Topical Blog Week #7 (Due Thursday)

I chose to learn more about effective reinforcement. I lead a workout group of kids once a week. There are two ways I want to use reinforcement to enhance the workout group. I want the kids to do the homework I give them. I also would like the kids to emit a "give it all you got" behavior during the workouts. I chose to look at reinforcement instead of punishment because the workout is optional and I didn't want to elicit a behavior of not coming from the kids.

Reinforcement is talked about in almost all the sections. Section 1.2 and Sections 2.2 are the sections that primarily focus on it.

While looking for reinforcement ideas, I found three articles with three concepts that I want to try, intrinsic rewards, catching good behaviors, and praise.

One of the articles mentioned that sometimes token economics are ineffective. The reason was because the reinforcement achieved wasn't motivating to the kid. The article recommended finding things that the kids value highly. Specifically things that they want to do with their free time. As a consequence of doing well on a workout or doing homework, you get to do your favorite workout. This could be hard with a group of 15 kids, but there should be some similarities between the kids. All the kids enjoy the 2 minute max crunch test. This might be an effective reinforcer for doing well on the max pullup test.

The second concept is the idea of using taking notice and reinforcing during good effort, while ignoring mistakes. This reminded me of Thorndike's law of effect and law of recedency. If you reinforce the kids during hard effort, but ignore the lesser effort then you are making them more likely to emit hard working behaviors. I can apply this to kids that excel at pistols (one-leg squats) but struggle at pullups. By reinforcing one area it will motivate them to try harder. It would be even better to find a specific aspect of the exact movement that they struggle at to find improvement. For example, the technique of the exercise is an area to use reinforcement.

The last idea was my favorite because it is simple and could be very effective. It's called RAP (recognition, appreciation, praise) by John Correll, who coined it. This could be one of the most effective reinforcers because most people don't see the fruits of all the exercise homework that they do behind the scenes. If the trainer says something like, "Sally, I noticed you really excelled at pistols today, I can tell you really worked hard this week. Great job!" it might really make the exercise homework more rewarding. Three other recommendations John Correll has that I want to use are, personalize your praise, give the praise instantly after the behavior, and do it frequently. When you hear your name associated with encouragement/praise it's more reinforcing. Many people say give four compliments for every negative. I will try to beat that ratio by giving praise much more often.

Terms: elicit, emit, behavior, reinforcement, reinforcers, , reinforcing, punishment, consequence

These are the sources:

http://technologyofbehavior.wordpress.com/category/definitions/positive-reinforcement/

http://sparksofgenius.wordpress.com/2007/05/14/train-your-kids-to-do-homework-without-arguing/

http://www.correllconcepts.com/Correll_Comment/2002_Comment/5-02_reinforcement.htm

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

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

I choose to write about positive reinforcement because it is constantly happening all around us. It fits into this chapter because positive reinforcement is a type of manipulation. I believe manipulation is a big part of behavior modification. It is important to have a general understanding of reinforcement. I am interested in learning more about this term because it allows me to understand how to emit certain behaviors to influence the frequency of the consequence. Also I can have an understanding of when others are using reinforcement against me. I think it is more pleasant to use reinforcement than using punishment (aversive).

Positive reinforcement is important to behavior modification is brought up in almost all of the sections in the book. Some sections that focus more on positive reinforcement is section 1.2 and sections 2.2.

I found three sources that will help clarify the main theme, issues, and examples.

In operant conditioning, positive reinforcement is presenting a desirable stimulus from emitting a target behavior. The desirable stimulus allows the behavior being emitted to increase the frequency of the response. Which means you will keep emitting that same behavior over and over. The desirable stimulus is considered as a reward which will always be pleasant. Positive reinforcement is known to “strengthen” the outcome of the response. The most important part to positive reinforcement is occurs immediately after the behavior.

Positive reinforcement can be as simple as praising someone for a certain behavior. One could say “nice job” or “excellent work”. This type of positive reinforcement is known as a social reinforcer. Another example of positive reinforcement is using “tokens” for emitting a certain behavior. Teachers are a great example for this type of positive reinforcement. Teachers can use tokens to reinforce students on this correct work. This type of positive reinforcement is known as a token reinforcer. Teachers can also use candy, toys, and etc. to help manipulate their students’ behavior.

However, positive reinforcement sometimes isn’t always a pleasant thing. Sometimes terrible (aversive) behaviors being emitted are reinforced when they should not be. An example of this is parents giving in to their children who are misbehaving in the public eye. This could occur in the super market, the library, or toy store. Parents reinforcing bad behavior could cause multiple issues. It is important to only reinforce pleasant behaviors, which allows you to stay out of trouble.

Positive reinforcement is a great manipulator if you known how to use it correctly. From the video resource provided it shows how entertained the guy knows he is using positive reinforcement towards others. This always shows the reinforcement being done right after the behavior is being emitted.

