Additional Web Surfing

The Premack Principle is an effective way to modify behavior using a "First, then" model to encourage certain behaviors by utilizing already reinforcing behaviors. The example used on the Autism Mom Blog refers to getting her autistic child to eat their dinner by offering a reward of a cookie. They already like the cookie. So by saying, "First eat your supper then you can have a cookie" there is little room for negotiation and the target behavior can occur.
What is really important in this process is understanding what behaviors are already occurring that are good and useful (determining the consequence). This can come from watching them, asking them what they like, or stereotyping for the given age/gender group (this would be the antecedent). You do something you don't want to do in order to do something you want to do. This strategy can be extremely useful for populations of people who have a hard time learning behavior modification or are simply unable to learn it (young children, children with developmental disorders, those with dementia, etc.)
This method utilizes motivation which can be a powerful tool in behavior modification. It is powerful because it does not use punishment -- which is often used with children. Because of the structure of the Premack Principle, the parent (or whomever is guiding the target behavior) is in control and able to elicit the behavior, not the child. By not giving options you are enforcing that they emit the behavior, making you in charge. This tactic seems a lot like reinforcement (and it is). However, it is tweaked a little bit to target the behavior by using pleasant behaviors to get a wanted response. Basically you are using what they like (or you like) against them to get what you want.

This can apply to my behavioral change project easily. I am trying to increase the frequency in which I go to class. As of late I have had a hard time motivating myself to attend class and if it continues it could seriously hurt my grades. Using the Premack Principle, I could use "First go to class, then you can have a peppermint hot chocolate for the day." This is extremely motivating for me because I love peppermint hot chocolate and by getting this in the Union between classes I am less likely to go back to my room making my attendance higher.
Punishing myself for not going to class would not help. I would feel even worse about it and become more drawn in, less likely to go to class. I have tried a regular schedule of reinforcement where I reinforce once a week but it was not direct enough for me to see a drastic increase in my attendance. So a more frequent schedule or reinforcement is the key to attending class more frequently. As this continues to work I can lean out my schedule of reinforcement, not reinforcing every time I emit the target behavior. After all, buying a peppermint hot chocolate at Chats everyday will take a toll on my bank account. If I think in the morning, "I will get a peppermint hot chocolate today if I go to class" I will be more likely to get out of bed than if I think "I need to go to class." The ultimate goal is to go to class regularly without reinforcement needed. If needed in extreme cases you could reinforce every step of the process to get you there (aka shaping), however in my case I think that would be absurd.

Terms: Premack Principle, target behavior, behavior, antecedent, consequence, reinforcement, schedule of reinforcement, punishment, behavior modification, emit, elicit, lean, shaping

https://psychlopedia.wikispaces.com/Premack+Principle

The Premack principal is also called “grandma’s rule.” It is described by autism mom as “high frequency activity can be used to reinforce low frequency activity.” High frequency activity being behaviors that the person does all the time, and low frequency activity being behaviors that aren’t emitted very often or minimally. The high frequency behavior that is elicited can be chosen by the person. They may choose to elicit the behavior of playing games or playing outside. The Premack principle works because it gets the person thinking about the activity that they enjoy doing and not the activity that they may not like to do. The person is thinking about the preferred reinforcer, notice they use reinforcers and not punishment, because punishment wouldn’t be effective.
One of the variations that autism mom talks about is using smaller steps to reach a goal instead of larger steps. The example she used was reinforcing D after eating one noodle, giving him an M&M after, and working their way up to larger behaviors such as eating all the food on his plate. We talked about this similar concept when we were discussing our behavioral change projects. Sometimes changing behaviors are a lot more manageable when you take little steps at a time.
Another website that I looked at talks about how the Premack principle can be applied in the classroom. The Premack principle is used in the classroom by finding out what motivates us as students, and then using that to get us to elicit other behaviors as well. David Premack studied in the 1950’s internal motivation and how we intrinsically are motivated to elicit certain behaviors. Premack stated that any person could rank order the activities they would prefer to do if they were given a certain amount of free time. Premack also stated that even without knowing someone personally, just by watching what behaviors occur more, you could discover what behaviors they would prefer. Premack thought this would be useful because the behaviors people prefer more could be used as reinforcers. For example, if we notice an individual loves to get ice-cream at a local ice cream shop in their free time, we could use this activity as a reinforcer for an activity that they don’t prefer to do. You could tell the person, “I will take you to the ice cream shop if you pick up all the sticks in the yard.” A high frequency behavior then becomes a reinforcement for a low frequency behavior.
I definitely can see how someone could incorporate the Premack principal in their behavioral change project. I think it would work best for people who are trying to increase a particular target behavior. For example, if you want to increase the amount of time you exercise. According the principal, exercising would be your low frequency activity. The person would then have to pick a behavior they enjoy doing, a high frequency behavior, and use that as a reward in they emit their low frequency behavior of exercising.

Make a list of the terms and concepts you used in your post.
Reinforce, emit, behavior, elicit, punishment, behavioral change, goal, low frequency behavior, high frequency behavior, target behavior
http://study.com/academy/lesson/applying-the-premack-principle-in-the-classroom.html

The Premack Principle involves having a positive reinforcement of the emission of an unconditioned responses and unconditioned stimulus. I have learned with my own behavior modification that negative reinforcement often elicits and negative connection between altering a target behavior at all and makes me more hesitant to commit to changing it. This principle is all about rewarding behaviors that occur reliably. It makes the unappealing activity seem like something worth doing, which can help increase the target behavior without requiring any changing your behavior. This principle is actually the basis of my reward system for my own behavior modification. If I achieved my goal, I would reward myself with an hour of procrastination before I started my homework. I was rewarding myself with a behavior that did not really require any change and was behaviors that I already did, I just turned them into a reward.

