Topical Blog Week #7 (Due Wednesday)

The topic which has interest me the most so far in behavior modification is the concept of discriminative stimulus. In class, we discussed about how signs are the most common discriminative stimulus where it affects the likelihood of emitting a particular behavior. The example that stood out the most for me was the stop sign. When we see a stop sign, we emit the behavior of stopping in order to be rewarded with the consequence of not getting a ticket. Although signs are a great example of discriminative stimulus, I failed to think of other antecedents that would be discriminative stimulus. This is why I chose to research more into the topic of discriminative stimulus as well as the impact of stimuli on a behavior.
Stimuli are an important part of the ABC’s of behavior since it would fit under the antecedent function because it sets the context of any situation. The antecedent would affect the behavior depending on the setting. Time and time again in class, we break each situation down to ask ourselves what is the antecedent, behavior, and consequence. Discriminative stimulus fits perfectly into what he have discussed this far in the semester. I am interested in this topic more because I understood it right away but I want to know more about it. I would like to understand all the basics of behavior modification before we dive deeper into complicated process of understanding why we emit the behaviors we do. I would also like to understand what other examples there are on discriminative stimulus besides signs.
Throughout my research, signs were surprisingly not the examples used in the websites found below. The best description of discriminative stimulus was an operant behavior is triggered by a certain stimuli which an organism must discriminate between similar stimuli in order to respond to them in different ways. My favorite example of this was a fishing story where the father threw a hulu hoop out into the water and only threw food in that area. After some time, he could throw the hulu hoop anywhere in the water to fish and the fish would always come toward the hulu hoop. Other board examples of discriminative stimulus would be the time of day or people which could either be positive or negative stimuli.
Aside from examples of discriminative stimuli, I found there are two different way to look at discriminative stimulus. It could be a stimulus which a response is reinforced or a stimulus that controls the probability of a response. This week we had to read about Thorndike’s experiments on animal intelligence where he saw how long it took for cats to escape a trap. The cats were placed in a discriminative stimulus (the cage) and were reinforced with their freedom. Although, when the cats emitted a behavior where they did not escape, the stimuli still controlled the probability of a response which they would not emit again. This began a trial and error in order to figure out which behaviors they would be punished for and which they would be reinforced for. The cats would show discrimination by reacting differently to each behavior. Based on his findings, Thorndike developed what is known as the Law of Effect. I believe this would tie back to our current topic in class and helped me with a better understanding of behavior modification.

TERMS: Behavior modification, discriminative stimulus, emitting, emit, behavior, consequence, antecedents, stimulus, ABC’s of behavior, operant behavior, positive, negative, Thorndike, Law of Effect trial and error, reinforced, punished

http://www.intropsych.com/ch05_conditioning/discriminative_stimuli.html
http://www.educateautism.com/applied-behaviour-analysis/discriminative-stimulus-and-stimulus-delta.html#.Uw1Tn_ldWSo
http://users.ipfw.edu/abbott/314/DiscrimStim.html

The topic that I chose to do my topical blog on is the idea of positive reinforcement. I chose this topic because it interests me very much because it is used so much in everyday life, at times at a subconscious level. Going into social work/counseling I feel that positive reinforcement is a concept I will deal with on a day to day basis in my profession.
After doing my research on positive reinforcement, I gained a more in depth understanding of the term, as well as received a lot of information on this topic in a real-life scenario context, which was my ultimate goal going into this assignment. Positive reinforcement involves the addition of something that is desired by a person, which in turn increases the behavior. Skinner believed that it was more productive to study observable behavior as opposed to mental activity. Skinner also believed that looking at the causes and consequences of a behavior in order to form patterns. One example I found of this was in the context of an educational setting. A teacher found that her student was only identifying 2 out of 10 pictures she presented him correctly. She then decided he needed some reinforcement, so she started giving the students tokens for every picture they identified correctly.

Punishment vs. Reinforcement

This relates to the section where Pavlov is introduced and he claims that one should only reinforce, not punish. However, obviously punishment still is used frequently, I definitely was punished once or twice growing up. I am curious as to which is more effective in what circumstances or how one is more effective than the other.

The goal of punishment is to decrease a behavior whereas the goal of reinforcement is to increase the behavior. As Skinner pointed out, positive reinforcement is better than punishment in changing behavior. He maintained that punishment wasn’t just the opposite of positive reinforcement but that positive reinforcement had resulted in lasting behavioral modification, whereas punishment changes behavior for only a certain amount of time and has some bad side effects.

Is this idea of reinforcement being the better tool still used today? In short, the answer is yes, whether it is in the classroom, at home, or training a dog. According to The National Association of School Psychologists, they advise against the use of punishment, and emphasize that punishment is generally less effective than positive discipline strategies. Many child development professionals will advise parents to try to ignore children’s bad behavior and reward their good behavior. Even the super Nanny agrees that rewards are more effective than punishment.

Although sometimes people try to use negative reinforcement to serve as a form of punishment, but when it is used to punish behavior, this should not be used. However, this is can used in a different way. Picture a classroom filled with kids talking while a movie is playing, the teacher can announce that she will turn off the movie until the students stop talking, and typically that will get them to stop.

Some say punishment is not good for a few reasons. Number one, it is confusing to be punished when learning something new; especially when it comes to your new pup or a young child. In this case learning from the mistake you made is more complex than continuing to do what you were doing before. When realizing you did something wrong, you have to figure out exactly what went wrong and how it is possible. With dogs, punishment must be used in a precise manner. Since it is only effective when it is done immediately at the time or following the undesired behavior. Also, if it is administered too weakly or harshly the dog can end up needing higher levels of punishment, or if it is too harsh, damage between the pet and human relationship may occur.

Overall, from all of my research, it is apparent that reinforcement tends to be more effective in situations such as the classroom, at home, and training a dog. It is thought to be more helpful to gently shape the behavior by helping your kid understand the consequences of their actions in a positive manner-which is very effective. The best way to ensure this to work is to be consistent, so making sure to be knowledgeable about what the teacher is doing with your kid and practicing similar techniques at home.

http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/family-affair/200809/rewards-are-better-punishment-here-s-why

http://www.larimerhumane.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=159&Itemid=15

http://everydaylife.globalpost.com/negative-reinforcement-vs-punishment-elementary-schools-7231.html

Terms: Reinforcement, punishment, positive reinforcement, and negative reinforcement.

I chose to do my topic this week on the effectiveness of positive punishment. Throughout the class we have discussed how reinforcement is much more effective in behavior modification than punishment is. It seems to be easier to increase positive behaviors rather than decrease negative behaviors. I am particularly interested in this topic because I work at Bremwood and every day I think about how I should handle situation to get the best result. My kids break rules constantly throughout the day. It’s my goal to stop the aversive behaviors and reward the good behaviors. This is an extremely hard task and it becomes extremely frustrating when I see the same behaviors every day and have to respond with the same consequences. The consequences are obviously not working so there has to be another solution. I want to explore why positive punishment does or doesn’t work because that is what we use the most.

We have discussed natural consequences in class and that is actually one of the best ways for our kids to learn their lesson. For instance, many of my kids punch walls when they get upset. Their knuckles usually bruise and swell up and are sore for at least a couple days. That is a natural consequence, however, due to neglect issues we have to treat their hands as soon as they ask and I think that minimizes the effectiveness of the natural consequence because they continue to punch walls when they are mad. An interesting idea from one of my sources is setting limits. Setting limits isn’t a punishment and it tends to help kids think through their decisions more effectively. If we simply remove them from the immediate situation and remind them of what they did that caused their removal, it is a pain free way of teaching them that their behavior was not acceptable. I do see a problem with this in my situation because 9 times out of 10 if I asked one of my kids to remove themselves from a situation and take a break they would refuse. At that point if they aren’t following my directives and still emitting aversive behaviors, I would respond by giving them a consequence.

Dr. Jane Nelsen, a parenting expert, gives five criteria that are supposed to help in giving positive discipline. The first criteria is to be kind and firm at the same time. Being too kind without having firmness is seen as being permissive. Being too firm and not being kind can be seen as being controlling and disrespectful. You have to find a healthy medium. Research has shown that many times children learn best when they are taught through reinforcement rather than punishment. Dr. Jane Nelsen has found these criteria help as a guide to using positive discipline in the right way. The second criteria is to help the kids feel a sense of belonging and significance. When kids don’t feel this, they tend to try and find it through negative attention. The third criteria is that this has to happen over the long-term. Punishment tends to work to fix short-term problems but it isn’t effective in ending that behavior for the long-term. The fourth criteria is that children learn valuable social life skills. It allows teaching to happen whereas when we punish often kids aren’t getting the true message we are trying to convey. It tends to get clouded with the fact that they are in either physical or emotional pain. The final criteria is to help children develop a sense of their own capability. This gives kids the ability to understand the power that they have and how they can use that to be contributors of society. I really like the idea of these five criteria but I still struggle in understanding exactly how to implement them. I think with young children it may be very effective. But with adolescents, most of which have been beaten or abused in some way their entire lives, positive discipline might seem like a joke to them. However, they are used to being punished, having things taken away, and they are used to the pain that accompanies that. Many of my residents will tell me that they don’t care if they get a consequence. Honestly that’s probably true.

These sources gave me a better idea of things to be mindful of when attempting to use punishment. I still want to look further into how to make consequences more effective or how to implement reinforcements better. I really try to take everything I learn in this class and through this research and use it in my job every day.

Terminology: reinforcement, punishment, natural consequences, emit, aversive, behaviors, setting limits, response, physical, emotional, discipline

Five Criteria for Positive Discipline with Parenting Expert Dr. Jane Nelsen
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f-e4H2rsEww
This video was extremely helpful in giving me tools to remember and use when attempting to teach a child that their behavior is wrong.

What is Positive Punishment?
http://psychology.about.com/od/operantconditioning/f/positive-punishment.htm
This source helped to define and give examples of positive punishment as well as went into more details about the effectiveness of different types of positive punishment.

What’s Wrong with Consequences to Teach Kids Lessons?
http://www.ahaparenting.com/parenting-tools/positive-discipline/Consequences_Punishment
This source talked about natural consequences and setting limits as effective ways to handle aversive behaviors. It talks about how it is our duty to help kids see that they are good people that are capable of doing what is right. That is the most important lesson that we can teach them.

The topic I decided to do this integrating/synthesizing essay on is how the environment shapes peoples behavior. This relates to most of the sections we have read so far, but some in specific were section 1.1 (“The ABC’s of Behavior Modification”) because antecedents often directly refer or relate to the environment. The other sections I can relate this topic to are 1.4 and 2.4, which is the additional vocab. Specifically, the terms discriminative stimulus and discriminative extinction stimulus because these stimuli in the environment either elicit certain behaviors, or show us if emitted behaviors will be reinforced or not. My interest in this topic mainly comes from my future career choice of being a high school guidance counselor. This is because many of the behaviors that I will be focusing on is the result of the students environment, It’s also interesting to learn about the extent of how much the environment shapes people’s behavior in general.

The first website I went to explained into detail about how much genes have to do with the type of person you are. These genes predispose us to many things such as bad illnesses, intelligence, being a serial killer, and many more. This connects with what we learned in class because the article said something like “if the environment never triggers these predispositions, the behavior will never manifest.” This exemplifies the ABC’s because everyone needs the right environment in order to behave in a certain way, to either be reinforced or punished. For an example if someone was born with natural intelligence you need to have the environment of a proper school system to reinforce the target behavior of learning to bring out someone’s potential.

This makes me think if the environment can bring out the target behavior of being a serial killer or being a super genius, what effects it can have on everyday behavior of potential students of mine. The next website I went to showed how the environments of the home, family, culture, the school classroom, religion, and other factors can all effect a child’s behavior. This connects well to what we learned in class because if you are in a non strict family environment, and a child gets whatever he wants it could lead huge problems in the a child’s behavior in the classroom. Imagine if the child always gets what he wants, he might have a problem listening to outside authority figures. This is due to if the child is always positively reinforced with what he wants, when it doesn’t happen it would lead variable actions to get reinforced. When this doesn’t happen it would lead to aggressive behavior of the child. It also shows how a certain religion or a culture’s discriminative stimuli of how to act in order to be socially accepted or go to heaven can definitely encourage someone to act a certain way.

This all made me wonder how extreme an environment can influence someone’s behavior. This is when I came across a video of a feral child. This means she lived isolated from human contact from a very young age. Instead of being raised by people, she was in an environment with dogs. In order to achieve her primary reinforcer of food, security, and affection, she gradually started to act like a dog. She walked on all fours, barked like a dog, and missed some critical periods of her development cycle to ever act like a fully functioning human. This all came about because of her environment.

http://www.mutualresponsibility.org/science/3-ways-the-environment-shapes-human-behavior
http://www.abilitypath.org/areas-of-development/social--emotional/behavior-and-discipline/articles/behavior-due-to-environment.html
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CV6LEf7EDAQ

Terminology- environment, ABC’s, antecedents, discriminative stimulus, discriminative extinction stimulus, elicit, emit, reinforce, punish, target behavior, positively reinforced, variable actions, aggressive behavior, primary reinforcer

The topic that I have decided to research further is the idea of goal setting and how reinforcement makes goal setting easier. I picked this topic because I like to set goals for myself in many aspects of my life and I would like to find out more about what makes achieving the goals easier.

The first thing I find important before you even begin to work on your goal is making it small and reasonable. Many people make goals that they want to achieve but are unreasonable and therefore never achieve it. If you make it reasonable it is easier to see the end product. You can be general at first, but make sure you break it down and record a smaller goal that is more achievable.

It is also important to break it down maybe week to week or some other increment of time and graph or record your results rather than just working on the big picture and not being proud of the little gains. This would work especially well for something like losing weight. If you just focus on losing the total amount and not feel accomplished when they make little steps forward and then you end up getting discouraged easier. If you reach the first small step it is more likely to reinforce you and then you will keep on track with your end goal.

Another thing that may help with goal setting is making the goal measurable. Say your target behavior is working out more. Instead of saying I want to work out more, maybe say I want to work out 4 days a week or I want to work out for an hour instead of a half hour on days I work out. If you set a measurement of exactly what you want to do, it is easier to record, track and see the progress you are making.

And finally and probably most important is how reinforcement ties into helping achieve your goals and target behavior. If you reach your goals, you will probably feel better about yourself which is a reinforcement in itself. You can also help yourself achieve your goals by saying if i do this small step toward my end goal, I will do this to reward myself and so on. You can use both positive and negative reinforcement to do this. If you aren't reaching your goal you can also try positive or negative punishment to help as well.

To sum up my blog I found this short fun video summing up the ways to make your goals happen:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8cCiqbSJ9fg

Terms: goal setting, positive reinforcement, negative reinforcement, positive punishment,negative punishment,target behavior

URLs
http://www.mindtools.com/page6.html
http://www.wikihow.com/Set-Goals
http://topachievement.com/goalsetting.html

The topic that I was interested in and wanted to learn more about was positive reinforcement. I chose this topic because when we were learning about it, the section and numerous ones after that mentioned that it was the best type of technique to use to get the desired behavior you are looking for. Pavlov was one of the first ones to mention that one should only use reinforcement and not punishment. He was involved in classical conditioning that is associated with positive reinforcement with his study on the dogs salivating. The principles and contingencies of reinforcement also refer to operant conditioning introduced by B.F. Skinner.

When we talked about it in class, many got confused between the negative and positive reinforcements, like myself. One thing that stuck with me with positive punishment was that it will only work if the person being reinforced enjoys the reinforcer. If they don’t desire it then the whole idea of increasing the frequency of the behavior won’t work.

After doing some research I’ve learned that positive reinforcement can be pretty much everywhere, especially at the point in life I am now. It can greatly affect the way people work at their jobs and even learn in the classroom. By getting people involved in what they are supposed to do, they have less likely of a chance to behave in a less desirable way. When using positive reinforcement in everyday life, especially with young adults it is extremely important to find out what motivates that person in order to find the best reinforcer to increase a desired behavior. This ties back into what we talked about in class.

Positive reinforcement when dealing with Operant Conditioning is when the stimulus is delivered immediately after the behavior, in order to increase the frequency of that behavior. One of Skinner’s examples was when a rat pressed the lever in the Skinner Box it was given food. This increased the behavior of the rat pressing the lever every time it was hungry. Although this was a pretty simple example it still set the stage for modern positive reinforcement.

Positive reinforcement is an important technique that can be used in a variety of settings, but after researching the topic I found that it is important to reinforce the behavior and not the person. One of the earliest questions we were asked at the beginning of the semester was if we thought manipulating behavior was good or bad. This idea allows reinforcement to be used in an ethical way that doesn’t completely modify the person, only the behavior.

Terms: positive reinforcement, behavior, operant conditioning, stimulus, frequency, reinforce, classical conditioning, negative reinforcement, reinforcer

http://www.ttacnews.vcu.edu/2010/01/reinforcement-in-the-classroom-improves-student-motivation-and-performance/

http://www.buzzle.com/articles/positive-and-negative-reinforcement.html

http://www.educateautism.com/behavioural-principles/positive-reinforcement.html#.Uw5zt9iYZMs

http://hbr.org/2010/06/the-productivity-paradox-how-sony-pictures-gets-more-out-of-people-by-demanding-less/ar/1

http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/wired-success/201006/the-productivity-paradox-when-less-is-more

http://new.ted.com/talks/dan_pink_on_motivation

Topic: Productivity

For the past week or so I have been very interested in the topic of productivity- why we work hard at emitting behaviors towards one thing more than another or what keeps us energized to push through our day. After skimming through our text to see what part of the book best fit with my topic and the articles I found, I decided Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs covered in section 2.2 of our book. I became very interested in this topic when watching a TED talk given by Dan Pink on the power of motivation. He brought up so many topics and ideas that I had never even thought about before and ever since it has reinforced me in the way I look at motivation and how to elicit behaviors from people I am surrounded by. This summer I will be a manager at a summer camp in DC and have been very interested in what I can do to make sure I am motivating those around me to strive to do their best everyday, which I also think is why I am so interested in what needs people need to meet to perform their best.

Researching more about my topic of productivity I found it to all fit together much better than I could have even hoped for. Many of my findings really focused on the idea of the “productivity paradox,” which in turn can be explained as the idea that hard work pays off, is actually a myth. Many companies are starting to realize that the way most of corporate America and our North American attitude towards work, are in direct correlation with the engagement crisis many companies are experiencing. A survey taken in 2007 (from ~90,000 employees) stated that only 21% of them felt engaged at their place of work and almost 40% were completely disengaged. The impact these findings showed led to further prove the decline in operating income and earnings growth. Another study taken from those who showed signs of high engagement, showed considerable increases in operating income and growth earnings. One company called, the Energy Project, owned by Tony Schwartz, took the problem of disengagement and loss of productivity and found that employee burnout was a leading factor. Instead of pushing for longer intervals of time worked or incentives through money, the company approached individuals by managing their energy. By regularly managing individual energy, they found that they made better use of their time at work. Schwartz then tried his findings at Sony corporation, building a program for the company based implementing elements of: physical health, emotional well-being, mental clarity, and spiritual significance. These ideas also tied into the TED talk given, in that letting workers have a sense of autonomy in their work, and find a sense of intrinsic motivation, without having to meet deadlines, will increase productivity and overall morale in the workplace.

Maslow’s Hierarchy really made me think again when I read about the aim Schwartz was taking on his work for Sony Corporation. By implementing physical health, emotional well-being, mental clarity, and spiritual significance, Schwartz engaged almost all levels of our own primary reinforcers.

Terms: reinforcers, emitting, behavior, intervals, incentives, motivation.

I decided to look into conditioned responses, which is an aspect of classical conditioning. Conditioned responses were discussed in depth in section 3.2, and it describes the process by which a normally unconditioned response (like being hungry), otherwise known as a natural response to an unconditioned stimulus (like food), can become a conditioned response by a neutral stimulus--which then becomes a conditioned stimulus (an example would be the 6 o'clock dinner bell...which if you come from a small farming town like me, you'd have heard before.)

I was mostly interested in learning a little more about this topic because I wanted some more examples of conditioned responses that related to the real world, other than examples like training puppies tricks and the obvious things that come to mind when we think about classical conditioning and when we're trying to think up examples of reinforcement and punishment.

Ivan Pavlov was a Russian psychologist who discovered the concept of classical conditioning when he noticed that his dogs would begin to salivate before they received their food--a certain sound or movement had become associated with the arrival of food, and so the dogs would salivate in response to the movement or sound, even without the presence of their food. In 1921, John Watson tried to replicate the results using a white rat and a 11-month-old child. Whenever the rat was in the child's presence, Watson would play a loud, frightening sound. Eventually, the child developed a fear of rats because the presence of the rat--though harmless--became associated with the fear that was felt from the extremely loud sound.

The best example I found for a conditioned response was phobias and fears. Some of these phobias feel as though they have been born into us, while with others we can recount the moment in which the stimulus became frightening. Either way, the stimulus associated with a phobia first started as a neutral stimulus. Using spiders as an example (because I hate them and they can all die): as a very young child I was probably very curious of spiders, just like most children are--therefore a spider was a neutral stimulus because there was no exact response for the spider, other than indifference or perhaps curiosity. But at some point in my young life, I was either told about the scary and dangerous nature of spiders, or I had a bad experience with them. Now, whenever I see a spider or anything remotely resembling a spider, I flip out. I scream or run or some other flight response. But as children, that is not our initial response--we are not born to hate spiders, therefore the behavior of hating/fearing spiders must be learned (therefore conditioned). This means that my fear of spiders is a conditioned response. The YouTube video I watched helped me to conceptualize the relationship between the once neutral stimulus of a spider and the resulting conditioned response of fear by using a more friendly example involving a carrot, a guinea pig, and a noisy refrigerator door. Unfortunately, my example was not that cute.

From the research I gathered, it seems as though there are many more instances of conditioned responses than I first thought. Classical conditioning is one of the most unconsciously used forms of conditioning, especially in children. We come to obey authority and learn our place in society through these techniques (usually used in school settings and in our childhood homes on occasion), and I guess that I just need to have more of an open mind when approaching behavior modification so that I can more easily see how and when it relates to the real world.

http://psychology.about.com/od/cindex/g/condresp.htm
http://www.ehow.com/facts_7357521_conditioned-response_.html
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kT8-97h0q_Q

Terms: classical conditioning, punishment, reinforcement, conditioned response, unconditioned response, unconditioned stimulus, conditioned stimulus, neutral stimulus, associated, behavior.

I chose the concept of Positive Reinforcement which is always my favorite subject to talk about as well as research. The foundation of my research has come from my own experience with positive reinforcement, my intro to psych class and now this behavioral modification coarse as well as the many sites I have visited throughout my own journey to change some of my own behaviors through positive reinforcement.

The most interesting thing to me is why isn't positive reinforcement used more often by everyone including myself I have to admit. What I have learned from research and through my reading that BF Skinner's early research with animals, by rewarding the animals they would repeat the action. It was through that founding discovery that positive reinforcement bloomed. The Law of Effect was the foundation and Thorndike's research was what led to BF Skinner's research. Through one concept came another and another like reinforcing stimulus which is a key concept in operant conditioning, then punishment, conditioning all of it is stemmed from reinforcement in same way.

Some of the basic techniques to positive reinforcement are great concepts when raising children. I have seen them used in the secondary schools and now in college as well. Positive reinforcement can really go along way. The basic ways to get children to do as you would like is to reward them when they do the action each time they do it. That will then cause them to do it more often. Reinforcement is the key to learning and as I just saw on a Video recently which was assigned due to another snow day, it can really make a difference in the outcome of any research. The true positive reinforcement techniques involve using praise to bring out the best in anyone are just like endless possibilities. That is because the consequences of positive reinforcement can be endless possibilities of some of the greatest things. It truly is a wonderful experience to see the true consequence of a target behavior that you wanted to modify and through the reinforcement stimulus & positive reinforcement the behavior modification did occur almost like a transformation from moth to a butterfly.

http://itls.usu.edu/~mimi/courses/6260/theorists/Skinner/Skinner.html
http://www.apa.org/education/k12/using-praise.aspx#
http://parentingtechniques.co/1256/positive-
reinforcement-parenting-techniques-2/

Terms: behaviorist, positive reinforcement, reinforcing stimulus, conditioning, punishment, research reinforcement stimulus, target behavior, consequence, behaviors, BF Skinner, Thorndike, operant conditioning, law of Effect, and reinforcement.

My topic includes Reinforcement vs. Punishment

I thought both of these topics were really interesting, espeically comparing them. We've talked a lot about both sides to them, so I thought it'd be really interesting to research on what would be moer effective. I own pets and want to work with children someday, so I also thought this would tie into learning more on what would help me in the future.
Reinforcement is a procedure used in behavior modification to increase the frequency of a behavior, while punishment is a procedure used in behavior modification to decrease the frequency of a behavior. Pavlov in the past claimed that we should only ever use reinforcement, and that punishment wasn’t effective. But today we still use punishment. As much as punishment can be effective, reinforcement is the most effective way to change a behavior long-term.
Tests have been done using brain scanning machines to determine whether punishment or reinforcement was more effective. They found that brain control centers were activated from negative feedback, but were strongly activated when positive feedback was received. They found that positive reinforcement resulted in a more lasting behavior change, compared to punishment. Consequences from punishment can also have lasting negative side effects.
Research also shows that punishment may work only for a short amount of time. Punishment will only work long term is it gets more severe after a long period of time. When working with kids, it’s crucial that teachers use positive reinforcement more often that punishment. If the child is just negatively punished on a constant basis, it could hurt their self-esteem and negatively affect them. Reinforcement gives the child more motivation to do what is right.
Even when working with animals, if there isn’t motivation, but just punishment, the animal will most likely repeat the punishment behavior. Because that is the only attention they are receiving then. If they are just getting punished, they may not know what they are being punished for, and don’t know what they’re supposed to be emitting to reach that desired behavior.
I agree that reinforcement is the best way to change a behavior compared to punishment. If you are only rewarded when emitting a certain behavior, it’ll be easier for you to understand that’s what you’re trying to learn. If you are only punished for doing something, you won’t know what the target behavior is. Not only does reinforcement more effectively change a behavior by giving someone a pleasurable outcome, but it can also build the relationships in a more positive way. If you are only punishing a child, dog, or person while teaching, they will probably also adapt not to like you, and are less likely to listen to you. As long as you are making sure to be consistent with reinforcement, it will have the most effective response.
Terms: Frequency of behavior, punishment, consequence, reinforcement, behavior modification, Pavlov, positive reinforcement, desirable, emit, target behavior, pleasurable, response.
http://teaching.monster.com/benefits/articles/7377-punishment-or-positive-reinforcement-which-one-works
http://www.vetstreet.com/our-pet-experts/training-your-dog-why-rewards-work-better-than-punishment
http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/family-affair/200809/rewards-are-better-punishment-here-s-why

For this topical blog assignment, I have decided to do more research into superstitious behaviors. It came up briefly in one of the sections, but it wasn’t a huge part of the section. Superstitions are actually very interesting to me because of the wide variety of things/situations people can be superstitious over. Being a theater person, I have a lot of friends, along with myself, that do certain exercises or rituals or whatever you want to call them before they go out onstage and perform. Like for me I don’t eat before a big performance because I’m afraid I’ll get sick. Have I eaten before a performance to see if it would happen? No. But hey, I still haven’t gotten sick on stage! Basically, I just wanted some more information on superstitions in general.

While I was doing my research I came across a few mentions relating superstitious behavior to obsessive compulsive disorder. While there are superstitious rituals that people with OCD do throughout the day (example, checking the locks three times or checking the stove to make sure it’s off over and over), OCD does differ from straight superstitious behavior. Superstitious behavior usually happens because the person believes a certain outcome will happen if they do something a certain way. For example, a football player may wear a certain pair of socks because they won a game the last time he wore that pair (a terrible example, but it gets the point across). With OCD, while they may have superstitious behaviors, there aren’t necessarily superstitious beliefs. In essence, when someone with OCD does a certain action over and over again, it’s not necessarily because they are expecting a certain outcome to happen.

I was also able to pick up some differences in superstition. For instance, there is superstitious belief, superstitious control, and superstitious rituals. Starting with superstitious control, because I think it sounds more interesting out of the three, this is basically the belief that you have the ability to control an outcome by doing a certain action. The example that was given was that a man gets out of bed right leg first because he believes that if he does that he will, in turn, have a much better day than if he were to get out of bed left leg first. Superstitious rituals deal mainly with just one specific situation rather than any, like superstitious control. For example, if the car is taking forever to start up the person may rub the dashboard and pat the steering wheel because they believe it will start the car.

Terms: superstitious behavior, superstitious control, superstitious rituals, behavior

http://psychologydictionary.org/?s=superstitious&submit.x=0&submit.y=0
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3181957/
http://psychcentral.com/news/2010/09/03/scientific-view-of-superstitious-behavior/17698.html

The topic I chose to cover this week was classical conditioning. I chose to look into this particular topic because it interested me how the brain can be tricked into thinking that an unrelated stimulus can cause a certain event. I've been interested in how this concept can be use in behavioral training, specifically those in dogs. At my job at PetSmart, we have a dog-training class that utilizes classical conditioning for modifying the dog's behavior. They're called click-a-trick classes and they use clickers to help reinforce good behavior out of dogs. Whenever the dog complies with a command, their owner clicks their clicker and gives the dog a treat. The clicker becomes an unconditioned stimulus for the dog, making them aware what they did was correct.

Of course, nearly every source I looked into included Pavlov and used the demonstration of his dogs. It was impossible to find a site that didn't use him as an example, which isn't necessarily a bad thing. Other examples I found of classical conditioning was the controversial Little Albert experiment. An infant named Albert was presented with a fluffy white rat and initially he showed no signs of distress upon seeing it. But after displaying the rat paired with alarming loud noises for a period of time, Albert eventually grew afraid of the rat. He would cry and scream upon the sight of him, or any fluffy white animal for that matter, even without the disturbing noises. Another example given was how some farmers took a sheep carcass, injected it with a non-deadly (but nauseating) poison, and left it out for coyotes to feast on. The coyotes got sick, as expected and as a result, they avoided attacking sheep, afraid that they would get sick again. Some even ran away from them in fear, which helped prevent farmers from losing countless sheep due to coyote attacks.

A prescription medication called Varenicline utilizes classical conditioning to help heavy smokers quit their habits. Varenicline stimulates the receptors that derive pleasure from nicotine, so when the person tries to smoke a cigarette, they don't get the full enjoyment from smoking because those receptors are already being stimulated. The joy of smoking is eliminated almost completely with this medicine. It will sometimes even make the smoker nauseous when smoking. So the habit will be easier to drop when the smoker associates the sight of a cigarette with nausea. The Varenicline works as an unconditioned stimulus and elicits an unconditioned response, nausea. But the cigarettes are then a conditioned stimuli, making smokers nauseous sometimes even just thinking about them.