Terms: behavior modification, behavior, consequence, emit, elicit, pleasant, aversive, positive reinforcement, reinforcement, punishment, target behavior, operant conditioning, desirable stimulus, stimulus, response, and reinforcer

http://www.educateautism.com/behavioural-principles/positive-reinforcement.html

http://psychology.about.com/od/operantconditioning/f/positive-reinforcement.htm

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-63ysqT5nu0&feature=related

The topic I decided to select come from section 2.4 and is superstitious behaviors. I chose this topic because I find it fascinating that people will do just about anything to get their desired behavior. In just about everything we do you can find someone who is engaging in superstitious behaviors. Just the other day I asked my roommate why she kept walking to one side of the room with her phone. She told me that it was the only place she could get service. But in reality one time she got good service over there so she was convinced she could only get it on that side of the room, so I had her move to all sides of the room with her phone and prove that she was acting with a superstitious behavior.
A superstitious behavior is one emitted because the organism believes that it has a causal relationship with an outcome when in reality the outcome is not related to the behavior and it is related to some other unobserved behavior. A study from Kansas State University has shown that people use these superstitious behaviors for three reasons. They want to gain control, decrease helplessness, and to avoid coping. Life can be very uncertain and people are always seeking ways to have control and seek desirable things and superstitious behaviors are one way to feel that way.
Superstitions can be something like wearing the same socks for every game in a season because you believe the bring you good luck. At one point in time you were reinforced for wearing the socks and now you engage in that behavior to seek that same reinforcement. They have been around for a long time. Ancient peoples engaged in rain dances because they believed that they would bring rain. But in reality the dancing was not the underlying factor to it raining.
In a video on the world series of poker participants tell about the behavior they engage in to help them win big. One man wears his lucky necklace, another lady sets a bill under her chips, another man carries a picture of his daughter. One lady goes so far as to say if she looses bad she will never wear the clothes she was wearing ever again. The possibilities of superstitious behavior are endless. Everyone can have their own unique behavior that is superstitious whether it is to bring something good and prevent something bad. Though we may not always recognize it, it is very easy for people to fall victim to superstitious behavior but there are ways to avoid them.
It is not necessarily a bad thing to have a superstitious behavior. They can make you feel good. But when they continue to fail you could attribute that failure to this unrelated behavior.Something that is inherently neutral could become aversive to you and there are ways to avoid this. To over come a superstition a person must step back from the situation and really look at it. They need to see all the possible causes for what elicited the outcome. A person needs to be logical and really think about what is causing the desired behavior and not just initially attribute it to something unrelated.

Terms: Elicited, emitted, reinforcement, superstitious, behavior, aversive

http://psychcentral.com/news/2010/09/03/scientific-view-of-superstitious-behavior/17698.html

http://www.essortment.com/superstitious-behavior-cause-cure-36002.html

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4m-k18MvSwM

The topic I chose to learn more about was superstitious behavior because I feel like this is something that I see all the time when I am at sporting events and other activities. This type of behavior was in chapter two section four. Superstitious behavior can be emitted by anyone. Everyone has some type of superstition. A superstition is a behavior that when emitted it isn’t reinforced right away. This is my topic because I see it occurring every Sunday when I go home for the weekend.

For example, my brother is a huge Chiefs fan and every Sunday everyone in the family has to where red. There was even a point when we played the raiders that my brother made our black and white cat put on red because he believed that if we weren’t wearing red our team would lose. I doubt we are the only family with this type of superstition. Also when the game is about to start we all have what we call a kick off cookie. This cookie is only allowed to be eaten when either the chiefs kick the ball, or catch it on the opening kickoff. If you elicit the behavior of eating the cookie too early and the Chiefs lose the game then the consequence to your actions is that the loss will be blamed on you. These may sound ridiculous, but to me it is entertaining and creates the football atmosphere.
When researching this topic I came across a few articles that went into detail about this type of behavior. Superstitious behavior is seen throughout all sports, but it is more defined in some sports then others. For example it has been seen that gymnasts have more superstitious rituals then football or basketball players. It has also been determined that females have more superstitious behaviors then males. In one of the articles that I read written by Kevin L. Burke he said that a pre-performance ritual is different compared to a superstitious ritual. To me I think that he is wrong because I feel like they overlap quite a bit. I feel like athletes pre-performance rituals area type of superstitious because what they do before the game isn’t going to be reinforced right away, and in the end it may not ever be reinforced. Sports are not the only place where this type of behavior is used.

Another example of when this type of behavior has been used is with the rain dance. The rain dance was basically created when someone was dancing a certain way and then it started to rain thus making the person think that it was their behavior that caused it. The superstitious behavior could then be strengthened based on the fact that if they did this dance multiple times and it rained a good percentage of the time then the people would most likely continue to do the dance when they wanted rain. I find this a funny example because I can remember when I was little that my mother would tell me and my friends to go outside and do the rain dance, and us not really knowing what it meant went outside and danced .