URL: http://study.com/academy/lesson/applying-the-premack-principle-in-the-classroom.html
Terminology Used: Premack Principle, emission, unconditioned response, unconditioned stimulus, positive reinforcement, elicit, negative reinforcement, target behavior, behavior modification, reward

The premack principle is often also referred to as “grandma’s rule”. On the website that we were asked to look at, there was a complete definition provided for the premack principle. The principle states that a high frequency activity can be used to reinforce low frequency behavior. Using this principle can increase the frequency of a target behavior. Access to the preferred activity is contingent on completing the low-frequency behavior. The high frequency behavior to use as a reinforcer can be determined by 1) asking students what they would like to do, 2) observing students during their free time, and 3) determining what might be expected behavior for a particular age group. The premack principle works because the person is thinking about the positive reinforcer they are going to get, not the non-preferred activity. The author of the website we were asked to look at gives an example of how she uses this principle on her son when he won’t eat his quesadilla. She might say to him “first eat the quesadilla, then you can have a cookie”. This makes the aversive activity (eating the quesadilla) something that the child wants to do in order to get the desirable positive reinforcement.
At first, I didn’t really understand this concept very well. Looking up the second website really helped me understand more about it. The second website said that first, you need to find a reinforcer for the person. This can be figured out by watching what the person chooses to do voluntarily. Then you can use this reinforcer to reinforce non-preferred behaviors. This makes sense, especially with children and adolescents. If you tell the child “first do (insert non-preferred behavior), then you can (insert preferred behavior)”, they are way more likely to emit that non-preferred behavior.
I could easily use this in my behavioral intervention. My behavioral intervention involves my target behavior of going to bed earlier to get a better night of sleep and eight hours per night. According to this principle, the target behavior of going to bed earlier would be a non-preferred or low frequency activity for me. I could pair this non-preferred activity with a preferred or high frequency activity. For me, this would be watching more Netflix. So, I could tell myself “First, go to bed earlier and get eight hours of sleep every night this week, then you can watch Netflix for a couple extra hours this weekend.” The reinforcer of Netflix would elicit the target behavior (non-preferred behavior) of going to bed earlier at night. The premack principle is actually a really effective way to modify behaviors.

Terms: premack principle, reinforce, positive reinforcer, positive reinforcement, aversive, desirable, reinforcer, behaviors, emit, target behavior, behavioral intervention, elicit

References:

http://www.intropsych.com/ch05_conditioning/premack_principle.html

http://www.autismmom.net/premack-principle-and-behavior/

The Premack Principle states that we can use a high frequency behavior (a behavior which will be emitted at a high frequency if the subject is given free will) to reinforce a low frequency/target behavior. The example given the video was ‘eat your vegetables and then you can eat ice-cream’. Establishing positive reinforcement is import; we want to create an ‘if-then’ situation in which if the subject engages in the target behavior they can engage in the desirable behavior as well. We see this in organizational psychology as well, displayed as: If you do your job outstandingly well you will get rewarded with a day off or get to choose the event for the staff outing.
All of this ties back into the notion of positive reinforcement. This differs from negative reinforcement in that it adds a desirable stimulus to increase the frequency of the target behavior. As long as the reward has valence then the low frequency behavior will be reinforced by the desire to emit the high frequency behavior – something all parents are likely familiar with.
This principle can be utilized to help my behavioral challenge of increasing the number of hours I spend working on my book. Under conditions of freedom, where I didn’t have other pressing matters such as school and work, I like to think that I would spend more time working on my book. That is to say: I engage in low frequency behaviors of doing homework and then reward myself with researching and writing to complete the book.
Likewise, I have other behavioral challenges which can be aided with this principle. For instance, I rarely emit the behavior of mowing the lawn in the summer. Seeing that the grass is starting to grow, I can elicit this operant behavior by tying in the reward of a frosty beer after I mow the lawn. Given this principle of behavior modification, I should increase the frequency of mowing the lawn because I want the desirable consequence of a delicious, ice-cold, beer.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2731497/
Terms: Behavior, consequence, desirable, reward, positive reinforcement, negative reinforcement, emit, elicit, behavior modification, operant behavior, Organizational psych, stimulus, target behavior, valence,

The Premack Principle is stating that in order to increase the frequency of a behavior, you must use a more pleasurable, high-frequency behavior to reinforce the low-frequency behavior. The author of the first article did a great job of explaining how to utilize this principle with children by finding a high-frequency behavior that they actually enjoy, varying the schedule of reinforcement (aka, if you start with continuous reinforcement then you must eventually switch to another schedule of reinforcement) and she even discussed creating visual depictions of “first, then” scenarios so the child fully understands that the reinforcement is associated with a certain behavior. The author also emphasized using certain statements so it is clear to the child that they must first emit the low-frequency behavior before they will receive the reinforcement. For example, if a child does not want to eat their vegetables, but really enjoys animal crackers you can say, “First eat your vegetables, then you can eat animal crackers.” That statement is acts as an antecedent for the child because then he/she knows that if they emit vegetable-eating behavior, the consequence will be animal crackers. This Premack Principle also works in a way to make the low-frequency behavior more enjoyable if it is continually paired with a high-frequency behavior. Eventually the child may begin to associate the low-frequency behavior with desirable things, or at the very least, not dread emitting the low-frequency behavior.

This can be helpful in my own behavior modification project as I continually strive to be a weekday vegetarian, thus lessening my ecological footprint and eating slightly healthier. In a sense, I am already using the Premack Principle in that first I must not eat meat Monday through Friday, then Saturday and Sunday I can eat all of the meat that I want. This is reinforcing to know that I can eventually eat the certain foods that I want to eat, I just have to wait a certain amount of time to get there. I have also found myself treating myself to other sorts of foods if I do not eat meat, for instance, if I am tempted to eat meat I will tell myself that I should eat some fruits or vegetables instead and then I can have a dessert. By treating myself to dessert for eating fruits and vegetables instead of meat, I am reinforcing myself to not eat meat during the week. Now that I have read about the Premack Principle, I will be more aware of this process and try to consciously reinforce myself with high-frequency behaviors.