Classical conditioning is overall paired up with the idea of Pavlov ringing a bell, but it can be used for so much more. It can work as both a punisher and a reinforcer, depending on how it's being used.

terminology: classical conditioning, unconditioned stimulus, unconditioned response, conditioned stimulus, reinforcer, punisher

http://www.wagntrain.com/OC/#Classical
http://psychology.about.com/od/behavioralpsychology/a/classcond.htm
http://theconversation.com/breaking-bad-habits-classical-conditioning-and-smoking-11578

Since my favorite topic is currently my deaf/half blind puppy, Hope, I decided to continue to search dog training techniques. This fits into class well as it demonstrates the use of many different behavior modification methods, like positive/negative reinforcement, target behavior, stamping out behavior, and immediacy of punishment.
I was incredibly delighted to learn more teaching sign language to Hope. Each source included valuable ways to connect with your puppy through signing. This is very advantageous for our little family right now, as my boyfriend is currently learning American Sign Language. This assignment took me longer than it should have because I had to try out some of the new sign language I learned with Hope while we played fetch. They made the distinction that effective training had to first be reinforced with the use of treats, since the dogs can’t hear. Touching was another concept that was emphasized. Instead of using a clicker, designating a “clicker area” on the dog to establish praise was suggested. Furthermore, the sites/video reiterated as the dog aged, affection would suffice and take the place of treats.
Common themes amongst the sources included collars. Many of the sites harshly judged the use of shock collars (which, as a farmer, I consider shocking to be highly effective as I’ve watched it many times through the use of electric fences) but something I hadn’t considered was the use of vibration collars. Photos, video, and articles described the ease this method provided. It’s quite useful especially when outdoors. There isn’t a great way to communicate when the dog is playing and has it’s back away from you at a long distance, therefore the vibration was a great way to alert the dog. (I also learned turning lights on and off on a porch to get the dog to respond worked well, too!) Chewing/nipping is a current issue we’re working with and the use of choke chains was recommended. I used to train some of our family dogs in obedience classes and the choke chain was very effective when teaching to sit, but I hadn’t thought of it as a sort of punishment for Hope when she starts nipping too hard on our hands while playing.
As for stamping out a behavior, many of the sources listed scent as a deterrent, especially for biting. There was a great suggestion to wear gloves with a putrid odor on them, that way the dog wouldn’t want to bite your hand, and if it did, it would taste bad. Another way to stamp out a behavior for potty training is spraying the areas down with cleaner (we’ve been using this – incredibly effective – we’ve only had her for two weeks and she’s already potty trained for outdoors) because this way they won’t smell where they’ve used the bathroom before. On the topic of potty training, it’s incredibly important to punish them immediately (as learned in class and mentioned in the sources) so that the puppy understands what it did wrong and the training will be more effective.
In summary, this class (and this particular assignment) is becoming much more valuable to me. I’m learning effective techniques for behavior modification, which serve the dual purpose of fulfilling my psych credit requirements and assisting us in the training of our puppy, Hope!
1. http://deafdogs.org/training/
2. http://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=training+deaf+puppies&FORM=VIRE5#view=detail&mid=3F4DD1EC00E83D9062733F4DD1EC00E83D906273
3. http://companionanimalsolutions.com/blogs/training-dogs-who-are-blind-and-deaf/

Terms/Terminology: behavior modification methods, positive/negative reinforcement, target behavior, stamping out behavior, and immediacy of punishment

The topic I would like to research and learn more information about is positive and negative reinforcement and the benefits of it verses punishment. These terms were first introduced in Chapter One, Section 2 and have been continuously referred and reintroduced with examples throughout the chapters and sections. I would like to know more about this topic mainly because the profession I am choosing is a therapist or counselor with children and adults so I feel like the more I know about this topic the more I can help people via reinforcement.
Research has shown that reinforcement works a lot better on children rather than punishment, even negative reinforcement. Along with reinforcement, according to the article by Watling and Schwarz, reinforcement is not any form of bribery or coercion but rather reinforcement is the procedure by which a consequence will increase the chance of the target behavior to happen again by presenting a desirable stimulus or removing an undesirable stimulus. A positive reinforcement, however, is not a reward for a reward doesn’t act as a reinforcer if the individual views it as undesirable. The definition of a reward is an stimulus in exchange for a participation, service, or achievement, which, if the student were to not like cherry flavored suckers and the reward happened to be cherry flavored suckers then the student would find the reward undesirable and therefore the reward or reinforcer wouldn’t be effective. A reinforcer is a stimulus that everyone will see as a reinforcer and everyone will find desirable. Reinforcement is especially necessary in a classroom, for the fact that there are reinforcements for desirable and undesirable behaviors in a classroom. Research shows that children are more likely to respond to reinforcements rather than punishments. However, negative reinforcement is the most difficult to understand it is the most beneficial for children to learn appropriate behaviors whereas punishment is deemed as unnecessary. In children, punishment is not as effective as negative reinforcement because the child will learn not to engage in that behavior when the punisher is around but instead develop negative feelings such as resentment and fear towards their punisher and themselves.
http://ajot.aotapress.net/content/58/1/113.full.pdf
http://www.education.com/reference/article/reinforcement/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BVbGSVhKGwA
Once you are done with your post make list of the terms and terminology you used in your post.
positive reinforcement, negative reinforcement, reinforcement, consequence, target behavior, behavior, punishment, undesirable, desirable, stimulus, reinforcer, punisher

Schedules of Reinforcement & Extinction
I chose to learn more about schedules of reinforcement and extinction. Throughout our study of behavior modification, we have focused on the usefulness and success of using reinforcement to modify behavior. In my daily life, I find see many examples of reinforcement that either don’t work or the situation simply does not allow for successful reinforcement to be utilized. For example, at work I am responsible for making sure records are kept accurately. When I discover mistakes and inaccuracies in the records, I must email someone to fix it. Usually I include a brief description of why it needs to be fixed, how exactly to change it, and how this will prevent future errors or why it is correct. The target behavior here is to keep accurate records in the first place. The natural reinforcer in this case is that I do not need to bother them via email again. My pesky emails also encourage them to keep careful and accurate records, because they might find my emails annoying (positive punishment because the emails are added to discourage their neglecting to keep accurate records).
Usually my coworkers are fairly prompt with making the changes, however on rare occasion this does not happen, I have to email them a second time, or make the change myself. Either way, they are rewarded for not emitting the target behavior (keeping accurate records). From a certain perspective, they learn that if they wait long enough I will make the changes myself, and are thus reinforced for neglecting their duty to keep accurate records. The unfortunate part here is that my coworkers are also not going to be more likely to emit the desired behavior in the future.
Comparatively, the inhabitant of Skinner’s box is continuously reinforced for pushing the lever. Over time, the rat makes the association that the behavior of pushing a lever is reinforced by the delivery of a food pellet (reinforcer). As described in the video, continuous reinforcement is useful for the initial association of a behavior and consequence, but later on we can withhold a reinforcer every now and then for the target behavior. A ratio schedule is a better choice of intermittent scheduling in this case because it is less susceptible to extinction than continuous reinforcement, as well as adjustable (we can change how often the target behavior is reinforced). As the video describes various schedules of reinforcement, it becomes clear the best choice is a variable-ratio schedule of reinforcement, because the target behavior is emitted at a steady high rate. This kind of schedule is most resistant to extinction because it encourages the rat to continue pressing the lever, just in case the next reinforcer is scheduled be delivered after the next response.
Extinction is a process where the target behavior is eliminated by withholding reinforcers. As pointed out in the second article from the School of Education, extinction relies on a great many factors, previous schedule of reinforcement, reinforcement history, and several others. At work, it is not practical or possible for me to monitor all of these factors. The top priority is to correct the records. It is optimal to try to explain the changes in attempt to avoid future need for them, but in the end we really just want accurate records. This is a difficult situation in which to modify behavior in, because there is a great deal of effort needed to make the response (number 4). For example, I might need to drive to other facilities and meet with countless engineers and analysts in order to fully train them on this task. Everyone’s full understanding contributes a great deal to success at accurate recordkeeping, however none of us have the time to do this. Due to the sheer number of records, it is unrealistic to expect there will be no mistakes, referring to the degree to which a reinforcer may be withheld. In cases where the change is not made promptly, I cannot withhold a reinforcer (do it for them) just for the sake of extinguishing a behavior which is not realistically going to be eliminated. The inaccurate records must be corrected, and it often gets to the point where I have to make it. I cannot neglect this required process for the sake of withholding the reinforcer, in this case keeping accurate records myself.
The first article regarding extinction and intermittent reinforcement also applies to my duties at work. This article also names history of reinforcement and schedule of reinforcement as factors affecting extinction. It states, the variance in responses is extremely large, indicating there is not a strong correlation between certain schedules of reinforcement and their success. In large part, it depends on the individual with whom I am working. Additionally, the first and second extinction articles agree in that if the history of reinforcement include intermittent reinforcement, the behavior may be very difficult to extinguish.

#1 Intermittent Reinforcement Schedules
http://psychology.jrank.org/human-behavior/pages/cmxyrs9oqs/extinction-intermittentreinforcement-intermittent-reinforcement.html

#2 Extinction: Eliminating Behaviors without Punishment (School of Education)
http://education.purduecal.edu/Vockell/EdPsyBook/Edpsy11/edpsy11extinction.htm

#3 Schedules Video (You can see the graphs compared at 12:15)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mWScp3Hz6sI

Terms: Reinforcement, schedules of reinforcement, extinction, behavior, reinforcement, target behavior, positive punishment, emitting, intermittent schedule, fixed ratio schedule, variable ratio schedule

For this topical blog assignment I chose to learn more about superstitions. We learned about superstitions in section 2.4. Superstitious behaviors are behaviors that are emitted that are sometimes reinforced by chance. These target behaviors are not reinforced every time and sometimes may be punished as well.
Some common superstitions are walking under ladders, breaking mirrors, throwing salt over your left shoulder, making a wish at 11:11 am or pm, holding your breath when going over a bridge and knocking on wood. In my research I have found that there is no direct explanations for why people are superstitious. Most people want something to believe in. They want a sense of control. We like feeling that we can influence different outcomes in our lives.
I considered myself to be superstitious but not to the extreme. I am a knock on wood kind of person. If I say something such as "I haven't gotten sick at all this year" then I must immediately knock on wood. If I cannot find any wood I knock on my head. I know this may seem silly but if I did not knock then I would have this uneasy feeling. The next time I got sick even if it was months later I would blame it on the fact that I did not knock on wood.
Another reason so many people are superstitious (fifty percent of our population) is because obsessive compulsive disorder is also very common. OCD is well known in the psychology world. One definition of OCD is the repetition of certain behaviors in the hopes of reducing anxiety. I myself do this. I am a very anxious person. Every night before I go to bed I have to twist the door knob to make sure it is lock, and touch the stove burners to make sure the stove it off but I have to do it eight times. This is probably because I was a cheerleader for half of my life and all of our routines were in counts of eight.
I got a little off topic. The main point is that superstitions are all around us and effect our everyday behaviors.
Terms: target behavior, emit, punish, reinforce
http://www.livescience.com/14141-13-common-silly-superstitions.html
http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/happiness-in-world/201206/how-superstitions-really-work
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/06/opinion/sunday/sense-and-superstition.html?_r=0

I decided to use the topic of self-reinforcement because I think many of the problems in our lives could be solved by influencing our own behavior. I am a very self-motivated person and enjoy reading up on ways to make self-regulation more effective. Also, knowing how to better self-reinforce will help me with my final project for this class. It relates to previous material in other ways because like any form of behavior modification, it follow’s the ABC’s with an antecedent, behavior, and consequence. The only difference is that it is regulated by oneself rather than an outside person. A way to describe this difference is by saying that self-reinforcement is the opposite of socially-mediated (or direct) reinforcement.

As it turns out, Albert Bandura was an important psychologist for self-reinforcement. He set up the rules that a person must have full control over the reinforcers being used, that the person must emit a behavior in order for the reinforcer to be received, and that there must be standards for the behavior. Other recommended guidelines for the self-reinforcers themselves include being small and easily able to be delivered, not exclusively being dependent on food (food reinforcers are contingent upon deprivation; if a person satiated hunger, then future food reinforcers would be ineffective), and finally they should be individualized.

There are certain tendencies and characteristics that surround self-reinforcement. Sometimes, people who reinforce themselves misattribute the changed environments to external modifications rather than internal modifications. Second, people can be unaware of past self-reinforcements because they were less obvious, more unconscious, or they have tunnel vision and are too focused on future behaviors to modify. However, certain behaviors that we’re explicitly working to change are more obvious and overt. For example, there was the water consumption assignment in this class challenging us to increase our water intake by using self-reinforcement. This task involved actively seeking out a reinforcer and working on emitting the behavior.

While the areas of application of self-reinforcement are endless, the articles I looked at brought up two good examples. One was that self-reinforcement can improve learning/motivation. To me this makes sense, because forced learning is often quite unsuccessful. The second example was about how self-reinforcement could be a useful tool in counseling. Currently, I’m in a counseling class and I’ve discovered that I’m fond of the styles of therapy that give the clients autonomy and the power and knowledge to manage their lives when the therapy ends. Overall, self-reinforcement has the potential for great change and there are guidelines that should be followed to increase its effectiveness.

http://rebtinstitute.org/blog/2011/03/08/the-importance-of-self-reinforcement/
http://www.springerreference.com/docs/html/chapterdbid/180556.html
http://www.dps.missouri.edu/resources/MoreThanAJob/Supports/Supports%202/11%20Self-Reg%20-%2002.htm

Terms: self-reinforcement, behavior, self-reinforce, behavior modification, antecedent, behavior, consequence, ABC’s, regulated, self-regulation, socially-mediated reinforcement, direct reinforcement, reinforcers, contingent, deprivation, satiated, emitting

The topic that I have chosen to write about is extinction. Extinction takes place when an organism is denied reinforcement for emitting a behavior that it was previously reinforced for emitting. The end result of extinction is the cessation of the target behavior. Extinction can occur unintentionally, such as if you go to a store during regular business hours and find that they are closed, thereby denying you the reinforcement of shopping, or intentional as a form of behavior modification, such as teaching a child that throwing a tantrum will no longer elicit reinforcement such as getting their way. This type of extinction fits with what we have been studying because, relating to the ABC’s, you would be controlling the consequence in order to modify the behavior. I think the topic of extinction is interesting because it is a way to change undesirable behavior. As a criminology major, I have seen more theories based on punishment rather than rehabilitation.

Even though an extinction procedure can be effective at modifying a target behavior, it is not always easy. Denial of reinforcement can elicit a variety of behaviors from an organism. There have been some recent studies that have used rats and other animals to get a better understanding of how the extinction procedure affects the organism that is going through extinction. These studies rely on Skinner’s concept of biological continuity to generalize the results for application to humans. For example, one study examined why a behavior that is thought to have been extinguished can reoccur. Another study examined the potential danger to the mental health of an organism that is denied reinforcement. There is also a video clip which shows a humorous example of someone going through an extinction burst.

One study about drug user relapses looked at how their findings could help improve substance abuse rehabilitation programs. These programs can benefit greatly from understanding the process of extinction because their goal is to fully extinguish the target behavior of using harmful substances, be it alcohol or illegal drugs. The study suggested that spontaneous recovery of the drug using behavior could occur because the extinction procedures used are not extinguishing the association between a stimulus, such as drug paraphernalia, and a response, such as a craving for drugs, which is then reinforced by using drugs. Instead it is suggested that the extinction is merely context based, meaning that a patient may learn to control their drug cravings in the clinic or office where they have treatment, but being in a situation or around other people who used to elicit the drug craving behavior may still elicit that behavior. A possible improvement could be conducting the extinction procedure in various contexts, such as at a patient’s home. This could be effective at reducing context based spontaneous recovery because drug users are likely to reinforce their drug cravings at home.

Another study examined the occurrence of extinction-induced depression in animals. This is also an important study because it shows what can happen to an organism’s mental health when reinforcement is suddenly denied. The rats used in the study emitted behaviors similar to humans suffering from depression while going through extinction. For example, while going through extinction in a Skinner box some rats would emit aggressive behaviors such as biting the lever that previously gave them food. Other rats would become withdrawn and avoidant. Extinction-induced depression could also help explain why drug users relapse. The feelings of aggressiveness or despair might elicit the user to seek the familiar reinforcement of a drug high in order to escape the problem.

This type of depression could also impact people who are not drug users. The video clip I chose is from the cartoon Animaniacs. In this clip, a psychiatrist is trying to conduct therapy on the main characters, but they are not cooperating. He goes through extinction because he is a renowned doctor who is used to people wanting his help. Although it is funny in this context, he goes through a terrible extinction burst. He starts by getting mildly annoyed, then his behavior becomes aggressive as he is repeatedly denied the reinforcement of cooperation. The end of the clip shows him in therapy instead, possibly because he lost his job or so he can be allowed back.

It is possible that extinction-induced depression might elicit behavior such as alcohol or drug abuse in people who have lost their job. The reinforcement being denied could be enjoyment of work if they liked their job, social status, or money, depending on a person’s intrinsic values.

I think that it is interesting that extinction can be so complex. It is not as simple as just stopping reinforcement. There are many other consequences that must be considered when using an extinction procedure to modify a target behavior. A good compliment to extinction would be differential reinforcement of other. At least this way some reinforcement is being given, and if it is done right a new desirable behavior could take the place of the behavior that is being extinguished.

Article URL: http://www.benthamscience.com/open/toaddj/articles/V003/SI0055TOADDJ/57TOADDJ.pdf
Article URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0149763413000523
Video URL: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XAGgfNeGROY

Terms: extinction, organism, reinforcement, emit, behavior, target behavior, behavior modification, B.F. Skinner, biological continuity, generalize, extinguish, ABC’s of behavior modification, consequence, undesirable, extinction burst, spontaneous recovery, stimulus, context, elicit, extinction-induced depression, Skinner box, intrinsic values, differential reinforcement of other, desirable

For this week’s topical blog, I have decided to expand my research on positive reinforcement. I am interested in this topic because I currently work as an assistant teacher at the Central Iowa Juvenile Detention Center in Eldora. Because of the nature of this environment, the staff usually elicits negative reinforcement on the disruptive and uncompliant detainees. However I noticed from interacting with them in the school environment, that positive reinforcement seems to reduce the occurrence of aversive behaviors.

A common key point I noticed was the importance of reinforcing the behavior and not the student. An article titled Positive Reinforcement by Gavin Cosgrave from Educate Autism, provides an example of Johnny asking for a Coke and then receiving one. Cosgrave states that the correct was to explain this reinforcement would be to say “Johnny’s request for a Coke was positively reinforced” instead of “Johnny was positively reinforced”. I feel this is a common oversight which could led Johnny to believe that he deserves a reward regardless of his actions.

Carol Gerber Allred from ASCD Educational Leadership suggests that teachers and staff should debrief with the student after the positive reinforcement, especially in regards to material rewards. She suggests asking the students how this makes them feel, she states “When students make the connection between their performance and feeling good about themselves, intrinsic motivation is enhanced and positive behaviors continue.” I use this technique often when I give verbal reinforcement. Because most of these students come from troubled backgrounds, they have been deprived of emotional support.

At the CIJDC, the students are rewarded with points for good behavior throughout the week. On Friday afternoons, the students are allow to exchange their points for treats that they do not get to have inside the detention center like pop or candy. The more points the student has on Friday afternoon, the more treats the student can receive. Cosgrave discusses this type of reinforcement as a Token Economy.

As we have learned through this course, for positive reinforcement to be truly successful a specific target behavior must be addressed. Laura C. Peters from the Virginia Department of Education’s Training and Technical Assistance Center states “It is not enough to tell students what they should not do. You must clearly describe, in observable terms, a desired behavior that is incompatible with the challenging behavior.” Every morning at the CIJDC, our lead teacher reminds all the students about what is expected of them. Even though he is dictating these expectations, he delivers it in a way which allows the students to feel in control. They are given the option to follow the rules and be respectful, in return they will be rewarded otherwise they will return to their cell for the day

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

http://www.ascd.org/publications/educational-leadership/sept08/vol66/num01/Seven-Strategies-for-Building-Positive-Classrooms.aspx

http://www.ttacnews.vcu.edu/2010/01/reinforcement-in-the-classroom-improves-student-motivation-and-performance/

Terms:Positive reinforcement, target behavior, elicit, negative reinforcement, aversive, reinforcing, intrinsic, desired.

The topic that I decided to focus on for this assignment is extinction and extinction burst. These fit in to what we have been learning because they can be part of the process in conditioning and are also some of our behavioral modification terms. Extinction is about the sudden or gradual weakening of a conditioning response, which will usually result in the decrease or disappearance of a behavior. While extinction burst usually happens right after the extinction has started and is temporary increase in the behavior, this will eventually decline as long as the extinction process is continued to be enforced.

The idea of extinction and extinction burst had me become more interested in the so called “terrible-two’s” stage or even just punishment in general when it comes to children. I found this topic interesting because after I graduate I hope to someday work with children. Most children it seems, when still at a young age, when introduced to a process such as extinction, to get rid of an undesired behavior, emit the behavior of extinction burst or temporarily increasing the frequency of the undesired behavior. Extinction can occur during this age by trying to stop a child from saying “no.” Usually when one refuses a toddler what they want this causes them to become more upset and to continue to say “no” even more, or extinction burst. One of the websites that I looked at had some ideas for parents on how to reduce the amount of extinction burst that may happen while still reducing the frequency of the undesired behavior. These include giving the child options such as, “Do you want to play with the car or the truck?” This still allows the child to feel as though they have some control even though in reality you the parent are still making the decision. Making sure there is a routine is another big one that was focused on. Also, not giving into the child’s tantrums was a main point. When a parent gives into their child’s tantrums it stops the extinction burst from taking place which will prevent the reduction in behavior.

The main reason why a child begins such rebellious actions at this age is because they are learning that they do have choices and are starting to become much more independent for the baby stage. This is why temper tantrums are thrown at around and usually until around the age of four according to a source. These continuing tantrums that will continually decrease overtime by hopefully ignoring them can be seen as extinction burst because it is the increase in frequency of the undesired behavior after the extinction process has been put into place.

Another source states that the stage of terrible two’s can start anywhere between 18 and 30 months depending on the emotional development of your child. The same source also has other ideas to help a parent try and lessen the out bursts a child may have while still decreasing the frequency in the undesired behavior. These include pretend play, such as letting the child play dress up with adult clothes and playing with dolls or stuffed animals doing play parenting. This allows the child to step into a “different world” and allows them to make those decisions that they want to make. Another is cuddling; this allows the child to empathize with others. Both of these allow the child to possibly see things from a different perspective and act the way a parent acts, which may in turn reduce the undesired behaviors that take place during extinction burst without having to give in to the tantrums of the terrible two’s.

Extinction and extinction burst happen in many situations throughout our lives. The stage of terrible two’s is one of those to me that it seemed very apparent in. I feel that this example demonstrated not only how extinction and extinction burst tie in with this stage of life, but also how it is possible to deal with difficult situations in other ways than punishment, such as ignoring the situation or using other strategies.

Terms: extinction, extinction burst, emit, punishment, behavior, frequency, undesirable.

http://pediatrics.about.com/od/toddlers/a/05_terrble_twos.htm
http://www.parents.com/toddlers-preschoolers/development/behavioral/tackle-terrible-twos/
http://www.babycenter.com/0_your-20-month-olds-social-and-emotional-development-terrible_1273321.bc

For this blog post, I decided to do some further research on the American psychologist B.F. Skinner. Skinner plays a key role when we think of what modern behavior modification is. He has shaped and developed numerous key points that we have already discussed in the short seven weeks of this class, not to mention additional advances he has provided in other areas of psychology. Since we have talked about Skinner’s interpretation of operant conditioning, it has elicited curiosity in me to learn more about this process of learning.
Operant conditioning according to our text is the principles and contingencies of reinforcement and punishment; to me this needed a little bit more explaining. According to Wikipedia, it is a type of learning in which an individual’s behavior is modified by its antecedent and consequences, this makes much more sense. Skinner was more focused on the reinforcement aspect of conditioning rather than punishment. In fact, he was known to believe that a world with punishment was indeed possible; this is evident in two of his many texts “Walden Two” and “Beyond Freedom and Dignity”.
In regards to operant conditioning, he created numerous experiments using animals; his most famous experiments are associated with ‘Skinner Box’. Since much of his research was based off of Thorndike’s idea of Law of Effect, he modeled this box after Thorndike’s puzzle box. During these experiments, Skinner’s objective was to show how negative reinforcement worked, he subjected the test subject, a rat, to aversive electric currents, which of course caused some discomfort. The rat would move around the box and trigger the off response to the stimulus. Quickly the subject learned where and what the trigger elicited and would immediately move to the off switch once the stimulus occurred. The subjects even learned to avoid the stimulus completely by the addition of a light before the shocks even started.
Through these experiments, he was able to identify three types of responses that can follow a behavior: neutral operants, reinforcers, and punishers. Two of these responses have been the main focus of our class thus far, and play a major role in behavior modification as we know it.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operant_conditioning_chamber

http://www.simplypsychology.org/operant-conditioning.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operant_conditioning

Terms: behavior modification, elicit, operant conditioning, reinforcement, punishment, antecedent, consequence, Law of Effect, negative reinforcement, aversive, stimulus.

I decided to do my topical blog on superstitious reinforcement. This was the most interesting topic to me that we have gone over so far in class. This topic reminds me of individuals with OCD. These people have an uncontrollable fear that something bad will happen if they do not perform certain, everyday tasks in a certain way or fashion. This reminded me of the men in the bud light commercial who thought that if they did something their football team would perform better in the game. I feel that most people are involved in superstitious reinforcement without even realizing it. A lot of people feel that they need to do certain tasks in a very specific way for them to work the way they want them to. Basically superstitious reinforcement happens on accident when a behavior coincidentally occurs in relation to a positive coincidences. The behavior and the consequences actually have no effect on each other.
Superstitious Behavior in Humans
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1348309/
From Superstition to Psychological Anarchy
http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/theory-and-psychopathology/201310/superstition-psychological-anarchy
http://cla.calpoly.edu/~cslem/101/8-D.html

The topic I decided to research further on was the idea of superstitious behaviors that people engage in so I could learn more about why these behaviors occur. I personally felt a connection to this topic because I for one am very superstitious when it comes to particular things, but most people just blame it on my mild OCD and to being dumb about it. To me though, I believe in it and think I need to engage in the particular behaviors because I don’t know how not to. I sometimes feel like being superstitious is stupid and inconvenient, but I personally find it needed and something that I’ve only always known.
Superstitious are ideas, objects, rituals, and impulses that get so stuck in one’s head and then they tend to continuously repeat this behavior. I personally feel like superstitious have somewhat of a connection with OCD because it is similar in some manners. Some people repeat behaviors because they think they have to or something bad will happen and that’s considered to be OCD. Superstitions are repeated over and over again because people think if they stop this behavior something will change or go wrong, so pretty much the same thing in my personal opinion. But after researching I found it very interesting to find out that many studies and research shows that there is not a direct correlation between OCD and superstitious behaviors medically talking. Superstitious sometime start or develop and these people don’t even realize it and then it becomes a normal routine. There was a study done on Americans that showed that more than half of Americans believe or have some kind of superstitious behaviors and that didn’t really shock me because of the severity of superstitious that can occur. Knocking on wood after saying something that might jinx a person is a common behavior among people and a learned behavior at that in most cases. Superstitious have many extremes so it’s easy for a lot of people to engage in superstitious behaviors. Superstitious behaviors are also known to be called “magical thinking,” and there is much controversy on if it is harmful or helpful/not harmful to a person. In most cases it is seen to be perfectly acceptable and not harmful to a person. It makes sense on why people engage in superstitious behaviors because it gives a person a sense of control in their lives or to have control over things they are uncertain about or nervous about. Having a superstition is easier to have then to have to cope with things that may be difficult to accept or handle. So, I seem to find it harmless as long as it’s not inhibiting a person’s daily life or harming others or their selves. Having a safety net with a superstition doesn’t seem like it would be a harmful technique and if it helps, it helps. Superstitions also seem to be something that we learn as children and just continue to engage in throughout life because it was a learned behavior and is embedded in our minds even more so. If the superstition was something that we’ve believed in since we were little, it is more likely that we don’t change the behavior that is associated with the particular situation or thing.
Terms: Superstitious Behavior, OCD, Impulses, Rituals, Behavioral Tendencies, Psychology, Learned Behaviors, Magical Thinking, Control, Helplessness, Anxiety, and Techniques.
Sources:
1. http://psychologydictionary.org/superstitious-behavior/
2. http://psychcentral.com/news/2010/09/03/scientific-view-of-superstitious-behavior/17698.html
3. http://www.webmd.com/mental-health/features/psychology-of-superstition
AS

Classical Conditioning
As we have read through some big topics in Behavioral Modification, I have been especially interested in classical conditioning. It is a topic that seems to be so simple yet yields incredible results.
I have read through three different websites that cover classical conditioning and what exactly it means. From a larger perspective, classical conditioning is made up of unconditioned stimuli, unconditioned responses, conditioned stimuli, and conditioned responses.
At first, prior to the classical condition practice, individuals unconditionally react to unconditioned stimuli. This means that there is no manipulation in this situation. Nature is simply taking its course and things naturally happen. In Saul McLeod’s website, he uses an example, “For example, a stomach virus (UCS) would produce a response of nausea (UCR). In another example a perfume (UCS) could create a response of happiness or desire (UCR).” This is something naturally occurring.
When starting off with classical conditioning, there is a neutral stimulus included in the equation. At first, this neutral stimulus will not be relevant. It will simply accompany the unconditioned stimulus that precedes the unconditioned response. Now, however, the individual is now learning that these two stimuli are related. Ivan Pavlov is the famous scholar who studied classical conditioning and he used dogs for his experiment. In class and another website, it is said, “Pavlov was studying digestive process in dogs when he discovered that the dogs salivated before they received their food. In fact, after repeated pairing of the lab attendant and the food, the dogs started to salivate at the sight of the lab assistants.”
Following classical conditioning, this individual that was conditioned will now associate the neutral stimulus, which is not considered a conditioned stimulus, to be a predecessor for the unconditioned stimulus. This results in a conditioned response instead of an unconditioned response.
Overall, it is so interesting to see how behavior can be changed so easily when keeping this process in mind. Pavlov simply had to give it time and a little effort to find out just how easily the mind can be manipulated.
Terms: Behavioral Modification, Classical Conditioning, Unconditioned Stimuli, Unconditioned Response, Conditioned Stimuli, Conditioned Response, Neutral Stimulus

http://www.simplypsychology.org/classical-conditioning.html
http://www.learning-theories.com/classical-conditioning-pavlov.html
http://www3.niu.edu/acad/psych/Millis/History/2003/ClassicalConditioning.htm

1 a&b). I really liked the whole section. The idea of trail and error can relate to anyone. For example starting a new job and slowly perfecting the way you complete tasks. When you first start it may take awhile and not be done as while. By 6 months to a year the idea of struggling with the simplest tasks makes you laugh. I also liked this section because it reminded me of my dad and how if loved experimenting in the kitchen. He likes to make his own recipes and cook the same thing every week until he perfects it and figures out what combinations create the most desirable outcome.
2). There wasn't a part of this section that I didn't like. I found things were explained well, and it was interesting.
3 a,b&c). Thorndike built puzzle boxed to see how cats learned to escape, his focus was on animal intelligence. The y-axis shows what is being measured and the x-axis shows the periods of measurement. The law of effect explains that behaviors with positive outcomes are stamped in and negative outcomes are stamped out, by trial and error one is able to learn.
4 a&b). Again, I liked everything about this section. It is was a bit of a review for me, but I was able to relate it more easily back to my own life than when it was previously taught to me. I particularly like that the examples also had answers. It helped me understand it better and know if I was on track. I could then go back and figure out where I went wrong.
5). This section was a refresher on things I have learned in past courses. However, even though I was being retaught it, it was approached in a different way. There really wasn't a part of the section I dislikes.
6 a,b&c). Anything can be a neutral stimulus as long as it is salient and noticed in the environment. Neutral stimulus' must occurring regularly so an association can occur. Lastly, The neutral stimulus must also occur enough times for an association to occur.
7a) Please fill out the information below for week #2:
Day 1 = 68 oz
Day 2 = 68 oz
Day 3 = 40 oz
Day 4 = 64 oz
Day 5 = 44 oz
Day 6 = 44 oz
Day 7 = 68 oz
Average = 56 oz
7b). Overall, I feel I did relatively well. I did not reach my target behavior each day though, only on the days when I had football or a tv show to watch that night (which was my reinforcer). Measuring was not difficult for me because I have a water bottle with the ounces marked on it. I just refilled it when it was empty and was able to remember how many bottles I drank throughout the day. I think it was a good reinforcer because I drank enough water on the days I had something to watch. I could have found a better reinforcer that was effective every day. I honestly don't think I would continue to drink 64 oz of water a day, I typically don't drink as much water.
8) I would find a reinforcer that applied to me everyday, not occasionally. I would want to do this for some of my other behaviors such as swearing and drinking pop or monster.
Terms: Trial and Error, Desirable, Y-axis, X-axis, The Law of Effect, Animal Intelligence, Positive and Negative Outcomes, Neutral Stimulus, Salient, Association, Target Behavior, Reinforcer, Reinforcement.

The topic I have chosen to research is positive reinforcement with children. We have talked a lot about positive reinforcement in class and it is relevant with day to day situations. I am really interested in this topic because I work at a daycare. The kids I work with are four and five year olds. I would really like to research this topic so I can go more in depth on positive reinforcement. I’m hoping this will make me think a little differently when it comes to the kids, maybe not punish them as much if they do something wrong. In class we have talked about how reinforcement is more effective than punishment. Positive reinforcement affects everyone, but is most prevalent with little kids. All of my psychology books have a section devoted to children and positive reinforcement; it is obviously a good mechanism to use with kids. If positive reinforcement is used effectively, the behavior we want to implement will successfully be reached. As we learned in class, a specific target behavior must be addressed in order for positive reinforcement to be successful. We have spent a great amount of time in class talking about this topic and it really intrigued me.

Throughout discussion in class and researching this topic, I have concluded that positive reinforcement is very effective. It can improve your child’s behavior without hurting their self-esteem. By spanking your kids, yelling, ignoring, threatening, etc. it does not do anything for them. When the child does the desired behavior, a reward (reinforcer) is presented to them. Reinforcers are anything that motivates that specific child. It varies from child to child. Not every child is quite the same, so no reinforcer should be the same. A reinforcer can be as easy as giving the child a hug or a high-five. A lot of people mistake a reinforcer with bribery. Bribery is not an effective way to reinforce a child. Bribery is often related to threats. For example a parent may say, “If you don’t fail your test, I’ll buy you a new car.” This is not the way to go. The message is making the child feel not very intelligent.

Like I stated above, a specific target behavior must be established in order for positive reinforcement to be effective. Laura C. Peters, M.A., from Virginia Department of Education states, “Once you have targeted a behavior, you must clearly define for the class what the desired behavior is. It is not enough to tell students what they should not do. You must clearly describe, in observable terms, a desired behavior that is incompatible with the challenging behavior. For example, if you are targeting tardy as the challenging behavior, the incompatible behavior would be to arrive to class on time.” Like Laura Peters said, making the desired behavior clear is important. I noticed as I was reading this that at the day care I work at I tend to tell the children what I don’t want them to do. I never really thought about it until I read this article. Next time I will clearly describe the behavior I want to reinforce.

Positive reinforcement is so important when it comes to anyone, especially children. It rewards children for accomplishments they have achieved. There are so many different forms to accomplish this by, it takes time though. You cannot expect to positively reinforce someone in a day. You have to be really patient with this process. Reinforcement is not aversive like punishment is. In order to make this successful, the children must have an environment in which it is advantageous for the children to act in a positive way. When kids do good, the rewards must be consistent.

Terminology: positive reinforcment, elicit, aversive, punishment, reinforcer, target behavior, behavior, consequence, frequency, undesirable, emit

-http://www.positivereinforcementforkids.com/p/ebook-positive-reinforcement-for.html
-http://life.familyeducation.com/parenting/discipline/45284.html
-http://www.ttacnews.vcu.edu/2010/01/reinforcement-in-the-classroom-improves-student-motivation-and-performance/
- http://tutordoctor.com/blog/blog/the-importance-of-positive-reinforcement/

My topic that I chose to research and write more about is redirecting inappropriate behavior. This topic fits into our class discussions and sections on reinforcement and punishment as methods of changing behavior. I am interested in it because I have had many experiences working with children and I want to learn effective way of getting “good” behavior using positive methods. In order to use this behavioral technique appropriately, it is important to first know what redirection is, what behaviors should and can be redirected, some strategies when using redirection, and some interesting examples of redirection to change inappropriate behavior.
Redirection is a behavioral technique that is used to both change a behavior, but also even more importantly to provide something as an alternative. This is an important part of redirection because without an alternative, the inappropriate behavior will continue without any outlet. The goal of redirection is to guide the inappropriate behavior to appropriate behavior. The use of this behavioral change method drew me because it limits the use of punishment techniques to change behavior. Punishment in the long run is not as beneficial in most cases, especially when it involves children. One of the articles said that redirection is important in making sure children stay safe, develop skills like patience, as well as self-control of emotions and desire.
It is interesting to think about what behaviors need to be redirected. It is safe to assume that if it’s possible and the behavior is inappropriate, then redirection it a good behavioral change to try. Behaviors that are common to try and change are the ones that are inappropriate socially or interfering with learning. It is always important to ask why behavior is occurring. It could be serving a specific purpose for that individual, and if that purpose is known, the behavior will be easier to change. Many individuals with autism demonstrate repetitive or self-injurious behaviors. Inappropriate behaviors in this regard also would benefit from redirection.
Redirection can use many different strategies to be effective. A simple one that is easily forgotten is simply modeling better behavior. An adult or person in a leadership position can change behavior simply by showing how someone should act in a situation. It is also useful to just ask for a desirable behavior. An important caveat to this is that more direction needs to be given. Instead of just saying “Stop wrestling in the house,” say, “I don’t want you to break things in the house, if you want to wrestle, go outside please.” Similar to this situation, another good strategy is simply removing the child from the environment where the inappropriate behavior is being emitted. With all of these strategies, also provide an alternative behavior for the child. Make sure they have something else to occupy themselves.
An example of redirecting inappropriate behavior is if a child is trying to cut the sheets on their parent’s bed. It is beneficial for the parent to tell the child that it’s not good to cut the sheets, but give them instead paper and newspapers to cut up. This is a much more constructive method than just saying, “Stop that” and taking the scissors away from the child. Redirection allows the child to understand that the behavior is not bad, it was just the wrong context. If a child is exhibiting repetitious behaviors such as tapping their fingers incessantly on the desk or humming the same tune over and over again it is important to try and redirect these behaviors in a way that still fulfills their stress relieving purpose. This could be telling them to take a break and do those behaviors in a quite place for a while until they feel they are ready to come back out, or it could be simply distracting them to change the behavior.