It isn’t only humans that portray superstitious behavior but other organisms do as well. B.F. Skinner was able to find out that animals had superstitious behaviors. He used pigeons a lot in his research and was able to get these birds to emit superstitious behaviors by putting them into an operant chamber. The pigeon would emit multiple behaviors and then the bird would get reinforced with food, but once the food was taken away the pigeon would go back through the most recent behaviors until he got the right one which would allow him to get food. The bird’s behavior would soon seem to be a superstitious behavior. In another example of animals using superstitious behavior you can just watch your pets. For example, my cat will open the cabinet door and then let it slam shut. When he emits that behavior he is usually rewarded with food shortly after. Another example could be when my dog hits the treat cupboard that she will get a treat.

I don’t think that it is a bad thing to have a superstitious behavior I actually think that it is a good thing. I think that it is good because if can kind of be treated like a placebo effect. If you believe that this certain behavior or charm will get you the results you want then you may be able to convince yourself that you can do it.

Terms: Superstitious behavior, superstition, emitted, elicit, behavior, reinforced, consequence, organisms, B.F Skinner, operant chamber, emit,

http://www.athleticinsight.com/Vol8Iss2/Superstition.htm

http://www.essortment.com/superstitious-behavior-cause-cure-36002.html

http://www.globalanimal.org/2011/06/13/are-animals-superstitious/42083/

The subject I picked was reinforcement, specifically positive reinforcement. These three websites explore how positive reinforcement works, how it’s used in everyday life and multiple ways to use positive reinforcement. I’m interested in these findings because everyone likes getting what they want from others.
The websites all had slightly different approaches, but they all included some sort of reward system. These rewards can be absolutely anything, as long as they increase the probability of the target behavior being emitted again. A reward can be anything from a monetary tip from a customer to a being able to watch tv after finishing your homework to being able to splurge on a new pair of shoes because you worked a little overtime. All three of these websites have something to do with rewards. They also had similar ways of telling you how to reinforce someone to do something. “Peer punishment” was mentioned in one article because it was thought that it was more effective then positive reinforcement. This was also refuted in another article saying that punishment will just lead to fatigue, blame and resistance to do whatever they were punished for again. I really liked the last article I read (also the last one listed) about moms showing their kids more love in order for them to do better in remembering their lunches, homework and a variety of other things. It showed that a reward can be something very simple and that it doesn’t always have to be something complex, or even tangible. I like that it also supported the fact that punishment is least effective when you want someone to do something the way you want them to do it. In this articles case, more punishment and less reinforcement and encouragement from any type of caregiver meant that a child would grow to have a hippocampus over 9% smaller than a child who received more reinforcement. These articles were very interesting in the fact that they had actual facts that reinforcement, whether it be positive or negative, is more effective than punishment could ever be.

Terms: Reinforcement, Punishment, Positive, Negative, Reward, Emit, Target Behavior

http://www.inspired-personal-development.com/positive-reinforcement.html

http://psychcentral.com/news/2009/09/04/positive-reinforcement-aids-the-common-good/8182.html

http://www.stltoday.com/lifestyles/health-med-fit/fitness/positive-reinforcement-may-boost-kids-brains/article_70b9f46a-81b0-5ae7-bba6-8d1a1d0b1f15.html

A topic that we have covered so far in class that I am interested in is superstitious behavior. It fits into Chapter 2.4, which we have already covered, and I am interested in the topic because of the fact that I find it intriguing that people believe in things like lucky charms or wearing certain clothes to ace a test or win a game. It seems kind of crazy to me, so I wanted to learn more about it than what was shared within the confines of the textbook.

According to the textbook, superstitious behaviors are emitted when an organism comes to believe that reinforcement occurs at seemingly random instances. From the Internet search, I found a plethora of information discussing superstitious behavior and what it entails. I found a few main concepts from the sources I used that I really wanted to focus on. These concepts are: relating superstitious behavior to OCD, the driving forces of superstitious behavior, tips to avoid superstitious behavior, and superstitious behavior seen in animals.

The first concept of focus is relating superstitious behavior to obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). OCD is a disorder that stems from anxiety. People who suffer from OCD often have compulsions to do certain rituals over and over again, and these rituals have a tendency to interfere with their everyday life. A lot of the symptoms of obsessive-compulsive disorder can definitely mimic superstitious behavior, yet experts in the field say that there really is not enough evidence to connect the two. Superstitious behavior does not occur due to an anxiety disorder. It is simply a form of irrational thinking, yet the dividing line between superstitious behavior and obsessive-compulsive disorder may sometimes be hard to put your finger on.

The next concept that I wanted to focus on was all about the driving forces of superstitious behavior. According to psychologists, wanting more control or certainty is the leading driving force behind it. People find some kind of false certainty to help them explain why things happen. People do not realize that things can still happen outside of their control even if they are wearing their lucky shirt or their lucky necklace. Yet superstitions tend to give people the sense that they are doing something to ensure a specific outcome that they want. Researchers from Kansas State University developed three reasons for superstitious behavior. They included: to gain control over uncertainty, to decrease feelings of helplessness, and because it is easier to rely on superstition instead of coping strategies. It was discovered that people who believe that chance and fate control their lives are more likely to be superstitious.