URL: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Premack%27s_principle

Terms: Premack Principle, behavior, reinforce, schedule of reinforcement, continuous reinforcement, emit, antecedent, consequence

The Premack Principle is stating that in order to increase the frequency of a behavior, you must use a more pleasurable, high-frequency behavior to reinforce the low-frequency behavior. The author of the first article did a great job of explaining how to utilize this principle with children by finding a high-frequency behavior that they actually enjoy, varying the schedule of reinforcement (aka, if you start with continuous reinforcement then you must eventually switch to another schedule of reinforcement) and she even discussed creating visual depictions of “first, then” scenarios so the child fully understands that the reinforcement is associated with a certain behavior. The author also emphasized using certain statements so it is clear to the child that they must first emit the low-frequency behavior before they will receive the reinforcement. For example, if a child does not want to eat their vegetables, but really enjoys animal crackers you can say, “First eat your vegetables, then you can eat animal crackers.” That statement is acts as an antecedent for the child because then he/she knows that if they emit vegetable-eating behavior, the consequence will be animal crackers. This Premack Principle also works in a way to make the low-frequency behavior more enjoyable if it is continually paired with a high-frequency behavior. Eventually the child may begin to associate the low-frequency behavior with desirable things, or at the very least, not dread emitting the low-frequency behavior.

This can be helpful in my own behavior modification project as I continually strive to be a weekday vegetarian, thus lessening my ecological footprint and eating slightly healthier. In a sense, I am already using the Premack Principle in that first I must not eat meat Monday through Friday, then Saturday and Sunday I can eat all of the meat that I want. This is reinforcing to know that I can eventually eat the certain foods that I want to eat, I just have to wait a certain amount of time to get there. I have also found myself treating myself to other sorts of foods if I do not eat meat, for instance, if I am tempted to eat meat I will tell myself that I should eat some fruits or vegetables instead and then I can have a dessert. By treating myself to dessert for eating fruits and vegetables instead of meat, I am reinforcing myself to not eat meat during the week. Now that I have read about the Premack Principle, I will be more aware of this process and try to consciously reinforce myself with high-frequency behaviors.

URL: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Premack%27s_principle

Terms: Premack Principle, behavior, reinforce, schedule of reinforcement, continuous reinforcement, emit, antecedent, consequence

The basics of the Premack Principle is this: You get to do something that you enjoy doing (ex. Going out on the weekend) IF you do something that you wouldn’t want to normally do (ex. Doing your homework). This technique us used quite often with children in order for them to do their chores, “If you do your chores you can go out back and play”. The reason this works is because it’s basically a motivator, or reinforcer to get you to do something you wouldn’t normally do. Most children wont go about their day being excited to do their chores, but if you incorporate an activity that they like to do which isn’t readily available to them, such as cookies or sweets, then they will be more likely to emit the behavior.

This could help my behavior project by encouraging me to save money in order to make a bigger purchase. For example, if I can save enough money (or not spend as much), then I can be financially stable enough to buy a new television. The new television will give me motivation to stop spending money on this I don’t need and continue to emit my saving behavior.

Terms: Behavior, emit, positive reinforcement, reinforcer.

https://psychlopedia.wikispaces.com/Premack+Principle

The Premack Principle is where you use a pleasurable behavior to reinforce an aversive behavior. This was created by David Premack in 1965. This principle is also known as the "First, Then" principle, rather than the "If, Then" because for example, if you tell a child, "If you eat your vegetables, then you can have a cookie," this gives them room to choose to emit the behavior. Instead, you should say, "First, eat your vegetables, then you can have a cookie." This way does not really give them the option to do anything else. The use of the pleasurable behavior (cookie) is to elicit the aversive behavior. Something also mentioned in the article was that negative reinforcement does not work when you are using a non-preferred behavior. For example, "You either eat your vegetables or go to your room." Both behaviors are not pleasurable, so they will just choose the one that is the least awful sounding to them at the time. Always use something that they are wanting to do rather than aversive to them.

One way that I am using the Premack principle in my project is that I am telling myself, "First you can only drink 3 cups of coffee a week. Then you can have a Scratch cupcake." This way I am not allowing any room for questions and I am focusing on the reinforcer rather than the non-preferred behavior of cutting out coffee.

Link: http://www.alleydog.com/glossary/definition.php?term=Premack%20Principle

Terms: Premack principle, behavior, pleasurable, reinforce, aversive, emit, elicit, negative reinforcement, reinforcer

The premack principle is to reinforce an undesirable behavior with a desirable one. From both the website autism mom.net and the website I found it gave the example of children and eating vegetables or other disliked foods by reinforcing it with a treat of their liking. So the undesirable behavior would be to eat vegetables. But you would say if you eat them you get to have chocolate. Chocolate is a reinforcer, and they learn that if they eat the vegetables they will be reinforced with something they like. Or another example could be used in behaviors. Like doing homework. You tell a child to do their homework first (undesirable behavior) and then they can play video games or watch their favorite show (desirable behavior). By doing these things you can increase the frequency of the desirable target behavior to be emitted.
For my behavioral change project I've been trying to increase the amount of time I spend studying and doing homework for each of my classes everyday. To reinforce myself, I've given myself a day off (usually Fridays) to hang out with friends or do something fun, not related to class work. While I'm doing home work however I find myself using the Premack principle often. I will sometimes tell myself, first read this/do this assignment and you can take a break and watch a couple episodes of the Office. It increases my productivity by taking breaks and increases the amount of time I spend doing homework and studying. By giving my self reinforcements that are scheduled reinforcements every Friday, as well as small/less frequent ones during the day, I have developed better studying and homework habits.

Terms: premack principle, undesirable/desirable behavior, elicit, target behavior, reinforce, frequency, self reinforcement, scheduled reinforcement.