Terms: Redirecting, inappropriate behavior, punishment, reinforcement, emitted, behaviors,

http://www.autismmind.com/Teaching_Strategies_srk/Changing_Behavior_by_Redirection_cnk/
http://www.nlpco.com/library/parenting/redirecting-problem-behaviors/#axzz3FQ8vVoq1
http://www.livestrong.com/article/237570-strategies-used-to-redirect-child-behavior/

The topic I chose was superstitions. This fits into what we have learned so far because some people emit behaviors based on the superstitions they have. I am interested in this topic because I feel like everyone emits some behaviors based on superstitions they know about or simply because they have seen other people do the behavior. I find myself doing superstitious behaviors without really realizing what I am doing. If I am chewing gum while studying for a test I make sure that I am chewing the same type of gum on test day. I knock on wood so that bad things don’t happen. I pay closer attention to my surrounding on full moon nights just to see if people are acting stranger than normal. When I was younger a member of my soccer team wore her shorts backwards because the 1st time she did it we won our game against or biggest opponent.
Superstitions are sometimes described as old wives tales. Superstitions vary around the world. In a survey done by Forbes magazine they asked Americans how superstitious they were. One percent said they were very superstitious, twenty-four percent are some-what superstitious, twenty-eight percent are not very and forty-seven percent said they aren’t at all superstitious. A person’s religious affiliation also has an impact on how they feel about certain superstitions. In one study it seems that more Catholics believe in superstitions as compared to Atheists/Agnostics and Protestants. The ten most common superstitions in America are 1. Friday the 13th is bad luck, 2. Itchy palms are associated with good luck, 3. Walking under a ladder can lead to bad luck, 4. Breaking a mirror is said to be harmful to the soul. 5. Finding a horseshoe is good luck because some believe it is the luckiest of all symbols. 6. Opening an umbrella inside is bad luck because you could poke an eye out. 7. Knocking on wood- if done twice it is believed to reverse bad luck. 8.Salt over your left shoulder, it is believed that throwing salt wards off evil spirits. 9. Black cats are bad luck because witches kept them as companions in the Middle Ages. 10. Saying “God Bless You” because people used to believe that by sneezing you were expelling evil spirits. There are millions of superstitions out there and the reasons people believe in them differ.
Terms: Emit, behavior, superstition, superstitious behaviors.

http://www.forbes.com/2009/03/06/superstitious-ufo-alien-conspiracy-opinions-columnists-superstition.html
http://www.statista.com/statistics/297176/united-states-common-superstitions-believe-religious-faith/
http://www.lifescript.com/well-being/articles/0/10_common_superstitions.aspx
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3yIi_nGtVjQ

My topic for this blog is superstition. The topic of superstition relates to a section we have covered, because in section 2.4, superstition was a concept that was studied. In class we talked a little bit about superstition, but not in too much detail. I was able to take good notes on the concept of superstition when reading section 2.4 outside of class. I am interested in the topic of superstition because it is a very common behavior, especially in sports. I have always been interested to hear the type of superstitious behavior that people emit, whether it is an example from sports, or just out in the everyday world. I have heard of friends from high school emitting superstitious behaviors before sporting events in order to do well in their activities. I am also interested because I have met people that have shown superstitious behaviors that they grew up knowing, but I never emitted any of those behaviors as a kid, such as avoiding walking under ladders, and being careful not to spill salt.
In an article I read, the focus was on how stress can affect superstitious behaviors. I was interested in this, because I had never thought about the fact that stress can contribute to superstitious behaviors. When a person feels that they have lost control of their situation or do not have control over what is going to happen, they might emit a superstitious behavior because they think that can help them. If they can obtain control or a pleasurable outcome, then their behavior has been reinforced and is likely to continue. Some superstitious behaviors even involve the idea of magic or supernatural forces controlling their situation. This might give a person peace that their situation will go well, because they have emitted their superstitious behavior and they believe that outside forces can help them with whatever situation they are in or give them luck. Supersitious behavior in sports can also involve stress. Players and fans can be stressed or worried that if they do not emit a certain behavior, they will be faced with an undesirable consequence, also known as a punishment. Some baseball players grow a beard for playoffs, and this might help them to feel at ease, because they might be worried or stressed that if they don’t have a beard, they will not perform well. It has been found that people sometimes feel a powerful need to emit a superstitious behavior. These behaviors have likely been associated with pleasurable outcomes in the past, but in reality, superstitious behaviors do not actually cause the pleasurable outcomes (reinforcements). People that perform superstitions can even be aware that their behavior might seem ridiculous or pointless, but they might do it in order to feel better about their situation or feel more control about their situation. This can happen in sports, like baseball, or in everyday life.
When superstitions happen in sports they can happen because athletes or fans believe that a random behavior that happened before a pleasurable consequence actually caused or elicited a behavior. The behaviors can also be called “rituals” and they can help athletes have a better mindset or better feeling of confidence before a sporting event. This relates to the other article and the video that I watched because they showed that superstition behaviors can occur because they help people to feel better, ready to perform, and in more control about what will happen in the future. A superstition behavior can even be part of the antecedent of their behavior, because it can be a part of the context that an athlete is in before they go participate in their sporting event. I also read about the fact that superstitions can include a wide variety of behaviors. These behaviors can involve multiple parts of life from food, clothes, people in their lives, or even symbols that they use (such as signs or statues that they view as having luck). Also, superstitious behaviors don’t always occur directly before a sporting event, but they can happen in a series of moments leading up to the time of the game or event. A person might believe that wearing a certain item the day before an event happens can help them, or they might pay close attention to what they eat for days in advance because they believe that it can help their performance. Even though superstitious behaviors don’t directly cause reinforcements to be given, they can help people to feel confident, more at ease, and ready to perform well, even if it is all in their mind. They have associated the superstitious behaviors with reinforcements, and they hope that they emit the behavior of a good performance that can cause them to win, because they remembered to emit their superstitious behavior. Even though superstitious behaviors can last for a long time, they can become extinct. This could happen if the superstitious behavior is not reinforced by good playing or a good sporting event outcome, and this could cause a person to stop emitting their superstitious behavior because they believe that the superstitious behavior is no longer reinforced.
Terminology: superstitious behavior, target behavior, reinforcement, punishment, elicit, emit, associated, cause, pleasurable, antecedent, context, extinction.

URLs:
http://psp.sagepub.com/content/28/1/102.full.pdf+html
http://sportsmedicine.about.com/od/sportspsychology/a/superstitions.htm
This is a video of a news talk show that talked about some sports superstitions.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i8TpuqkI3OE

The topic I chose to do some more research on is punishment. This ties into Behavioral modification because it is one of the two ways that behaviors are change. Also our reading had a whole section over just punishment in section 2.3. While looking on the internet for sources on punishment I used the section form our book, an article from Purdue, and an article from the National Criminal Justice Reference system.
My topic is punishment it fits very well with what we have covered because it is a major part of behavior modification. What is punishment specifically. It is the process by which people lower the chances of a behavior happening again. That is done by using punishers to punish a subject making them not want to do that behavior again.
I was interested in this topic because I am criminology major along with being a psychology major. Punishment is a big part of Criminology and about the time we were learning about punishment we learned about the brutalization effect in another class. According to government research the brutalization effect means that execution make people more violent. To look at it from a B mod point of view to emit a capital punishment behavior will elicit more violent behavior from others. This goes along with our class talking about how punishment is the least effective of the two behavior modification processes. Reinforcement is always better. This fact is backed up by plenty of studies one of which I source here from Purdue. Punishment does not always lead to behavioral modification but can lead to the subject only learning the best way to avoid that punishment. It could also make the subject think the best way to solve problems is to use punishment. This is all very interesting to me because I want to take my degrees and go into the corrections system. I think that if I have a good understanding of the best way to modify a prisoners behavior that will last I could really help some people. Also if I could get into a higher up position I could teach them that the punishment that is used in the corrections system be in positive punishment or negative that it works less then positive and negative reinforcement. We need to use the research that has been done in behavioral modification to revise our corrections system. That is why I was interested in punishment and also why I think that it is very important not only to me but to the country as a whole.

Terms used- Behavior modification, punishment, behaviors, punishers, punish, emit, elicit, Reinforcement, positive punishment, negative punishment, positive reinforcement, negative reinforcement

Website sources
A)http://www.uni.edu/~maclino/bm/book/sec1.2.pdf
B)http://education.purduecal.edu/Vockell/EdPsyBook/Edpsy11/edpsy11sideeffects.htm
C)https://www.ncjrs.gov/App/publications/abstract.aspx?ID=74967

Superstitious behaviors have endured centuries. In the text, it states that they begin when someone emits a behavior, and in return is rewarded with a pleasurable response. Although not every consequence after the behavior is a reinforcer, people still believe that this behavior is what caused the pleasurable consequence the first time. The consequences are varied, however, since they continue to emit the same behavior, in order to elicit the kind of response they need, the people hold the belief that the reinforcement is the consequence.

How exactly are these behaviors continued? How do people know what to do for the behaviors? This could be in a variety of different ways. One example of this is family. Throughout countless generations, the offspring has always looked to its elders in how to act, and what types of behaviors to emit. An example from my childhood is when I was younger, I was walking with my grandmother when she saw a penny face up on the road. She then told me to pick it up for good luck, but if it was tails down, then it would be bad luck. From that day forward, I have never passed by a penny that was on the road that was heads up. Good luck and bad luck I feel have different superstitions than official events.

Different events that have behaviors include sporting events, theater and showtime events, as well as special life events like child births and weddings. Some examples of these include jingling your keys for a touchdown at the local football game, not saying the word Macbeth at the theater, and not showing a baby’s reflection to them within a year after they are born. All of these are either to elicit the pleasurable consequence or to avoid an aversive consequence.

Many other superstitions deal with avoiding aversive consequences, also known as “bad luck”. Some people go to great lengths in order to elude atrocious circumstantial situations. This could be not going into work, throwing salt over one’s left shoulder after it has been knocked over, and walking around ladders when it would be easier to just go under them. One of the most famous days in the year where superstitions are pushed to the extremes is Friday the 13th. The number 13 itself has had an unlucky reputation since the beginning.

Superstitious behaviors have persevered through countless generations. They have been passed down through family members and incoming freshman alike. Learning the tricks they need to know in order to survive in this world. Many different events have different superstitions. These behaviors begin when a sometimes meaningless behavior somehow being associated with a pleasurable consequence.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Superstition
http://www.mensfitness.com/life/sports/10-most-superstitious-athletes
http://www.ibtimes.com/friday-13th-history-origins-myths-superstitions-unlucky-day-395108

Terms: superstitious behaviors, emit, elicit, consequences, varied, reinforcer, reinforcement, aversive, pleasurable

Although positive reinforcement is not a new concept for me, it is very fascinating. The idea of being able to alter behaviors by reinforcing is an important and daunting concept. I have chosen to research positive reinforcement and its connection to token economies. I am a camp counselor in the summers at Camp Tanager. This camp caters to underprivileged and behaviorally challenged children. We use a sort of token economy by giving them points for things that we deem good. I think doing research on the topic and getting a better understanding of how to make it more effective can make our camp a better tool for these children.

A token economy is an arrangement that is based on the systematic reinforcement of target behaviors. Token economies use symbols such as stickers, coins, or tallies as an exchange program for another reinforcer, or back up reinforcer (Wikipedia). The tokens are secondary or learned reinforcers because they have no value or meaning when taken out of context (Wikipedia). The back-up reinforcers need to be things such as privileges, special services, or materialistic things that have a wide range of value and desire (behavioradvisor). To have the best results immediate reinforcement is necessary. Also token economies are able to be used for shaping behavior because you can slowly progress the behaviors you reinforce in order to reach the target behavior (Wikipedia). Token economies can be very effective when trying to alter a person’s behavior.

The most important part to making an effective token economy is to be consistent and systematic. The most effective token economy is one where the target behaviors are clearly defined and there is inter-observer agreement (behavioradvisor). Each person that will be reinforcing has to be consistent with reinforcing the same behaviors. If this is not consistent then the child or whoever is being reinforced can become confused and stop doing the behavior all together (autismhelper). The target behaviors must be clearly defined and each observer should have a clear understanding of the behavior. The child or whoever is being reinforced should also have an understanding of what is expected of them to ensure that that behavior occurs (Wikipedia). A token economy along with being consistent must also be systematic and fair. The children or whoever is being reinforced should not have unexpected surprises. The system should be planned out and the reinforcers should be dealt out in a systematic manner (autismhelper). Each person should be treated fairly and everyone should be reinforced for the same behaviors to keep the consistency.

An effective token economy must have a plan to fade out the program. A token economy cannot maintain its affect if the reinforcers do not change and if the process of being reinforced does not change or become more difficult (autismhelper). If the token economy stays the same then the process will become more focused on extrinsic motivation (Wikipedia). The children or whoever is being reinforced will only focus on doing the behavior when they know they will be reinforced. They do not become intrinsically motived by wanting to do a good behavior because they know it is right but they do it in order to receive a reward. In order to modify a token economy extinction or a change in reinforcement schedule should occur (behavioradvisor). Behaviors that were previously were reinforced should no longer be reinforced or should be put on a different reinforcement schedule. The period between the behavior and reinforcement should increase so the person being reinforced should no longer expect to be reinforced but rather do the behavior because they have become intrinsically motivated.

Lastly, for a token economy to thrive everyone in involved should be enthusiastic. Those running a token economy should be enthusiastic about the process in order to get the children engaged (autismhelper). If the person running the token economy is excited about the reinforcers or is excited about the change then the children will become more excited for the process as well. Also if the students are more involved in the process then they will more likely be willing to be engaged and make the system more effective (behavioradvisor). If the children are involved in picking the reinforcers or the deadlines then they are more willing to be involved and make the changes. A more enthusiastic and fun program can lead to more change and an increase in the target behavior.

URLS:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Token_economy
http://www.behavioradvisor.com/Tokens.html
http://theautismhelper.com/dos-donts-token-economy/

TERMS: positive reinforcement, behavior, token economy, reinforcement, target behavior, reinforcer, secondary reinforcer, shaping, consistent, inter-observer agreement, extrinsic motivation, intrinsic motivation, extinction, reinforcement schedule

I have always wondered how to get my dogs at work to listen better and follow directions from their owners. So I did some research on the topic of schedules of reinforcement and which one of the two would help best in getting the dogs to cooperate with their handlers.

Also one of the key topics that we have started to look at in Behavior Modification would be the idea of schedules of reinforcement. The idea of schedules of reinforcement can be broken down into two main categories: continuous reinforcement and intermittent schedules of reinforcement. Both of these different “reinforcement schedules” play a huge role in the big picture of schedules of reinforcement.

This topic fits into the section that we have covered so far because we read the chapter on schedules of reinforcement and this idea fits in with our daily lives perfectly as college students. We need these reinforcements to gain knowledge in the school setting. When we are given a test to figure out if we are retaining any knowledge from lectures we are given kind of a hidden continuous reinforcement. For example if we studied really hard for an exam and did fairly well on it we would receive a positive grade and a positive reinforcement for that.

The topic of scheduled reinforcement excites and interests me because I never knew how much of it I actually use in my daily lives. When looking at my college career and realizing that I get reinforced so much excites me. Also I use schedules of reinforcement at home with my family and with my dogs that I train for work. So reading more about this topic got me going like females got Ted Bundy going (insert laughter here).

We know and understand that reinforcement schedules are a part of operant conditioning. Anyone can control the timing of the reinforcement to get the target behavior completed a number of times. These schedules of reinforcements can also lead to behavior extinction as we have learned about in class. The extinction process is done by trying to get to get the person or animal to stop the behavior all together.

With extinction there are also ratios and intervals that go along with the intermittent schedules of reinforcement. There are fixed-ratio/interval and variable-ratio/intervals. Anything that is fixed should be given after a fixed number of correct responses and with the variable the reinforcement should be given out only an average number of times.

Going back to the idea of operant conditioning we know that the famous psychologist B.F Skinner coined the term and used it throughout his studies with the “Skinner Box.” Skinners work was based on the work that Thorndike had done previously with the Law of Effect and the puzzle box. Skinners “Skinner box “was a lot like puzzle box but he put rats in a box and would reinforce the rat after it had given the correct response. The idea of this box was to see if the rat would continue the behavior or decrease the behavior.

Vocab: Reinforcement, Schedules of reinforcement, Variables, Fixed intervals/ratio, Variable ratio/intervals, operant conditioning, Behavior modification, Law of effect, puzzle box, skinner box, B.F Skinner, John B. Watson,

URL:

https://www.boundless.com/psychology/textbooks/boundless-psychology-textbook/learning-7/operant-conditioning-47/schedules-of-reinforcement-200-12735/

http://www.educateautism.com/applied-behaviour-analysis/schedules-of-reinforcement.html

http://www.simplypsychology.org/operant-conditioning.html

Growing up and living life just how we want is ideal right? Have you thought of what you’re actually doing? No, probably not. If you ever watch someone and wonder, “Why on earth are they doing that or acting that way?” you are most likely judging their behavior towards someone or what they are doing which is a behavior as well. We do many behaviors without realizing it. However, we also don’t do a lot of behaviors because we know they are wrong. We know this because at one point we did them and were punished for them or saw someone being punished for them. This is what I want to go more in-depth about and am choosing as my topic.
First, let’s talk about how we get trained into doing certain behaviors. When we are babies we cry and cry until our parents come and check on us and give us attention, well they are reinforcing our behavior. The process never stops with your parents. I say this because when you’re learning new things and doing things, your parents are always saying “good job” or “Keep it up” or “you’re such a smart boy/girl.” Parents are constantly reinforcing your behaviors. However, parents are also good at punishing you’re behaviors. Growing up do you remember getting in time out? Yeah, I think most of us have been there. Parents used time out, spanking, pointing at, yelling, and the worst of taking away our toys as punishers so we wouldn’t do something ever again. They were punishing our behaviors that they didn’t like and didn’t want us to do. Although our parents don’t really stop reinforcing or punishing our behaviors, more people start to do so as well.
When you first start school you go into preschool or kindergarten and start getting behaviors rewarded or punished by those teachers. In kindergarten they used the stop light colors for our behaviors of the day. If you had a good behavior all day you stayed on green and received a sticker for a weekly chart and at the end of the week you got a prize, but if you were slightly naughty you went to yellow and if you continued to be naughty and emit behaviors they didn’t want you to emit you moved to the red and got a note sent home to your parents. One not getting a prize and everyone else getting one sucks, so that’s already punishment but to also have a note sent home to your parents where you are going to get punished again sucks even more! Teachers are smart and really do not want you misbehave. Getting reinforced and punished for you behaviors by teachers and school staff doesn’t end until you are done with school and college but even more people add on to reinforcing and punishing your behavior.
Once you are old enough to have a job and earn money for yourself so you can have freedom, most people jump on that opportunity. Well now you have certain rules and behaviors you need to do to achieve in your job. Employers elicit certain behaviors from us by setting rules and standards for us to obey pretty much.
This is a continuous process that we go through are entire life. Also a process we continue without realizing it to our kids, students and ect. People sometimes uses things to reinforce our behaviors or use things to punish our behaviors. They add something desirable to make it positive reinforcement or take something desirable from us to make it positive punishment. However, they can also add something that is undesirable to punish us as well.

Terms:
Punishers, emit, punishment, reinforced, punished, reinforcing, punishing, behavior, elicit, reinforce, punish, desirable, positive, reinforcement, positive, punishment, undesirable
Sites:
http://www.interventioncentral.org/behavioral-interventions/schoolwide-classroommgmt/critters-rewarding-positive-behaviors
https://www.polk-fl.net/parents/studentservices/documents/psnrewardingbehavior.pdf
http://www.smartclassroommanagement.com/2011/03/05/rewarding-students-for-good-behavior/
Kind of fits but goes against the rewarding system however it states how students are rewarded
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LgZz0zmFo4A
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UeM7685XG9s

I chose to focus my research over cultural differences in punishment. After reading about this in section 2.3, I thought it would be interesting to look over. As a psychology and communication major, I’m always attempting to understand how we understand the human mind and how communication, experiences, and biology all play a roll in understanding the human mind and how we communicate with each other. I’m constantly thinking about circumstances and so I thought it would be of use for me to research cultural differences in behavior modification- specifically punishment.
Some of the main themes I found throughout my research was the fact that there is immense diversity in punishment not only across cultures, country wise, but also across cultures within our own borders. I was reading an article that listed 10 strange punishments and the first was discussing punishment in China where teachers were using kneeling on frozen peas as positive punishment (adding an aversive punishment for a bad behavior). In the same paragraph, it discussed parents in Florida who punished their son by forcing him to kneel for 9 hours straight for 10 days in a row. It’s always important to remember when talking about culture that some people’s behaviors might seem bizarre or radical, but there are strange and crazy things that happen in our own state and we can’t just jump to the conclusion that “Oh my gosh, they’re NUTS.” Yes, in a sense they are, but they are a combination of their genes and their environment and that leads to certain behaviors that might seem incredibly out of the ordinary. Another theme I found was that boys tend to be punished more than girls. Two of the articles I found hit on this point. They both concluded that boys are expected (socially conditioned to believe) to be more aggressive in general and thus are given more punishment to curb that kind of behavior. Another theme I found was that punishment in general seems to be a negative solution to behavior modification. We’ve talked a lot about this in class, but I found Skinner’s opinions to be well supported by my findings and I found it very interesting that punishment is just a negative option in general.
The issues here are pretty obvious. First off, there’s gender discrimination with boys receiving more punishment than the ladies- some would argue that that isn’t really an issue and that this shows how progressive America is. But, I would definitely disagree with those individuals. I don’t think that girls should be punished any less than guys. I think the type of punishment could vary, but it almost makes it seem like girls can’t handle being punished and that’s just not true in my opinion. It’s obvious as well that punishment isn’t the best solution and finding ways to use positive and negative reinforcement to encourage and discourage behaviors is the way to go when attempting to punish. Another problem I saw that wasn’t an overarching theme was the issue of too much punishment. An article I read about a Romanian institutionalization discussed some of the severe punishments that took place in correctional facilities. These included both emotional and physical severe punishment. It’s also clear from the list of crazy punishments that sometimes punishment is taken way too far and there’s absolutely no need for that. One article I read said that children who were punished often mild to severe tended to adjust to being severely punished and don’t even recognize punishment as punishment anymore. It simply becomes routine and in some cases, a reinforcer.
To curb these poor quality behavior modifications, I think it’s important for psychologists and therapists as well as anyone with a psych degree to inform those around us about how to use reinforcement and schedules of reinforcement to change poor behaviors and to elicit certain responses in certain situations where a behavior is desired.
TERMS: punishment, behavior modification, positive punishment, aversive, positive and negative reinforcement, Skinner, reinforcer, punisher, genes, environment, schedules of reinforcement, and elicit.
http://www.sciencedirect.com.proxy.lib.uni.edu/science/article/pii/S014521341300183X?
http://link.springer.com.proxy.lib.uni.edu/article/10.1007/s10896-013-9574-1/fulltext.html
http://listverse.com/2014/02/04/10-insanely-bizarre-school-punishments/

*Please ignore my last post. The format got messed up when I copy and pasted the document. Please read this one instead, thanks.*

Spontaneous Recovery

The topic that I am interested in and I have chosen to do more research on is spontaneous recovery. This topic is related to Behavior Modification because we have discussed it in section 2.4 of our reading and I have written notes about it. I am interested in this topic because it is a principle that I have experienced before in my daily life and will most likely come across again in the future.

First off, spontaneous recovery is the random emergence of an emitted behavior or conditioned response after it has been previously extinguished. Sometimes an organism will emit a target behavior even after they realize that it does not lead to reinforcement anymore (extinction). This is likely due to the context of the history of reinforcement for the organism.

The following is an example of how spontaneous recovery has occurred in my life. Over this past summer, I had watched a lot of movies I rented from my local movie rental store. I would always go and be reinforced with receiving the movie I wanted. The antecedent was the movie rental store, the behavior was renting a movie, and the consequence was watching the movie. One day I went in the store and went to find the movie I wanted to rent. It turned out that there was only one copy of the movie and it had already been rented. For the next couple days I would just stop into the store to see if the movie I wanted was back in stock and it wouldn’t be. After doing this for a few days and not experiencing reinforcement towards the movie rental, I then experienced extinction. About a week later, I experienced spontaneous recovery because I stopped back into the movie rental store to check if they had the movie I previously wanted.

Spontaneous recovery can happen in a variety of different contexts. It has happened in my life in many different ways, and through research on this topic I’ve learned it happens to animals too. I have found a YouTube video illustrating spontaneous recovery, which is just one of four phenomena in classical conditioning. It talks about it during (4:41-5:21) in the video (citation A). It represents how spontaneous recovery can also happen to animals, not just people. I have learned more about the association of spontaneous recovery and classical conditioning by reading citation (B). I have also brushed up on some information in section 2.4 of our book regarding spontaneous recovery. Within classical conditioning there is an unconditioned stimulus (US) and an unconditioned response (UR). After a neutral stimulus has occurred, the US becomes a conditioned stimulus (CS) and the UR becomes the conditioned response (CR). Spontaneous recovery is the random appearance of the CR after extinction has occurred.

Something interesting I learned while researching this topic was how it only involves reinforcement and not punishment. An organism will continue emitting a behavior when it gets reinforced and after a while it may stop being reinforced; which is referred to as extinction. The behavior that they are emitting is not stopped because it is being punished, rather it has simply stopped being reinforced. Spontaneous recovery is also related to reinforcement in the fact that when the organism experiences spontaneous recovery, they are always hoping to experience reinforcement, not punishment. Spontaneous recovery can sometimes be confused with extinction burst however. Extinction burst occurs when the organism tries for reinforcement immediately after extinction a few times, whereas with spontaneous recovery there is a gap of time in between the extinction and attempt for reinforcement. This is the conclusion I have come to after reading citation (C). After researching further on this topic, I feel I have become very well informed about not only spontaneous recovery, but other relative terms and concepts that are also used in our Behavior Modification class.

Website sources:
A) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qaOC_3KA3P8
B) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Classical_conditioning
C) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extinction_(psychology)

Terminology used: spontaneous recovery, emit, conditioned response, conditioned stimulus, unconditioned stimulus, unconditioned response, extinguished, target behavior, reinforcement, extinction, antecedent, behavior, consequence, punishment, classical conditioning, extinction burst.

While recalling the wide range of information we have covered regarding behavior modification, topography and function of behavior really caught my attention. I wanted to apply these concepts to relevant situations in my life, so what I came up with was the topographical and functional differences of behavior across cultures. I am very interested in this study due to the fact that I studied abroad in Spain for a semester, then lived in Genval, Belgium for 3 weeks. I also have 7 residents on my floor, (I am a Resident Assistant) from various countries such as Brazil and France. While communicating, there are many differences topographically and functionally, all of which I need to be wary of while communicating verbally and non-verbally. We have discussed topography vs. function of behaviors in a couple of sections including section 1.3, 1.5, and section 2.1 both in the reading and during class.

To change a behavior, we first need to know the intent behind the behavior. In different cultures, different gestures or behaviors can have significantly different meanings, which is a topographical difference. Topographical differences look the same, but have a different function. For example, one young lady gave the Long Horns hand sign while in Europe, where this hand gesture carries a much different meaning. Although the hand sign is the same both in the U.S. and in Europe, in the U.S. it is a sign of dedication to the Long Horn football team. In Europe, it is a sign of your significant other being unfaithful to their spouse. Functionally they have nothing in common. To understand the intent of the sign, means you can then begin to change the behavior; you know what you are changing. Here we are extinguishing the use of the Long Horn hand sign.

We not only need to look at the topography of a behavior, but functionality of a behavior is very important as well. While studying abroad, many students have trouble with knowing how to greet others in different cultures. This is a prime example of the function of a behavior. When emitting the behavior of greeting another person, a greeting means the same thing, but it can look very different from person to person. There are also a variety of greetings in different contexts. In Samoa, a ‘ceremonial greeting’ looks completely different than their ‘malo greetings’. We need to be open to all types of greetings.

When I studied abroad in Spain I had an already established behavior of hugging others when seeing a good friend, or shaking someone’s hand when meeting them for the first time. These were constantly reinforced as behaviors I should emit in the given circumstance. The consequence of these behaviors were mostly reinforced strengthening each behavior. When I went to Spain, these behaviors went through variability and then were quickly extinguished due to the disruption of operant behaviors. I would see someone I knew, which set the stage for me to instinctively hug them, (operant behavior) and my behavior of hugging the other person was cut off due to them going to kiss my cheek instead. I went through spontaneous recovery if I had been around my American friends more than my Spanish friends. I would begin to hug everyone again instead of giving kisses on the cheek. Through Law of Exercise, by the end of my stay in Spain, kissing became the ‘norm’ of greeting others. Functionally, greeting with a kiss and greeting with a hug carry the same meaning, but they look very different.

We can tell that the environment in which you are in plays a large role in the topography and function of a behavior. Some are appropriate while others are not.

It is great to be able to associate actual terms with the different aspects of greetings. I often find myself evaluating my actions topographically and functionally when talking to others, especially those from other countries. Many times I use the thumbs up hand sign when speaking to my Brazilian residents and have used the okay sign…I come to find out later that the okay sign means something completely different to the Brazilians, (an aversive message) than in the U.S. Topography and function of behaviors are critical in our day to day life when it comes to understanding others and the world we live in. When we understand both, we can control or modify our behaviors to convey messages we intend to send.

Terms: behavior modification, topography, function, behavior, emitting, established behavior, reinforced, consequence, variability, extinguished, disruption of operant behaviors, operant behavior, spontaneous recovery, Law of Exercise, aversive

http://cecp.air.org/fba/problembehavior/necessary.htm

http://specialed.about.com/od/glossary/g/Topography-Of-Behavior.htm

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OWFPHW7BCCI

http://www.cscanada.net/index.php/css/index- for this link, I looked up ‘function of greetings’ on google. It is the first option which then leads to a PDF. This link is simply the link associated with the PDF file, not the actual source I used.

Superstitious behaviors are characterized as behaviors that become falsely associated with certain outcomes. Although most people would identify them silly and irrational, superstitious behaviors such as throwing salt over your shoulder, knocking on wood, and wearing lucky underwear to a football game are still persistent in our culture. The question is whether these actions deserve their negative stereotype. After looking at a few different sources, I have come to believe that there are many positive outcomes to superstitious behaviors.

The first time these behaviors were noted in animals was in the lab of BF Skinner. After feeding pigeons at random intervals, Skinner began to notice that the pigeons began to associate irrelevant behaviors (such as running in circles) with the retrieval of food if they happened to be emitting those behaviors during time of feeding. This discovery was important because it showed that animals are capable of superstitious behaviors as well as humans and that there is a behavioral aspect to our everyday superstitions.

I think the fact that other species are capable of superstitious behaviors supports the theory that it has an evolutionary advantage. People naturally associate certain stimuli with certain outcomes. This is evident in classical conditioning. Looking at an evolutionary standpoint, it was important for our ancestors to predict deadly outcomes after certain stimuli were presented, even if the stimuli had no actual association with that outcome. A mouse will bury and hide if he hears the bustling of the cat in the grass, even if it was most likely the wind. This was an error, but it was a smart error. There are two basic errors an organism can make; they could believe a falsehood or they could reject a truth. The mouse that rejects the truth will think that the bustling in the grass was just the wind and will be eaten by the cat. Therefore, the first error has the evolutionary advantage.

Although superstitious behaviors had an evolutionary advantage in our past, those reasons may not be as relevant in our present day world. Still, one can find many benefits to superstition. One of the most obvious examples that come to mind is superstition within sports. We hear stories about a baseball player with lucky socks and a hockey player with a favorite stick. We all know that there is no real correlation, but these behaviors still prevail. It is possible that the value of these superstitions come from the confidence and sense of control they provide. If hockey player feels more confident and more in control with his lucky stick, he is more likely to do well.

Other research supports this theory of self-control and confidence. A high amount of superstitious beliefs are more prevalent among those who feel they lack control over their lives. A study in in 2006 by Perkins and Allen concluded that people with a history of physical abuse as children were more likely to believe in paranormal. As for confidence, a study by Damisch et. al. looked at task performance while carrying out ritual superstitions, like crossing one’s fingers. What they found was that the rituals boosted the participant’s confidence and improved performance.

After look through these sources, I have found that there is a lot more to superstitious behaviors then I ever realized. I know that I will no longer think of superstitions as negatively as I once did, and I will definitely fell less silly when I carry out my own superstitious rituals.

Terms: Superstitious behaviors, BF Skinner, emitting, stimuli, classical conditioning, organism

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2615824/

http://theness.com/neurologicablog/index.php/superstitions-not-all-bad/

http://sportsmedicine.about.com/od/sportspsychology/a/superstitions.htm

For my topical blog this week I would like to talk about animal intelligence. More specifically, I would like to talk about the intelligence of dogs. Now there are many people claim that dogs are very intelligent creatures, they are not wrong. I found several articles that discuss canine intelligence relative to human intelligence. It is clear the humans are the superior species of the two, that’s why dogs are our pets. But how do canines compare to humans? It is said that dogs have the intelligence of about a two year old human, linguistically. Human children at age two know their name, when someone is talking to them, and basic sentences. Dogs are easily capable of understanding up to 250 words and gestures. It is also said that they can also do addition and simple mathematics. It is not expected that we would sit down and have a conversation with a dog as we would with a two year old, but dogs should understand what a word means after a connection has been made. This is the basic idea of reinforcement. When working with dogs I also assume that it is positive reinforcement, with food as the reinforcer because dogs will do anything for food.
According to Stanley Coren, a famed psychologist for his study on the intelligence of dogs, there are three categories for determining the intelligence of dogs. The categories are: adaptive intelligence, instinctive intelligence, and working or obedience intelligence. Adaptive intelligence refers to the canine’s learning and problem-solving ability. I relate this to what we have read about in the text with reinforcement and Thorndike’s Law of Effect. Thorndike’s Law of Effect states that when actions are followed by a positive outcome, those actions are more likely to be remembered. According to Coren, adaptive and instinctive intelligence can be measured with tests and are independent to each specific animal but working intelligence is dependent on the dog’s breed. It is because of this idea of working intelligence that it is believed that some breeds are smarter than others and there are many sites that exist with those lists. Coren used “understanding of new commands” and “obey first command” as his standards for canine intelligence. However Coren recognizes the downfalls of using this type of test as a measure of canine intelligence because it is biased toward obedience related behavioral traits and does not take into account for stubbornness of each individual animal.
There have also been studies that compare the average intelligence of dogs to the average intelligence of cats. When the older concept of larger brain equals higher intelligence was around, we thought that dogs were more intelligent than cats. However, now we know that the larger size of dogs’ brains is related to the fact that dogs are much more social than cats. Dogs also have a tendency to outperform cats on tests of IQ and intelligence. However, cats have about twice as many neurons in their cerebral cortex which means that they have a higher capacity for information processing than dogs do. Perhaps this is the reason that Thorndike used cats for his puzzle boxes rather than dogs.

http://thehydrantblog.com/2011/05/03/the-intelligence-of-dogs-the-list/
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/science-news/5994583/Dogs-as-intelligent-as-two-year-old-children.html
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/joan-liebmannsmith-phd/the-cat-vs-dog-iq-debate-revisited_b_1572610.html
Terms: reinforcement, Thorndike, Law of Effect, intelligence, positive, reinforcer

The topic I have chosen is positive reinforcement with kids in the education system. This fits into the sections we have covered so far because it is talking about reinforcement. Reinforcement has been everywhere in many of the sections we have covered. I have always found this topic very interesting. Don’t you ever wonder about the schools who are all about everyone is a winner? Or about how rough it was in your school always being a loser and never feeling encouraged or cared for because you weren’t good at sports or a suck up to the teachers? Well, I do. That is why I chose this topic. With some research and the information I already had, I put together a few key things. This includes reinforcement vs. punishment in classroom, impact of teachers, break up of intelligence, everyone being a winner, and the impact of positive feedback vs. negative feedback.