My next concept to focus on would be tips to avoid superstitious behavior. One tip would be to not believe in bad luck and to take some ownership over the control that you do have. Our locus of control is definitely a factor that contributes to whether or not we are superstitious. An internal locus of control allows one to believe that they are in charge of everything and that they are the masters of their fate. An external locus of control, on the other hand, is kind of the opposite of an internal locus; it means that the environment is somehow in control of your fate instead of you being the sole decider. A second tip is to be decisive and proactive. The less decisive you are, the more superstitious you are likely to be. People who are proactive are less superstitious. This tip basically tells us that we do not need to rely on certain objects or behaviors to get us through a challenging or scary event. We need to take things into our own hands and be aware that we are able to make decisions for ourselves without relying on anything else. A final tip would be to not put yourself in a situation where you have to rely on bad luck. Use the bad situations as a coping mechanism instead of attributing it to a superstitious behavior.

The final concept that I wanted to focus on was superstitious behavior in animals. Like humans, animals have also been known to participate in superstitious behaviors, although theirs sometimes make more sense than humans’. Animals often fall under the trap of superstitious behavior through misunderstandings when they are being trained. They learn to associate their reinforcement with a random behavior, and then end up emitting that behavior repeatedly because they think that is what is getting them their reinforcer. It is interesting that even simple animals pick up the attributes of superstitious behavior. Looking at behavior in animals has definitely opened up the eyes of humans in terms of the fact that we really are not all that different from the other creatures that roam this earth.

http://www.webmd.com/mental-health/features/psychology-of-superstition
http://www.k-state.edu/media/newsreleases/sept10/superstition90210.html
http://www.globalanimal.org/2011/06/13/are-animals-superstitious/42083/

I learned quite a bit more from the sources that I found than just the information that was in the textbook. I am happy that I chose superstitious behavior to be my topic, because I feel as though I can apply what I learned to life and I will remember it and use it more in class and my assignments. I was eager to do this assignment because I enjoyed the fact that we were able to focus on a topic of our choice. I hope to see more assignments like this in the weeks to come!

Terms: superstitious behavior, emit, reinforcement, internal locus of control, external locus of control, behavior, reinforcer

I chose to research more information about reinforcement. I think it's important to use reinforcement in our lives. I thought that learning for about reinforcement would be a good topic to search. Its always fun to look at things and know that that person in being reinforced or maybe you are being reinforced with something. I was curious about this term and I would like to know more about it.

When I was searching information about reinforcement I came across a website that talked about autism. I was really interested so I decided to see what the correlation between the two would be. It turned out to be that many parents or teachers use reinforcement on autistic kids to help them learn and even pay attention. I found that very interesting because in a show that I watched called Parenthood they have a kid that has autism and his teacher is always reinforcing him after he does something well.

http://autismpdc.fpg.unc.edu/content/reinforcement

Another source that I found was a video of positive reinforcement and negative reinforcement. In this video from family guy the dad was asked to drink a beer so he did and another man came up to him and said that he won and he asked what he won and the guy said another beer. So he was positively reinforced with another beer. Then a negative reinforcement in this video was the son had bad grades so he wasn’t allowed to watch TV till his grades improved.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B_9ZZaPDtPk

This last website that I found was an article that talks about how parents can parent their children using reinforcement. It helps the children learn behavior and be better behaved.

http://www.positivereinforcementforkids.com/

Terms: reinforcement, positive, negative, correlation

The thing I am really interested in so far is classical conditioning. I chose this because the experiments that Pavlov did are very interesting to me. The experiment where he studied the salivation of the dogs was incredible. I think it is interesting how he thought of how that would work and created an experiment to show it.

In the first article I read I learned more about this topic. I learned that there needs to be a neutral signal before the natural reflex. It talked about all of the basics that are in classical conditioning. The unconditioned stimulus is the one that has nothing to do with any previous experiments. The unconditioned response is an unlearned response. Another term mentioned in this article was conditioned stimulus which is where there was a previously neutral stimulus. And with the conditioned stimulus comes the conditioned response which is the learned response. I thought this article did a good job of explaining the basic principles of classical conditioning.

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

In the second article I read had more terms that are involved with classical conditioning. Acquisition is when the behavior is first learned. Extinction is one of the most interesting of these terms to me. Extinction is where a conditioned response is reduced or eliminated. I think the extinction process is a very interesting one. Discrimination is another interesting term. It is the ability to be able to distinguish between different things. This article helped me to improve my understanding of these concepts. The more I think about these terms the more comfortable I feel about my understanding of them.

http://psychology.about.com/od/behavioralpsychology/a/classcondbasics.htmt

The third source I found was a YouTube Video about Pavlov's experiment with the dogs and how they salivate. This experiment is one of his most famous experiments. I find this experiment fascinating because he trains the dogs to salivate at the thought of food. He used all sorts of stimuli to produce the response of salivation.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hhqumfpxuzI

Classical conditioning fits into what we have been learning in class because we have been studying Pavlov's classical conditioning and his experiments with the salivary glands of dogs. I have learned a lot more about this topic now that I have read some articles about it.