Site:
http://www.intropsych.com/ch05_conditioning/premack_principle.html

Premack Principle

For this week’s out of class assignment, we were to look into what is known as the Premack principle. The Premack principle is a type of behavior modification, usually used with young children. When using this principle, the parent or caregiver will use statements that go “If, Then” or “First, Then”. For example, if you have a child that is a picky eater, you will say, “First you will eat your broccoli, and then you can play a video game.” This will positively reinforce the child to eat their vegetables. We are told that reinforcement works best when modifying one’s behavior. But now we know, from the material we have been given, that positive reinforcement is better than negative.
It was said that negative reinforcement can be damaging and ineffective because the child is worrying about two things. For example, if we way “If you don’t eat your broccoli, then you will get sent to bed early.” Then the child must sit and wonder which would truly be worse. Is the broccoli even worth a later bedtime? Basically, the Premack principle if positive reinforcement verbally expressed to the child. It makes the target behavior very clear and it makes the consequence of the target behavior very clear.
The Premack principle was created by a man named David Premack and it states that ‘a high probability behavior can be used to reinforce a low probability behavior’. The high probability behavior in my previous example would be the child playing video games. This has a high probability of happening. The child likes to play video games and there (most likely) will not be any argument when we try to elicit the video game playing behavior from them. The low probability behavior would be the broccoli eating behavior. The child may not like broccoli, so there is a low probability that we will see this behavior occur, even if we try to elicit it. So we can use the high probability behavior (playing a video game) to reinforce the low probability behavior (eating broccoli).
When people discuss the Premack principle, they are usually just talking about children and how to reinforce and increase their target behaviors. But I believe this principle can also be used with adults and modifying and adult’s behavior. It is thought that the Premack principle can be a great way to “cure” procrastination if we do it right. According to my research, we can use the ideas that come with the Premack principle to better manage our times and get entire lists of things done.
We have all had those days were it seems we have several things to all get done at once. I am guilty of making an entire list and then only accomplishing a couple of the things on it – only to be left to worry about the rest the next day. What we need to do is make a list of all of the things we need to do that day starting with the most pleasurable and ending with the most aversive. Once we get the list written out, we must start at the bottom and work our way up the list. If we start at the top, we will be beginning with the most pleasurable stimuli/behavior, and the further we go down the list, the more aversive the behaviors will be which will start to feel like punishment.
If we work out way up the list, rather than down, we will start with the most aversive behavior and end with the most pleasurable. This is the same format structure of the Premack principle. We are using the pleasurable behavior (the high probability behavior) as a reinforcement for the aversive behaviors (the low probability behaviors). This can be used when we are trying to make a “to do” list and it can be used in everyday life to stop or lessen procrastination.

URL:
http://gettingstronger.org/2010/12/stop-procrastinating-use-the-premack-principle/

TERMS: Premack Principle, “If, Then”, “First, Then”, Positive Reinforcement, Negative Reinforcement, Reinforcement, Punishment, Target Behavior, High Probability Behavior, Low Probability Behavior, Elicit, Pleasurable, Aversive

Cassidy Monaco
Week 14 Online Assignment

The Premack Principle is all about how high frequency activity can be used to reinforce low frequency behavior. According to this principle, some behavior that happens reliably (or without interference by a researcher), can be used as a reinforcer for a behavior that occurs less reliably. This means that the individual gains access to the high frequency, or preferred activity, dependent on if they complete the low frequency behavior. The high frequency behavior to use as a reinforcer can be determined by asking the student what they want to do, observing what they like to do during their free time, or determining the expected behavior for the age group. The reason why this principle works is because the person is thinking of what will happen as a result of their action, or the consequence of their behavior, according to the ABCs of behaviors. Therefore, it not only gets them to emit the target behavior at the time, but also teaches the correct behavior so they emit it more frequently. When I read more about this, I learned that the Premack Principle is named after psychologist David Premack who proposed this rule. The Premack Principle can be used in an example like the following: “First eat the quesadilla, then you can have a cookie,” which makes that unappealing activity something worth doing.
Just like the above example, I can apply the Premack Principle to my behavior change project. I used a high frequency activity (shopping or eating desserts) as a reinforcer for my low frequency activity (exercising). This means that when I emitted the target behavior of exercise, which was low frequency, I gained access to the activity of shopping or eating desserts that I already enjoyed, so it was a high frequency behavior. It is interesting to think about reinforcement this way because obviously, something is much more reinforcing if it is already a high frequency activity, which shows that the individual already enjoys this activity since they do it frequently. I also will use this in my childcare job because kids will respond much better to a request if they know they will gain access to something they like. For example, “take your nap and you will have ipad time when you wake up”. The website that I chose uses the example of rewarding a child with watching television, which they already are known to enjoy (high frequency), for washing the dishes, which is a behavior that they do not emit often because it is aversive. Overall, I thought this was a very interesting principle and it is very useful.

TERMS: Premack principle, reinforce, behavior, emit, reinforcer, consequence, ABCs of behavior, high frequency behavior, low frequency behavior, aversive

http://www.alleydog.com/glossary/definition.php?term=Premack%20Principle

The Premack principle essentially states that high frequency activity can be used to reinforce low frequency activity. The best time to use this is in a classroom, when a child is acting out. For example, asking what the child would like to do when they make a big deal out of not doing something that is interesting to them. The child is then thinking about the preferred activity/reinforcer and not the non-preferred activity. As the article states, saying something like "If you don't eat your peas, you are going to bed!" makes them not want to really do either of those things, but by offering a reward at the end, it increases the target behavior, for example "If you eat your peas, you'll get a cookie!". So in this scenario, the child wants the cookie and doesn't want to go to bed, therefore the second example is more successful. This can be incorporated into my behavioral change project because I can reward myself after I do something that I don't want to do. My target behavior will then decrease as it is supposed to because I will be putting my attention elsewhere.

http://www.intropsych.com/ch05_conditioning/premack_principle.html

TERMS: Premack Principle, reinforcer, target behavior, reward

The Premack principle was another interesting spin on reinforcement. The premack principle works by emphasizing the reinforcement rather than the consequence or addition of an aversive stimuli, punishment. This makes it easier to do an unpleasant activity by putting a pleasant activity right after it. Also called the Grandmas rule, this principle probably would have helped me in my earlier years when I would refuse to eat my vegetables. It was very interesting reading about this because my parents would always use this on me, "eat your broccoli then you can have your dessert."