When kids in school are reinforced, their academics improve. When teachers are positively reinforcing their kids the attendance rises, grades rise, and test scores rise. The teachers don’t just reinforce them with “Good job,” but with love are care. This has lead SCF Elementary School to growing and improving their students to the best of their ability. When teachers use punishment, students will either improve or not at all. For me, I do not take punishment very well. So when in school, if I was punished, I took it hard and wouldn’t improve in the future.

When teachers expect the best of their students, the students will rise up to it due to the extrinsic value that has been put on their education. Rewarding them with stickers or little things emits the students to work hard. When kids get rewarded for little things, they tend to work harder at those little things. I remember when I was in 4th grade, I got a test back and I had a smiley face sticker. I was so happy and encouraged to work hard on the next test to get another sticker. The fact that we could only get a sticker on a test and not homework, as well as only if we did good, makes the sticker an establishing operation.

When a student is given material for class that is not their grade level, it damages their ability to try harder. Giving the students material that is of their age or grade level is exactly what they need. By lowering it to their level they will either never learn or be behind in the future. This eventually leads to the breakup of the grade into the “slower” group and the group that is ahead. This is not reinforcing to students.

By rewarding everyone for participating, so there are no losers, takes away a lot for a kid. It not only takes away the fact of learning how to lose but also of how things do not work in the real world. Everyone doesn’t get paid. Not everyone gets a house. It takes away the desire to accomplish and achieve greater for yourself. If everyone is a winner then what are the students going to do when they get into the real world where that is not true? I find this very misleading for kids. School should be a comfortable learning environment but also somewhere where kids can start to grow in preparation of the real world.

I believe reinforcement is the way to go when it comes to interacting, teaching, and basically living in general. Reinforcement not only works better in the long run but it improves you as a person in so many ways. By doing this in the classroom, it modifies the students behavior outside of the classroom. When I say this I do not think punishment should be out of the picture, but I do think that reinforcement is the best way about interacting and teaching.

TERMS: emit, reinforcement, punishment, positive reinforcement, establishing operation, behavior, extrinsic

http://www.timesunion.com/living/article/Your-best-deserve-rewards-5804798.php
http://www.presspubs.com/osceola/news/article_554810de-4e3f-11e4-af02-17a26a7cdc8f.html
http://blog.heartland.org/2014/10/education-incentives-can-help-end-low-expectations-2/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uNW05PRpPUY&spfreload=1

I am choosing to write about animal intelligence. This topic fits well into section 3.1 as it discussed Thorndike and his Puzzle Box. Thorndike’s research was based on animal intelligence and if a cat can learn to get out of a box. I’m interested in this because my family trained four Leader dogs for the Blind and it always interested me to figure out how they learned the commands. I think that most animals are much smarter than most people give them credit for, so I would like to find out. After reading and analyzing two articles and watching one video about animal intelligence, I can say I became even more intrigued and learned quite a bit. The main discovery I found was that yes, animals can learn and do learn from us! Just as the Law of Effect states, these animals are learning to emit certain behaviors. They are learning from us. Meanwhile, we are learning even more from them. We are now able to slowly understand how some animal’s minds work and teach them certain things. The slide show was interesting to be to see what different animals have learned. We always hear about cats, dogs and rats, but elephants, goldfish and crows? I never heard of a scientist using these for research! One of the articles, I read had to do with a chimpanzee throwing rocks at the people at the zoo where he was being held. This chimpanzee had an episodic memory, which meant he could remember passed events. As humans, I believe we think we are the only ones who have the intelligence to do this. In the youtube video, I found it talked about how the great apes can recognize themselves in a mirror just like we can. They ran an experiment to prove that apes can recognize themselves like us, they put a mark on their face and if they knew it was themselves they would guide a hand to the spot, but if they did not they could attack the mirror like it was another ape.

terms: animal intelligence, Thorndike, Puzzle Box, Law of Effects, emit, behaviors,
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/new-frontier-animal-intelligence/
http://news.discovery.com/animals/10-surprising-facts-about-animal-intelligence-140402.htm
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vJFo3trMuD8

APLK
The topic that I chose to do further research on for this week’s topical blog is the difference and effects of positive and negative reinforcement. Positive and negative reinforcement are two terms that are relatable to numerous behavior modifications situations. Positive and negative reinforcement are very significant terms when it comes to the explanation and the process of classical conditioning. I am interested in finding more research on positive and negative reinforcement because these are pertinent aspects to just about everything. Almost everything we do, whether we take the time to be aware of it or not, results in positive or negative reinforcement.

Reinforcement is used to help increase the likelihood that a certain behavior will occur with the delivery of a stimulus immediately after a response or behavior is exhibited. The two types of reinforcement are positive and negative reinforcement. Reinforcement procedures have often been used in children development, teenagers, adults, elderly individuals, animals, and with various different psychological disorders.

Many psychology scientists will debate that there is no need to fine the differences between positive and negative reinforcement because the two terms are so alike. Both types of reinforcement aim to increase the likelihood of a behavior to happen in the future. However, many people often confuse negative reinforcement with punishment. It is important to remember that negative reinforcement’s end result is to try to increase a behavior and has encouraging consequences, whereas the end results of a punishment procedure is aiming to discourage and decrease a certain behavior.

Positive reinforcement presents a motivating item to an individual after a desired behavior is exhibited; thus, making the behavior more likely to occur in the future. A behavior is strengthened when positive reinforcement is used by providing a consequence that an individual finds rewarding or appealing. It starts with a neutral state and ends with a positive state. Examples of positive reinforcement would include: giving a person a compliment for a good job, getting paid to do work, watching television or doing a hobby for completing your homework, giving an animal a treat for doing a trick, or getting a soda for putting money into a vending machine. Another example of positive reinforcement can be seen in B.F. Skinner’s operant conditioning experiment, which was based off of Thorndike’s Law of Effect, the “Skinner Box”. A hungry rat was placed in the box and food was dispensed when the rat pushed the lever.

Negative reinforcement is the removal of a negative stimulus following a response. The process of negative reinforcement starts with a negative state and ends with a neutral state. Some examples of negative reinforcement are scratching a bug bite, rubbing your eyes when they itch, doodling in a notebook in a boring class, studying for a test you’re nervous about, taking ibuprofen for a headache. Skinner also used the “Skinner Box” to show negative reinforcement when he gave the rat an unpleasant shock of electric current and the rat needed to press the lever to stop the shock.

Terms: positive reinforcement, negative reinforcement, reinforcement, exhibited, stimulus, punishment, operant conditioning, classical conditioning, Law of Effect, Skinner, Thorndike

http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:V36yxvLgfVgJ:www.mononagrove.org/faculty/G_Jones/Ex%2520%2B%2520%26%2520-%2520Reinforcement%2520and%2520Punishment%2520AND%2520schedules%2520of%2520reinforcement.doc+&cd=5&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us

http://nspt4kids.com/parenting/the-difference-between-positive-and-negative-reinforcement/

http://www.simplypsychology.org/operant-conditioning.html

For this assignment I chose to research the use and effects of positive reinforcement with adolescents. We discussed in reinforcement in the context that it is usually more effective than punishment due to the aversive effects and the impact it has on the feelings of the person who is being punished. Positive reinforcement is effective because it reinforces a behavior with an addition stimulus that makes it more likely that the behavior will occur again.
I chose this topic because currently in my internship I work with large groups of adolescents and youth. In my experience, I have found positive reinforcement and reinforcement in general to be more effective and encouraging with the youth I work with. Adolescents are a trickier group to find than younger children to find what types of positive reinforcement work them. I am interested to see how the use and effects of positive reinforcement differ, if all between the two age groups.

Positive reinforcement refers to an incentive that is given after pleasurable behavior to encourage the behavior to occur again. Verbal praise such as “Good job” or “I am really proud of you”, physical praise such as a hug or a pat on the back, and material treat such as toy or cookie are effective incentives for both youth and adolescent. Positive reinforcement is so effective because children regardless of age seek the approval of the adults in their lives. When you notice them emitting the target behavior, commenting on it encourages that behavior. Commenting or noticing that behavior causes the child to feel approved of and validated they will increase the desired behavior and negative behavior will be decreased. Eventually children will begin to recognize the value of their positive behavior as well their positive qualities and actions.

Positive reinforcement is highly effective with adolescence because it minimizes the lecturing that is typical with punishment. It also allows adolescents to have more freedom to make good choices and allows parents or the adults in their life to influence their behavior without monitoring everything they do. Positive reinforcement also helps to build self-esteem in adolescents. It helps adolescents to know that even when others have poor opinion of them and their behavior, their parents and other adults who have known them the longest have a good opinion of their behavior.

In the information I found there were not many differences in the uses and effects of positive reinforcement between youth and adolescents. The main difference is the type of material treats used to reinforce positive behavior. Adolescents are more likely to be reinforced by spending money or more privileges than by a cookie or toy.

Positive reinforcement is a effective technique in behavior modification. It helps to increase the likelihood of a behavior with an incentive for performing the behavior. Techniques such as verbal praise, physical praise, and material treats are incentives that work with youth and adolescents.

http://www.parenthood360.com/index.php/using-positive-reinforcement-with-teens-8998/
http://everydaylife.globalpost.com/benefits-positive-reinforcement-kids-3187.html
http://life.familyeducation.com/parenting/discipline/45283.html

I decided to research the topic of extinction for many reasons. First, I find it interesting that extinction is a form of reinforcement, not punishment, even though the consequences that result in extinction are aversive and almost always uncomfortable for all parties involved. It is aversive to the individual emitting the target behavior and it is aversive to the individuals who are extinguishing the target behavior. This leads to another reason that I find extinction interesting, the process results in an extinction burst in which the individual emits the behavior more frequently and in more varied topographical ways in order to seek the reinforcement that they desire. Finally, I am interested in this process because if an individual reinforces a target behavior during an extinction burst, then it ruins all of the progress they had made so far and the individual must re-reinforce the target behavior before they can once again begin the process of extinction.

The websites that I found while researching were very interesting because they provided other perspectives on the process of extinction than were in our chapters. In the first website the author discussed behavior that involves physical self-harm in children who are on the autistic spectrum, the example that she provided was head-banging behavior when frustrated. The author first said that we must perform a Functional Behavior Analysis (FBA) in order to identify the function of the target behavior, and once we can distinguish what the function of the behavior is, we can extinguish the target behavior while simultaneously reinforcing a different behavior that performs the same function but has a different topography. In the example that the author provided, the child had language flash cards that they would use to communicate, so when the child emitted head-banging behavior, the child was ignored, but when the child began to use the language flash cards, that behavior was reinforced by the teacher interacting with the child. In this way, the target behavior of head-banging was extinguished and the use of language cards was reinforced. The second article that I read focused more on how target behavior was previously reinforced without the person (usually a parent) being aware they were reinforcing a certain behavior. By focusing on how the behavior becomes reinforced, we can identify how to begin extinguishing the behavior.

These articles helped me to understand how to go about the process of extinction by observing and monitoring the behavior before beginning the process of extinction. It is important to understand the target behavior and what its function is before you can begin to take away that reinforcement. These points were highlighted in the YouTube clip that I found showing how the SuperNanny uses extinction to help parents realize that they were previously reinforcing their child’s temper tantrums at bedtime (thus making their bedtime routine a 2-3 hour event of screaming and crying) and how they can begin to extinguish these behaviors in a way that reinforces going to bed in a calm manner.

URL’s:
http://specialed.about.com/od/glossary/g/Extinction-Eliminating-Problem-Behaviors.htm
http://www.special-learning.com/article/extinction
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5R63JKIAOY8

Terms: extinction, reinforcement, punishment, emit, target behavior, extinction burst, topography, function, Functional Behavior Analysis

After reading the assigned sections, I am very interested in the topic of extinction. I am learning the extinction is a very aversive behavioral technique and can elicit some very negative responses. In my opinion, most people could almost consider extinction as trying to quit a behavior cold turkey. The topic of extinction has been a pretty significant part of the last few sections we have read. It is becoming clearer that the topic of extinction has many different levels and responses involved with it. The information I gathered was mainly about the difficulties involving extinction
The main responses to extinction include spontaneous recovery, aggressive behavior, and variability. All of these responses could be linked to the person’s confusion as to why they are no longer being reinforced with something that they were previously. The main difficulty involving extinction is the fact that it is not exactly straightforward and the behavior (or person’s response) comes back with a new found vengeance and is actually stronger than before. An example of extinction is seen in a YouTube clip I found from the television show Supper Nanny. The clip showed a mother attempting to extinguish her child crying when she tried to put him to bed by removing the desired stimulus of giving him attention/eye contact when he cried in his crib. This type of a response is removing something desirable so it can resemble negative reinforcement.
Relapse is very common in extinction, according to the information I found. Researchers stated that issues, such as spontaneous recovery, is a sign that the new desired behavior pattern is not being reinforced in a sufficient way. Since the need is not being met, the person results to the other, negative behavior.
I am very interest in the topic of extinction due to the fact that I work with children very often. I feel that extinction tactics are used greatly during children’s early developmental years. If extinction is not executed correctly, I have found that it makes it much more difficult to deal with the behavior. Extinction is an effective behavior modification tool, but can be very difficult to carry out successfully.
Extinction burst have been documented across a wide range of peoples’ and animals’ physiological and behavioral responses. Fighting extinction of a behavior is a natural occurrence and is very rare to not occur in the process of extinction.
Terminology Used: Extinction, Aversive, Variability, Spontaneous Recovery, Aggressive Behavior, Elicit, Reinforce, Desired Stimulus, Extinguish, Negative Reinforcement
Sources: http://gettingstronger.org/psychology/
http://education-portal.com/academy/lesson/extinction-burst-in-psychology-definition-examples-quiz.html
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5R63JKIAOY8

I chose to research the topic of punishment for a few reasons. Punishment is something we have all grown up with and experienced in many phases of our lives- potty training, preschool, elementary school, middle school, high school, college, and even the real world. But what really is the effectiveness of this method?

Punishment is defined as "any change that occurs after a behavior that reduces the likelihood that the behavior will happen in the future." Essentially, punishment is trying to completely extinguish a behavior. The two types of punishment are positive punishment and negative punishment. Positive punishment is when you add something aversive to a situation in order to decrease the frequency of the person emitting the behavior. Negative punishment is when you take away something pleasurable, so that the person is not tempted to do the behavior again when they risk that pleasurable stimulus being taken away.

The only way that punishment has been shown to be effective is through continuous reinforcement, not intermittent reinforcement. Continuous reinforcement is constant in making sure that the target behavior is reinforced every time it is completed. For example, if a dog pees in the house and you want him to stop eliciting that behavior, you have to keep punishing him every time he does it, not just occasionally. Punishment is also shown to be effective only for short term. Any behavior that has been changed by punishment is often temporary.

Punishment in schools has also been shown to be counterproductive. When being punished in schools, children tend to be afraid or avoid the person who punished them in the first place. Of course, this leads to the antecedent becoming the school, and the child may end up having a hard time going back (based on the situation). This could lead to more punishment at home for not wanting to go to school, and so on. Punishment in schools has also been shown ineffective because, after receiving a punishment, that child tends to avoid all other behaviors resembling the original "bad" behavior in order to not risk getting punished again. This simply means they are suppressing their behaviors, which is not something that most schools would actively condone.

So which is more effective? Punishment or positive reinforcement? The most important thing to consider when asking this question is, "What is the situation?". It has been shown that punishment can have a negative consequence, which may be expected. But also that positive reinforcement can be damaging if used too often. For example, if you are rewarding an employee for doing something correctly with positive reinforcement by giving them more paid vacation days, they may start to purposefully emit that behavior again and again in order to get more paid vacation, and you would be out an employee because they'd be gone so often.

All in all, punishment has not been shown to be as effective as I had initially thought. Neither form of punishment has been shown to be more effective than positive reinforcement, but positive reinforcement also was not shown to be more effective than either form of punishment.

TERMS: punishment, extinguish, positive punishment, negative punishment, emitting, aversive, pleasurable, stimulus, elicit, continuous reinforcement, intermittent reinforcement, positive reinforcement, antecedent, target behavior

http://smallbusiness.chron.com/punishment-vs-positive-reinforcement-18224.html
http://education.purduecal.edu/Vockell/EdPsyBook/Edpsy11/edpsy11sideeffects.htm
http://psychology.about.com/od/operantconditioning/f/punishment.htm

The topic I have chosen to look further into is goal setting. Personally, I set my own goals before every school year and track season so that I can focus my attention to things I would like to achieve within that year/season. For example, one goal I set for school this year was to keep up with all of my class readings (this didn’t happen) and a goal I set for track season was to clear at least 17’6” in the pole vault.
In order to set a goal, you must abide by the SMART principle. All goals must be Specific, Measureable, Assignable, Realistic, and Time measureable. In order for goals to work, you must decide what the goal is, how to measure if it is achieved, who is doing the action, state what realistically can happen, and specify when these results need to be completed by.
Goals are important in sport because they help an athlete see where they are in the present, and where they want to be in the future. It gives them something to focus their attention on and they also act as a form of motivation to continue progressing anyway they can. Within sport, there are two different types of goals. Performance goals are related to the athlete’s technique or how they perform. Outcome goals are associated with winning and losing competitions. Both forms of goals are important in helping an athlete progress, however, process goals are more important because they help lead to outcome goals.
The most important aspect of setting a goal is to make it challenging enough that you cannot complete it without plenty of hard work. If the goal is too easy the athlete or person will get bored, and if the goal is too challenging then they will get too frustrated and give up on the goal all together.
Every part of this relates back to class when we talked about reinforcement. Achieving a goal is a kind of self-reinforcement. You have set a goal for yourself, accomplished it, and give yourself some type of reward. When you look at it this way, it is a type of positive reinforcement as well. There’s a chance you told your coach, boss, parents, etc. about your goal and when they see that you have finally reached it then they will give you some type of reinforcement, whether it’s a material item or just some form of congratulations.

Terminology: behavior, goal setting, reinforcement, self-reinforcement, goal, reward,

My topic for this week’s topical blog is extinction, from the previous readings we learned that extinction is the process of stopping the reinforcement of behaviors that have previously been reinforced. This area of behavior modification was interesting to me because it seems like the problem-solving area of behavior modification, if there is a behavior that is disruptive or abrasive and has been reinforced in the past extinction is the solution to the problematic behavior. I feel that extinction is one of the most overlooked areas of behavior modification that we have covered so far, the common course of action when a behavior is abrasive is to help overcome or solve them. The result of attempting to solve such behaviors is reinforcement itself, the reinforcer could be the attention they are receiving from others or you for their behavior.
One reason why many people refuse to use extinction as a means to change a behavior is because they have to go the process of an extinction burst, which is a predictable and common blast of defiance from the recesses of brain when denied a familiar reward. Extinction burst can be unpleasant or damaging which causes a person to relapse and reinforce the behavior. A common example of an attempt at extinction that leads to extinction burst can be seen in a clip from “Supernanny” where a young child misbehaving a parent attempts to place the child in a room and ignore them, as a means to extinguish the behavior. The child in an attempt to avoid extinction will scream, cry or whimper in order to get the consequence of their parent’s attention, eventually the temper tantrum will die down and the behavior will be extinguished. My source from “canine university” explains that the worst thing you could ever do is give in to a temper tantrum. This goes for adults too, because if you spend enough time observing other people you will notice that people who are used to getting there way will start a temper tantrum immediately after you have refused their request.
A common misconception about extinction is that it is interchangeable with unlearning, often times a phenomenon known as spontaneous recovery will occur. Spontaneous recovery refers to the sudden reappearance of a previously extinct response after a delay. Because spontaneous recovery occurs people may question is extinction actually works and the answer to that is yes, but in order for a behavior to be completely extinguished you must go through the extinction procedure repeatedly, eliminating spontaneous recovery each time it occurs. My source from intropsych provides a graph for visualize the procedure of extinction and dealing with spontaneous recovery.

Terms: extinction, reinforcement, behaviors, reinforcer, behavior modification, abrasive, extinction burst, relapse, consequence, unlearning, spontaneous recovery, extinguish

Sources:
(Supernanny) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5R63JKIAOY8
http://www.canineuniversity.com/articles/training/train_31.html
http://www.thriving-child.com/blog/2010/02/3-steps-to-extinguish-unwanted-behaviors/
http://www.intropsych.com/ch05_conditioning/extinction_and_spontaneous_recovery.html

For this assignment I wanted to research Thorndike's Law of Effect and the Law of Exercise a little more in depth. I found that the Law of Effect is defined as positive outcomes that come from a behavior will become associated therefore the behavior is more likely to occur again in the future. Law of Exercise is correlated to the Law of Effect in the sense that for the Law of Exercise to hold true it must also follow the Law of Effect. The Law of Exercise can be defined as "through repetition the associates are then strengthened."
I thought that Thordike's laws could be related to eating disorders, specifically bulimia. I have been researching eating disorders for a couple years now and I find it really interesting to apply it to behavior modification. For Thorndike's laws to hold true that would mean people with an eating disorder must enjoy the behaviors associated. I found this to be puzzling because most eating disorder patients do not like to purge. I came across an article that explained that its not the purging itself that the patients enjoy is the lack of control and "feeling free" outcome that elicit them to want to commit those behaviors again. Most patients find that emitting the actual behaviors of purging to be associated with negative outcomes such as guilt, self-loathing and disgust. They feel like they disconnect from the world and almost go into an autopilot mode. This feeling of being "free" is what reinforces them to keep committing these behaviors. Law of exercise comes into play because patients with bulimia commit these behaviors pretty frequently so the repetition strengthens the association.

Terms used: Law of effect, Law of Exercise, Negative outcome, elicit, emit, repetition, reinforcement

Sources:
http://www.preservearticles.com/201102033842/write-a-brief-note-on-thorndikes-law-of-exercise.html
https://chicagobehavioralhealth.wordpress.com/tag/law-of-effect/
http://www.simplypsychology.org/edward-thorndike.html

My topic this week has a lot to do with self reinforcement and goal setting. I chose to look more into this topic because this week we set goals about drinking more water and used a reinforcement to increase the likelihood we would continue this behavior. Everyday I set goals to eat better and workout, and sometimes I find it difficult to reach these goals. So I made using reinforcement to create better workout behaviors my topic of choice this week.
I found 3 articles and blogs that researched and explained the psychology behind creating and reinforcing exercise habits.
It's simple psychology that operant conditioning theories say that if a stimulus or behavior has a positive outcome, it is likely to be repeated again. Exercise can have a very positive outcome with desirable results. But how do we get ourselves to think this way? There are multiple forms of reinforcement that can make it more appealing to an individual and will increase the frequency or likeliness of it occurring again.
Natural Reinforcement is a form of reinforcement, that you don't have to do anything to create. It is common sense to know that your body will naturally feel better with exercise. You don't have to reinforce this because it will happen on it's own. This can be very rewarding for the individual.
Like said before...the stimulus must be desirable with a positive outcome. This means, you shouldn't choose physical activities you don't like. If a workout is something you dread, then it's become a punishment, and you are less likely to keep on working out because it's undesirable and has a negative outcome. In order to emit a behavior you must elicit activities that are appealing to you.
Self-reinforcement is also a very important factor. These articles all agree that rewarding yourself, maybe with something physical, or just meditating on it can make a huge difference. They suggest that taking time after the workout to think on all they had accomplished. This self reinforcement can have a very positive outcome on the individual and can increase the likelihood of this target behavior (working out) to happen again. Physical rewards can also make a difference. For example this week when we agreed to drink 64 oz of water each day, I said that at the end of the week I would let myself drink one Dr. Pepper if I accomplished this goal. When I finally got to the end of the week and got to drink a pop, it felt like I had accomplished a lot.
These articles were very interesting and helpful in how to target workout behaviors with reinforcement to increase our habit of doing it.

TERMS: self-reinforcement, reinforcement, goal setting, behavior, operant conditioning, positive/negative, natural reinforcement, reinforce, reward, stimulus, punishment, undesirable/desirable, emit, elicit, self-reinforcement

SOURCES:
http://healthyliving.azcentral.com/reinforcement-initiating-exercise-habits-10312.html
http://www.livestrong.com/article/413525-reinforcement-for-initiating-exercise-habits/
http://www.sparkpeople.com/blog/blog.asp?post=3_psychology_tricks_to_make_your_workout_plan_stick

Topical Blog Week 7

The topic that I chose to do more research on was Ivan Pavlov and his experiments he did with his dogs. Pavlov is very famous in the field of behavioral research because he was able to condition his dogs to salivate whenever they heard a bell ring. By pairing some type of food with a ringing bell sound, the dogs were able to learn that the bell signaled the presence of food. And even when the food was taken away, the bell still made the dogs salivate. This can be seen in humans to some extent. For example, if I am hungry and someone next to me starts talking about the big, juicy cheeseburger they had for lunch – my stomach will growl and I will start to salivate. This is not a behavior that I had made myself perform, but with the graphic pictures of food now in my head, my body reacts accordingly. This is slightly different since there is no paired stimulus that is making me salivate once the thoughts of food are taken away. But I am sure that there have been more experiments done on classical conditioning and I wanted to take a deeper look into that – specifically in humans.
It seems that classical conditioning happens to us all of the time and we don’t even know it. Some cases are stronger than others, but it still happens to everyone. And there are no experimenters standing behind a big glass window, waiting to see how you will react or if behavioral learning has occurred. Sometimes these things just happen, and our behaviors are changed. The most prominent cases of classical conditioning happen in people with phobias, or people who have a strong fear for a certain thing. For example: say that you are indifferent towards snakes. You are young, you haven’t had much experience with them, and you don’t know much about them. At the beginning, snakes are an unconditioned stimulus (US). But one day you are playing in the yard and you don’t notice the gardener snake that you are about to step on. The gardener snake lunges at you, causing you to panic and be fearful towards it. The snake lunging at you is what caused the fear – so now the snake is a conditioned stimulus. You just went through classical conditioning, became conditioned to fear snakes, and you didn’t even know it!
A real life example of classical conditioning can also be seen in cancer patients that are undergoing chemotherapy. Chemotherapy is a process that is very hard on the human body and can cause hair loss and severe nausea and sickness. In doing my research I found that in some cases, the doctor will give the cancer patient licorice or some other funny tasting food before they undergo the chemotherapy procedure. After the patient gets sick, they will link the nausea and sickness to the licorice, rather than the chemotherapy. This causes the patient to stay away from licorice and other bad foods, so then they will be more likely to eat healthy.
Although there are several real life examples that happen to us without us knowing, we have also been able to see classical conditioning occur in a laboratory, research setting. John Watson was a prominent figure in the behavioral research field after Pavlov was so successful with his dogs. Watson used many of Pavlov’s ideas, but he wanted to see classical conditioning happen in humans. He wanted to see if he could condition a young child to fear a certain stimulus that he wouldn’t have found fearful otherwise. Essentially, Watson wanted to induce phobias of certain stimuli into a young human being. This experiment that Watson conducted is known as the Little Albert experiment.
Little Albert was a 9 month old child that Watson used in his experiment. Before conditioning occurred, Watson showed Little Albert many different stimuli (a stuffed bunny, a mask, a rat, etc.). Watson found that Little Albert didn’t find any of these stimuli threatening and he was rather indifferent to them all. In order to condition Little Albert, Watson would strike a large metal bar with a hammer. The sudden noise would scare Little Albert to the point of tears. So Watson began pairing the rat with the strike of the metal bar. Every time Little Albert came in contact with the rat, Watson struck the bar and induced fear. After several trials of this, the metal bar was removed. Even without the loud noise, Little Albert feared the rat. Watson had changed the rat from and unconditioned stimulus into a conditioned stimulus, and Little Albert learned to fear rats.
Obviously this type of experiment could not be done today due to ethical issues. We do not want to induce phobias into small children who would not otherwise have had that phobia. But we can be grateful that there were once psychologists like Watson who were able to conduct these experiments because it shows us that humans can be classically conditioned to behave in certain ways just like Pavlov’s dogs. This research shows us that fear and phobias can be learned – which means that we can also use this research to treat fears and phobias as well.
Systematic desensitization is a process that has been known to help people with phobias or anxiety disorders. Teachers use this in the classroom without even knowing it. For example, if a student has a fear of public speaking, and the teacher assigns the student a project that they must present to the class, this will cause the student great anxiety. But when the teacher is encouraging and the rest of the class listens intently and pleasantly, this will ease the anxiety that the student feels about the presentation. Over time (with enough speeches and presentations), the student will not fear public speaking anymore.
So we can use all of this information in two ways. The first is that we now know that classical conditioning happens to humans as well as dogs (and other animals). Even though we cannot do experiments in a laboratory like Watson did with Little Albert, we can still observe classical conditioning happening all around us. Until reading this information, I didn’t link my fear of snakes to the fact that I almost stepped on one as a child. This can be the same for children who get bit by dogs and then learn to fear dogs. These things happen to us every day, and most times – we have no control over them! But that is where the second thing comes in that we need to take from this information: classical conditioning can be reversed. If there is a person who strongly fears a certain stimulus, there are things that we can do to lessen that fear and maybe even extinguish it all together. So if you even catch yourself fearing something, pair it with a positive stimulus, and watch your behavior start to change!

URLs:
http://www.simplypsychology.org/classical-conditioning.html

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

http://psychlopedia.wikispaces.com/Classical+Conditioning

http://www.guidetopsychology.com/sysden.htm

TERMS: Ivan Pavlov, Behavior Modification, Classical Conditioning, Stimulus, Conditioned Stimulus, Unconditioned Stimulus

The topic that I decided to do some more research and exploration on was Thorndike’s Law of Effect. We just recently read about Thorndike in the last sections we were assigned to read and I found it really interesting. In many of my other psychology classes we have covered famous psychologists such as Pavlov, Freud, and Skinner, however, we haven’t covered much information of Thorndike so I thought this assignment would be a good opportunity for me to do so.
Thorndike’s experimentation on learning theories led to the development of operant conditioning in behaviorism. The large difference that is important to remember between classical conditioning and operant conditioning is that in operant condition it is all about learning about the consequences in our behavior.
Some of Thorndike’s most famous work is his use of puzzle boxes, which he created, in order to study the learning theory of cats. These puzzle boxes consisted of various levers that triggered the opening of the box. In the video, it shows what the typical puzzle box looked like. According to Simply Psychology, Thorndike placed a cat in the puzzle box, which was used to encourage the cat to escape in order to reach a scrap of fish placed outside. Thorndike would put a cat into the box and time how long it took to escape. The cats experimented with different ways to escape the puzzle box and reach the fish, which was used as a reward. However, the video mentions that Thorndike did not believe that animals were familiar with the consequences of their behavior. Thorndike figured that when the cats first entered the puzzle boxes, chance was used in order for the cats to escape. Over time, with the process of trial and error that cats became able to operate the puzzle boxes and emit the behavior of escaping the box faster than before. Thorndike used graphs in order to represent his findings of the cat’s different rates of learning.
According to Thorndike’s Law of Effect, Law of Effect, which states that behaviors that lead to satisfying outcomes are likely to be repeated, whereas behaviors that lead to undesired outcomes are less likely to recur (Net Industries 2015).” Thorndike was one of the first psychologist to believe that animals did not attribute learning off the basis of reasoning but that the animal used the process of trial and error to process the connection between the behavior and the positive outcome. Thorndike drew the conclusion that being rewarded or using reinforcement was more effective than using punishment, which related to negative outcomes, because punishment was less predictable in the animals future behavior. As Thorndike continued his study with cats and puzzle boxes he realized that the more trials the cat completed, the faster the cat was able to escape from the puzzle box which meant that the cat was producing some sort of learning curve (AlleyDog.com 2015).
Another example of using Thorndike’s Law of Effect may be when a child goes to the bathroom in the toilet while being potty trained she gets a piece of candy. However, when the child has an accident in her bed and she gets TV time taken away this aversive behavior is punished by removing the TV time she gets. Because she notices that she enjoys the reinforcement of going to the bathroom more than she does the punishment of getting the TV taken away when she wets the bed, she will more likely produce the behavior that is reinforced because she has learned that that behavior does not produce a discomforting effect.
Overall, learning about Thorndike’s Law of Effect was quite interesting. Digging into the topic deeper also helped clarify some questions that I had after reading the section in the textbook as well. Thorndike is responsible for operant learning which is a large part of psychology today and is a behavior that is produced by many of us throughout our day to day lives.

Once you are done with your post make list of the terms and terminology you used in your post.
Trial and error, law of effect, puzzle boxes, emit, reward, punishment, learning curve, reinforcement, aversive
http://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=thorndike%27s+law+of+effect&FORM=HDRSC3#view=detail&mid=4274507D18BD28F503764274507D18BD28F50376
http://www.simplypsychology.org/edward-thorndike.html
http://psychology.jrank.org/pages/372/Law-Effect.html
http://www.alleydog.com/glossary/definition.php?term=Edward%20Thorndike

I wanted to do extra research on positive reinforcement in the forms on instant gratification and impulse control. I chose to do extra research on an experiment done by Walter Michelle at Stanford University. This experiment tests a child’s self control through positive reinforcement. It is most interesting to me because I like to think about how to apply it in my work as a fitness instructor, a job which is heavily revolved around behavior change.
In Michelle’s experiment, a four year-old child is given one marshmallow and is told “You can have this marshmallow now if you want. If you don’t eat it now, if you wait until I run an errand and come back, you can have two marshmallows then.” Then the researcher leaves. This is an antecedent that sets up two behaviors, either the child can give into their impulse to eat the marshmallow right then or they can wait and be reinforced with two marshmallows in a few minutes. During the videos I watched, and in the article I read it was clear to see a few different types of behaviors the children emitted. Almost all fell into one of three behaviors. A few children ate the marshmallow immediately. Some had to distract themselves by doing other things to reduce the impulse to eat the marshmallow; in the same way a few kids touched, smelled, held, pretended to eat, doing everything they could do except eat the marshmallow. A few kids were able to sit patiently and wait for the second marshmallow. In all cases the impulse control was rewarded. The researchers used continuous reinforcement to reward the children, every time they did not eat the marshmallow they were reinforced. This study was a longitudinal study and visited the same children 14 years later. What they found was the students who had the ability to delay gratification did much better in school later on. This was also a representation of how students “did in life.” Those who had the ability to resist impulse and stay focused on what they were doing seemed to be more successful than those who did not.
I am interested in goal setting, impulse control, and types of reinforcement because they are applicable to the types of client issues I currently see as a fitness instructor and will see throughout the rest of my fitness career. This type of impulse control is extremely important in weight loss (the most common goal of many of my clients.) What this experiment showed is how important it is to set a goal that can be reinforced in behavior change. The children had to resist eating the marshmallow in order to be reinforced with more marshmallows. My clients have to emit behaviors (maybe not eating marshmallows) such as impulse control on certain foods and beverages and sticking with a training regimen in order to be reinforced with complements on their appearance, or better health. This study used continuous reinforcement as a way to keep kids focused on waiting for the second marshmallow, but I could use it to find ways to use continuous reinforcement with my clients. For example, if they don’t drink pop Monday through Friday, on Saturday they will be allowed two glasses instead of one. Assuming this is still cutting down their soda consumption, it may be an effective way to elicit a healthy behavior change, especially in the early stages of behavior modification. Also, practicing impulse control in little steps is a great antecedent for other behavior changes. If a person believes that they have the power to control themselves and their behavior, they will have a much easier time changing their behavior.