Terms: Pavlov, classical conditioning, reinforce, extinction, conditioned response, conditioned stimulus, unconditioned response, unconditioned stimulus, and discrimination.

The topic I chose is operant behavior. This term was first introduced in Section 1.4, and I am interested in the topic because I did not understand the explanation in the text. I searched the Internet for explanations with more details.

The concept of operant behavior was inspired by Thorndike's Law of Effect. As we have seen in Chapter 3, the cat in the puzzle box learns which actions allow it to escape. Those effective actions are reinforced by the food outside the box. This learning process over a period of time shows that animals have some kind of mind capacity. This phenomenon led to Skinner's famous discovery of operant conditioning.

The key element that makes Skinner's theory unique is the ability to differentiate. Animals can learn through the conditioning process because they can discriminate different stimuli and then associate them with different consequences. In other words, for reinforcement or punishment to work, the organism must be able to tell the differences in the antecedents and consequences. When different consequences are detected, an animal associates the specific behavior preceding the consequences. It then repeats the behavior that leads to a pleasurable consequence, which we call the reinforcer.

This process is called operant conditioning because the animal learns through emitting the behavior. The word operant means the requirement of action, so the animal must act first before it can learn from its action. In Skinner's writing he also used the word to refer to any element in the chain of actions. Thus the term operant behavior becomes a generalized label for all three elements in the conditioning process, namely antecedent, behavior, and consequence. This also reflects Skinner's view that the whole process is based on interactions between the organism and the environment. The behavior of one animal can be the antecedent for another animal, and a consequence in the environment can elicit another behavior. This is why operant behavior refers to a network of actions.

Links:
http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-operant-behavior.htm
http://www.bfskinner.org/bfskinner/SurveyOperantBehavior.html
http://www.simplypsychology.org/operant-conditioning.html

Terms: operant behavior, Law of Effect, reinforce, consequences, reinforcement, punishment, antecedent, reinforcer, emit, elicit

I decided to look up more information about punishment because so far in class, we seem to focus more on reinforcement and many of the behavioral researchers that we have learned about so far are all focused on the outcome of reinforcement rather than punishment. The only chapter section that went into any detail about positive punishment and negative punishment was 2.3, and it was fairly short. I am interested in this topic because there are so many debates and opinions about the healthy/acceptable amouunt of punishment that should be allowed in any given social environment. Many behavioral researchers have tried to argue that punishment in any form should be avoided completely and that in order to get another person's behavior to change, positive reinforcement is always the best option. I understand this viewpoint, and have found examples that address the debate over punishing behaviors.

The first article I read was on a psychology website and it was written by a family/marriage therapist named Keren Clark in 2011. She talked about how she feels America is a culture that believes in punishment and uses punishment too much. In every relationship, we emit punishing behavior towards others even when we don't notice it. Also, she claimed that as Americans, we assume that by continuously using punishment we not only will be able to decrease the frequency of undesired behaviors, but that at the same time, desired behaviors will occur naturally as a result to avoid more punishment. This however isn't true and the author did an experiment on her own daughter with positive reinforcement and no longer has to use punishment to help elicit her daughter's cleaning behaviors.

The second article that I found on another psychology website discussed a brief overview about the effectiveness of punishment. The author, Kendra Cherry, claimed that punishment is only efffective in certain situations, such as: immediately after an aversive behavior is emitted, a temporary fix out of convenience that is only short-term, and when it is consistently applied. The author of this article defined punishment as "any change that occurs after a behavior that reduces the likelihood that that behavior will occur again in the future." However, one really big drawback to a constant use of punishment is that there can sometimes be other unintended consequences since about 3 out of 4 parents in the US spank their children as an example.

Finally, the third source I decided to use was a short youtube video about the use of corporal punishment in schools. Although the report was done in 2007, there are 20 states in America that still consider corporal punishment in schools legal with the use of a wooden padel. The advocates that were supporting a total ban of corporal punishment in every school of every state were going off the notion that by causing students to fear punishment like that, they would consider school as a violent environment and wouldn't increase desired behaviors. On the other hand, the people who supported corporal punishment in schools claim that when students partake in aversive behaviors, they deserve to be punished so that later on if they consider getting involved in another "bad" behavior, they will remind themselves of the paddle and become punishment-avoidant. Unfortunately, some unintended consequences that resulted from corporal punishment in schools are: nearly a quarter of a million kids were hit in the 2006-2007 school year, boys were 3x more likely to be hit, racial minorities were more likely to be hit, and students with disabilities were more likely to be hit. It can be understood then that a lot of people are upset and want to ban corporal punishment in schools, especially since it has already been banned for home use everywhere, and the research suggests that when home was an antecedent, and corporal punishment was used to control an aversive behavior, the consequences led to increased instances of delinquency, avoidant personality, and sometimes, even severe physical damage. Reinforcement for desirable behavior is definately a better option.