Applying this to my behavioral change project would most likely help me continue to emit my behavior. By letting myself eat my favorite snack after I emitted my behavior I will be much more likely to emit that behavior.

http://www.iloveaba.com/2013/01/the-premack-priniciple.html

Terms-
Behavior, emit, reinforcer, punisher, consequence, aversive, stimuli.

The premack’s principle involves using preferred behaviors to reinforce an unpreferred behaviors. Some professionals will also refer to this technique as First or Then, High probability or low probability and If or then. Anyone can implement the premack Principle to gain compliance, or to increase the likelihood of a particular behavior occurring. This principle s especially used in children when performing a task. For example, when trying to make them eat lots of fruits and vegetables. If they do, they get a reward like playing their games, watching tv, etc. This principle can be change according to our own needs. This principle can also be used as goals. Many parents or professionals get in the habit of giving demands, the child balks or resists, and then the parent or professional reminds the child what they will lose. For example, if children eat more fruits and vegetables they will eventually get use to it and this will bring them benefits to their own. This goals need to be always kept in mind, it needs to me constantly. This principle is also known or calls “grandma’s rule” because of its relation between preferred and un preferred behaviors. 



This principle is related to my project as stated int he video in the web page. I am trying to increase the consumption of fruits and vegetable, because i want to be more healthy. Therefore, sometimes if I eat healthy for 3 days and I work out, that allows me to eat an ice cream for lunch one day. The preferred activity like eating an ice cream, motivates the un preferred activity of eating more healthy. This as an example, I think that the premack principle could definitely help the behavioral change project. The reinforcement definitely is a good way to get the behavior change. As students this principle can be used to stop procrastinating, if we get our homework done on time, then we can go and watch netflix for the rest of the day or we can go tot workout or even hangout with friends. This examples will act as a reward and homework will become like our priority. It’s important to understand the Premack Principle in order to avoid setting yourself up for failure when you present a demand. If you don’t have it clear you may just fail the goal you are trying to achieve.



https://psychlopedia.wikispaces.com/Premack+Principle

The Premack Principle is named after the behavioral psychologist who found it: David Premack. The principle states, “A high probability behavior can serve as reinforcement for a low probability behavior.” This means that you do a behavior that you like less and use a behavior that you want to do as reinforcement for completing the aversive behavior. First you have to do the dishes, and then you get to play video games. This makes you think about the positive reward and makes emitting the aversive behavior easier. After doing continuous reinforcement for a while, you can change the schedule of reinforcement to a fixed ratio of every other time you do the undesirable behavior, you get the reward (FR2).

The website I found talks about procrastinating and how the Premack Principal can help you get through “To do” lists. First email your boss, then you get to go to lunch. It also mentions some tips and tricks to apply the principal to like: working out, dieting, phone calls and space organizing. I think I can apply this principal to my workouts by telling myself, “First do your work out, then you can read Harry Potter.” I think this will make it easier to get through my work out because I will be thinking positive instead of being worried about not getting to watch TV with my friends at night if I don’t make it through the workout. That will probably make the behavior intervention smoother for me.

Terms: David Premack, Premack Principle, reinforcement, aversive, positive reward, emitting, continuous reinforcement, schedule of reinforcement, fixed ratio (FR2), behavior intervention.

http://gettingstronger.org/2010/12/stop-procrastinating-use-the-premack-principle/

I think that the Premack Principle is a great way to educate children. We have forgotten that no person can pay attention for 6 hours out of the day, especially grade school children. But if you are able, for example, say "if we get this math done you can go outside an extra 15 minutes." This is an establishing operation that has been proven to work and I can testify to it. I remember sitting in class and becoming more focused when I could start to think about the Positive reinforcement that is recess.
I have seen this all the time working in the restaurant business. There is always "side work" that has to be done and once the end of your shift is drawing near the boss sticks you with a "once you finish the dishes you can go." Now this first makes you want to emit a hitting response, you must ignore that, and instead focus on the idea that after I do this task I can go home. Most of the time hearing the words "you can go home" already gives you a burst of energy, the same feeling you get when you actually walk out the door after a long day of working.
I enjoyed reading about the Premack Principal and do believe that it is something worth looking at. Wiring children's brain's to understand that with sacrifice and doing something you don't want to do, comes reward. Which is true in life most the things you do not feel like doing are things that you must do to be the strongest version of yourself.

emit, positive reinforcement, behavior

http://www.hindawi.com/journals/jobe/2012/379215/

The Premack principle is a type of reinforcement where you use a more desirable situation or reward in order to elicit the behavior to be performed. Find out what a child likes and make sure they really like it. The premack principle does not work if the reinforcement that you choose is not worth it in their eyes. Then present the behavior that is seeking to be changed along with the reward. For example, if a parent wants their child to practice their spelling everyday and the child loves ice cream then the parent should say, you can have the ice cream if you practice spelling first. The reason that this works better is because it is worth going through the pain of spelling in order to get the ice cream.
Another reason why this is more successful than other measures is because it works with intrinsic motivation instead of extrinsic motivation. Intrinsic motivation works with an individuals personal desires which makes it easier to control their behavior. Many times extrinsic motivation wears off quickly so using intrinsic motivation is more successful. When using the premack principle it is important to use intrinsic motivators and have the reinforcement highly desirable so that it is not as hard for the subject to go through the less desirable situation.
This can be applied to many different behavior change projects. I do not know if it would work for mine. The reason that I do not think that it would work for my project is because the behavior that I a trying to change in not necessarily because I do not like the behavior. Honestly, I do not mind wearing my retainers. I am trying to get over my laziness and motivate myself to actually take the time to clean them and wear them. Using the premack principle does not help my situation either because I am not using reinforcement enough. For me to use the premack principle on myself, I would need to reward myself every morning for wearing my retainers. My plan is to reward myself at the end of each week if I wore them a certain percentage of the time. Thinking in depth about it now, though, I believe that this principle would have a very high success rate and I would use this in order to get through an undesirable behavior change. In the future on different behavior projects I will keep this principle in mind and use it if it applies to the situation.
http://study.com/academy/lesson/applying-the-premack-principle-in-the-classroom.html
Terms: premack principle, intrinsic motivation, extrinsic motivation, reinforcement, elicit, desirable