Terms: Positive reinforcement, elicited, emitted, Behavior, Behavior modification, antecedent, continuous reinforcement, rewards,

http://www.acefitness.org/prosourcearticle/5285/the-essential-link-between-emotional?utm_source=SilverpopMailing&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=ProSource-2015-02&utm_content=ProSource&spMailingID=22149997&spUserID=ODk0MTQwNDAzOTES1&spJobID=501860332&spReportId=NTAxODYwMzMyS0

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QX_oy9614HQ

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanford_marshmallow_experiment

The topic I chose to do my topical blog post and look further into is the topic of superstitious behaviors. We briefly touched on this topic in our reading in section 2.4. I am interested in learning more about this topic, because it is a behavior that I used in high school before a big event and continue to use throughout my life. This behavior can often occur without realizing you are partaking in a superstitious behavior. So what are superstitious behaviors?

Superstitious behavior are behaviors that are emitted that don't directly lead to reinforcement. These behaviors are often associated with a reinforcer or a behavior. For example, wearing the same sock for every basketball game because you believe this behavior will help you perform better or even win the game. Superstitious behavior is very common in athletes.

A well known study about superstitious behavior is researched by B.F. Skinner and his use of the Skinner box. In one experiment, Skinner studies pigeons and there superstitious behavior to receive food. In this experiment Skinner demonstrated that we are able to create superstition among animals, such as pigeons through his research. In this study, animals were put into a Skinner box that is designed to give the animal and reward (food) every five minutes no matter what the animals previous action is. The animal will begin to become superstitious. For example, if the animal picked up their right foot just as the reward is dispensed the animal will then repeat this behavior again. This will be intermittently reinforced throughout the experiment.

Doesn't superstitious behavior sound a lot like OCD (obsessive compulsive order)? How are we able to understand the difference between superstitious behavior? People with obsessive compulsive disorder have impulses to do routines over and over again. These impulses or compulsions often interfere with their everyday life. While some of the symptoms of OCD can impersonate superstitious behavior. However, according to the website, most evidence shows that there are not connected.

Terms- superstitious, behavior, emitted, reinforcer, reward, intermittently, reinforced

I chose to write about Ivan Pavlov. He has always interested me ever since I first became interested in psychology for a multitude of reasons. Firstly, he was at the forefront of classical conditioning. I am highly interested in human behavior, so logically Pavlov strikes my interest. I also like him because he had an exquisite beard and I have a fondness for Russian names. I also like that his research had enormous importance outside of psychology. Through his research, Pavlov was able to make an impact in medicine in several different ways, not only in digestion but also the nervous system as well.

As stated previously, Pavlov was initially interested in the digestive system. All he really wanted to research was salivation of dogs after having food. However, after this began Pavlov realized that the dogs would start to salivate whenever he entered the room, even if they weren't going to be fed. through noticing this, Pavlov created the science of conditioned reflexes, which we call classical conditioning today.

Pavlov continued to make headway on the subject when he realized that the dogs would start to salivate not only when they were presented food, but they would have the same unconditioned response occur when they noticed anything they could associate with food as well, such as a lab assistant. After noticing this, Pavlov decided to change his career from studying the digestive system to the study of classical conditioning.

Pavlov hypothesized that the dogs must have gone through some type of learning process when they began to salivate when they saw the lab assistant. He arrived at this assumption because previously, the dogs did not salivate when they saw the lab assistant. Originally, the lab assistant was a neutral stimulus, however, over time the assistant evolved into a conditioned response. Likewise, Pavlov tried another neutral stimulus, a bell, to test his hypothesis. Whenever the dogs would get food, Pavlov would ring a bell. Sure enough, it wasn't long before the bell would increase salivation by itself.

Further research by Pavlov and his assistants showed that these conditioned responses originated in the cerebral cortex, which acts an equalizer between an organism and its surrounding environment.

By the end of his life, Pavlov was highly acclaimed. He won the Nobel prize along with numerous other awards in both natural sciences as well as psychology. Overall, Ivan Pavlov made an enormous impact on the sciences of medicine and psychology.

http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/medicine/laureates/1904/pavlov-bio.html

http://www.simplypsychology.org/pavlov.html

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iXxhZBf_OAw

For this weeks topic, I picked to learn more about Thorndike’s Law of Effect. This fits into what we have been talking about because it is explaining why behavior is effected by the consequence. We have been learning about antecedent, behaviors, and consequences which goes along with this law. This law was also in the section of 3.1. I was interested in looking more in depth about this topic because I didn’t understand it completely when going through the reading. When the section was trying to describe it, it was also describing a couple other laws Thorndlike made too so it was hard to distinguish between them all.

After researching the internet to try and learn more about Thorndike, I found myself understanding it finally. The Law of Effect is simply when any behavior is followed by desirable consequence, it will be likely to be repeated in the future. Also, if the behavior is followed by an undesired consequence it will most likely decrease the likeliness to be continued. This eventually began the understanding of operant conditioning done by B.F. Skinner. Thorndike used cats in a puzzle box to help explain his law. He was trying to see if the behavior of the cat trying to escape would increase the time that it took the next time knowing that it knew how to get out this time. He found out that this was true among cats. Their time to escape using levers decreased ever time they repeated the behavior. Another example that I found on the internet was also about a cat. I wanted to find a different example to help myself and others to try and understand this better. This was about a hungry cat that find food and milk on a random porch every day at eight in the morning. This increased the cats behavior of continuing to go to that porch every morning. The cat got positive reinforcement from this so it increased its behavior in the future.

http://www.simplypsychology.org/edward-thorndike.html

http://education-portal.com/academy/lesson/law-of-effect-in-psychology-definition-example-quiz.html

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vk6H7Ukp6To

Terminology: Law of Effect, consequence, antecedent, behavior, consequence, undesired consequence, desirable consequence, operant conditioning, positive reinforcement

For this discussion post, I have decided to do more research on the topic of Edward Thorndike's puzzle boxes. I chose this topic because I don't remember hearing about Thorndike and his work with cats and the wooden boxes seemed to be an important aspect of his work.

Edward Thorndike is known for his work that helped to develop the idea of operant conditioning, or learning based on the outcomes of our behaviors. He believed that most learning occurred through the process of trial and error. Thorndike mostly studied cats to develop his ideas of learning. He used a wooden box, developed by Watson, that he put the cats in to study how they learned how to escape. He elicited the cats to escape the puzzle boxes with food and watched as the cats attempt various ways to reach the food through the puzzle boxes. When the cats eventually discovered the lever that would allow them to escape and reach the food, Thorndike would put them back into the box. He timed how long the cats took to escape the box both before and after they discovered the lever. In Thorndike's successful trials, the cats would learn that pressing the lever was positive reinforcement and would emit a quicker behavior of pressing the lever.

This is how he developed his idea of the Law of Effect. The Law of Effect states that a behavior that results in a positive consequence is likely to be repeated whereas a behavior that results in something negative isn't likely to be repeated.

Terms: Edward Thorndike, puzzle boxes, operant conditioning, behaviors, positive reinforcement, Law of effect, emit, elicited,

URLs:
http://www.simplypsychology.org/edward-thorndike.html
http://www.intropsych.com/ch08_animals/thorndikes_puzzle_box.html
http://psychology.jrank.org/pages/372/Law-Effect.html

For this assignment, I chose to research more about Thorndike’s law of effect. It is one of the first principles associated with learning and behavior. This fits into what we have been talking about because we have been talking about antecedents, behaviors, and consequences (and how the consequences will affect behaviors), and that is essentially what Thorndike’s law of effect is. The law of effect states that any behavior followed by a pleasant consequence is likely to be repeated, and any behavior followed by an aversive consequence is likely to be stopped. It is related to operant conditioning, which is modifying behaviors through consequences. This concept is also discussed in section 3.1 of our reading. I have decided to research more about the topic because when I was first reading about it in section 3.1 I was having a difficult time understanding exactly what it is. I also find the whole concept sort of interesting.
When he came up with his law of effect, he was conducting an experiment using cats and puzzle boxes. He put hungry cats into the puzzle boxes and timed how long it took them to escape them by pressing the lever so they could receive a food reward. He placed them in the boxes over and over again, still timing how long it took them to get out for the food. After some consecutive trials, the cats learned that pressing the lever produced a pleasant consequence (food). This pleasant consequence increased the likelihood that the cats would emit the behavior of pressing the lever to escape the box. Thorndike’s law of effect has since been applied to behavior modification to try and understand the human mind.
After researching more about this topic, I understand it a little better. I still find the entire concept extremely interesting, and I enjoyed reading more about the famous cat experiment he conducted that led him to his theory of the law of effect.

Terms: Thorndike’s law of effect, antecedent, behavior, consequence, pleasant, aversive, emit

Sources:

https://www.boundless.com/psychology/textbooks/boundless-psychology-textbook/learning-7/operant-conditioning-47/thorndike-s-law-of-effect-196-12731/

http://psychology.jrank.org/pages/372/Law-Effect.html

http://www.simplypsychology.org/edward-thorndike.html

The topic that I decided to gather more information about was extinction. The reason that I am interested in knowing more about extinction because I feel if you have a good understanding about a subject then you are able to put it to use better. You are better to understand how the behavior looks. I know that I behave in ways that others probably wish that I wouldn’t and if they can identify these behaviors to be harmful to me then I want to also know how to put it to rest. It’s connected to this section because we went over extinction in chapter 2.4 and talked about throughout other sections of the book.
Extinction is a section of operant and classical conditioning. Operant conditioning, sometimes referred to as instrumental learning, is a method of learning that occurs through rewards and punishments for behavior. It encourages the subject to associate desirable or undesirable outcomes with certain behaviors. Classical conditioning is a process of behavior modification in which an innate response to a potent biological stimulus becomes expressed in response to a previously neutral stimulus; this is achieved by repeated pairings of the neutral stimulus and the potent biological stimulus that elicits the desired response. The way that extinction works is to extract the reinforcement that is a result from an initial behavior/response. Extinction is a process where the target behavior is eliminated by withholding reinforcers. There are also unreinforced trails that would make extinction harder which would result in resistance to extinction. Along with unreinforced traits there are also factors that influence extinction of behaviors. The size of the regular reinforcer matters, if there is a large reinforcement towards a behavior than it is more likely that the extinction is going to take longer. Also you don’t ever want to reinforce that undesired behavior for any reason, even if it is delayed or partial, these can both prolong the extinction. In any cases operant or classical there can be a spontaneous recovery for extinction. So a person can start emitting a behavior without any reinforcement.
An example of extinction would be when you want to stop or have a behavior from happening. Its different from punishment because with punishment there is usually adding or losing something that is wanted. With extinction you only remove the reinforcement. So if you someone who stresses over unnecessary things then you may find what reinforces you to stress. One reason a person may stress is over doing your homework. A way to extinguish this type of stress would be by staying on top of your homework or even working ahead so there isn’t that stress at the last minute. One you get rid of the reinforcement of piled up homework that stress is more likely to go away.
Terms: Extinction, operant conditioning, classical conditionings, behavior modification, stimulus, elicit, behavior, reinforcement, emitting .
http://education-portal.com/academy/lesson/reducing-undesirable-behaviors-in-the-classroom.html
http://www.cliffsnotes.com/study_guide/Extinction.topicArticleId-25438,articleId-25348.html
http://www.class.uidaho.edu/psyc390/pdf/4-5-Extinction-and-Punishment.pdf

I decided to read up on Reinforcement and Punishment that is in Chapter 1.2 of our class text book. I am interested in doing this behavior because my brother just had a baby and I wanted to learn more on how a parent should emit positive behavior and terminate negative behaviors. As I read up more on reinforcement and punishment I found that using positive reinforcers are more likely to change a kids behavior to helping elicit the wanted behavior. Positive reinforcement works when a child receives negative consequences it is less likely to repeat that behavior again, however, if a child receives a positive consequences it encourages the child to repeat the behavior again. It is important for children to feel loved and if they receive to much negative consequences they will be more likely not to do that behavior again. This is interesting for me so I can learn how to help my nephew emit more positive behaviors, and stop him from negative behaviors. This will also help me teach my brother and sister-in-law to help the positive behaviors and limit the negative behaviors. There are a lot of good positive benefits of positive reinforcement with children as well, and will learn the wanted behavior faster.

Terms:
Positive reinforcement, punishment, reinforcers, emit, consequences, terminate, Elicit

Links:
-http://life.familyeducation.com/parenting/discipline/45283.html
-http://discipline.about.com/od/increasepositivebehaviors/a/How-To-Use-Positive-Reinforcement-To-Address-Child-Behavior-Problems.htm
-http://everydaylife.globalpost.com/benefits-positive-reinforcement-kids-3187.html
-http://www.uni.edu/~maclino/bm/book/sec1.2.pdf

In my opinion, I always think reinforcement is the best way to achieve a target behavior. In this blog I wanted to talk about target behaviors in children. Reinforcement and punishment are used in order to get a certain behavior. In some articles a found online parents used different forms of reinforcers to teach their kids to eat by their own or sleeping by their own. For example some reinforcers you may use in order tot he kid to eat is to place soft food over a high chair with a baby spoon. The baby will see all this reinforcers and will want to start reaching and eating by themselves. Also giving the baby a baby spoon and handling along his favorite food will encourage the baby to be more independent and will try to it by his own, achieving the desired target behavior. The target behavior we want to achieve should be clear, concise and objective so everyone, in this case all members of the family have clear the target behavior we want to achieve and in one way or another, be able to help. In this case the target behavior should usually be socially significant behavior that will bring benefits for the individual.



Another example in trying to achieve a target behavior is when going to sleep a certain time. Usually as a reinforced for a child to go to bed, we will use the antecedent of watching the child’s favorite program. This will emit the behavior of going to bed after the program and as a consequence this will get the target behavior of going to bed at a certain time. After a while the reinforcer may become extinct and there will not be the need of watching the program before bed and instead going to bed at the same time everyday. After this, we would have achieved our target behavior. This behavioral modification technique is very effective in many situations. Positive reinforcement can bemused everyday.Target behaviors should usually be beneficial for the individual and it usually should be pursued by reinforcers instead of punishment. Usually we need to keep in mind, punishment is used whenever we want a behavior to not be emitted again but he individual. On the other hand, reinforcement encourage the individual to perform the behavior over and over. This may involve the removal or adding of something. This is called positive or negative reinforcement.

Terms: Emit, Antecedent, behavior, consequence, reinforcer, reinforcement, punishment, target behavior, elicit, negative reinforcement, positive reinforcement.




https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XoVfF3BACvA
http://www.todaysparent.com/family/parenting/how-to-raise-a-self-sufficient-kid/
http://www.parents.com/kids/sleep/tips/how-do-i-teach-my-child-to-sleep-alone/#page=3

The topic that I decided to look at is superstitious behaviors. I wanted to search this topic because it seems interesting to me. Also, I feel like I am pretty superstitious myself and I thought it would be interesting to learn why and how I am like that. It fits into what we have talked about so far because it's a behavior that is more or less likely to occur, because we think that the consequence occurred from that behavior, when in reality, it wasn't that at all. The consequence could be from a completely different behavior than what we think it is coming from. For example, when thinking we achieved an A on a test because we used our lucky pencil, we really got an A because we actually studied a good amount for the test. B.F Skinner was the one to come up with the topic of superstitious behaviors, and used different animals to examine it. One of the main experiments and animals that he examined were pigeons. He found that by feeding them at intervals, 33% of the pigeons became superstitious. Some would nod their head a certain way, or spin in a circle, thinking that that is the behavior that caused them to receive the food. with superstitious behaviors, someone is incorrectly assuming the cause and effect of a behavior. Even if it doesn't always line up, as long as the benefit is great when it does, someone will always assume incorrectly the cause and effect of their behavior. Skinner saw that this kind of behavior is very evident in everyday human behavior. Some more than others, but it is aways noticeable. This is kind of like causality versus correlation. We cannot assume causality just because there is a correlation and we cannot assume that a behavior caused an effect just because there is a correlation between the two or because it happens every once in a while. Everyone has some sort of superstition. Fans, sports teams, athletes, parents, politicians, and many more. Sports fans, for example are very superstitious. So many superstitiouns have to deal with coincidence. Someone did a behavior once, and something that they desired happened. From now on they will continue that behavior because they believe that that is what really made the behavior to occur. Some athletes have to wear certain clothing, not wash certain clothing, and other things to give them good lucky for a game. Even something as simple as crossing your fingers is superstitious. Skinner believed that humans, as well as animals have superstitiousns. They can easily be created and they are hard to get rid of. This was a very interesting topic for me to learn about and I am excited to talk about it more.

Terms: Superstitious behavior, superstitious, behavior, consequence, cause, effect, Skinner, causality, correlation

Links:

http://www.psychologistworld.com/superstition.php

http://rspb.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/276/1654/31

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rcNi_Ux6yrc

I decided to do my topic about extinction burst. I think that this was one of the first things we talked about in class and it was mentioned in section 2.4 not too long ago when we covered that. We have mentioned it in class in detail and in passing, I just think it is something that everyone has done before and is really helpful to know about. Personally before this class, I didn’t have a name for this action but I did it all the time. I know what it is now and I still do it all the time! Even when I know that isn’t how it works and I still fall victim. I thought it would be interesting to look into deeper into this topic and maybe find some understanding.
What is an extinction burst? It is an side effect from extinction. It is when you stop delivering a reinforcer. I find this the most common with old phone chargers that the wiring has done bad, when it doesn’t start to charge, I move it around and try to find that spot that charges it still and get really mad. I should know it just isn’t going to work it has stop delivering a reinforcer and reinforcement by plugging in the charger it puts juice into my phone. I do this with other things.
A great example is when a child throws a tantrum (it seems like adults can also do this but in this case we are talking about children). The primary reason that the child emits a tantrum is so that they can get attention from their mom, dad, or caregiver. When whoever reacts to the children, they are reinforcing the tantrum and increasing the frequency of it happening again, now what happens when they don’t react? That is when the extinction burst comes in. The child sees that they are not getting reinforced by the parent so they think, “I need to try harder.” It gets worse at this point! After awhile the child will see that this isn’t working but it doesn’t happen over night.
Well how do they stop? I found some tips that talk about this. First, we need to have knowledge about the burst. If we know it may come (in the case of a drug user who is going cold turkey or smoke even). Looking back at the child example, as a parent we could saw the child is going to try harder now that they do not have their attention that they want and they will increase the frequency of the tantrum. If we are able to see it coming we can prepare for it. Second, is that your body is seeking to have a need filled by the burst. I think this is why we get headaches when we don’t have caffeine when we normally do. We are just used to be reinforced that way and it is hard to stop. Third, it is important to have goals so that we can reward ourselves on the way to the bigger goal or just to stopping a behavior. A burst can happen when something emotionally or physically needed is unmet. If we reward ourselves than I think this is less likely to happen but it is also natural in some sense.

Terms: extinction burst, extinction, reinforcer, reinforcement, emit,

Links:
http://www.webpages.uidaho.edu/psyc390/pdf/4-5-Extinction-and-Punishment.pdf
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/03/12/938466/-The-extinction-burst
http://tappingqanda.com/2015/01/getting-past-the-extinction-burst/

I decided to pick the topic of schedules of reinforcement. At first we had just learned about continuous reinforcement, but quickly we were taught that a reinforcer can be made so strong that it is not required to reinforce a target behavior every time that the behavior has been completed. Changing up when a desirable behavior gets reinforced is what schedule of reinforcement deals with. When the behavior is not reinforced every time, it is called intermittent reinforcement. There are several different types of intermediate reinforcement and they are:fixed interval, variable ratio, fixed ratio, variable interval.

The term ratio stands for the number of times the desirable behavior is emitted, where as interval stands for the amount of time that passes between each reinforcement. It is very simple to make use of these terms and can highly benefit you since it can prove to be much easier and less time extensive to use these methods instead of the basic continuous reinforcement. In one of my links, a 7 year old girl is even able to accomplish the task of using variable interval to train crows to bring her "gifts". To decide on what method you want to use you just have to decide if you want to reinforce the subject on a set number of trials, such as rewarding the behavior every 5th time it is completed, or if you don't want to have to deal with remembering if your dog has shook hands 4 or 5 times, then you could reward the behavior at random.

I think that variable interval is probably the best course of options that I'd implement into my daily life. With variable interval, there is usually a good deal of time in between reinforcements, while the subject is attempting to complete the desirable behavior. The variable part of variable interval would switch it up enough so that the subject cannot anticipate exactly when it will be reinforced. This makes the subject want to continue to complete the desirable behavior until it is finally reinforced.

Skinner was able to show that, especially, variable interval was successful at training someone to elicit a particular behavior. He showed this in several extreme cases, one where a pigeon would peck numerous times on a bar, that would drop some grain every now and then. Once the pigeon figured out that if he pecked at this bar enough, that every now and then a bit of grain would fall down, making the pigeon happy. This eventually lead the pigeon to peck hundreds of times at the bar without ever having to be reinforced. Intermittent reinforcement is almost like subliminal mind control it is so powerful.

These methods can make life much easier for you. With continuous reinforcement, it takes a great deal of time and the subject can quickly become saturated with your never ending rewards. Where as intermittent reinforcement usually keeps the subject guessing as to when the reinforcer will come, making them keep attention and continue to attempt to do what is wished. As well as making it pretty difficult to saturate the subject because of the longer time in between the reinforcers. Once your understanding of these methods is complete enough, you will surely be surprised as the ease to which you can manipulate the people whom surround you.

Terms:Schedules of reinforcement, intermediate reinforcement, Continuous reinforcement, target behavior, desirable, saturated, fixed interval, variable ratio, fixed ratio, variable interval, emitted, elicit.

Links:http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-31604026?ocid=socialflow_facebook
-http://psychology.about.com/od/behavioralpsychology/a/schedules.htm
-https://www.boundless.com/psychology/textbooks/boundless-psychology-textbook/learning-7/operant-conditioning-47/schedules-of-reinforcement-200-12735/
-http://www.educateautism.com/applied-behaviour-analysis/schedules-of-reinforcement.html

The topic that I decided to research more is schedules of reinforcement. This topic was discussed in class and also in our reading in section 2.5. Schedules of reinforcements are related to behavior modification because reinforcement is one of the ways of changing behavior. Basically, behavior modification can not be behavior modification without schedules of reinforcements. Reinforcement is a constant in our everyday life and we discussed that in class today. Whether it is a smile or a piece of candy, there is reinforcement everywhere. Also, schedules of reinforcement help make our society work because all jobs work on some sort of reinforcement schedule.
After today’s class about schedules of reinforcement, I decided that I wanted to learn more about what worked better in certain situations and how it works. I think that it will beneficial to know more about schedules of reinforcement because they are such a big part of society and especially about how people’s motivations tie into working. I plan to be in a position of employment where this knowledge could be very handy.
The concept of schedules of reinforcement started with BF Skinner and research he was doing with rats and operant conditioning. The particular experiment that Skinner was doing would reward the rats with a pellet every time they pressed the lever. He was making his own pellets so one day he realized that they had run out and the rats were being deprived and he predicted that this would decrease the amount of times the lever was being pressed. In actuality, he was wrong. The rate at which the rats emitted pressing the lever increased.
There are many different ways that you can vary the schedule of reinforcement in order to elicit the subject’s behavior. The first is continuous reinforcement which is when the behavior is reinforced every time it is emitted. This is best to use in the beginning stages of training the subject. The example we discussed in class is when a toddler is learning to potty train. At first it is necessary for them to learn what the target behavior is and how to receive the reward. The problem with continuous reinforcement is that the behavior can become extinct when the reinforcement does not have a desired effect. Another way that schedules of reinforcement can work are by partial reinforcement. There are four types of partial reinforcement and they are fixed ratio, variable ratio, fixed interval, and variable interval schedules. These are all set up differently in order to obtain and maintain differences in the intensity in how the subject performs. These are the types of schedules that most working individuals are under in their daily lives.
Each situation is going to need a specific reward and schedule of reinforcement that best fits. In the world that we live in today, it is not uncommon that there are multiple schedules of reinforcement that occur at any given time. For example if a waitress gets a set paycheck every other week for the amount of hours that she put in that week than that is fixed ratio. Let’s say she also gets tips from the customers and this depends on the cost of the meal, the type of customer, and the service that she provided. This would be variable ratio which shows that two can work for the same person and the same job.
The articles that I read were nice because I learned a little bit about how schedules of reinforcement came into existence. Also, I learned a little bit about the ways that the schedules vary and how that depends on the situation. Overall it was nice to research this topic and add to my knowledge that I received from reading.
http://users.ipfw.edu/abbott/120/Schedules.html
http://psychology.about.com/od/behavioralpsychology/a/schedules.htm
http://life.familyeducation.com/dogs/pet-training/47297.html

Terms: fixed ratio, variable ratio, fixed interval, variable interval, target behavior, continuous reinforcement, emitted, elicit, operant conditioning, reinforcement, schedule of reinforcement

The topic that I chose to research on is classical conditioning. Classical conditioning relates to the material we learned in section 3.2 of the book as it discusses Ivan Pavlov’s key findings in this theory. I am interested in this topic because I want to learn more about how classical conditioning applies to animals, as well as, humans.

Classical conditioning was proposed by Ivan Pavlov. It is defined as a form of learning in which a subject responds to a previously neutral stimulus by continually pairing it with an unconditioned stimulus that elicits the desired response. For instance, a person may set an alarm to go off at the times that they need to take insulin. Eventually, the alarm will no longer be necessary, and the person will remember to watch a clock for the times that insulin needs to be taken.

Pavlov conducted experiments with his dogs using the classical conditioning method. During his research on the physiology of digestion in dogs, Pavlov noticed that the dogs in the experiment began to salivate in the presence of the lab technician who normally fed them, rather than simply salivating in the presence of food. Pavlov called the dogs' anticipated salivation, psychic secretion. From his observations he predicted that a stimulus could become associated with food and cause salivation on its own, if a particular stimulus in the dog's surroundings was present when the dog was given food.

Similarly, a study with rats was carried out by John Gracia and Bob Koelling. They noticed the development of conditioned taste aversions. They observed how rats that had been exposed to a nausea-causing radiation developed an aversion to flavored water after the radiation and the water were presented together. The radiation represents the unconditioned stimulus and the nausea represents the unconditioned response. After pairing these two, the flavored water is the conditioned stimulus, while the nausea that formed when exposed to the water alone is the conditioned response.

Through my research, I found that classical conditioning is not only restricted to animals but, it can also be applied to humans as well. A study conducted by John B. Watson involved a nine month old infant, Little Albert, who was tested on his reactions to various stimuli. Watson showed Little Albert a white rat, a rabbit, a monkey and various masks. Albert showed no signs of fear to these stimulus. However, when a hammer was struck against a steel bar behind his head, the sudden loud noise would cause little Albert to burst into tears. When Little Albert was over 11 months old the white rat was presented and seconds later the hammer was struck against the steel bar and he would burst into tears. Eventually, little Albert only had to see the rat and he would immediately cry.

Besides this, classical conditioning can be applied in clinical settings. Some therapies use classical conditioning to reduce undesirable behaviors. Classical conditioning is used in aversion therapy to reduce undesirable behaviors. In aversion therapy, an aversive stimulus is paired with an unwanted or undesirable behavior, in hopes that the target behavior will be extinct. For instance, an alcoholic may be given a drug that makes him extremely ill when mixed with alcohol. In this way, the individual will associate alcohol consumption with intense illness and will reduce drinking behavior.

Terms: classical conditioning, elicit, unconditioned stimulus, neutral stimulus, psychic secretion, aversion, unconditioned response, conditioned stimulus, conditioned response, undesirable behavior, extinct, target behavior, stimuli.

http://psychology.about.com/od/behavioralpsychology/a/classcond.htm
https://www.boundless.com/psychology/textbooks/boundless-psychology-textbook/treating-psychological-disorders-19/treatment-approaches-98/classical-conditioning-in-behavioral-therapy-374-12909/
http://www.simplypsychology.org/classical-conditioning.html

For this assignment I wanted to research Thorndike's Law of Effect and the Law of Exercise a little more in depth. I found that the Law of Effect is defined as positive outcomes that come from a behavior will become associated therefore the behavior is more likely to occur again in the future. Law of Exercise is correlated to the Law of Effect in the sense that for the Law of Exercise to hold true it must also follow the Law of Effect. The Law of Exercise can be defined as "through repetition the associates are then strengthened."
I thought that Thordike's laws could be related to eating disorders, specifically bulimia. I have been researching eating disorders for a couple years now and I find it really interesting to apply it to behavior modification. For Thorndike's laws to hold true that would mean people with an eating disorder must enjoy the behaviors associated. I found this to be puzzling because most eating disorder patients do not like to purge. I came across an article that explained that its not the purging itself that the patients enjoy is the lack of control and "feeling free" outcome that elicit them to want to commit those behaviors again. Most patients find that emitting the actual behaviors of purging to be associated with negative outcomes such as guilt, self-loathing and disgust. They feel like they disconnect from the world and almost go into an autopilot mode. This feeling of being "free" is what reinforces them to keep committing these behaviors. Law of exercise comes into play because patients with bulimia commit these behaviors pretty frequently so the repetition strengthens the association.
This type of association can be seen in everyday life such as studying for a very big test. Studying is not something we like to do but we continue to study because we want to get a good grade. Although the grade is not enough of a reinforcer for some, sometimes it’s their parent’s praise when they get a good grade. This is also seen with most part time jobs. Many people don’t partially enjoy working at a fast food restaurant or as a sales associate but we continue to work these types of part-time jobs because of the money that reinforces the behavior.
Terms used: Law of effect, Law of Exercise, Negative outcome, elicit, emit, repetition, reinforcement, reinforcer
Sources:
http://www.preservearticles.com/201102033842/write-a-brief-note-on-thorndikes-law-of-exercise.html
https://chicagobehavioralhealth.wordpress.com/tag/law-of-effect/
http://www.simplypsychology.org/edward-thorndike.html

I chose to write about Pavlov and his classical conditioning vs Skinner and his Operant conditioning.

Pavlov was a Russian psychologist that focused on classical conditioning. Pavlov discovered what will become known as classical conditioning through studying the salvation glands of dogs. Pavlov noticed that the dogs would begin to salivate before food was even presented, either from the presence of the person who distributed the food or a bell from the food dispensing machine. How did this come to be? Through classical conditioning of course. classical conditioning is a process of behavior modification by learning a behavior through association. This means that a stimulus in the environment (Unconditioned stimulus) has produced a behavior/response which is unlearned (salivating) and therefore is a natural response which has not been taught. For Pavlov, the bell is soon to be the conditioned stimulus, the food was the unconditioned stimulus and salivation was the unconditioned response but is taught to be the conditioned response. The dogs were taught to associate the bell with food and through classical conditioning the bell becomes the conditioned stimulus.

Skinner is known as the father of operant conditioning, however his work was based on Thorndike's law of effect. Skinner was also an inventor, he invented all of the equipment he used including the operant chamber. In the operant champers Skinner would place pigeons or rats to learn behaviors through operant conditioning. Operant conditioning is a method of learning through rewards and punishments for behavior. The last link does a very good job of explaining the process, "Through operant conditioning, an association is made between a behavior and a consequence for that behavior". For an example, when we try to teach dogs tricks we reward the dog with a treat for performing a behavior. Similarly if we wish to extinguish a behavior we will punish a dog for a behavior like pooping on the carpet. Even though reinforcement will be more effective to change a behavior than punishment for a behavior.

Classical conditioning vs operant behavior. The easiest way to identify operant conditioning from classical conditioning is to determine if the behavior was voluntary or involuntary. classical conditioning involves association of a stimulus with an involuntary response. Operant conditioning involves voluntary behavior being directly rewarded. Both are used today by teachers, parents, trainers and psychologists. Both are very effective at teaching behaviors, as for which is better? It would have to depend on this situation.

http://psychology.about.com/od/behavioralpsychology/a/classical-vs-operant-conditioning.htm

http://www.simplypsychology.org/classical-conditioning.html

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

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

The topic I chose to do my topical blog post 7 on and look further into is the topic of superstitious behaviors. We briefly touched on this topic in our reading in section 2.4. I am interested in learning more about this topic, because it is a behavior that I used in high school before a big event and continue to use throughout my life. I also know that many other student athletes participated in various superstitious behaviors before a big sporting meet/game.
This kind of behavior can often occur without realizing that we are partaking in a superstitious behavior.
Superstitious behaviors are behaviors that are emitted; however, they do not directly lead to reinforcement. These behaviors are often associated with a reinforcer or a behavior. For example, wearing the same sock for every basketball game because you believe this behavior will help you perform better or even win the game. Superstitious behavior is very common in athletes. Superstitious behaviors are widely used throughout the sports world before games and even during a game. It can be difficult to understand the differences between rituals, superstitious behaviors, and obsessive-compulsive disorder.
In order to fully understand what superstitious behaviors are we need to understand the difference between rituals and superstitious behaviors. A ritual is any act or practice regularly repeated in a set detailed manner for relief of anxiety. When an athlete or any person performs a ritual, we are implying that they are emitting behaviors solely on the basis that it will improve their performance. For example, athletes may have pasta the night before a game because they believe that it will lead to a win. However, superstitious behaviors are created only after successful reinforcement. After an athlete has been reinforced, Thorndike’s law and effect comes into play. This states that when certain behaviors or responses are emitted and followed by a desirable outcome, positive reinforcement, that this association is then stamped in or strengthened in the individual’s mind. Therefore in the case of an athlete, they may emit a certain behavior repetitively because it led them to reinforcement in the earlier. The law and effect also states that if an emitted behavior leads to an unsuccessful outcome, undesirable outcome, they will be stamped out. In this case a superstitious behavior could be broken and will not emitted anymore by that athlete. Superstitious behaviors will continue to be used throughout the sports world. Personally for me, I enjoy participating in superstitious behaviors. I like to think it will bring me “luck” before a big event, even though I know that the superstitious behaviors I partake in don’t have anything to do with me being successful in the event.
Another topic that we need to comprehend so we can fully understand what superstitious behaviors are is what the difference between superstitions and obsessive-compulsive disorder is.
Some superstitious behavior can make someone wonder if they have obsessive-compulsive disorder, otherwise known as OCD. Individuals diagnosed with obsessive-compulsive disorder have impulses to do routines over and over again. An example of a superstitious behavior that would be questioned as being obsessive compulsive disorder instead would be counting the number of times a person were to tap a ball. Obsessive-compulsive disorder interferes with an individual’s everyday life. Even though some symptoms of obsessive-compulsive disorder can mimic superstitious behaviors, most evidence would indicate that there is actually no connection between these two types of behavior.
One famous psychologist that is known for researching superstitious behaviors is B.F. Skinner. B.F. Skinner and his use of the Skinner box research is a well-known study about superstitious behavior. In one experiment, Skinner studies pigeons and there superstitious behavior to receive food. In this experiment Skinner demonstrated that we are able to create superstition among animals, such as pigeons through his research. In this study, animals were put into a Skinner box that is designed to give the animal and reward (food) every five minutes no matter what the animals previous action is. The animal will begin to become superstitious. For example, if the animal picked up their right foot just as the reward is dispensed the animal will then repeat this behavior again. This will be intermittently reinforced throughout the experiment.