Links:
http://psychcentral.com/blog/archives/2011/02/15/punishment-a-cultural-phenomenon/
http://psychology.about.com/od/operantconditioning/f/punishment.htm
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uPADltNd-_o

Terminology: punishment, reinforcement, positive punishment, negative punishment, positive reinforcement, emit, frequency, elicit, aversive, consequences, punishment-avoidant, antecedent, behavior

The term I chose to look into further was learned helplessness. We went over it in class today briefly and it was introduced prior to class in section 3.2. I chose this topic because I find Pavlov to be one of the most interesting psychologist and his research really does fascinate me. While others may get sick of hearing about Pavlov, I truly enjoy learning new ideas and procedures that Pavlov used to further his research in the pschology field.

The first source I found was an article called "You Are Not So Smart: A Celebration of Self Delusion". It's primary focus was on learned helplessness. Right away the article started out with pointing out that the misconception of learned helplessness is that if you are in a bad situation, you will do whatever you can to escape it. We know this to be false because you talked about Pavlov today in class and about how when the dog would get shocked, he may give up and just continue to lay on the bars and get electracuted because he doesn't know what to do. The arcicle went over Seligman's work with this, as well as covering Pavlov. The dog is emitting the behavior of not moving because he doesn't know what he is suppossed to do. However you talked about we can teach the dog to do what we'd like by picking him up and moving him to the other side of the box, where he wouldn't get shocked. You asked the question why do people stay in an abusive relationship? The answer I got from this article was that they accept their fate because they've been in the negative situation for so long.

The second source I found was from the virutal psychology classroom. This article goes over how the term became about, Pavlov's work with digestion, and also covers Segilman's work. It's goes over the shuttler box, but more importantly how they experimented with humans. The scientist emitted a loud noise and told the human subject if they solved a puzzle the loud noise would be omitted. The group that got presented with a puzzle that didn't have an actual solution aquired learned helplessness after a few tries because they gave up, like the dogs did with the shuttle box. Perception is the key in people elicing learned helplessness or not.

The third source I found was on how to overcome learned helpelssness. It breifly went over what learned helplessness is and than went on to talk about how awareness plays an important part in overcoming learned helplessness. They said since the helplessness is learned, a person who wishes to overcome it must decondition themselves and unlearn it. They gave the example of a person being afraid to talk to the opposite sex and how they can overcome it. It actually was a interesting article and one that made me realize that learned helplessness happens in everyday, normal sitations that most people take for granted. Like talking to the opposite sex. That's not a big deal for most people, but for some it can be terrifying. It kind of made me open up my eyes and realize learned helplessness doesn't have to come from a severe sitation, like abuse.

Terms used: bevavior,elicit, omit, emit, learned helplessness, Pavlov, Shuttle Box, Seligman.

Links
http://youarenotsosmart.com/2009/11/11/learned-helplessness/

http://allpsych.com/personalitysynopsis/learned_helplessness.html

http://blog.moodr.org/2008/08/how-to-overcome-learned-helplessness.html

I am going to look at how Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs and how it fits into our behavior. I will consider different behaviors I emit or ones which I observe other people emit. I will talk about how it fits into his model. I really liked this model because it incorperates every aspect of the human experience. Certain motivations elicit certain behaviors and these behaviors act in ways to fulfill the requirements explained in Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs.

I found a clip from Youtube breaking down the levels with examples found in the movie "Up". Although this is an animated children's film, the needs are fulfilled through certain behaviors. Besides the examples in this clip I think about the reasons we do certain acts. For example, why people join clubs and organizations. They emit this behavior to fulfill the the belongingness and love level of the hierarchy. This fulfilment is reinforcing as well because it is part of reaching a new level of development. These behaviors are elicited by a need in the self to reach these level of development. Here is the link for that : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iucf76E-R2s&feature=related

The behaviors that occur within each level include topics we have talked about in class so far such as extinction, operant conditioning, reinforcement, and punishment prodecures. Those topics involve every part of life and therefore go hand in hand with Maslow's hierarchy. An example of a punishment procedure involving searching for safety (housing) would include a person who established bad credit being told they cannot get a loan for a house. This would be aversive and would be a case of negative punishment because because the reinforcing approval for a loan is taken away consequently punishing them for havig established such bad credit. This will reduce any behavior which is harmful to their credit. This fits into Maslow's Hierarchy because in this process they are trying to fulfill the safety need in Maslow's Hierarchy.

terms: positive punishment, emit, aversive,reinforcing, extinction, operant conditioning, elicit