The Premack Principle states, that more probable behaviors will reinforce less probable behaviors. The website given to us in the blog gives the example of children and vegetables. Children are most likely not going to want to eat their vegetables. Using the Premack Principle, many parents will use a reinforcer to get them to eat their vegetables. For example, the video from the website uses ice cream. Most children like ice cream a lot more than they like vegetables, therefore they are more likely to eat their vegetables if they are reinforced with ice cream. The website often uses a “first, then” approach instead of an “if, then” approach. This gives the child less of a choice in the matter. This makes it easier for the target behavior to be emitted.

The website that I chose was from study.com. It helps explain the different factors of motivation that can be used when eliciting behaviors. Most behaviors that we want to emit usually are formed from intrinsic motivation. Most behaviors that we don’t want to emit are usually formed from extrinsic motivation. This means that there is an environmental reinforce that is present. For example, many people don’t like going to work. But, they do it because there are extrinsic motivators present to reinforce them to work. For example, money is a big reinforce. Social status can also be a reinforcer as many don’t want to be considered a bum or lazy. The website explains practical ways to use the Premack Principle to help others emit target behaviors.

Ways that I can use the Premack Principle in my behavioral change project is by giving myself an extrinsic motivator to reinforce my target behavior. For example, my goal was to save more money and spend less. A way I can do this is to give myself a weekly goal of money to save. If I continuously hit my goal, I will reinforce myself with a behavior that is desirable. I can use the money that I saved to go to a movie or go out with my friends. These are examples of desired behaviors that can be elicited by the target behavior.

http://study.com/academy/lesson/applying-the-premack-principle-in-the-classroom.html

Terms: Premack Principle, behavior, emit, elicit, target behavior, reinforce, reinforce, extrinsic motivation, intrinsic motivation, motivator

The Premack Principle is when you use a preferred behavior to reinforce a unwanted behavior. A person would do this by saying once you complete this task then you will be rewarded with this. After the person emits the behavior they will receive the reinforcement. It's important to use schedules of reinforcement during this. If it seems to become easier for the wanted behavior to occur lessen the amount of times they will be reinforced.
I could use this in my behavior change project by starting with something small. I am trying to stop my procrastination. Once I do one assignment that I have really been dreading I could reward myself with waiting for a while to do all my other work. When I wait I have to do one right after the other but if I did not wait I could have more time in between and it might not be so dreadful. I could always make myself do my homework first then allow myself to go hang out with a friend or watch TV.
Term: Premack Principle, Behavior, Reward, Emit, Schedules of reinforcement.
http://www.intropsych.com/ch05_conditioning/premack_principle.html

The Premack Principle states that a high frequency activity can be used to reinforce low frequency behavior. This principle looks more into a preferred behavior being used to reinforce the unpreferred behavior. This changes the “If, Then” to a “First, Then”. This is more effective by not allowing one to have an option. They are going to view that non-desired behavior as tolerable for that positive reinforcer they receive after they emit that desired behavior. Parents sometimes use a variation of the Premack principle. If they want children to eat vegetables (sometimes a non-preferred behavior) they can make a rule that vegetables must be consumed before the children get to eat a dessert (usually a preferred behavior). Similarly, children may be asked to do their homework (sometimes a non-preferred behavior) before watching TV or playing video games (usually a preferred behavior). I could possible incorporate the Premack Principle into my behavioral change product by using it in terms of my active minutes. I am not necessarily an active person since my accident. So, watching Netflix is a preferred behavior that could be used to elicit my desired behavior. I could say FIRST I have to complete my active minutes , THEN I can watch Netflix.

http://www.intropsych.com/ch05_conditioning/premack_principle.html
Terms: Premack Principle, reinforce, behavior, positive reinforcer, emit, elicit.

https://psychlopedia.wikispaces.com/Premack+Principle

Premack principle, also known as “grandma’s rule” was composed by David Premack in applied behavioral analysis. This principle suggests that if an individual ought to perform a specific activity, the individual will perform a less desirable activity to get at the more desirable activity.

This principle is not only effective for humans but, it can also be applied to animals as a behavior modification. Let’s take dogs for example since most people keep dogs as pet than any other animal. High-probability behaviors are what the dog wants while, low-probability behaviors are what we want. To apply the Premack Principle in real life, we need to think of all the things in daily life that our dog wants. This could be as simple as its natural reinforcers. These high probability behaviors do not have to be the obvious things like getting his dinner or his walks. They can include eating rabbit droppings, chewing grass, investigating smells, paddling or swimming in ponds, having his tummy tickled, lying on your lap, going in the car, as well as, jumping up you on his hind legs. However, exclude activities you do not want to reinforce like stealing the cat’s tea, eating socks, chewing shoes, chasing sheep, and also, discount things you do not control, like having a squirrel at your disposal willing to be chased, because it is important that you can deliver what the dog wants. For any of these high-probability activities to be used as a reinforcer, it has to be something the dog wants at that particular moment. So, in effect, what he wants (the high probability behaviors) becomes dependent on him doing what you want (the low probability behaviors).

