the most interesting because a lot of his tactics nowadays would be considered unethical or illegal. The Little Albert experiment has interests me since high school’s Intro to Psych. It was interesting to find out that he had died at the age of 6 from hydrocephalus complications. I think that Skinner has contributed the most because of his inventions. I would like to know more about Thorndike. I didn’t feel like there was a lot of info about him. I write down notes from every chapter in my notebook and he filled up less space (barely one page) than everyone else.
Terms: Operant Conditioning, Classical Conditioning, Stimulus, Response, Social Engineering, Operant Chamber, Cumulative Recorder, Air Bed, Shaping.
3.5
B. F. SKINNER
Skinner’s concepts are the ones I know the best. They are the ones introduced to me in high school; the class where I first decided to major in Psychology instead of music. While Pavlov is credited with classical conditioning, Skinner is known for operant conditioning. I cannot tell you how long it’s taken me to keep which one did which straight. I think I finally started keeping it straight only last semester. Anyway, operant conditioning, as we’ve discussed already, deals with the organism emitting a behavior and either being reinforced or punished for said behavior. The consequence either increases or decreases the likelihood that the behavior will be emitted again. But how does one elicit a target behavior from an organism that has no idea what’s expected of it? For example, when Thorndike put his cats in the puzzle boxes, they had no clue what could possibly help open the door. His graphs showed that the cats would try numerous things before finally finding the combination of behaviors that opened the door. Then, the second time they were placed in the box, the amount of time it took them to escape significantly and drastically decreased. But Thorndike didn’t try to assist the cats in locating the proper behavior. Skinner used successive approximation to teach the rats and pigeons what they needed to do for their reward.
Successive approximation involves reinforcing the organism for even the smallest connection to the target behavior. For example, when training a dog to catch a Frisbee, one might reward it just for sniffing it after it lands. Then, only when it picks it up. Then, when it picks up the Frisbee and brings it back to you. Soon your dog is able to successively catch the Frisbee in midair and return to you with it. This is a method of shaping, or changing behavior. However, one must be careful not to increase the difficulty of the task too much. If a behavior’s reinforced one time, and the next it’s not, and the new target behavior isn’t likely to be attempted by the organism, the organism could experience ratio strain.
Another thing to consider when shaping behavior is differential reinforcement. That’s when a reinforcer is offered under one condition, but not in another. This teaches the organism to associate the reinforcer only with the certain condition, like the light in the operant chamber. That way they won’t constantly expect the reinforcer regardless of the environment around them. This also referred to as discrimination training.
Finally, I’d like to discuss Skinner’s views on free will. He believed that people could be shaped into anything: a doctor, a barber, a rancher, whatever. He believed that changing the environment, not necessarily the people, will change the people. This latter thought is true, but not what I wish to discuss. Our personalities are essentially created by our families, our surroundings, and our socioeconomic situations. That’s what I believe. I don’t believe we are born the way we are now. I don’t think I was born this cynical, jealous, narcissistic, silly person. I became this way. While I agree that it’s possible to shape someone into virtually anyone, I don’t think that’s what needs to happen for the advancement of society. Even though we’re generated from what’s around us, I don’t think that means we should lose our identities altogether. While we’re shaped by our experiences, people who experience similar things don’t all react the same way. People aren’t just blank slates you can assign lives to. While we can’t choose how we were raised and people we become, we can choose what to do with ourselves and we can even choose to change.
Terms:
Classical conditioning, Operant conditioning, Emit, Reinforcement, Punishment, Consequence, Behavior, Elicit, Target behavior, Successive approximation, Shaping, Ratio strain, Differential reinforcement, Reinforcer, Operant chamber
Oops! Completely forgot the second part of the assignment.
My favorite Behaviorist we learned about is definitely Skinner. As I said he's the one I know the most about, and I've always sympathized with his ideas. Plus, I did a little research on his air crib for one of Kim's classes, and what I found was hilarious. People were making claims that his daughter went insane because he kept her in a "Skinner box". What they didn't understand was the air crib ISN'T a Skinner box! It's the smartest way to care for a baby (I've thought since I heard about it) and I think everyone should own one.
There's no possible way I can choose one Behaviorist as the one who made the largest contribution. Pavlov's classical conditioning: still used today. Skinner's operant conditioning: still used today. Watson showed us the line between ethical and unethical, and Thorndike demonstrated what learning looks like. While the first two are probably considered by the psychological community to be more important, I would like to point out that Thorndike proceeded Skinner with similar ideas, he just lacked proper execution. And Watson presented us with live evidence of conditioned emotional responses in humans. I would like to learn more about Thorndike. I want to know if he just had the one puzzle box design: with two levers and a string to open the door. I would like to see other puzzle box designs and how well the cats managed to escape them.
3.5
One thing that I will remember is the difference between type S conditioning (Classical) and type R conditioning (Operant). With classical conditioning, it is always stimulus and then response; the bell rings and then the dog salivates. Classical conditioning is much like natural reflexes; if my hand feels very hot, I should take it out of the fire. However, with operant conditioning, it is always response and then stimulus; the response is made in order to produce a specific stimulus. Operant conditioning is less “natural”, or reflexive. We make a voluntary decision to make this response. The pigeon plucks at the button in order to receive food. The pigeon plucks the button, response, to get food, a specific stimulus. By using operant conditioning, one is able to produce a more complex behavior modification. We can make pigeons play ping pong https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vGazyH6fQQ4.
Another thing that I will remember that I didn’t know before reading is that Skinner was a great inventor. He invented most of the equipment he used in his research, like the Skinner box. He made them specific for each study. For example he could make an environment with a stimulus that is discrete ( a light that is either on or off) or a continuum of stimuli (tones of sounds). He could also put electricity through the floor. He used bars for a couple of reasons, first because he could put a current through them, but also because it would let the excrement escape, so the animal wouldn’t have to live in its filth.
Finally, another thing that I will remember is the ‘Air Bed’, a controlled environment for a human baby. Instead of using a crib, which couldn’t be controlled specifically for experimental conditions, Skinner mad a box that had its own supply of heat, in order to control the temperature of the environment the toddler lived in. An interesting part of this is that the baby Skinner used for the experiment is fine and all grown up. She believes that she didn’t experience any problems from growing up in the air bed, and she really didn’t mind.
One thing I enjoyed about the chapter was the introduction of Skinner’s book, Walden Two. I have always wanted to read that book and the description that you gave in the chapter sparked a renewed interest in reading it. I will remember to check that out.
I really enjoyed this chapter and I really like Skinner. The only thing I didn’t like about this chapter was that I wished it included more material on Skinner’s life and behaviorist philosophy.
Some of the thoughts that I thought about while reading this chapter was, what was the mindset of Skinner when he was doing this research? Was his philosophy always behaviorist or did it develop periodically as he revealed more information about conditioning and behavior.
My favorite historical figure would be Skinner. I did enjoy his work as a scientist, but I also share his philosophy on humans. I believe in strict behaviorism which leads to environmental determinism. I believe that Pavlov made the most important contributions. Each figure has made massive contributions to the science of behavior, but Pavlov’s research was the spark that started the fire. Without Pavlov, we wouldn’t have had the behavior modification that we have today. I would like to find out more about Skinner. I understand his research on operant conditioning, but I am also interested in his other work and also his other writings.
Terms: S/R conditioning, classical/operant conditioning, stimulus, response, Skinner box, discrete/continuum stimuli, air bed, experimental control, Walden Two.