The topic that I chose was Experimental Neurosis. It fits into the chapter of 3.2 when talking about Ivan Pavlov and his discovery of Classical Conditioning. Experimental Neurosis is the state of the subject when it is taken under control of inhibitory or excitatory neorons. It relates to a subjects confusion when given a discriminative stimulus that elicits a certain behavior that the subject cannot discriminate from. I am interested in it to see how the state can affect behavior modification. The additional information I found introduced an synonym of sorts for Experimental Neurosis known as learned helplessness. The learned helplessness comes from the inability of a subject to discriminate between positive and negative reinforcement. In one study I looked at, the subject was rewarded for a certain behavior, and then after awhile it was punished for a that same behavior. When the behavior is emitted and then punished, the animals reaction goes from, hey I'm getting fed, to hey I'm getting shocked please help. The subject then emit's a behavior in response to the aversive establishing operation. This behavior is then punished again, throwing the subject into a state of confusion. This state is characterized by irregular behavior that can either be shown by failing to show any reaction whatsoever no mattter what the stimulus is, or by the subject throwing a tantrum and emitting irregular bursts of aggressive behavior due to the confusion. The subject also at times show extinction bursts, where it tries to get the reinforcement again and again only being met with punishment. An interesting thing that I learned is that this term is studied in hopes of finding some origin to the development of behavioral disorders. They think that behavioral disorders are in someway a form of learned helplessness, or experimental neurosis, because people can be conditioned into experimental neurosis as the youtube video shows with the students. These studies suggest that the abnormal behavior is a form of experimental neurosis.

http://www.psychosomaticmedicine.org/content/1/2/293.abstract
http://psycnet.apa.org/journals/com/28/1/39.pdf
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MTqBP-x3yR0

experimental neurosis, classical conditioning, discrimninative stimulus, elicit, emit, positive/negative reinforcement, aversive, establishing operation, Aggressive behavior, Extinction Bursts,

I decided to write about manipulation and whether punishment or reinforcement is the best way to deal with things. Many educators are taught to use punishment as a use deal with students, but it does not create motivation in the classroom, so has been shown to be less effective. Also even though we like rewards sometimes they still have an aversive effect on students because no one likes the idea on being controlled. We need to praise children and do the three Cs of motivation: content, community, and choice. We should be focusing more on praising children and trying to manipulate their mood to be positive. By giving someone praise and telling them they did a good job on an emitted behavior it not only improves their ability the area, but also gives them happy, positive feelings towards it. Generally psychology is seen as trying to understand, predict, and control behaviors. The truth is we manipulate behaviors every day without even knowing it most of the time; it really is kind of in our nature as human being to a degree. I have attached a link to a video that shows part of the blue eyes, brown eyes experiment that an Iowa teacher did in a classroom many years ago. Most people who have seen this video have because it is shown as an example of discrimination. But after taking this course I see it more as way of using manipulation and learning how much easier it is to manipulate a child versus an adult, though this exercise has been done on adults in a different context. Child more easily elicit the behavior we want to see.

Terms: emitted behavior, punishment, reinforcement, manipulation, control behaviors, elicit

http://www.jstor.org/stable/3172672?seq=2
http://www.asa3.org/ASA/PSCF/1970/JASA3-70Collins.html
http://www.alfiekohn.org/teaching/pbracwak.htm
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8bWlTZZN3DY

Posted for BW:
The topic I searched was reinforcement schedules. This was a whole section in chapter 2 and it shows different ways you can condition people into a behavior. This is interesting to me because who would have thought just by how often and at what times you reward or punish someone will affect how quickly they catch on and how long the behavior lasts. It is very interesting to me to learn that there are different ways to condition someone or something depending on the outcome you want and how much time you have and how much effort you are willing to put into it.
I found, which we also learned about in class, that there are many types of different schedules you can use for reinforcement. One way it is split up is by continuous and by partial reinforcement. Continuous reinforcement is when you reinforce and reward the desired behavior every single time that it happens. This is said to be best when first starting the conditioning so there is a heavy association with the behavior and the desired response. The other type of schedule is partial. This has many subtypes. There are fixed ratio, fixed interval, variable ratio, and variable interval. This chart is an easy way to see the difference between the four sub types of partial reinforcement.

Fixed ratio partial reinforcement is very quick. The conditioned behavior starts to happen more often very quickly. This also shows that the higher the ratios the higher the response rates. This type can be easily extinguished, though. Variable ratio partial reinforcement is also very quick. This conditioned behavior also starts to happen more often very quickly. This one, though, varies between a range of ratios to reinforce. This one differs also in the extinction rate. This schedule being used makes it less likely for the behavior to be extinguished. Another type is fixed interval partial reinforcement. This is more of a slower process. It takes a lot longer than ratio to get that behavior to occur more often. Because the interval is fixed it also does not have much resistance to extinction. Variable interval partial reinforcement has a higher resistance to extinction and again takes even a little bit more time than fixed interval. This is the slowest process of all four subtypes. Although, this may be the best schedule considering it would have the longest lasting effect.
http://psychology.about.com/od/behavioralpsychology/a/schedules.htm
http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://psyresources.wikispaces.com/file/view/Schedules_of_Reinforcement.GIF/180882205/Schedules_of_Reinforcement.GIF&imgrefurl=http://psyresources.wikispaces.com/CH%2B07.%2BLearning&h=458&w=444&sz=47&tbnid=jHgt_roH4Cb6pM:&tbnh=90&tbnw=87&prev=/search%3Fq%3Dschedules%2Bof%2Breinforcement%26tbm%3Disch%26tbo%3Du&zoom=1&q=schedules+of+reinforcement&usg=__z0kWs6KwtDLJxVxDc3zs4wGc4vA=&docid=wXBkLPLJjQrbnM&hl=en&sa=X&ei=ERxzUO25LerryAGT54DoCg&ved=0CEIQ9QEwBQ&dur=0