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

Terms- superstitious behavior, behaviors, emitted, reinforcement, reinforcer, Thorndike, Law and Effect, responses, positive reinforcement, B.F. Skinner, reward intermittently, reinforced

URLS:
http://psychologydictionary.org/superstitious-behavior/
http://www.webmd.com/mental-health/features/psychology-of-superstition
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7XbH78wscGw
http://www.essortment.com/superstitious-behavior-cause-cure-36002.html

Topic: Positive Reinforcement with Dogs

This topics fits into our Behavior Modification class in that it is in regard to the use of positive reinforcement in training a dog. We have covered the use of positive reinforcement in dog training in class so far this semester. We have also covered the idea that reinforcement is better than punishment due to the aversive tendencies of punishment. It is important to use the techniques of positive reinforcement properly when trying to modify a dogs’ behavior.

The reason I am interested in this topic is because my boyfriend and I have a puppy at home that has a few negative behaviors we would like to target and modify by reinforcing her good behaviors’. We would like to address the following target behaviors’ with the use of positive reinforcement: barking at us to gain our attention, jumping at the door when she is ready to come inside from the outdoors, running and jumping on us when we are sitting in our beanbag chair that is close to the ground, picking our clothes out of the laundry basket and running away with them, and grabbing and ripping apart our pillows when we are not in the room or giving her our attention.

Positive reinforcement is defined as the addition of a reward, specifically a reinforcing stimulus, following a desired behavior. The structure of positive reinforcement makes the behavior more likely to occur again in the future. When using positive reinforcement to train a dog it is important to immediately praise and reinforce desired behaviors. When a dog experiences a favorable outcome or reward after an action has occurred, that precise behavior or response will be strengthened. A reinforcer for a desired behavior could include both affection and treats and should be used consistently. It should be noted: when using treats as a reinforcer it is helpful to keep a variety of pea-sized treats available so that the dog will not become bored with getting the same treat every time. When reinforcing the target behaviors it is important to be consistent with the reinforcer in the beginning, overtime, the dog should be weaned off the reinforcer, but praise and affection should continue. It is important to never reward an undesired behavior. An example of inadvertently reinforcing an undesired behavior would be letting the dog outside for barking at noise outside, by letting the dog outside every time it barks at a noise, the dog is being reinforced for the undesirable barking behavior. The goal of positive reinforcement is to get the dog to recognize that good things come when the dog listens to commands and responds by emitting the desired behavior. Commands should not be complex; simple and specific is key.

TERMS: behavior modification, positive reinforcement, reinforcing stimulus, target behavior, desired behavior, undesired behavior, reinforcer, emitting

URL’s:
http://www.cesarsway.com/dog-training/the-basics/The-dos-and-donts-of-positive-reinforcement
http://www.humanesociety.org/animals/dogs/tips/dog_training_positive_reinforcement.html
http://psychology.about.com/od/operantconditioning/f/positive-reinforcement.htm

For this week’s blog assignment I will be taking a look at Reinforcement. Reinforcement is a vital part of behavior modification because and in my opinion is arguably a more effective way of altering behavior compared to punishment. According to Skinner’s operant conditioning theory, reinforcement is anything that increases the likelihood that a response will occur. There are two different type of reinforcement according to operant conditioning and that is positive reinforcement which is the addition of a desirable stimulus to increase the frequency of behavior and negative reinforcement which the removal of an aversive stimulus to increase the frequency of behavior. In terms of reinforcement in itself, there are two major categories and those are primary reinforcement and secondary reinforcement.

A primary reinforcer can also be known as unconditioned stimuli because it does not need a pairing with any other stimuli to function as a reinforcer. It can be considered as our instinctual motivation developed through the evolutionary process as a tool for the survival and improvement of our species. Speaking of motivation, a very important example of primary reinforcers can be seen in Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs. This is a motivational theory established by Abraham Maslow and suggests that while humans strive to meet basic needs, they continually seek to increase their needs in a form of a hierarchical pyramid. Starting from to bottom up, the five “needs” described in Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs are physiological, safety, belongingness, esteem and self-actualization. In order to satisfy the higher order of the pyramid, one must first satisfy the lower levels. Interestingly enough, the highest level which is self-actualization is not driven by deficiencies like the other four needs and is more of one’s personal desire for growth and a reinforcement for the urge of achieving human “perfection”.

On the other hand, secondary reinforcers which are also known as conditioned stimuli are reinforcers that require an association with a primary reinforcer to become reinforcing. This is when reinforcement can be put into practical use through experiments and tests to see its effectiveness in behavior modification. One of its most famous uses is seen through clicker training for dogs. The clicker in this context can be considered as the conditioned reinforcer because it is initially an unrelated stimulus but when paired with the stimulus that elicits the target behavior, it becomes a reinforcer. For example, the clicker can be paired with food which is a desired stimulus to elicit the behavior that the dog owner wants from the dog. It becomes a signal of what the dog wants.

Terms: Reinforcement, punishment, operant conditioning, positive reinforcement, desirable stimulus, negative reinforcement, aversive stimulus, primary reinforcement, secondary reinforcement, unconditioned stimuli, pairing, reinforcer, Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, Maslow, conditioned stimuli, elicits.

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

http://www.learning-theories.com/maslows-hierarchy-of-needs.html

http://www.managementstudyguide.com/reinforcement-theory-motivation.htm

I chose positive reinforcement because I would like to learn to use it with my future pets and also my future kids. It fits into the sections we have covered so far because it is one of the main topics we cover in behavior modification. Positive reinforcement is one of the key methods we use in behavior modification.
In operant conditioning, positive reinforcement involves the addition of a reinforcing stimulus following a behavior that makes it more likely that the behavior will occur again in the future. When a favorable outcome, event, or reward occurs after an action, that particular response or behavior will be strengthened.
An important thing to note is that positive reinforcement is not always a good thing. If a child is throwing a tantrum and screaming in public, the last thing you want to do is offer them ice cream to calm them down. All this does is reinforce that if they throw a tantrum, they will get something they enjoy.
There are many different types of reinforcers that can be used to increase behaviors, but it is important to note that the type of reinforcer used depends upon the individual and the situation. Natural reinforcers are those that occur directly as a result of the behavior. For example, a girl studies hard, pays attention in class, and does her homework. As a result, she gets excellent grades. Token reinforcers are points or tokens that are awarded for performing certain actions. These tokens can then be exchanged for something of value. Social reinforcers involve expressing approval of a behavior, such as a teacher, parent, or employer saying or writing "Good job" or "Excellent work." Tangible reinforcers involve the presentation of an actual, physical reward such as candy, treats, toys, money, and other desired objects. While these types of rewards can be powerfully motivating, they should be used sparingly and with caution. Activity Reinforcers: Activity reinforcers are very effective and positive for students. Allowing students to participate in preferred activities (such as games, computer time, etc.) is very powerful, especially if part of the reinforcement is being allowed to choose a classmate with whom to participate in the activity. This also provides social reinforcement from the partner.
There are a lot of things to remember in order to make positive reinforcement effective. For example we will use a teacher-student setting. First, reinforcement must be consistently delivered, according to a planned reinforcement schedule. If it is not, no connection will develop between target behavior and the reinforcement and the behavior will not change. Second, reinforcement must be delivered immediately. Students should know when they can expect reinforcement. If you wait until the end of the day to reinforce a student for remaining in her seat during second period, the effect of reinforcement is reduced if not lost. If it is impossible to deliver reinforcement immediately, verbal reinforcement should be given and the student should be told when he or she can expect to receive other reinforcement. In this way, a contingency between behavior and reinforcement will be strengthened or maintained. Third, improvement should be reinforced. Do not wait until the student's behavior is perfect to deliver reinforcement. You should recognize improvement and let the student know that you recognize the effort. Fourth, do not give reinforcement because you feel sorry for a student. If a student does not achieve the required criterion, delivering reinforcement will only teach the student that rewards are readily available regardless of behavior and may even lead to an escalation of the behavior. Rather, recognize that you know the student is disappointed but that they will have the opportunity to try again tomorrow. Reinforcement must be contingent on behavior. Fifth, whenever possible, pair any reinforcement with social reinforcement. If your reinforcement plan is letting students participate in preferred activities, make sure to give some sort of social reinforcement, such as telling the student, "You really did an excellent job today. You should be really proud of yourself" or let the student choose another student for the activity. Sixth, make sure that social reinforcers are not ambiguous. They should be sincere, clear, and identify the specific behavior for which they are being delivered. And lastly, reinforcement should be age-appropriate. Expecting a high school student to change his behavior by rewarding him with stickers is likely to be ineffective and insulting to the student.
Sometimes there can be problems with giving rewards, one of them being satiation. Satiation is the term used to describe the situation of a reinforcer losing its effectiveness. For example, if a student is receiving jellybeans as reinforcement, it is likely that after a period of time he or she will tire of them and no longer find them desirable. Satiation can also occur if too much reinforcement is being delivered. Earning up to ten minutes of computer time a day may serve as reinforcement for a long period of time, while being given the opportunity to earn an hour of computer time, for example, may quickly lead to satiation.
When satiation begins, the rate at which the desired behavior is displayed tapers off until it halts. This is very common with edible reinforcers. Reinforcement in the form of activities, social opportunities, and learning activities tend to be more immune to satiation. To avoid these problems you can try varying the reinforcer or using a different reinforcer for each target behavior. You should also monitor the amount of reinforcement delivered and using only enough to maintain the target behavior. It is good to avoid edible reinforcers (if you must use edibles, vary and apply minimally). Also, moving from a constant to an intermittent schedule of reinforcement as soon as possible is helpful. Furthermore, any type of reinforcement schedule or system should include ongoing, systematic assessment of the reinforcement effectiveness through observation. Another option is incorporating a menu of potential reinforcers and allowing the student to choose his or her reinforcement.
It is likely that satiation will eventually occur with any type of reinforcement. If systematic assessment is diligently carried out, however, one can maintain the behavior modification plan by changing reinforcers before satiation occurs and by delivering reinforcement on varying schedules.
Finally, in designing a positive reinforcement plan, it is very important to move from less natural reinforcement (tokens, tangibles) to more natural reinforcement (social reinforcement).
Postive reinforcement
Reinforcer
Operant Conditioning
Stimulus
Behavior
Favorable
Reward
Natural reinforcer
Token reinforcer
Social reinforcer
Tangible reinforcer
Activity reinforcer
Target behavior
Satiation
http://www.cehd.umn.edu/ceed/publications/tipsheets/preschoolbehavior/posrein.pdf
http://psychology.about.com/od/operantconditioning/f/positive-reinforcement.htm
http://www.educateautism.com/behavioural-principles/positive-reinforcement.html

1)Once you have completed your search and explorations, I would like you to say what your topic is, how exactly it fits into the section we have covered so far, and why you are interested in it.
I would like to search more on Thorndike. Thorndike fits into section 3.1 as the main researcher and his findings on animal intelligence. I am interested in his background and more of him as a person not as a researcher.
2)What are three aspects of the topic you want to talk about for this assignment?
I would like to research more about his family background, growing up and what he had to do to get to where he did and accomplish so much.
3)Next, I would like you to take the information you found from the various sources and integrate/synthesize* them into the three aspects of the topic, and then write about the topic.
Edward Thorndike was born in 1874 in Williamsburg, Massachusetts. I couldn’t find much on his early life but it did mention that his dad was a Methodist minister. He has two brothers who ended up also being important scholars. This shows that Edward came from an intelligent family. The age he grew up in is when scientific psychology was just getting established which made him attracted to this new field of study. He graduated from The Roxbury Latin School and earned his Bachelor’s degree from Wesleyan University. He then went on and earned his masters from Harvard University. I found it interesting that Edward Thorndike became interested in this new field after reading William Jame’s “Principles of Psychology” during his undergrad and then went to Harvard to study under William James. He married in 1900 to Elizabeth and they had five children of their own.
I found it interesting that his initial interest was with children but then changed to animals. This is one of many examples that can point out that you don’t have to have it all figured out right away, it’s a process and will eventually lead to where you want to be. He continued his research with animals at Columbia University where he designed his own puzzle boxes. This is how he concluded the learning as the Law of Effect. Thorndike jumped around and I like that about him. He was always investing his time to improve. I also like reading about how Thorndike seemed to have a welcoming attitude about him. I read that he owned a lot of land where he lived and invited other researchers to come live there too. He seemed to encourage others and the work that they were doing in community.
After graduation Thorndike worked at the College for Women of Case Western Reserve in Cleveland, Ohio, he did not like this job. He then fell back on what he was originally interested in, children and their education. So he then took a job as an instructor in psychology at Teachers College at Columbia University. It says that he studied human learning, education and mental testing for the rest of his career.
Thorndike’s work was very important and influential. Thorndike died in 1949 and worked up until his death even after he retired. He was motivated and loved what he did once he found it. It took time but once he got there he enjoyed his occupation.

4)At the end, please include working URLs for the three websites.
http://www.muskingum.edu/~psych/psycweb/history/thorndike.htm
http://www.simplypsychology.org/edward-thorndike.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Thorndike

For week seven I would like to look at superstitious behavior. This fits into our studies so far because in section 2.4 we read about how superstitious behavior develops. I am interested in superstitious behavior because though out my life I have been told things such as don’t step on a crack or you will break your mothers back or black cats are bad luck but I did not understand the reasoning behind these things. By looking into common superstitions further I hope to find out what the ABC’s were behind their development.
The three things I am going to talk about from my articles are the superstitions we often here about today and where many of these superstitions come from, how these original origins relate to the definition we were given in behavior modification, and how many scientists view religion as a superstition.
Here is a list on common superstitions that are still carried passed on today: don’t open an umbrella in doors, black cats are bad luck, don’t step on a crack or you will break your mother’s back, walking under a ladder is bad luck, and knock on wood. Black cats are now considered bad luck and that is a superstition but at the time the saying came about people were truly trying to avoid cats because they carried the plague. Many explanations behind these sayings can be linked back to some sort of religious origin.
What is the big deal about opening an umbrella in doors? There are two main reasons why people in history have decided not to open umbrellas in doors. The first is that due to poor design it was highly possible you would break something. The antecedent, being in doors, followed by the behavior, opening the umbrella, leads to a consequence, breaking something. We have learned in behavior modification that if the consequence is not appeasing to someone than they are much less likely to do the behavior again but in cases such as this it might that one person wanted many others to learn from their mistakes so they verbally advised them against doing the same undesirable behavior. This could have resulted in the superstition we have today. The other main reason this superstition could have occurred is because it was told down through many generations that you were not supposed to open umbrellas in doors because it would upset the sun gods. This only makes sense if we remember that umbrellas were originally used to protect from the sun and not the rain but how does this fit the definition we learned in behavior modification. Well since I was not around when this started but have a slight knowledge of religion and the many things people did or did not due in attempts to appease the gods, it is might be assumed that one person did open an umbrella in doors and they did not receive a reinforce.
Other superstitions that might have religious origins are don’t step on a crack or you’ll break your mothers back, walking under a ladder is bad luck, and knock on wood. It was believed that cracks in the earth, which are now assumed to be cracks in the sidewalks or roads, were connections to the underworld and if you stepped on one then you would release a demon. I believe this might have come to be a superstition because more than one person was injured mentally or physically while stepping on a crack or soon after. Like many other superstitions the wording has changed over time but stepping on a crack still has a negative association. Walking under a ladder is bad luck was another superstition that might have come to be because people were trying not to upset their god. In this case the ladder, the wall, and the ground formed a triangle which symbolizes the holy trinity and by walking through it you are breaking the triangle thus disrespecting the holy trinity. Knocking on wood can be liked back to religion in two different ways. The first is that people would kiss the cross when asking to be blessed and the second is that it is believed woods has good spirits in it so people would rub it to ask to blessings. This one can be looked at in parallel to the example given in current behavior modification. If a little girl spins before she walked into the kitchen and she is given a cookie when she walks into the kitchen. Then she might emit the behavior of spinning the next time she walks into the kitchen because she believes she will receive a cookie. In the case of knocking on wood, a person might have rubbed something wooden and then was reinforced. This person then associated rubbing woods before doing a behavior with being reinforced. This might be considered a conditioned stimulus if it is always associated with the same reinforcer.
I thought it was very interesting that many of superstitions people have but don’t necessarily know why come from religious origin but I am also interested in what current day religious practices might also be considered superstitions. The article I read in National Geographic explains superstition a little bit differently than we do in behavior modification but I think you can use the examples they give and they would still fit out definition. For example they say that the more a religion has to do with a god the more harmful it might be. This can be talked about in behavior modification terms easily when talking about extremely religious groups. The people of these groups often engage in target behaviors such as bombing innocents because they have been told it will appease their god if they do or anger their god if they don’t. This is extremely similar to the superstitions I looked at earlier but those superstitions are seen as cute wise tales because they are no longer harmful.
Terms: superstitious behavior, target behavior, reinforcer, behavior modification, conditioned stimulus, antecedent, behavior, consequence, reinforcement, emit, undesirable
http://thespiritscience.net/2014/11/15/25-common-superstitions-and-their-origins/
http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2015/03/the-science-of-superstition/384962/
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/2015/05/150531-religion-science-faith-healing-atheism-people-ngbooktalk/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yaa0HJf8n18

1) Once you have completed your search and explorations, I would like you to say what your topic is, how exactly it fits into the section we have covered so far, and why you are interested in it.

For this section I wanted to go into more detail on Thorndike’s laws of learning and give some real world examples and applications of his laws of learning. Thorndike has three main learning laws, being the laws of effect, recency, and exercise. I think that this relates to the readings since one of the chapters was about Thorndike and these laws were some of his main developments from his studies. Some of these ideas lead and influenced Skinner to develop ideas about operant behaviors. The reason I am interested in this is because I thought these ideas were some of the biggest concepts introduced in these readings and are good to be explained. I also found the three laws to be very relatable to real world experiences which are things that I like to learn from my classes.

2) What are three aspects of the topic you want to talk about for this assignment?

Law of effect, Law of Recency, Law of Exercise.

2) Next, I would like you to take the information you found from the various sources and integrate/synthesize* them into the three aspects of the topic, and then write about the topic.

Thorndike’s law of effect was developed with his studies involving cats and puzzles boxes. When he was first observing the cats he noticed that they were not seeming to learn from any sudden or noticeable insights. What he did notice when the cats were finally figuring out how to exit the boxes was that they were doing so with a trial and error process. They would try many different things and then they would do what they were supposed after a series of failures and they would exit the box and receive their rewards. He used this to develop his main laws of learning.

His Law of effect stated that behaviors that lead to positive consequences would lead to those behaviors being more likely to be repeated. The inverse was also true in that behaviors leading to negative consequences would also lead to those behaviors to less likely be repeated. His basis for this was they when the cats realized that hitting the wire the door was opened and the cat got food as a positive reinforcer. This association between behavior and outcome lead to the cats being able to figure out how to get out of the box in shorter amounts of time. This can be used when trying to teach and coach people on their behaviors. For example if someone does something well or in the right way you reward them with positive reinforcement and they will likely repeat the behavior. You can also do the opposite by giving a negative consequence for undesirable behaviors and they will likely not be repeated or the frequency of behavior will be lowered.

The law of recency is stated as that when all things remain equal the thing learned most recent will be remembered, and that the things that were learned the longest ago would not be remembered as much. For example in the puzzle boxes if a cat learned different ways to open the box then the one that the cat learned most recently would be the one that would be remembered or repeated. A way you notice this in the real world would be that I can recall an order that I just processed today at work but I can not remember an order that I processed last week during work. The farther away you are from new facts and new understanding the harder it is going to be to recall.

The law of exercise is an idea that associations are strengthened through repetition, and associations would also weaken if not being repeated. In the example with the cats it was noticed that the cat's overall time to open the box would decrease through repetition of the experiment. This is also the reason why after you learn a new skill you have to keep up and practice it in order to maintain it. This law is why people practice and drill skills they are already good at. Athletes practice near everyday during the season because if they did not their skills would decline. There is a reason that the most successful athletes, such as Aaron Rodgers and Lebron James, are at the top of their game because they practice at high levels and work hard even in the off seasons to keep up their skills and fitness in order to get better. I can also recall skills and other things I learned that I forgot because I did not repeat or keep up on them. I have lost most of the knowledge that I learned from high school spanish classes because I did not practice them or use them since the classes ended, and I could also say the same with many math formula and equations since I have not used them in a very long time. Practicing and repeating associations has also helped me maintain skills I already have, such as I am a much better and faster typist because of repeated and near daily use of a keyboard and I also make sandwiches at work and my speed and skill has improved in such as I have worked each shift.

3) At the end, please include working URLs for the three websites.
http://www.mysdcc.sdccd.edu/Staff/Instructor_Development/Content/HTML/Laws_of_Learning.htm
http://www.simplypsychology.org/edward-thorndike.html
http://psychology.jrank.org/pages/372/Law-Effect.html

Terms

Law of effect, Law of Recency, Law of Exercise, Thorndike, behavior, positive reinforcer, learning, puzzle box, recall, trial and error, skills, associations

1) The topic I chose for this week’s topical blog is the psychologist Edward Lee Thorndike and all of his contributions to the field. This relates to the sections that we read because one of the chapters was completely about Thorndike and his experiments with cats finding their way out of a puzzle box that he created. The reason why I chose this topic is because I had learned a little bit about Thorndike and his experiments in my high school psychology class, but we didn’t really go that much into detail on him. I think that his work is fascinating and really added a lot to how we study psychology today. Even just the one experiment with a cat escaping from a puzzle box helped change and shape the way that we understand how people and animals learn behaviors that have consequences to them.

2) The three aspects I am going to talk about for this blog are Thorndike’s puzzle box experiment, Thorndike’s law of effect, and Thorndike’s overall contributions to psychology. These all relate to each other and shows how we learn from the past and add onto what we already know. All three are relevant to understanding how the mind works, how psychology has come a long way, and in turn how it adds to why we study history

3) Thorndike's experiment on cats escaping from a puzzle box was very simple to setup and test. . A hungry cat was confined in a puzzle box while a dish of food was put right outside. The cat, in the box had to pull a string in order to come out of the box. The cat in the box made several random movements until at last it succeeded in pulling the string. The door of the puzzle box opened and the cat was able to come out and eat the food. Right away, Thorndike put the cat back into the puzzle box for the next trial. The cat again made random behaviors, but again succeeded in pulling the string. After being repeated for several times, Thorndike noticed that as the repetition increased the error then reduced. And the cat showed slow, gradual and continuous improvement in its performance over successive trials. He concluded that the cat’s learning in the puzzle box can be explained in terms of relationships between stimulus and response.
One of the main ideas that Thorndike observed in his experiments with his puzzle box was his law of effect. According to the law of effect, responses that are immediately followed by a satisfactory outcome become more strongly associated with the situation and are therefore more likely to occur again in the future. Conversely, responses followed by negative outcomes become more weakly associated and less likely to re-occur in the future. The law of effect was one of the three laws of learning that Thorndike developed. The other two laws of learning are the law of readiness and the law of exercise. The law of readiness implies a degree of concentration and eagerness. Individuals learn best when they are physically, mentally, and emotionally ready to learn, and do not learn well if they see no reason for learning. The law of exercise states that those things most often repeated are best remembered. It is the basis of drill and practice. It is clear that practice leads to improvement only when it is followed by positive feedback. While Thorndike only came up with three laws of learning, he got things started and others added onto the idea with more principles.
During his experiments, Thorndike also realized the concept of trial and error as a way of learning. Some of the features of trial and error are: learning by trial and error is gradual process; in order for learning to occur, the learner must be definitely motivated; the learner makes random and variable response; some responses do not lead to the goal while some responses do lead to the goal; with the increase in number of trials the annoying responses will tend to be eliminated and the satisfying responses will be strengthened and repeated; the time taken to perform the task decreases with successive trials.
Some other contributions that Thorndike made to psychology is that he made an important distinction among three broad classes of intellectual functioning. Standard intelligence tests measured only abstract intelligence. Also important were mechanical intelligence - the ability to visualize relationships among objects and understand how the physical world worked, and social intelligence - the ability to function successfully in interpersonal situations. Thorndike added a lot to psychology and especially the field of functionalism and connectionism. He added a lot to psychology’s history and helped us come up with the views and ideas that we have today.

4) Links: http://psychology.about.com/od/profilesmz/p/edward-thorndike.htm
this link helped me understand Thorndike’s work and theories and overall contributions to psychology
http://www.indiana.edu/~intell/ethorndike.shtml
this link helped me understand more about Thorndike’s ideas and especially his work with human intelligence
http://teachertraineeaide.blogspot.com/2013/05/behaviourist-thoery-thorndikes-theory.html
this link helped me understand about his puzzle box experiment and how he came up with trial and error and his law of effect along with the other laws of learning

Terms: Edward Thorndike, puzzle box experiment, behaviors, consequences, law of effect, laws of learning, law of readiness, law of exercise, trial and error, functionalism, connectionism

The topic I chose to research more about is classical conditioning by using the Little Albert study. It fits into the section we have covered because in section 3.2 of the book it talks about classical conditioning and Little Albert became conditioned to fear mostly everything fuzzy and white. I am interested in this topic because I have learned about the Little Albert experiment in many psychology classes and I am still amazed and horrified at the results of the study. It is the only experiment of its kind to show classical conditioning on an infant.

The three aspects of the topic I am going to talk about is the experiment itself, the results, and what happened to Little Albert. This experiment was carried out by John B. Watson and Rosalie Raynor. They wanted to find out if emotional reactions could be conditioned in humans. In the beginning of the experiment Albert was exposed to a rabbit and white rat, masks, burning newspapers and a monkey and observed his behavior. He did not show any fear interacting with the animals and objects. The next time he was shown the rat Watson made a loud noise behind him and this scared Albert. He repeatedly paired the rat with the noise and this made Albert fear the rat even when not paired with the noise.

The results of this experiment was Albert was conditioned to fear the rat. The rat became the conditioned stimulus and the fear is the conditioned result. Not only did the experiment show classical conditioning but stimulus generalization occurred. After being conditioned to fear the rat he began to fear other white fuzzy objects as well like a fuzzy coat, a rabbit, and Watson wearing a Santa Claus beard.

There is speculation regarding what happened to Little Albert after the experiment. Watson and Rayner were not able to attempt to eliminate the fear in Albert because his mother took him away and moved. Some psychologists assume he could be Douglas Merritte and he died at the age of six in 1925 of hydrocephalus which is fluid build up in the brain. In 2014 there was evidence that the real Little Albert was a boy named William Barger who was born on the same day as Merritte and mother worked at the same hospital. William was known by his middle name Albert his entire life.

http://www.openculture.com/2015/01/the-little-albert-experiment.html

http://psychology.about.com/od/classicpsychologystudies/a/little-albert-experiment.htm

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Little_Albert_experiment

Terms: classical conditioning, unconditioned stimulus, conditioned result, stimulus generalization

1) I have chosen to discuss the topic of trial and error is if it is effective in the development of children. Trial and error fits into our sections for this week because of Thorndike's puzzle box experiment and how he observed the cat emitting a certain behavior after going through trial and error. I think that this quite an interesting topic because of how easily it relates to everyday life. Although, I want to know more about it and if it is truly effective or if there are some undesirable consequences with using it too much.

2) I first like to talk about what exactly is trial and error, what is an example of trial and error, and if it is ultimately an effective way of modifying behaviors without undesirable consequences.

3) Trial and error is defined as an approach to problem-solving involving trying out a number of different solutions in order to perform the desired task, and ruling out the solutions that do not work. This approach is a very good option when there are a limited amount of solutions and options available to the individual. Trial and error is a type of learning that teaches what cannot be an adequately explained through using classical conditioning.
Examples of this are when a child is at the store with their family and they want something in the store, such as a toy. The child asks for the toy, only to be told no. This was the child's first attempt at a solution to the problem of achieving the toy. The second attempt is done when the child takes the toy and puts it in the cart anyway, seeing if this will allow them to buy the toy. The parent puts it back and says no once again. This attempt for the child did not work either. The only other solution they can try is to cry for the toy. The child emits a crying behavior and, in consequence, the mother allows the child to have the toy. The child then learns that through crying, they can achieve their wanting behavior, so they are more likely to repeat the behavior of crying and throwing a tantrum when faced with a similar problem in the future.
This can be used on children in behavior modification, but there are also some drawbacks for using this method. Trial and error usually a last resort method in problem solving and shouldn't be the first method used for children. There are many problems with this method, such as that it is a tedious and dull way of teaching a child that it is very time-consuming and will not always be effective. It is a helpful tool, but it should not be used frequently with children in many different circumstances when there are better methods that could apply.

4)
http://doctorkristy.hubpages.com/hub/Trial-and-Error-Learning
http://psychology.wikia.com/wiki/Trial_and_error_learning
http://www.preservearticles.com/201102033839/understanding-the-theory-of-trial-and-error-learning-process-from-psychological-point-of-view.html

Terms: trial and error, Thorndike, puzzle box, emit, undesirable, consequences, desired, classical conditioning, solution

1) Once you have completed your search and explorations, I would like you to say what your topic is, how exactly it fits into the section we have covered so far, and why you are interested in it.
My topic for this section is about Ivan Pavlov and his contributions to the field of psychology. This fits into section 3.2 because the whole section is about Ivan Pavlov! I think that this is very interesting because there is many contributions he made for the field and I think it is really interesting how he conducted his experiments using animals and all the information he learned from them.
2) What are three aspects of the topic you want to talk about for this assignment?
Three aspects of Ivan Pavlov that I would like to discuss is psychic secretion, I thought that this was an interesting phenomena that was affecting the dogs in his experiments. The next aspect that I would like to discuss is that of the conditioned reflex this is a really large part of what Pavlov gave us when his work was translated in English and is basically like psychic secretions just more in depth. The last aspect that I would like to cover is that of experimental neurosis, I found this so intriguing because it involves inhibitory neurons and excitatory neurons and I learned about these in a previous class.
2) Next, I would like you to take the information you found from the various sources and integrate/synthesize* them into the three aspects of the topic, and then write about the topic.
Ivan Pavlov was a Russian physiologist that won the noble peace prize for studying the digestive processes of dogs and he created and invention called the Pavlov Pouch. He found out however that the dogs were salivating before the arrival of food so this helped guide his research. He initially referred to this as psychic secretions which were when the dogs were salivating when they heard things such as the researcher’s footsteps without the food being present. He tried to prevent this by trying to sound proof the room and even have the researchers wear soft soled shoes so the dogs would not be affected by this stimulus. A psychic secretion that I could relate to my own life would be like when my cat sees her cat carrier and she knows that she is going to have to get into the car (which she absolutely hates) so she tries to hide or another example is when my dogs hear the jangle of their leashes they get excited that they will get to go on a walk. Pavlov later examined the circumstances in which the psychic secretions occurred which he later called the conditioned reflex. He thought that understanding the conditioned reflex would also help us learn about the human mind, this did not get popular in the United States until a good time after because it was not translated in English. I can connect this to my own life by thinking of an example of how we conditioned our dogs at home. When they hear the garage open they know that they will be greeted by humans same as with the doorbell resulting in them getting excited and anticipating being petted or gave attention to. I thought that the most interesting part of Pavlov’s research was that of experimental neurosis. This was when either the dogs would act insane or be completely calm, he figured this was due to inhibitory or excitatory neurons in their brains. To create experimental neurosis Pavlov conditioned the dogs to discriminate between two different shapes, one being a circle and one being a square. One meant that the dogs were going to receive food and they would salivate and the other meant that they were not going to receive food and would not salivate. He figured out if the dogs were under inhibitory or excitatory neurons by slowing making the shapes start to resemble each other (making the square look more like a circle and the circle look more like a square) with this the dogs would become listless and he figured this was then an example of the inhibitory neurons and if they became aggressive then this was an example of the excitatory neurons. Pavlov referred to these states either unresponsiveness or aggressiveness as the experimental neurosis. I remember learning about the inhibitory and excitatory neurons from my biopsychology class but I did not know that this is how they came about and where they were derived from. One example that I read from one of my sources put experimental neurosis in another context that makes sense for me as a student. The source describe experimental neurosis as in the situation if finals were approaching and a student is studying hard for their exams, the student is very stressed out and every time another person asks this student a question or disrupts their concentration they become either very aggressive or angry.
3) At the end, please include working URLs for the three websites.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Classical_conditioning
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7QTA8qcKEiE
http://psychology.wikia.com/wiki/Experimental_neurosis
https://psychlopedia.wikispaces.com/experimental+neurosis
Terminology: Ivan Pavlov, Psychic Secretion, conditioned reflex, experimental neurosis, inhibitory neurons, excitatory neurons, unresponsiveness, aggressiveness

1) Once you have completed your search and explorations, I would like you to say what your topic is, how exactly it fits into the section we have covered so far, and why you are interested in it.
The subject I was interested from our reading was the trial and error learning and puzzle box experiments performed by Thorndike. These were in the reading of section --. I found these interesting because they seem to form a good basic understanding of how a lot of our learning of behaviors as humans. I can see many ways that trial and error is used in my everyday life to perform unfamiliar tasks.

2) What are three aspects of the topic you want to talk about for this assignment?
The first topic I would like to cover is what exactly was Thorndike’s experiments and the basis of trial and error learning. The second topic is how his puzzle boxes are made and some examples of the puzzles used for the experiments. Lastly I would like to cover how trial and error plays a role in our everyday lives along with some examples.