We can incorporate this principle into our training sessions by ensuring that your dog’s every enjoyable activity that we control, has a short training activity first, and every lengthy training session should incorporate several short training interludes. Because of these associations, our dog begins to enjoy the behaviors we want him to perform, as much as the things he wants to do. By this means, dog training, the trained behaviors and the places and situations where it occurs, become so enjoyable that they become self-reinforcing. To get our dogs to respond reliably to our requests, we use rewards, but the best possible rewards are what the dog most wants at that moment and in a training session what the dog wants is most likely to be the biggest distraction or even attraction. For instance, a smell on the floor, or an escaped piece of cheese. If we train our dog to understand the Premack Principle, ‘if you do what I want (yes, sit again), you can have what you want (that escaped piece of cheese). Then, once the dog grasps the connection, what was previously the distraction and was working against our training, can then be used as the motivator and reward to reinforce the wanted responses in training.

I can definitely incorporate the Premack principle in my behavioral intervention. My behavior change is to get to eight hours of sleep every night. My target behavior which is getting eight hours of sleep is a low-frequency activity for me. However, I can associate this behavior with a high frequency activity such as watching a movie once a week. I could easily apply the “if, then..” principle in my behavior intervention. If I get eight hours of sleep every night, then I can watch a movie over the weekend. In this case, my reinforcer is watching a movie. Since my reinforcer is something I enjoy doing and is pleasurable, I will be more likely to emit the target behavior.

Terms: Premack principle, emit, target behavior, behavior intervention, reinforcer, pleasurable, activity, high frequency, low frequency.

http://www.druidalegsd.karoo.net/premack.htm

I think the Premack Principle is really great because with my younger brother I had always said if then (If you eat your vegetables you can play video games), instead of first then (First eat your vegetables then you can play video games). The second option sounds so much better, and makes an individual more likely to complete the undesired task. I did not realize how different the two options are, until this article. I thought it was comical that it was called Grandma’s Rule, because I am certain my grandma has used this principle on me before. I will have to remember this principle for the future in order to illicit the desired behavior from my brother or my own children in the future.
My article talked about using the Premack Principle to prevent procrastination. The article explained that in order to increase the likelihood of completing a low probability behavior a high probability behavior has to serve as reinforcement. The article talked about putting together a to do list in order to rank the things that need to be done, then after you complete an item on the to do list, you receive a reward according to how hard the task was to complete. It also talks about placing tasks that are less desirable ahead of more desirable tasks so that you complete the least desirable tasks first. They also use this method when referring to dieting, exercising, and organizing because you are able to get things considered least desirable finished early on in the project, instead of dreading them the entire time, or even quitting early and avoiding the undesirable tasks.
For my behavioral change project I may do something with exercise, and the Premack Principle would definitely apply to that. I would be able to easily incorporate the Premack Principle. First I exercise, and then I get a treat of some sort after I do the target behavior. If I exercise before getting a treat, the consequences of the treat are much lower than if I ate treats without doing the target behavior. If I get a treat after performing the target behavior then it will reinforce working out. I can also incorporate the article that I read into my behavior change project by doing things that I consider less desirable early on in my project, instead of putting them off.
Terms: Premack Principle, behavior, target behavior, consequence, reinforce, desired behavior, reinforcement, high probability behavior, low probability behavior
http://gettingstronger.org/2010/12/stop-procrastinating-use-the-premack-principle/

After taking reading and attending class discussions for the past 7 weeks it is clear that the Premack principle relies basically on the of the fundamental ideas of behavior modification, that being positive and negative reinforcement. This being that in order to get your child to emit a target behavior, one in which they do not want to do, the introduction of a positive stimulus can help elicit that behavior. As we learned about in class there are rules to which make this technique more effective. First you need to make sure the reinforcement is something that is desired by the subject. If not it will hold no weight, and therefor not manipulating them to elicit the behavior. The next rule is that of which we learned recently, scheduled reinforcement. This is important because if you start rewarding the behavior to often then it will become less effective. I found it interesting however, why this technique might be preferred over negative reinforcement with children. It makes to why it might be more effective but id never thought about it in that way.

Terms- target behavior, elicit, emit, positive reinforcement, negative reinforcement, reinforcement, stimulus, scheduled reinforcement, behavior modification, manipulating

http://www.autismmom.net/premack-principle-and-behavior/

I chose to look at Mr. Mustache Money and thought that this was very interesting because I am around the age that money saving should start. This blog is very easy to read and I wish I would have read it earlier because I could have started saving even earlier. I believe this article is very easy to relate to behavior modification because you can just look at the basic reinforcer and punishment type of method. We as individuals need to look at the money we save and will have for retirement as the reinforcer and that if we do not save money then we will be punished in the long run.
I could see it being very easy to go through an extinction burst though once you start the process of saving. The first couple weeks I would have to restrict myself and now, if I have a good night at work while I am waitressing then I usually go out with friends and buy drinks at the bar. However, I would no longer be reinforced for my hard work (serving) like I used to be so I would go through extinction. The target behavior would have to be very clear for my whole family and when I get married my husband and I would have to make sure we are on the same page. If we didn't have the same target behavior then my husband could not be saving the certain percentage we want to be saving per paycheck and blowing the money.

Terms: behavior modification, reinforcer, punishment, extinction burst, extinction, target behavior
http://www.mrmoneymustache.com/2013/02/22/getting-rich-from-zero-to-hero-in-one-blog-post/

The Premack Principle is a method of using establishing operations. It increases the pleasure in the reinforcer. For example, you want your child to eat all their peas at dinner. So you tell them, “If you eat half of your peas, then you can have some ice cream.” This makes the child more willing to emit the targeted behavior because their focus is on the reward, ice cream! It’s a simple strategy that parents can forget but when it’s used the results are great. Sometimes the child will still reject the demand because they have a history of noncompliance. You would want to reword your statement as, “You can have some ice cream, if you eat half of your peas.” This makes the reinforcer first in their thoughts because it was said first. The child will mostly think about the reinforcer, making the target behavior not such an aversive behavior. This might sound like the miracle strategy that will always work but there’s a trick to it. The reinforcer has to equate the demand. If the child doesn’t really love ice cream, they won’t be as willing to eat their peas. Make sure the reinforcer is something that the child really loves to eat, play with, or do. After a few times, make the child do more to gain their reward. “You can have ice cream with sprinkles, if you eat all of your peas.” Notice how I added a little to the reinforcer while adding to the demand.