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JoP-2wn-2rY

Terms: reinforcement schedules, reward, punish, condition, reinforcement, continuous reinforcement, partial reinforcement, fixed ratio schedule, fixed interval schedule, variable ratio schedule, variable interval schedule, extinction, extinguished

sparklenfade27 | October 5, 2012 5:49 PM | Reply (this was the original posting date, however I posted it on Week 7 Reading Response page by mistake.
A pology)

Week 7 Topical Blog

I chose to investigate more about target behaviors. As I ponder said topic, I think of goals.
According to a behavior modification text, a target behavior is a behavior of interest for which one is attempting to increase (or decrease) in frequency. Depending on situational factors and individual differences, aspects of goals may vary. One may have a specific plan regarding how they may want to achieve their goal or modify their behavior. One may journal or document what approaches are valuable to them personally. One may be a pet looking up at dinner with hopeful eyes and a very clear plan in mind.
A target behavior may be a behavior an individual has emitted in the past or may be action that has not yet been experienced.
In a field of psychology, some folks may feel that taking certain steps is vital to achieving goals. These could possibly be some steps: describe a target behavior in clear, observable terms; describe antecedent events that occur and conditions that exist immediately before a behavior happens; describe consequences that immediately follow a behavior; examine an antecedent, a behavior and a consequence in sequence; devise new antecedents and/or consequences to teach new behaviors or change existing ones; evaluate the outcome. {http://www.parrots.org/pdfs/all_about_parrots/reference_library/behaviour_and_environmental_enrichment/The%20ABCs%20of%20Behaviour.pdf}
Or one may… Value a goal; Comprehend how individual circumstances may effect a goal; weight possible outcomes, play the tape through(!); consider effects on persons involves; focus on motivational techniques consistent with valued goal; journal, document, share, discuss, respect confidentiality.
http://www.associationofanimalbehaviorprofessionals.com/glossary.html
http://www.funderstanding.com/educators/self-efficacy/
SMW

Next what I would like you to do is to find a topic from what we have covered so far in class that you are interested in and search the internet for material on that topic. You might, for example, find people who are doing research on the topic, you might find web pages that discuss the topic, you might find youtube clips that demonstrate something related to the topic, etc. What you find and use is pretty much up to you at this point. But use at least 3 sources.

Once you have completed your search and explorations, I would like you to say what your topic is, how exactly it fits into the chapter, and why you are interested in it. Next, I would like you to take the information you found related to your topic, integrate/synthesize it, and then write about it. At the end, please include working URLs for the three websites.

Once you are done with your post make list of the terms and terminology you used in your post.

By integrating/synthesizing I mean to take what your read/experienced from the internet search (and from chapter 1 if you like) organize the information into the main themes, issues, info, examples, etc. about your topic and then write about the topic in your own words using that information. This is hard for some people to do - many students write what we refer to as "serial abstracts." They are tempted to talk about the websites rather than the topic proper. They will talk all about website #1, start a new paragraph and talk all about web site #2, start a new paragraph and talk all about web site #3, and then write some kind of conclusion. Serial means one after the other...This what you DON'T want to do!

At first it is a real challenge to get out of the habit of writing "serial abstracts," but I assure you once you get the hang of it it is much easier to write using the integration method. And besides this is the way researchers and scientists write their technical reports and findings - many of you will have to be able to do this for other classes and for jobs that you may eventually be hired for so now is a good time to learn this skill. At this point don't worry about a grade, worry about doing your best to have fun with the topic and then integrate it into your own words to share what you found and now know. We will work on citing the sources later....

Let me know if you have any questions.

http://psychclassics.yorku.ca/Skinner/Pigeon/
http://psychcentral.com/news/2010/09/03/scientific-view-of-superstitious-behavior/17698.html
http://psychcentral.com/news/2010/09/03/scientific-view-of-superstitious-behavior/17698.html

Superstitious behavior is an interesting behavior that has been operantly conditioned. Although most people see this as a silly ritual. Most people will be conditioned by antcedents that they think cause a consequence. Skinner a prominent psychologist was able to demonstrate this target behavior with pigeons. A pigeon put inside a operant chamber will fall prey to this. A food chute that is on a fixed interval schedule will reinforce its superstitious behavior by rewarding what it thinks is the desired behavior. When the bird does not get the reinforcement it shows an extinction burst and will try variations of behavior to get the reward. It does not understand that those two behaviors are coincidental and cannot make the right connection. The bird is not able to discriminate between the behavior and the right reinforcement of the food it recieves. Studies have shown this in humans and have found that people who do believe in fate and chance are more susceptible to emit these behaviors. I find this behavior to be very interesting and would like to do more research on this subject.

terms: discriminate, elicit, emit, antecedent, behavior, consequence, target behavior, operant, operant chamber, positive, desirable, reinforcement, extinction burst, fixed interval, superstitious, operantly conditioned, Skinner,