3) Next, I would like you to take the information you found from the various sources and integrate/synthesize* them into the three aspects of the topic, and then write about the topic.
Edward Thorndike was an American psychologist who came up with theory based on animal learning. There is a continuity between the way many animals learn and the way we as humans learn therefore may scientist study animals for development of human behavior and leaning patterns. Thorndike developed the law of effect and how we learn based on trial and error. His study focused on using a wooden box that could only be opened by performing a task inside the box. He also would motivate the cats he used to exit the box with food as he believed that the reinforcement is the key to success and should happen soon after the desired behavior it emitted to solidify the experience in the subject. He would place the cat inside the box with food on the other side of the door to act as a motivator or reinforcer. After the cat would be placed in the box it would usually emit a variety of behaviors in hopes for some form of reinforcement. Eventually the cat would stumble upon the latch on the door and the string in the box. After the latch was pressed out of the way the door would loosen but not open and only after the cat tugged on the string would the bar across the door be released and allow the cat out to the food. Thorndike discovered that if the same cat was placed in the box again it would remember how it got out and repeat the behaviors that work previously but in a quicker manner. This would then get quicker and quicker with each consecutive time in the box.
These boxes were in essence wooden cages that he jerry rigged from found parts in his neighborhood. He made several original iterations of the boxes but all with similar mechanisms for the latch and bar. The latch would just be a turning piece of wood on a screw that blocked the door from being opened when horizontal. The bar was a metal bar on a string that hung in front of the door at the top and would be pulled up by a string and pulley system that was accessible inside the box. Only after the latch and then the bar was lifted would the door open. I have also seen some more modern iterations that use a common cage and a lever system to open the door. It’s more simple that Thorndike’s designs.
These experiments allowed Thorndike to discover that most of the leaning he observed was through the trial and error method. The cats just did random things until they were rewarded with a desirable response such as the door loosening or opening. This is how most of us learn many things in life. Imagine being placed in a car for the first time and being told to drive to the end of a lane. Since you’ve never seen a car before you would first not know what to do and would just start pressing buttons and turning knobs. Eventually you would stumble upon the key in the ignition and turn it and get the positive response of the car tuning over. After that you would continue your random behaviors until the brake and the shifter were moved into drive and the car moved. Now imagine that same person being place in the car again and told the same thing. This time there would be a lot less random behavior and most likely a quicker attempt and the task. This is the same thing you experience in most new situations with no instruction on what to do. I bet most of us like to press all the buttons in a new car till we find out what they actually do. This is trial and error leaning. Even in child rearing letting a child learn from their own experiences is important. The child never really learns that the stove is hot till they touch it and receive a punisher for their behavior.

4) At the end, please include working URLs for the three websites.
http://www.preservearticles.com/201102033839/understanding-the-theory-of-trial-and-error-learning-process-from-psychological-point-of-view.html
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y-g2OmRXb0g
http://doctorkristy.hubpages.com/hub/Trial-and-Error-Learning

Megan Hasley
1) Once you have completed your search and explorations, I would like you to say what your topic is, how exactly it fits into the section we have covered so far, and why you are interested in it.
In this week’s readings one of the topics that were discussed is the term learned helplessness. This topic fits into the section we have covered so far because it was discussed in this week’s reading. I am interested in learned helplessness because I think the concept is interesting, and I also feel like I have experienced it in my own life as well. I would like to research it more to find out more about the topic and see how else it might apply to other people.
2) What are three aspects of the topic you want to talk about for this assignment?
The three aspects of this topic that I want to talk about are: how learned helplessness affects people, animals, and how we can combat learned helplessness when we are experiencing it ourselves.
2) Next, I would like you to take the information you found from the various sources and integrate/synthesize* them into the three aspects of the topic, and then write about the topic.
This phenomenon can occur in people and animals. It is often associated with giving up after you feel that there is no way out of a situation, or that you cannot change the outcome. Research studies have shown that animals can experience learned helplessness. This phenomenon usually occurs after the animal experiences an aversive stimulus that occurs frequently. The animals learns from this experience that nothing it does will prevent the aversive stimulus from occurring which leads to the animals feeling helpless (psychology). If there are ways for the animal to escape it will not try to get away from the aversive stimulus because it has learned that there is no escape in the animal’s mind (psychology). Learned helplessness was discovered when dogs were harnessed and shocked; after the harness came off and the shocks started again the dogs refused to jump the half wall that they could easily get over because they had learned when they were harnessed that no amount of struggle could get them away from the shocks (psychology).
Studies have found that in situations where there are aversive stimuli, it is not the stimulus that makes the animal give up, but instead it is the stressor (eds). Whether animals try to escape or not is based on conditioned fear (eds). Research was also conducted to determine whether animals that experienced shocks on different parts of their body would react to the shocks in the same way; different environments also lead to animals generalizing the effects of the shocks which lead to learned helplessness in many different situations (eds).
Learned helplessness can also occur in people as well. Personally, I think I have experienced learned helplessness. My experience also happens to be the most often used example; I have never done well in math or in any sort of math class. As a result, whenever math comes up I tend to get nervous, and I automatically assume that I cannot do the work because I have learned that I am helpless with that specific subject. I learned pretty early on that I was not good at math; this learned helplessness affected me throughout middle school, high school, and college. Even statistics has been difficult due to my perceived helplessness where math is concerned. My brain tends to just shut down at the mention of math, and I have conditioned myself in a way, to do that.
The implications of learned helplessness are that individuals who experience it can have problems with psychological disorders. This can lead to depression, anxiety, phobias, shyness, as well as loneliness (psychology). If a child studies for a test, but still does poorly, this may reinforce the feeling that everything is out of his or her control and that may make the child lose motivation in other aspects of his or her life (depression).
Studies have been done in order to find out how to prevent learned helplessness and its various effects. One study found that if a participant experienced learned helplessness, but afterward had a therapeutic intervention the participant was more likely to be able to complete the task than participants who had not received the intervention (depression). The researchers of that study concluded that perhaps the intervention provided positive feedback that was used to downplay negative effects (depression). Perhaps I could find a way to prevent my learned helplessness from affecting me like these researchers did.
TERMS: learned helplessness, aversive, stimulus, reinforce, control, negative, positive feedback, participants, stressor, conditioned
3) At the end, please include working URLs for the three websites.
http://eds.a.ebscohost.com.proxy.lib.uni.edu/eds/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?vid=3&sid=87e9f7e1-a1a6-43fa-ae5a-b815c5fce51c@sessionmgr4004&hid=4213
http://psychology.about.com/od/lindex/f/earned-helplessness.htm
http://depression.about.com/od/causes/a/learned-helplessness.htm

1) Once you have completed your search and explorations, I would like you to say what your topic is, how exactly it fits into the section we have covered so far, and why you are interested in it.
- For this weeks topical post I decided to write about Edward Thorndike. I was interested in this topic because previous to the reading for this week’s class I hadn’t heard much about Thorndike if anything at all. I also found his experiments to be very interesting which helped persuade me do discuss him in this weeks topical post.

2) What are three aspects of the topic you want to talk about for this assignment?
- For this weeks topical post about Thorndike I would first like to learn and expand on more of Thorndike’s contributions to behavior modification and the field of psychology in general. Next I would like to discuss his laws of behavior. Lastly I would like to discuss his work in intelligent testing.

3) Next, I would like you to take the information you found from the various sources and integrate/synthesize* them into the three aspects of the topic, and then write about the topic
- Thorndike as a psychologist has achieved many accomplishments throughout his lifetime as a psychologist. Arguably his greatest accomplishment came from his work in animal intelligence. As we learned in this class reading Thorndike is know for his puzzle box experiment which he created due to his interest in whether animals learned from observation or imitation. His findings from this experiment lead to significant gains in understanding animal intelligence. Thorndike was also well know for his work in educational intelligence, this lead to him being known as the father of modern educational psychology. His work eventually leads to some of the first ways to measure intelligence in children.
Thorndike is also know for his theory of connectionism, this was obtained through his extensive work with animals and experiments such as the puzzle box. The cat inside the box would have to use what he called the trial and error method to try to get out. this means that the cat would try to emit different things until something worked, in a way this relates a lot to what we have learned about extinction burst in previous chapters. The puzzle box experiment also lead to his development of his laws of behavior modification. The first law is Law of effect; this states that responses to a stimulus that receive a positive reinforcement will become habitual. Next comes his Law or readiness, this is the idea that multiple response can be connected together to satisfy some goal. The final law is Law of exercise; this states that responses and the connections between them will be strengthened the more they are repeated.

4) terms used: Thorndike, Law of effect, Law of exercise, law of Readiness, puzzle box, trial and error, emit, reinforce,

websites- http://faculty.frostburg.edu/mbradley/psyography/thorndike.html
http://www.indiana.edu/~intell/ethorndike.shtml
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Thorndike

For this week’s blog assignment I will be taking a look at Reinforcement. Reinforcement is a vital part of behavior modification because and in my opinion is arguably a more effective way of altering behavior compared to punishment. According to Skinner’s operant conditioning theory, reinforcement is anything that increases the likelihood that a response will occur. There are two different type of reinforcement according to operant conditioning and that is positive reinforcement which is the addition of a desirable stimulus to increase the frequency of behavior and negative reinforcement which the removal of an aversive stimulus to increase the frequency of behavior. In terms of reinforcement in itself, there are two major categories and those are primary reinforcement and secondary reinforcement.
A primary reinforcer can also be known as unconditioned stimuli because it does not need a pairing with any other stimuli to function as a reinforcer. It can be considered as our instinctual motivation developed through the evolutionary process as a tool for the survival and improvement of our species. Speaking of motivation, a very important example of primary reinforcers can be seen in Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs. This is a motivational theory established by Abraham Maslow and suggests that while humans strive to meet basic needs, they continually seek to increase their needs in a form of a hierarchical pyramid. Starting from to bottom up, the five “needs” described in Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs are physiological, safety, belongingness, esteem and self-actualization. In order to satisfy the higher order of the pyramid, one must first satisfy the lower levels. Interestingly enough, the highest level which is self-actualization is not driven by deficiencies like the other four needs and is more of one’s personal desire for growth and a reinforcement for the urge of achieving human “perfection”.
On the other hand, secondary reinforcers which are also known as conditioned stimuli are reinforcers that require an association with a primary reinforcer to become reinforcing. This is when reinforcement can be put into practical use through experiments and tests to see its effectiveness in behavior modification. One of its most famous uses is seen through clicker training for dogs. The clicker in this context can be considered as the conditioned reinforcer because it is initially an unrelated stimulus but when paired with the stimulus that elicits the target behavior, it becomes a reinforcer. For example, the clicker can be paired with food which is a desired stimulus to elicit the behavior that the dog owner wants from the dog. It becomes a signal of what the dog wants.
Terms: Reinforcement, punishment, operant conditioning, positive reinforcement, desirable stimulus, negative reinforcement, aversive stimulus, primary reinforcement, secondary reinforcement, unconditioned stimuli, pairing, reinforcer, Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, Maslow, conditioned stimuli, elicits.
http://psychology.about.com/od/operantconditioning/f/reinforcement.htm
http://www.learning-theories.com/maslows-hierarchy-of-needs.html
http://www.managementstudyguide.com/reinforcement-theory-motivation.htm

1) Once you have completed your search and explorations, I would like you to say what your topic is, how exactly it fits into the section we have covered so far, and why you are interested in it.
For this assignment I am interested in focusing more on Thorndike and his laws of learning as well as providing some real world examples that will be applicable in my future education practices. As discussed in the reading, the three main learning laws created by Thorndike are the Law of Recency, the Law of Effect, and the Law of Exercise. In one of the websites I found it stated that The Law of Effect is the behavior/ response that produces a satisfying effect in a situation will cause the response/behavior to be repeated or "stamped in" as mentioned in the class reading. The Law of Recency is rather simple as it states that the most recent response is most likely to the most recurrent response, with the Law of Exercise stating that associations are strengthened through the use of repetition. I am interested to discuss ways that these laws are interrelated and how these methods of behavior modification can be applied to a classroom setting.

2) What are the three aspects of the topic that you intend to talk about for this assignment?
Law of Exercise, Law of Recency, and Law of Effect.

3) Next, I would like you to take the information you found from the various sources and integrate/synthesize them into the three aspects of the topic, and then write about the topic.
As we all now know, Thorndike created his Law of Effect after studying the behaviors exhibited by cats placed in puzzle boxes. It was observed that the cats were not intentionally figuring out how to get out of the puzzle box, but instead were experiencing a sort of extinction burst, where they acted out several behaviors in order to escape from the box. Eventually the cats were able to learn how to manipulate the box in order to be freed, and that the cats were able to do so at more rapid pace. The process in which they learned the proper behavior to be freed was through the use of trial and error, a basic concept that we use in our everyday lives. Through this experiment, Thorndike was able to create his laws of learning.

I explained previously, that the Law of Effect is where behaviors that lead to positive outcomes are likely to be repeated, and vise verse. In the experiment, if the cats hit the wire, releasing the door on the puzzle box, then they were reinforced with cat food. The cats were then conditioned that when placed in the puzzle box, by manipulating the wire, they were able to be freed and receive food. Learning the proper behavior caused them to be freed and reinforced with cat food more quickly.

Applying definition to a classroom setting, one of my websites described the Law of Effect in terms of a classroom setting as follows: student learning will be much more effective when there is a feeling of pleasantness/satisfaction with the experience or that there is a reward as part of the learning process. Rewards in the classroom consist of praise, stickers, tokens, etc. which are positive reinforcers, the same way that food was a reinforcer for the cats with the puzzle boxes. The same can be said for providing the students with a negative consequence when they exhibit undesirable behaviors as a way of limiting or reducing the frequency of that behavior.

Moving onto the Law of Exercise, it simply is stated that behaviors or associations are able to be strengthened through the use of repetition, and if they are not repeated then the association/behavior will begin to weaken. In the example provided in our reading, the duration in which the cats were in the puzzle box began to rapidly decrease as they learned the repetitious behaviors. Applying this to the classroom, if I am teaching my students new spelling words, the goal is for them to master the 10 words for the spelling quiz on Friday. So to practice the words I have the students write out each word 5 times. Then in class we spell the words out loud together. On the last day of class before the quiz, we do a practice quiz. By practicing these words through the use of repetition, the students should learn them for Friday's quiz as well as being able to spell the words more quickly. These are not the only forms of repetition used in the classroom. In a music class, the teacher will have the student practice specified rhythms by repeating them in order to better remember them. The history teacher will have students recite the names of the 50 United States in order to remember them and learn about our great country. It is obvious that Thorndike's Law of Exercise can be applied not only to everyday life, but especially to education.

The last law to be discussed is the Law of Recency, where the most recent thing that is learned will be remembered, and everything else learned long ago will not be as easily to recall/remember. In my final website, it discussed how important it is for students to study material that was recently learned because it is often times the hardest to remember. An example provided in the website pertained to telephone numbers. It is easy for us to recall a telephone number that was dialed a few minutes ago, but a phone number dialed a week ago is basically impossible. The website stresses that it is for this reason that teachers should repeat the important information that students need to hear, which is utilizing the Law of Exercise. Through my additional research is has been enlightening to see not only how these laws can be applied to a classroom setting, but how the three laws are all interrelated in some way, shape, or form.

http://www.mysdcc.sdccd.edu/Staff/Instructor_Development/Content/HTML/Laws_of_Learning.htm

https://www.teachervision.com/new-teacher/teaching-methods/48337.html

https://www.msu.edu/~ottensam/Otten_911_thorndike.doc

Terms Used:
Law Recency, Law of Exercise, Law of Effect, Thorndike, positive reinforcer, puzzle box, trial and error,

Learned Helplessness.

The topic I wanted to research more is learned helplessness, because I think that I often have an external locus of control and it could spiral into something worse. We read about it in this week’s section and have mentioned it in class as well. Three aspects I would like to consider are what learned helplessness is, how one gets it, and how to avoid it.
When I first started looking into the concept of learned helplessness, it seemed a lot easier to understand when the one experiencing it is an animal. A easy example is thinking about an abused animal. Every chance it gets to run away is either interrupted or unavailable to begin with. After awhile it starts to give up. Accepting the fact that this is their fate “forever”. Even then, when an opportunity arises, they chose not to try because they have no hope.
This same concept can be found in humans, though maybe not always as simple because we can communicate with others. Most times people develop it by having an external locus of control. Feelings that everyone/everything else is the reason you’re not succeeding. Not seeing how the antecedent influences both the behavior and the consequence leads to only seeing a consequence. Failing a test and thinking it was just too hard, though they didn’t study or being pulled over because the cop hates the way they look and not anything to do with them speeding. This failure to accept responsibility for individual actions can create learned helplessness. In older adults it is more common. I have often heard of adults claiming they can no longer do simple tasks like changing a light bulb (though they probably could) just because the last time they stood on a ladder they got a little dizzy.
A common example in my life would be my first semester in college. I was in a class and everyone said the professor was super hard. We only had five 100-point tests and I failed the first two. I stopped going to class and studying because I didn’t see a point. I wasn’t going to pass. I didn’t think I would do any better so “Why try?”.
Feelings of learned helplessness can lead to depression, violence, drug abuse and anxiety, but it is often associated with phobias and other psychological disorders as well. One can avoid this just by taking responsibility for good and bad decisions and also knowing that sometimes bad things happen. If you do well on a test because you spent time studying, it probably isn’t because it was “just easy”. When you spill your coffee, thinking “God hates me” is probably not really why it happened, so accepting that the lid may not have been on and sometimes it gets bumped will help you relax.

http://psychology.about.com/od/lindex/f/earned-helplessness.htm
http://www.britannica.com/topic/learned-helplessness
http://youarenotsosmart.com/2009/11/11/learned-helplessness/

Terms: Learned helplessness, behavior, external locus of control, phobia, antecedent, consequence, psychological disorder

TB7
1. Operant Conditioning. This topic connects to Thorndike’s Cat puzzle experiments because operant conditioning is in effect. Through trial and error the cats were able to successfully complete the box. I was interested in this topic because I found a video of a failed experiment and I was curious what went wrong. As the video didn’t explain I had to do my own digging to the point where I learned about why the experiments worked and what was different. What I discovered related to primary reinforcement and motivation.
2. Trial and Error. Motivation. Automaticity.
3. Trial and Error
Trial and error is the process of learning through experiences. With these connections of experiences we add repetition which brands a quicker learning response. Trial and error is used in many different fields of psychology and also in coaching. In life for that matter we see trial and error around us. When we start our car in the winter we might need to try multiple times to get it to start. What we can learn is that the battery may need to be jumped. Or maybe that we need gas. Either way our experiences in these situations help us modify our behavior for future uses. When it gets close to winter you may buy a new battery. When low on gas you get more to avoid running out. In animal intelligence we can time the trials of experiments (like the cat puzzles) to find how much an animal has learned from trial to trail. Error comes from the experience that things work or don’t work and somethings work better or worse.
Motivation
Motivation ties into operant conditioning. More specifically it ties into the primary reinforcer. When we look at the cat puzzles we see that the cat’s main motivation to get out was food. Rat mazes also use food to hoax the mice to run through and find a way out. The most important thing here is that the food is a motivation. If the mice aren’t hungry why would they hustle to get out of the maze? In the video of the replicated experiment design of a puzzle box. Here though the cat fails to learn. In my opinion it is because it lost its motivation for the food. The cat then experiences the adverse stimulus of fear. The cat becomes so overcome with adverse stimulus that it goes into a panic state. This panic state is overwhelming to the point where the cat was not able to function. In this scenario there needed to be another motivating stimulus. The food works for the cat puzzles because the food is motivating. Without motivation it’s clear to see that the cat may go into a panic state.
Automaticity
If everything goes well we can see a state of automaticity. The law of exercise shows us that after repetition the cat stamps in the behavior that was the most efficient to success. This state of repetition results in a plasticity in the brain where the cat is almost able to complete the task in second hand nature. I am willing to bet that if the food was not there the cat would still open the box just as fast because operant conditioning is in effect to the point where the cat is automatic in its behavior. In the E book I read that a man by the name of Kohler rejected Thorndike’s Law of Effect and introduced his Insight Manner theory where he examined chimps reaching for an object based on insight to where the object was and the position of themselves. What was later found out that the chimps had been pulled form a rainforest where they would need to reach objects all the time. Here the trial and error process already happed and what we see is the automaticity stage where the monkey knows exactly how to complete a task of grabbing an object from a tree.

4.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e8tRUK0q_qI
This video shows an experiment design based off of Thorndike’s Cat puzzle box. The video shows a cat put in a box where it had to pull a lever to escape. The motivation behind the escape was some cat nip placed just out of paws length reach. This video was chosen because it was in my opinion a failed experiment. I say this because the cat lost motivation for the food and developed fear of being in the box. After a few repetitions you see the cat escape from the box and ignores the cat nip. I used this video to explain how motivation can affect the cat in the box.
https://books.google.com/books?id=-ApENUP58rAC&pg=PA137&lpg=PA137&dq=Plasticity+thorndike&source=bl&ots=bI8MtvK2fS&sig=HKWXBURq5ntClebi8cndDy3Ke9s&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0CB0Q6AEwAGoVChMIpaOshJuxyAIVUfKACh0zYwRZ#v=onepage&q=Plasticity%20thorndike&f=false
This source is a google book. I used chapter 5 of the book which discussed Thorndike and his experiments. This chapter is titles Operant Conditioning. The chapter also talks about primary and secondary forms of reinforcement. This chapter provided information about how an experimenter can get an animal to emit a behavior. I uses this chapter to show the connection of a reinforcer to the process of learning. This learning is Trial and Error also known as the Law of Effect.
http://www.uni.edu/~maclino/bm/book/sec3.1.pdf
This source is an article from Otto Maclin in which it discussed the Thorndike Experiments explaining Law of Effect, Law of Recency, and Law of Exercise. Here we learn about the cat puzzles, that cats were able to complete the puzzle faster with increasing number of trials. I was able to use this to develop my aspects of operant conditioning, as well as derive a concept of Operant conditioning.
Terminology: Operant Conditioning, Law of Effect, Edward Thorndike, Emit, Trail and Error, Law of Exercise, Law of Recency, Primary Reinforcer, Secondary Reinforcer, Motivation, Behavior, Stamp In.

1) Once you have completed your search and explorations, I would like you to say what your topic is, how exactly it fits into the section we have covered so far, and why you are interested in it.
This week I researched more about Pavlov and his classical conditioning. It fits into this section because it is discussed here and it also has been mentioned a few times in class. I chose this because although I have previously learned about it, this section gave me way more insight into his work and what all it takes to classically condition an animal or human.
2) What are three aspects of the topic you want to talk about for this assignment?
The three aspects that I wanted to talk about related to classical conditioning are; what are unconditioned and condition stimuli and responses, what the necessary conditions are in order to make a once neutral stimulus the conditioned stimulus, and how can classical conditioning be used in the classroom.
2) Next, I would like you to take the information you found from the various sources and integrate/synthesize* them into the three aspects of the topic, and then write about the topic.
The first aspect is stimuli and responses, they can be unconditioned or conditioned. An unconditioned stimulus is any stimulus that occurs naturally. An unconditioned response is the natural response that follows a stimulus, also known as a reflex. On the other hand, a conditioned stimulus is a stimulus that is taught and learned. If the conditioned stimulus elicits a certain behavior, the behavior would be called a conditioned response because it occurred because of the conditioned stimulus.
In order to make a conditioned stimulus one must first start off with a neutral stimulus. This is something that previous to the teaching the learner didn’t associate with anything in particular. The first condition of that the neutral stimulus must meet is that it must be salient. This means that the stimulus that the researcher is trying to condition needs to be able to be noticed in an environment. For example loud noises or flashing lights are noticeable unlike a whisper or a quit beep. If the stimulus is noticeable in the environment then it is able to be paired with a stimulus in order to get a desired response. The next condition that a neutral stimulus must meet is that it must have regularity in its presentation to the learner. The stimulus must have a specific time for it to occur, not random. This way when it’s paired with a stimulus is helps the learner associate the two. The third and final condition that must be met in order for a neutral stimulus to become a conditioned stimulus is that the neutral stimulus must be presented a sufficient amount of times before an association can be learned.
Classical conditioning can be effectively used within classrooms. A good example that we can all relate to when a teacher claps their hands. When they do this they expect the children to be quiet after, but first they must condition the students to learn that clapping means to be quiet and pay attention. This neutral stimulus (clapping) will eventually be conditioned to let the students know to turn their voices off and look to the teacher. In order to do this the teacher must clap their hands, and give the direction to turn off their voices, after being presented this many times the students will learn to be quiet after the just claps instead of having to clap and verbally instruct them to turn their voices off. Classical conditioning can also be very helpful in reducing and even eliminating anxieties and fears in the classroom. If a student fears or is anxious about giving speeches or taking exams, if the teacher is able to provide the student with a calm and relaxed environment during these situations the student will eventually no longer have such bad anxiety or fear of the situation.

Terms: classical conditioning, unconditioned stimulus, conditioned stimulus, unconditioned response, conditioned response, neutral stimulus, elicit,
http://www.slideshare.net/JamieRBourret/classical-conditioning-in-the-classroom-15195207
http://www.ehow.com/list_7603215_uses-classical-conditioning-classroom.html
http://elearningindustry.com/classical-conditioning

1) I am going to talk about Edward Thorndike's law of effect. The first section of the reading from this week was based on Edward Thorndike and his different contributions including the law of effect, law of recency, trial and error, etc. I am interested in researching more about the law of effect because I want to learn more in depth about what the law entails. I have heard of his other two ideas of trial and error and the law of recency but I do not remember learning about the law of effect. If I did learn it in previous classes it may have been touched on very little because I am unable to recall any information about it.

2) While writing about the law of effect I am going to talk about what the law of effect is, what experiments Thorndike conducted to create his theory, and how the idea of law of effect has contributed to later findings in research or studies within psychology.

2) Edward Thorndike came up with the law of effect in the early 1900’s and it is when one stimulus and response are associated, then that response will be more likely to occur even without the stimulus having to be presented. In other words, if someone or something does a behavior that results in a desired outcome, it is more likely to be done again. An example of this would be if a dog runs in a circle and then gets a treat, they are more likely to run in a circle again. The idea can kind of be related to Darwin’s idea of natural selection. Just like how in natural selection we pass on the more successful genes to our offspring while the others dissipate, with the law of effect we do the more successful actions and behaviors and stamp out the behaviors that don’t work. In a way the law of effect finds the best behavior for a situation where natural selection finds the best individuals of a species.

When Thorndike wanted to know more about learning processes he came up with his popular puzzle box experiment. His experiment included having a cat inside a box with food on the outside and to see how long it would take them to figure a way out. He would have the animals do it over and over again to see if they retained any information. The point of his experiment was to see how they would learn in certain situations. The only way out of the box was if the cat would push the lever. The cats went through the trial and error process of scratching at the bars, pushing the top of the box to see if it would come up, and digging until they finally tried the lever. He witnessed that more and more times the cats would go in the box, the faster they would get out of it because they would learn from the consequences of their previous behavior. He concluded the reason the cats were able to get out sooner each time was because they learned the efficacy of certain behaviors. They would either be reinforced with the door opening or nothing would happen.

The law of effect was the first of its kind to demonstrate anything to do with learning and behavior modification. The law of effect helped develop more common ideas we know about now like operant conditioning within behaviorism. B.F. Skinner's idea of operant conditioning came about a century later and was mainly based off of the idea of consequences from the law of effect. Skinner did modify Thorndike’s idea of consequences and put them into more specific categories however like positive or negative reinforcement and positive or negative punishment. Most people associate operant conditioning with the Skinner box which was really just a modified updated version of Thorndike's puzzle box. Overall the law of effect is the foundation of the more popular idea of operant conditioning we all learn about today.

3) http://www.simplypsychology.org/edward-thorndike.html - This URL was helpful for me because it had some information about how the law of effect has helped develop other ideas in psychology. It also gave me detailed information about his experiment conducted.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Law_of_effect - I chose this URL because it gives a good definition and examples about the law of effect and how it has contributed to future findings.
https://www.boundless.com/psychology/textbooks/boundless-psychology-textbook/learning-7/operant-conditioning-47/basic-principles-of-operant-conditioning-thorndike-s-law-of-effect-196-12731/ - I chose this URL because it gives information about all three of the topics I was wanting to write about for this section.

Terms: Edward Thorndike, law of effect, law of recency, trial and error, consequence, reinforce, behavior modification, operant conditioning, behaviorism, positive and negative reinforcement, positive and negative punishment, B.F. Skinner, Darwin, natural selection

1) Once you have completed your search and explorations, I would like you to say what your topic is, how exactly it fits into the section we have covered so far, and why you are interested in it.

My topic for this week’s blog is animal intelligence. This topic fits well into section 3.1 as it discussed Thorndike and his Puzzle Box. Thorndike discovered that animals are intelligent enough to be taught. In his example, he taught a cat how to open a door using reinforcement. This is interesting to me because I've never known what animals understand and what they don't. I always tell my dog "let's go" and he'd hop up and walk with me.

2) What are three aspects of the topic you want to talk about for this assignment?

One of the aspects I want to learn more about is how animals learn. I'm curious now after thinking about how humans learn if animals learn the same way. The second topic I would like to cover is whether animals learn better with reinforcement or punishment, either positive or negative as well. Lastly, I would like to think of a real life example and apply this information to that or find a video and watch it happen.

2) Next, I would like you to take the information you found from the various sources and integrate/synthesize* them into the three aspects of the topic, and then write about the topic.

The main discovery I found was that yes, animals can learn and do learn from us and they learn the way humans learn. As the Law of Effect states, animals are learning to emit certain behaviors. This can occur through past experiences and trial and error. They do understand what happens to them and can relate it to future events. This is also called episodic memories. This has been found in numerous animals. You can find episodic memories in nonhuman primates, dolphins, birds, and rats. It has been thought that these animals are learning through associating previous experiences. So, these animals are able to do what the typically four year old humans can do. Reinforcement is shown to be better to change behavior than punishment. A reason this is true is because to change one’s behavior there needs to be some motivation to change. Those who are getting praised instead of punished will be more motivated to change. When a person is more frustrated, they will use punishment which reinforces the punisher. If the animal does not understand what they are doing is wrong they will then confuse the punishment with something else which could be detrimental. If a trainer takes punishment too far it can be seen as abuse which will hinder the relationship between owner and pet. Another reason, punishment is bad is because this could lead to aggression. Aggression is taught. Continuously being punished could make the animal lash out to stop the punishment because they then link the punishment with something they do not like, so they try to stop it with aggression. With reinforcement you replace the fear with excitement and joy. Reinforcement will also increase the bond owner and pets have with each other.

3) At the end, please include working URLs for the three websites.
http://www.livescience.com/43682-episodic-memory.html
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/new-frontier-animal-intelligence/
http://www.rd.com/advice/pets/13-things-you-didnt-know-about-cats/#slideshow=slide18
http://www.intropsych.com/ch05_conditioning/discriminative_stimuli.html

Terms-
Behavior, reinforcing, law of effect, trial and error, emit Thorndike, Puzzle Box,

1.) The topic that I chose to write about for this week’s assignment was Ivan Pavlov’s experiments with dogs and classical conditioning. The second section that we were asked to read for the 10 point assignment this week focused on Ivan Pavlov and his studies that concerned classical conditioning, my topic is basically an extension of this section. I was interested in writing on this topic because I am interested in the relationship and similarity between animal behavior and human behavior. I also have a strong family-wide penchant for dogs so any research involving them is automatically at the top of my ‘list’. I was also curious about exactly the experiment was carried out, and was happy to be able to find a youtube video with actual footage of the dogs and apparatus from the experiment.
The three aspects that I wrote about for this assignment were the procedures of Pavlov’s famous salivating dog studies, how these studies used and explored conditioning, and how these findings relate to behavior modification in humans.
2.) Synthesis
While many people have heard of Ivan Pavlov and his experiments with animals and conditioning, many may not be aware that it was not what he initially intended to study. Pavlov’s main area of interest as a researcher was digestion and saliva’s role its physiology, however when he began to notice how the dogs in his studies would salivate prior to the meat powder he used to elicit this response was introduced. Luckily, Pavlov thought this was interesting enough to warrant further study and began to investigate the physiological responses of the dogs to various stimuli paired with the meat powder. Pavlov used test tubes that were surgically inserted to collect digestive fluid from the salivary glands when produced, and then recorded the amount of saliva to measure response to stimuli. He would pair the meat powder with certain auditory stimuli like bells and metronomes, then remove the unconditioned stimulus of the powder. After the pairing, the once neutral stimulus of the bell would lead to the conditioned response of the dog salivating even when no meat powder was produced. After the association between the conditioned stimulus and the unconditioned stimulus was made, the dogs would continue to salivate even after the unconditioned stimulus was removed. Pavlov repeated this until the dog no longer associated the conditioned stimuli with the powder and again would not present the conditioned response. This is an example of the extinction process we have gone over in class multiple times. However, Pavlov found that if he again paired the powder with the conditioned stimuli the dogs would elicit the
Although initially unintentional, Pavlov’s study of conditioning laid the framework for a significant period of growth in the behaviorist movement. The process of classical conditioning Pavlov defined asserted that a neutral stimulus paired with an excitatory stimulus would lead to the neutral stimulus eventually producing the response initially caused only by the neutral stimulus. Pavlov used various stimuli including audio and visual stimuli such as metronomes, bells, and lights paired with the unconditioned stimuli of the meat powder. By using these different types of stimuli Pavlov found that this was supported by the experiment because the unconditioned response and the conditioned responses were the same. Psychologists such as John B. Watson built from Pavlov’s research and expanded understanding of conditioning and its relationship to behavior modification.
Even with all we have learned about comparative psychology it may seem a bit from ‘left field’ to compare Pavlov’s drooling dogs with human behavior, at least at a superficial level. In reality there is quite a bit of information we can glean from the Pavlov studies in terms relative to our own behavior. This is true because of both humans’ and animals’ natural predisposition to learn from and adapt to the stimuli around them. John Watson’s work with conditioning after Pavlov’s research promotes this theory with evidence from Watson’s studies involving an infant boy. ‘Little Albert’, as he is more famously known, was the subject of conditioning studies by Watson and his associates in the 1920’s. The aim of Watson’s research was to condition Albert to fear a rat by pairing the presence of the rat with the unpleasant or aversive stimuli of a loud noise. After being startled by the noise accompanying the rat, Albert began to cry simply by having the rat exposed to him. In this case the rat would be the conditioned stimulus, the loud noise the unconditioned stimulus, and Albert’s crying in response to the rat the conditioned response. The results of this study proposed that some phobias in humans could possibly be caused by classical conditioning.
3.) URLS
https://youtu.be/hhqumfpxuzI
http://www.muskingum.edu/~psych/psycweb/history/pavlov.htm
http://www.learning-theories.com/classical-conditioning-pavlov.html

4.) Terms: classical conditioning, conditioned response, unconditioned response, extinction, conditioned stimulus, unconditioned stimulus, association, neutral stimulus, excitatory stimulus, auditory stimulus, elicit

1) Once you have completed your search and explorations, I would like you to say what your topic is, how exactly it fits into the section we have covered so far, and why you are interested in it.
The topic I choose for this topical blog was classical conditioning. I choose this because it fits exactly into our section of 3.2 where towards the end we talk about how Ivan Pavlov discovered this. I think this is very interesting because I have learned about classical conditioning in other classes before but not into depth and I’m interested what I can learn on other websites.
2) What are three aspects of the topic you want to talk about for this assignment?
The three aspects I would like to talk about in this topical blog would be what does classical conditioning do, how does it work, and how a conditioned stimulus has certain aspect that apply in order for it to be a conditioned stimulus.
3) Next, I would like you to take the information you found from the various sources and integrate/synthesize* them into the three aspects of the topic, and then write about the topic.
I’d like to start off my assignment by explaining what classical conditioning does. Is it a when you condition to learn a response by making an association between two stimuli. This may help if you understand that a behavior is usually expects something that usually comes after that stimulus. Sometime when that stimulus is similar to a different stimulus this may cause the participant too have experimental neuroses. This means that the participant is confused with the signal that is trying to be given to they react in either an aggressive behavior or an unresponsive confused behavior, which is also called learned helplessness. Classical conditioning is also always involves placing a neutral signal before the reflex. It also is focused on automatic or involuntary behaviors.
Now I’d like to move on to how classical conditioning works. First, before starting classical conditioning there are stimuli that are called unconditioned stimulus and a unconditioned response. These are both thing that are not learned and that are naturally occurring. Unconditioned stimulus is usually abbreviated to UCS while the unconditioned response is usually abbreviated to UCR. The UCS automatically makes the response react. An example of this would be if the water turned hot in the shower you jump back to not get burnt. The UCS would be the water turning hot. A UCR would be that response to the UCS. From the example before this, the UCR would be that automatic jumping back from the hot water. One more thing that is added to what happens before the conditioned starts would be the neutral stimulus which right now has no effect on the subject yet. Later on you will understand this better, but from my example the neutral stimulus is the sound of the flushing toilet. Now after explaining what is happening before the conditioning started, let’s talk about what happens when you start the conditioning. There are two stimuli that happen they are called the conditioned stimulus that happens during the conditioning and once the conditioning is done there is a conditioned response. The conditioned stimulus is abbreviated at CS and the conditioned response is abbreviate as CR. The CS was the neural stimulus before but is now associated with the CS to be a trigger for a reaction. So in my main example I say how the neural stimulus is the sound of the flushing toilet. So, if the US is repeated over and over with the neural stimulus then is turned into the trigger. For example you probably take many showers and every time someone flushes the toilet the water rushes in extremely hot water. After a few times you are classically conditioned to know after you hear a flush to move back to not get hurt. The CS is hearing the flushing toilet because it triggers you to know what’s next. In this case that is the hot water where you just back. The conditioned response that learned response from the conditioned stimulus. In the example this is jumping back because they have heard the toilet flush.
Lastly I would like to talk about the importance and three factors that has to happen in order for a stimulus to be a conditioned stimulus. Without out anyone of these, the conditioned stimulus will not happen. First is a stimulus has to be salience. Salience means it is noticeable. One example is a dog being able to hear the clock song when it hits twelve o’clock. The second thing you need would be able regularity of the presentations in which they have to be constant. If you don’t have that then it won’t work. For example every day coming in to feed the dog when the clock song comes on. Last, what you need is the number of presentations. Before the dog figures that the clock song will be a conditioned stimulus, you have to present it a number of times for them to figure it out. There is always a certain amount of times you need to present consistently in able for you to classically condition. I didn’t know about this when I first learned about classical conditioning and it is the top three most important aspects to know for classical conditioning in order to succeed.
4) At the end, please include working URLs for the three websites.
http://psychology.about.com/od/behavioralpsychology/a/classcond.htm
http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/thoughtful-animal/what-is-classical-conditioning-and-why-does-it-matter/
http://psychologized.org/funny-everyday-experiment-ideas-for-classical-conditioning/
5) Terms: classical conditioning, Ivan Pavlov, conditioned stimulus, unconditioned stimulus, unconditioned response, conditioned response, neutral stimulus, experimental neuroses, learned helplessness, salience,

1) Once you have completed YOUR SEARCH and explorations, I would like you to say what your topic is, how exactly it fits into the section we have covered so far, and why you are interested in it.
The topic I chose to cover this week was classical conditioning. I chose to look into this particular topic because it interested me how the brain can be tricked into thinking that an unrelated stimulus can cause a certain event. I've been interested in how this concept can be use in behavioral training, specifically those in dogs. At the location my dog was trained they had a dog-training class that utilized classical conditioning for modifying the dog's behavior. It was called click-a-trick classes and they used clickers to help reinforce good behavior out of dogs. Whenever the dog complied with a command, their owner clicked their clicker and gave the dog a treat. The clicker became an unconditioned stimulus for the dog, making them aware what they did was CORRECT.

2) What are three aspects of the topic you want to talk about for this assignment?
For this assignment I will be talking about what classical conditioning is, how classical conditioning works, and how I have unknowingly conditioned myself.

3) Next, I would like you to take the information you found from the various sources and integrate/synthesize* them into the three aspects of the topic, and then write about the topic.
Classical conditioning is a form of behaviorism, a theory of learning that states learning is done in the environment of the individual, which was discovered or founded by Ivan Pavlov. Classical conditioning is the pairing of stimulus to responses that previously may have no associations. Pavlov discovered this as it seems almost accidentally while studying the saliva glands and properties of dogs. He found that while he would ring a bell to signal dinner time for the dogs they would naturally salivate due to the food in front of them. However, after some time he found out that the dogs would start to associated, or connect, the sound of the bell to the food and they would start to salivate regardless if there was food present or not. This leads into the next section and that is, how does classical conditioning work.
Classical conditioning works very easily. The easiest examples given are the dogs and the supper bells. There are 5 parts to classical conditioning, these being, the unconditioned stimulus, the neutral stimulus, the unconditioned response, the conditioned stimulus, and the conditioned response. The goal of classical conditioning is to take an unconditioned response, and teach or train it to become paired with a previously neutral stimulus which is now conditioned. In the example of the dogs and food the five breakdowns are this: The food is the unconditioned stimulus, the sound of a whistle is the neutral stimulus, and the salivation is the unconditioned response. The goal is to pair the noise of the whistle to the salivation of the dog instead of the salivation randomly happening. After the whistle is blown, the food is presented and the dog salivates. This is repeated over and over again until eventually, when the whistle is blown no food is presented and the dog still salivates. Now Pavlov has elicited the behavior of salivation from the dog without needing food. The dog paired the thought of a meal with the whistle, which makes the saliva glands kick in. After this section of the experiment the neutral stimulus in the whistle is now coined as the conditioned stimulus, and the conditioned response, the response that is triggered by the conditioned stimulus, is the salivation. This is the simple understanding of classical conditioning, it does not deal in the areas of operant conditioning with reinforcers and punishers, and instead it pairs stimuli in the organism and creates subconscious behaviors.
This then leads to how I classically conditioned myself unknowingly. Whenever I go to the bathroom I always look at myself in the mirror afterwards. Somehow, I paired going to the bathroom with checking my image in the mirror. Now, every time I go the restroom, no matter the time of day, I will have the bodily desire to check myself in the mirror, even if I had already gone 10 minutes prior. In this example I have figured out the five parts of classical conditioning. The unconditioned stimulus is myself getting ready to end the night, with a neutral stimulus of going to the bathroom, and an unconditioned response looking in the mirror. After continually looking in morror prior to going to the bathroom I must have paired and linked in my mind thus leading to going to the restroom being the conditioned stimulus, and looking in the mirror as the conditioned response.
4) At the end, please include working URLs for the three websites.

http://www.simplypsychology.org/classical-conditioning.html
http://psychology.about.com/od/behavioralpsychology/a/classcond.htm
http://users.ipfw.edu/abbott/120/Classical1.html

classical conditioning, unconditioned stimulus, conditioned response, unconditioned response, neutral stimulus, reinforcers, punishers

1.I found the section on the stimulus response theory and how it can be connected to classical conditioning. This is extremely important in psychology and especially in everyday life. In order to understand why someone does a certain behavior or how to maybe help a friend change the behavior of biting her nails, these concepts can help this behaviors becomes easier to understand.
2.For this blog I am going to expand on the topic of stimulus and response, and how that is related to classical conditioning. A stimulus is what makes the response happen. For example, the doorbell rings, which is the stimulus, so I get up out of my chair and answer it, which is the response.
3.The stimulus-response theory is a very important part of the components of conditioning in psychology. This theory is based on the observation that human behavior is something that is learned, not something that we are born with. Thorndike came up with the theory of law and effect, which states that those behavioral responses that are closely followed by positive results are the ones that are more likely to be more concrete patterns and are more likely to reoccur in the response of the same stimulus. Example, every time my dog Toby comes in successfully from going to the bathroom outside I reinforce him with rewarding him with a dog treat. When we look at conditioning, it’s defined as a form of learning in which a stimulus becomes more effective in conducting a response, or a response happens on a regular basis in a stable environment. While I was doing my research for this blog post I came across the Dollard and Millers stimulus-response theory. This theory states that personality conflicts are learned and could therefore be unlearned. This theory can be applied to our everyday life. For example, according to this theory someone that has been exposed to an environment where hundreds of spiders crawled all over them and started biting them, this would cause this individual to fear spiders and the environments similar to where the attack occurred. This can be related back to classically conditioning my dog Toby to come in from going to the bathroom outside. If something traumatic happens to him while eating his reinforcement, then he will no longer associate coming in as a reward. I have had my own experiences with this theory. When I was about five or six I was upstairs in our new house eating dinner with my family, we didn't have a dining room table so I was sitting on the bed in my parents room. We were having hard shell tacos and all of a sudden I was unable to breath, my dad jumped up and started giving me the heimlich maneuver on me. He eventually got the piece of hard shell taco out of my throat. Ever since this day I have never had a hard shell taco or have eaten anything while being on my parents bed. Even though I would probably enjoy eating hard shell tacos, I have correlated fear with hard shell tacos and my parents room. My experiences is a good example of the stimulus-response theory by Dollard and Miller. According to them, children are born into this world with initial responses, and those responses have a hierarchy and can be changed by the process of learning, which can lead to new responses and situations. Going back to my taco accident, I have learned that my order of responses toward hard shell tacos and eating in my parents has shaped the say I feel when around these environments. It has replaced the old experiences and responses with new ones that are positive. Dollard and Miller's theory has been tested and proven in hundreds of experiments. This theory relates well with people (looking back to my examples).
Terms: stimulus, response, classical conditioning, stimulus-response theory, law of effect, reinforce,
http://www.britannica.com/topic/conditioning#ref154466
http://www.ukessays.com/essays/psychology/dollard-and-millers-stimulus-response-theory-psychology-essay.php
http://theconversation.com/breaking-bad-habits-classical-conditioning-and-smoking-11578

1. I chose to do more research on Thorndike’s principle of Law of Effect but more specifically the Law of Recency. This fits into our reading from sections 3.1 and 3.2 which talks about the Law of Effect and how the Law of Recency is a part of the trial and error process found in the Law of Effect. A simpler way of talking about of the Law of Effect is using trial and error and when using conducting trial and error experiments an organism will try different things in order to obtain the desired outcome. When they reach that desired outcome like opening a door for example the last behavioral sequence that was emitted will be remembered as causing the door to open this in turn is the Law of Recency where the most recent response is the most likely to reoccur. I wanted to research more about this topic because it was briefly mentioned in the reading and I wanted to know how important the Law of Recency is when it comes successful behavioral outcomes.

2. While looking up the Law of Recency I found that it is part of a broader scope of learning theorized by Edward Thorndike which are the five principles of learning. Upon learning of four more principles coupled with the Law of Recency I wish to explore what the five principles of learning which are the Law of Primacy, Law of Recency, Law of Intensity, Law of Freedom, and the Law of Requirement. I wanted to learn a bit more about these five principles because most of the literature has mentioned Thorndike’s basic three laws and very little is mentioned in the literature about the five principles.

3. Edward Thorndike’s basic three laws of learning are easily found when talking about behavior modification. He did however have five principles of learning which follow his basic three laws. The five principles of learning are as follows: the Law of Primacy, the Law of Recency, the Law of Intensity, the Law of Freedom, and the Law of Requirement. The Law of Primacy means that an individual remembers best what is learned first. When given a list it is easier to remember the beginning because that is where you started which is the Primacy Effect. Primacy is a state of being first, and the things that are learned first have a strong impression in the mind. What is taught must be right the first time otherwise it is much more difficult to correct the second time around. Following the Law of Primacy is the Law of Recency which is the end and the end is remembered the best. The last things that are recently learned are best remembered and the longer the time gap from the last thing learned the harder it is to remember. The closer the learning is to the time when it is needed to be applied the better the person will perform successfully. The beginning and the end of a lesson are the two most effective times for learning. It helps explain why there is a summary often after each chapter in a textbook because the frequent review and summarization help stamp in the mind the material covered. This law also helps to determine the sequence of lectures within a given course of instruction. The Law of Intensity states that the more intense the material is taught the more likely it will be remembered. A vivid and exciting learning method is much more memorable than a mundane boring repetitive learning style. Part of the law believes that the individual will learn more from the real thing than a substitute. It is easier to remember something that is hands on real world learning rather than just reading it from a textbook. In a classroom demonstrations, skit, and role playing increase the learning retention of an individual. The Law of Freedom states that material or information that is freely learned are best learned. The more an individual is forced to learn something and has to be continually coerced the more difficult the material will be to learn. The more freedom there is to learn the greater the intellectual and moral advancement is enjoyed. The final law of the five principles to learning is the Law of requirement which states that we must have something to obtain or do something, whether it is an ability, a skill, or anything that can help someone learn something. A starting point is needed for example putting together a piece of furniture you need the materials or pieces needed to make the final piece and the instructions to correctly put that furniture together. The five principles of learning is not saying that all of these conditions need to be met in order to learn things more successfully or to retain information better but each of these principles highlight the best possible approaches to learning to foster the most successful outcomes.

http://nursingplanet.com/theory/laws_of_learning.html

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Principles_of_learning

https://rapidbi.com/primacy-and-recency-effects-in-learning/#.VhXhXPlVhBc

Terms: Thorndike, Law of Effect, Law of Recency, Law of Primacy, Law of Intensity, Law of Freedom, Law of Requirements, Trial and Error, Emitted, Behavioral

1) Once you have completed your search and explorations, I would like you to say what your topic is, how exactly it fits into the section we have covered so far, and why you are interested in it.
I am interested in the approaches that are used to study animal behavior patterns. I am wondering how many perspectives there are to decipher animal behavior. I want to know if there is one perspective that is used the most and if it is evidence-based or not.

2) What are three aspects of the topic you want to talk about for this assignment?
I am interested in learning the types of measurement methods/strategies used to study animal intelligence. I will first discuss and define ethology, next I will discuss and define animal behavior, then I will discuss comparative psychology, and finally, behavioral ecology. One of the authors in a source that I found said that it is difficult to tease apart these domains of animal intelligence because they overlap slightly; I will attempt to be as clear as possible when defining these domains. I will give an example of one or two of these domains and I will also strive to connect it to how Edward Thorndike, from section 3.1 of the reading, ties into my topic of studying animal behavior.

3) Next, I would like you to take the information you found from the various sources and integrate/synthesize* them into the three aspects of the topic, and then write about the topic.
The first domain of measuring animal intelligence is called ethology. Ethology is the study of natural history and observation of behavior. It is based evolution, survival of the fittest, and causation; think of Charles Darwin’s observations of the Galapagos finches (Link 1). Ethologists notice similarities in creatures and then observe survival characteristics that may make one animal or species more fit than another animal or species. Next, I researched animal behavior, which are about the operations that “underly the behavior of animals” (Link 1). In other words: the scientists in this domain specifically study the function of animal behavior. I then researched comparative psychology which is using animal models in comparison to human models. Comparative psychology usually involves broad concepts, such as behavioral neurobiology and learning behaviors (Link 1). This domain is not to be confused with anthropomorphism, where human traits are applied to animals ‘‘usually with the implication it is done without sound justification’’ (Link 4; I added the emphasis on the word without). Finally, there is behavioral ecology, a domain where the animal’s behavior and environment are closely monitored. Some of the topics that are studied in this domain include territoriality and mating behaviors.
Animal behavior may be influenced by humans, evolution, or a combination. An example of evolutionary advances in animal behavior can be seen in some domesticated animals. Dogs in particular have developed a type of communication with humans that that arose due to increased and prolonged contact with humans (Link 2). They are now able to understand human forms of communication (e.g. sit, stay, rollover, etc.). This behavior is especially present in traditional herding dogs, which have high motivation to carry out the behaviors of corralling other animals. Another example of animal behavior that may be influenced by humans, evolution, or a combination, is when animals are given preference tests. Some researchers believe that dogs have developed a way to communicate with humans, while other researchers believe other animals can have preferences. Another example of interaction is having a bird peck at a key hole to gain access to a reward. The amount of times that the bird pecks at the key hole may be an indication of wanting the food for survival purposes; evolutionary influence (Link 3).
The bird example can be related to Thordike’s study involving cats and puzzle boxes. Instead of birds, Thorndike had cats and instead of a key hole, Thorndike had levers. The concept of changing the animal’s environment is an important element in the example listed in the previous paragraph and Thorndike’s experiment. In the youtube clip I found it interesting that the cats’ behaviors were erratic and confused at first but then changed to become more efficient. There was a nice visual in the text when Thorndike graphed out the number of trials and the time it took the cats to escape (showcasing that they ‘learned’ how to escape from shaping behaviors).

Link 1: http://www.animalbehavioronline.com/behavioralecology.html
I used this link to find the definitions for analyzing the different ways to observe and measure animal behavior patterns
Link 2: http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2008/03/animal-minds/virginia-morell-text
I used this link to provide an example of animal behavior pattern change in dogs.
Link 3: http://ilarjournal.oxfordjournals.org/content/39/1/20.full
I used this link for another example of animal behavior pattern change, but in birds rather than dogs.
Link 4: https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=9&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0CFUQFjAIahUKEwitusqhrrHIAhWJoYAKHdA3Df4&url=http%3A%2F%2Fanimalstudiesrepository.org%2Fcgi%2Fviewcontent.cgi%3Farticle%3D1064%26context%3Dacwp_arte&usg=AFQjCNF6UEAoc1h2VIhgygJZlj7nacdjKA&sig2=PNPhApF0wwFzhwp5tGEimw
I used this link for the definition of anthropomorphism.

Terms: animal behavior, behavior patterns, ethology, comparative psychology, behavioral ecology, animal intelligence, Thorndike, anthropomorphism, puzzle boxes, shaping

Pavlov’s research with classical conditioning was revolutionary to the psychiatric field. We now notice that certain stimuli have an effect on how we react to other stimuli—which we now refer to as conditioned reflex. The dog learned to respond at the sound of the bell, which became the antecedent, or a trigger, for his salivation. A major contribution of his work is to phobias and their treatment. Muscle relaxation exercises and instigation of anxiety helps a patient get over his phobia. We can also call this systematic desensitization. Wolpe, in 1964, helped to treat a man with a fear of getting urine on other people. This evoked him to wash his hands, shower, and clean his genatalia for a long period of time. Wolpe used systematic desensitization to help the patient get over this fear; he made the patient visualize urine on his hands and force himself to resist the washing. Concluding, there are many ways Pavlov's research still has an effect on us today.

Resources

http://www.nobelprize.org/educational/medicine/pavlov/readmore.html

http://www.simplypsychology.org/Systematic-Desensitisation.html

Terminology: Classical Conditioning, Stimuli, Conditioned Reflex, Antecedent, Phobia, Systematic Desensitization,

1) I am going to focus on Pavlov and his research on the dog and the conditioned/unconditioned stimuli/response. This is also known as the Pavlovian Conditioning or Classical Conditioning. I am very interested in how the unconditioned response can change to conditioned response by the change in stimuli. This fits in section 3.2 in that the whole section discussed Pavlov and his research. Also, Pavlov is a pretty famous researcher in the field of physiology and psychology.
2)I am going to focus on Pavlov's background and why he began this research, then his research in dogs and salivation, and the unconditioned/conditioned stimuli/response behaviors.
3) Ivan Pavlov was a Russian physiologist who studied at the University of St. Petersburg. He studied chemistry and physiology and received his doctorate in 1879. He began doing his own research in digestion and blood circulation which was what interested him the most. Although Pavlov became famous in the field of psychology, he was much more interested in physiology and looked at psychiatry a little hesitantly. But, he thought that the conditioned reflexes he found in his research with the dog and salivation could be useful to explain and manipulate the behavior of psychotic people. His ideas played a large role in the behaviorist theory of psychology (John Watson, 1913).
Pavlov's research included the studying of salivation in dogs in response to being fed. He believed that dogs didn't have to be taught to salivate with the stimulus of food. This salivation is considered as an unconditioned response (no learning needed). The food would be the unconditioned stimulus. He first did research on the salivation of the dog when just a bowl of food was present. Then he discovered that any object in which the dog associated with food would trigger the salivation. For example, before the lab assistant would walk in without the food, he was considered a neutral stimulus because it produced no response, until he started coming in with the food. Then the lab assistant would walk into the room with the food over and over again, so the dog learned through repetition that the food comes from him. So, every time the lab assistant would walk in, the dog would salivate, even if the assistant didn't have food. The dog's response was the same when Pavlov used bells before food was given. So through repetition, the dog learned an association between the bell and the food and a new behavior had been learned. Since this response is learned, it would be changed from an unconditioned response to a conditioned response. And the neutral stimulus then became a conditioned stimulus. Pavlov found that for associations to be made, the two stimuli had to be presented close together in time, had to be salient, regularity in presentation, and had to be presented a number of times. Also, it didn't really matter what kind of conditioned stimuli was given, it mattered if it reliably signalled that food was going to be present afterwards.

Terms: Pavlov, Pavlovian Conditioning, classical conditioning, unconditioned response, unconditioned stimuli, conditioned response, conditioned stimuli, association, salient

URL's:
http://www.simplypsychology.org/pavlov.html
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hhqumfpxuzI#t=110
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aso/databank/entries/bhpavl.html

1) Once you have completed your search and explorations, I would like you to say what your topic is, how exactly it fits into the section we have covered so far, and why you are interested in it.
The procedure that Pavlov used to create the experimental neuroses was to classically condition dogs to discriminate different geometric shapes. Just as a bell can function as a stimulus to elicit salivation, other stimuli could also elicit salivation using classical conditioning. Pavlov initially trained the dogs to discriminate between either a circle shape or a square shape. For example he might condition the circle to signal the delivery of food (create salivation), but would condition the square to signal the no delivery of food (inhibit salivation). (From the book)
The topic I chose is classical conditioning in children. Pavlov used geometric shapes to classically condition dogs. One shape meant food the other meant no food. I am interested in classical conditioning because it’s something that happens in everyday life without us even trying to. And parents use classical conditioning in children all the time. One example I found that I really liked was little Albert, who liked playing with rats. Someone made a loud noise that scared him every time he played with a rat and eventually became afraid of playing with rats even when the noise was not being made. I plan on having children someday and just from babysitting I have seen that saying “no” doesn’t always work.

2) What are three aspects of the topic you want to talk about for this assignment?
Three aspects of this topic that I would like to talk is how does classical conditioning work, and how to use it on children, and why does it matter

2) Next, I would like you to take the information you found from the various sources and integrate/synthesize* them into the three aspects of the topic, and then write about the topic.
Classical conditioning is when a conditioned stimulus is paired with an unconditioned stimulus and eventually the conditioned stimulus itself is enough to get a response without the unconditioned stimulus. One example I found that I liked was food and a baby. They baby gets food and the baby is happy. The mom is the one giving the baby food. Eventually every time baby sees mom he is happy (if you exclude other factors). It happens without even trying. B

3) At the end, please include working URLs for the three websites.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W0vLy41Hubw
http://www.open.edu/openlearn/education/educational-technology-and-practice/educational-practice/exploring-childrens-learning/content-section-4.2
http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/thoughtful-animal/what-is-classical-conditioning-and-why-does-it-matter/
Once you are done with your post make list of the terms and terminology you used in your post.
Classical conditioning, pavlov, response

1) Once you have completed your search and explorations, I would like you to say what your topic is, how exactly it fits into the section we have covered so far, and why you are interested in it.
A topic that we have covered that I am incredibly interested in is Pavlov’s dogs and specifically conditioned reflexes and classical conditioning. This topic fits directly into section 3.2, which focuses on Pavlov and his studies. I am interested in how this topic integrates into behavior modification as well as historical contexts within psychology. I have always found history incredibly interesting, and this specific example within the history of psychology has always been intriguing. However, when searching through information about Pavlov, it’s important to note that I am not interested in the surgical aspects. In all honesty, that part is upsetting to me and frankly grosses me out!
Another reason classical conditioning interests me is that I believe that classical conditioning is very prevalent in every day life, whether people notice it or not. There are many examples of this. For example, when we hear a certain text tone on our phone, we know that it is a text message because every time we hear that tone, a text message comes through. Therefore, in other situations, we may be walking on the street and we may hear something like that tone, or another person may have that tone, and we might check our phone, because we have been classically conditioned to think that that tone equals a text message.

2) What are three aspects of the topic you want to talk about for this assignment?
One major aspect I would like to focus on within this assignment is the actual practices of classical conditioning. I would like to know more about how everyday people purposefully apply classical conditioning into their lives. Another major aspect I would like to focus on would be how classical conditioning can apply to every day life for most people, when they are unaware of it. I would like to explore various examples of this and learn more about modern day concepts of conditioning, and how we are surrounded by classical conditioning without even knowing it. A final concept I would like to focus on is how classical conditioning is being used in the workplace, or if it is! I would like to learn more about whether positive or negative reinforcers work best with classical conditioning within all of these focuses.

3) Next, I would like you to take the information you found from the various sources and integrate/synthesize* them into the three aspects of the topic, and then write about the topic.
Throughout all of the articles I selected, classical conditioning is used. Whether we are purposefully emitting or eliciting conditioned behaviors, they occur in our every day lives often. Whether there is an experiment working on improving a single target behavior, we are purposefully incorporating classical conditioning into our lives, or it is there without us noticing it – classical conditioning is prevalent in every day actions.
One of the articles really focused on the actual practices of classical conditioning. Specifically, one of the articles focused on how a farm utilized classical conditioning in order to get cows to come for feed. The article discusses how they would use a bell in order to signal the cows to come for food, when the cows hear the bell they would know that food was coming and would head towards their feeding areas. This also represents how we as a society expects some services. For example, when you walk into a hotel, if there is no receptionist at the counter, there is often a bell to ring. When someone rings this bell, they often expect service of some sort. This is another example of classical conditioning.
Another area featured in these articles is the use of classical conditioning in the workplace. This article discusses how managers use classical conditioning to adjust specific target behaviors in their workers and to help workers maintain a predictable environment. Another area featured in this article is how classical conditioning is used in modern day dogs. For example, when they hear the crinkling of a bag, they may assume food or treats will come next and will run to their owner and perform a desired task. This article discussed the psychology of classical conditioning and worked specifically with dogs and every day life.
Another major theme throughout these articles was classical conditioning in every day life. One of the articles focused on how services (such as the hotel example above) are an example of everyday expectancies we have in regular life, AKA classical conditioning. We can also observe classical conditioning in our personal lives. We create expected results with those that we live with and enforce them throughout our actions. For example, if a child is expected to do chores and is reinforced when they do them, this behavior is more than likely going to reoccur. The same goes for classical conditioning, if you put a laundry basket in the hallway for your child to put their dirty laundry in, and when you knock on their door a day later – they will expect their laundry to be done.

4) At the end, please include working URLs for the three websites.
http://www.business2community.com/sales-management/motivate-your-inside-sales-team-a-how-to-guide-01342210

http://www.queenslandcountrylife.com.au/story/3397662/pavlovian-principles-bringing-cows-to-dairy/?cs=4708

https://www.insidescience.org/content/brain-circuits-can-mimic-pavlovs-dogs/2401

Terms:
Emit, elicit, positive reinforcement, negative reinforcement, classical conditioning, conditioned reflexes, target behavior, Pavlov, behavior modification

For my topic, I am choosing to go into more detail about Thorndike and his laws. I want to learn more about the way he used cats and his though process on when he created each law.
The three aspects I mainly want to focus on when researching is each individual law and maybe more studies on them, I want to research more trial and error studies, and lastly research that shows disagreement with his laws.
The law of effect is defined for us in the book as the behavior that is followed by a pleasant consequence is usually repeated and any behavior followed by an unpleasant consequence is likely to be stopped. In the source I read that Thorndike's laws and processes have been enforced in many educational settings. Which makes sense because students who work hard get good grades and students who don't fail. Then when a failing grade is received the behavior to be bad in school tends to be stopped. The disagreement here though is not every student will tend to take the failing grade as punishment but as reinforcement to keep doing badly and not caring. That could be why some schools discipline harder for certain areas.
Trial and Error obviously connects the majority of his laws. Trial and error with the Law of Readiness won't be effective if the study is not ready to try and fail or try and succeed. To try without readiness is a failure in itself. Trial and error doesn't have many disagreements because I believe it truly is in everyone's every day life. I found a good video that really connects trial and error to the Law of readiness because it really breaks down what the law of readiness is. It gave an example of people studying for school. It didn't directly connect it in the video but I found connection as "John" trial and errored all summer with studying to be prepared and ready for school and "Ben" didn't care to even try to be ready and because of that didn't do well to learn.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XiVzw5SxPmM
http://teachertraineeaide.blogspot.com/2013/05/behaviourist-thoery-thorndikes-theory.html
http://www.enotes.com/homework-help/would-you-agree-disagree-with-carl-rogers-edward-445184

1. The topic I did further research on was systematic desensitization with an example of how it's applied to treating phobias. This applies directly with what we've read about this week when learning about phobias and how they develop and how therapists use systematic desensitization to treat this disorder. I'm interested in it because 1) my grandma used to have agoraphobia and I remember being interested in this years ago when I was first told about her struggle with this disorder and 2) because I think it's interesting to see how systematic desensitization actually helps people to overcome their phobias.

2.) I would like to talk about what a phobia is, what systematic desensitization is and lastly, how this form of therapy helps people to confront and overcome their phobias.

3.) I found a few different websites that define what a phobia is, defines what systematic desensitization is and also shows how this therapy is applied to helping an individual overcome their phobia. A phobia is basically defined as an irrational fear of something that doesn't actually pose much of a threat. However, in order to be diagnosed with an anxiety disorder related to phobias, the symptoms have to be almost debilitating and they somehow have to interfere with your everyday life. You also have to have pretty persistent thoughts, worries and anxiety concerning the phobia. For example, if someone said they're afraid of tornados, but they live out on the coast, this probably wouldn't be something that would interfere with or disrupt their day-to-day life. Common phobias are of heights, spiders, snakes, tight spaces, etc. This is more than just being afraid of something, this is excessive fear and anxiety, and also irrational. This also involves avoiding the phobia at any cost.

Systematic desensitization is a therapeutic process in which a therapist will ultimately expose the client to their fears little by little and help them to face their phobia head on. This is based on the concept of classical conditioning where they try and turn the unconditioned response of fear and anxiety to a conditioned response of calmness, with the stimulus of course being their phobia. This is a form of exposure, which can be done by flooding which is exposing someone to their phobia all at once instead of gradually. And the gradual approach is what is known as systematic desensitization. This works by slowly exposing a client to their fear and gradually making the exposure more intense or more real. As they go through the process, they'll ask the client how they're feeling and what they're level of anxiety is and then they'll help them cope with that anxiety, but also encourage them to keep going. Once they start to calm down a little bit, the therapist will gradually intensify the exposure. A good example of this is shown in the video clip I found during my research.

The reason that this therapy works is simply because it forces someone to confront their phobias while also showing them that it doesn't really posses the threat that they think it does. It allows them to process the difficult emotions associated with the anxiety and work through the anxiety. It also helps them to access the "fight" instead of the "flight" response. Ultimately, it just helps them to rationalize the situation and understand that their phobia isn't threatening to them.

TERMS: systematic desensitization, phobias, classical conditioning, unconditioned response, conditioned response, stimulus

http://www.simplypsychology.org/Systematic-Desensitisation.html

http://phobialist.com/treat.html

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JDvDCqLCdEE

http://www.helpguide.org/articles/anxiety/phobias-and-fears.htm

1) Once you have completed your search and explorations, I would like you to say what your topic is, how exactly it fits into the section we have covered so far, and why you are interested in it.
For this weeks blog, I decided to look further into learning through trial and error. I thought this was an important topic to discuss because it is something that almost everyone is familiar with, whether they realize it or not.

2) What are three aspects of the topic you want to talk about for this assignment?
A few questions that came to mind when discussing this topic where how trial and error could affect our learning, Edward Thorndike, and what exactly trial and error consists of.

3) Next, I would like you to take the information you found from the various sources and integrate/synthesize* them into the three aspects of the topic, and then write about the topic.
Trial and error learning occurs when an organism comes to associate particular behaviors with the consequences that are associated with that behaviors they produce. These behaviors will increase as long as the results are pleasant. Thorndike, the creator of the theory of trial and error (also known as connectionism) did much of his research using cats. Much of the research was conducted using the puzzle box experiment. In this experiment, Thorndike used cats and trapped them in these boxes, forcing them to learn through trial and error how to get out of these traps. Thorndike’s big discovery during this research was that as repetition increased, the amounts of errors by the cats were reduced. In elementary school, we are taught to learn the “guess and check” method. Many researchers have stated that this method is much of the same thing as Thorndike’s research is. I also learned Thorndike had a variety of laws that he created as ‘laws of learning’. They were, law of readiness, law of effect, law of exercise, law of use, and law of disuse. One thing many did not however know about Thorndike was that much of his research was done based on information on Darwin’s theory of evolution. Another interesting thing I learned about Thorndike was that he experimented on a variety of animals before ultimately choosing the cat. He looked at fish, chicks, and monkeys before he settled for the cat. I believe that Thorndike’s research on trial and error was a tremendous discovery. This is something that can easily be applied to all humans. For example, as a child if you touch a hot surface, it hurts the first time and the results are often that the child does not chose to touch that hot surface again. Another example of trial and error learning could be when a teenager decided to sneak out of their house but ends up getting caught. The results could be that they teen decides to no longer sneak out of the house or that they maybe chose to take an alternate method, so they are less likely to get caught the next time. I find behavioral research that is done on animals to be especially interesting. I think it is cool that something that a cat does can ultimately be applied to how a human would react to a similar situation. If you think about it, it’s actually fascinating! In my opinion, I think that trial and error can actually be related back to reinforcement. If you are negatively reinforces or positively reinforced, it is going to help to decide what pathway you take. Overall, I find this research to be very interesting. In the future I wouldn’t mind learning more about this and other ways in which it may affect our learning.

4) At the end, please include working URLs for the three websites.
http://www.encyclopedia.com/topic/trial-and-error_learning.aspx

http://teachertraineeaide.blogspot.com/2013/05/behaviourist-thoery-thorndikes-theory.html

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trial_and_error

Words used: Thorndike, trial and error, positive reinforcement, negative reinforcement, and punishment.