As of right now, I’m still unsure of what my behavioral change project topic will be. But the Premack Principle can be applied to anything for any age. I use it on myself when I have to get a lot of homework or chores done. “If I finish all my homework tonight, I can watch YouTube the rest of the night.” An example I used just a few days ago was this: My friends invited me over to watch the premiere of American Horror Story and I’ve never seen the show before. I hadn’t hung out with my friends in a while so I really wanted to go. But I had to research and turn in my topical blog for this class. So I told myself this, “If I finish and post this assignment before the show starts, then I can go to UNI and hang out with my friends.” Immediately after saying that, I worked really hard for an hour and I finished the whole assignment in time. Because I was reinforced, I felt really good about myself for doing the aversive behavior.

Other Link: http://www.iloveaba.com/2013/01/the-premack-priniciple.html

Terms Used: Premack Principle, establishing operation, reinforcer, emit, target behavior, noncompliance, aversive, pleasure

I believe the Premack principle is a very creative, yet good way to get children/anyone to perform an unwanted task. Instead of giving the individual the option of performing the unwanted behavior you make it a demand. The way of doing this is by stating "first and then" which gives the person the thought that if they carry out the action then they will get the opportunity to receive their reinforcement. This will take their focus off of the bad and turn it into something positive. I remember when my mom performed this on me at the age of five. She said that if I ate all of my tomato soup, then I would get to go to the store and pick out my favorite design of blanket. This made me really want to finish my food so I could get what I wanted. That is the reason that a negative reinforcement or punishment often doesn't work with a negative activity, because it gives the person no reason to participate.
The premack principle can also be used in different variations such as: frequent reinforcemnt, which can help smaller steps occur towards a bigger goal. As time goes on though, make sure to increase the difficulty of the goal in order to enhance the child's abilities and to keep the goal interesting, or you can start off heavier with the positive reinforcements and lesser the value as the task becomes easier for the individual. It can always help to make sure that the reinforcement has value to the individual, so they really will have a desired behavior.

terms: Premack principle, positive reinforcement, negative reinforcement, reinforcement, punishment

The Premack principle is just another way of reinforcing a targeted behavior. This is different from regular reinforcement, because it adds another behavior which the subject finds enjoyable, and pairs it with the target behavior that we wish to reinforce in order to increase the desired behavior. For example maybe you have a hobby, and you really like spending time doing whatever it is that is included with this hobby. You could use the promise of participating in this hobby as a well to encourage yourself to increase the targeted behavior. For instance let's say that I need to do homework, but I don't want to do it. I could reinforce myself to do my homework by saying that I can participate in doing my hobby after my homework is finished. Eventually, I would just do my homework right away so that I have more time to participate in my hobby.

http://www.intropsych.com/ch05_conditioning/premack_principle.html

Premack Principal
Reinforcing
Targeted behavior
Desired behavior

The Premack principle is a very interesting one. It is basically eliciting a target behavior by creating a reinforcer out of a second behavior that the subject enjoys doing. The additional source I looked at used the additional term or intrinsic motivation when discussing this, and I think this is interesting. The very frequency with which we do activities of our free will shows how high we rank on intrinsic motivation for that behavior. I found it interesting that this is another behavioral principle which seems to come to a lot of parents naturally. If you want to do this, you have to do this first. While I'm not sure what I'm going to do for my final project yet, one idea I had was dealing with low attendance at classical music performances on campus. This is a behavior that is emitted by many with low frequency. People go to other performances like rock shows and other things that come to Gallagher with greater frequency. Perhaps you could offer a free ticket to a Gallagher show, after attending so many classical music performances. If they want to emit a behavior they do like, they have to first attend classical music showings.

http://study.com/academy/lesson/applying-the-premack-principle-in-the-classroom.html

Premack principle, emit, elicit, behavior, target behavior, intrinsic motivation,reinforcer.

For the make-up assignment I chose to write about Premack’s Principle. This is a behavioral principle that suggests that it is possible to use a more probable or enjoyable behavior to reinforce a less probable or a less enjoyable one. This is an example of an establishing operation because it makes the reinforcer more reinforcing. This would also be an example of positive reinforcement because of the fact that it involves adding a reinforcer in order to facilitate the performance of the target behavior.
As for incorporating Premack’s principle into my behavioral change project, I could use a behavior that I enjoy as reinforcement for me to drink more water. For my reinforcement behavior I decided not to use the behavior of renting a movie I had tried to reinforce myself with in the past because it didn’t really change my behavior from week one to week two. The new behavior I chose to use as my reinforcer is going to Sakura for sushi with my best friend. I feel like this behavior will be more reinforcing for me because it is something that I have been planning on doing and also because I don’t want to let my friend down by not being able to go. I feel like using the information that I learned from this assignment will assist me in my efforts to modify my behavior.
Terms: Premack’s Principle, reinforcement, establishing operation, positive reinforcement, target behavior
http://www.autismmom.net/premack-principle-and-behavior/

I watched the video on dog training. Ian Dubar stated in the video that owners of dogs do three things that don't really help the dog in training: 1. owners create rules that fit their point of view, not the dogs, 2. we keep the rules a secret from the dog, 3. we punish the dog if the dog doesn't follow our rules. He has a great example of this. When a puppy jumps up on you, you think its cute and say "Good boy" reinforcing the puppy. When the puppy grows and is a lot heavier and jumps up on you, you no longer like it and punish the dog. The dog gets confused by this change in behavior. Another thing he mentions is the language humans use. Dogs don't know English, Swahili, Spanish, French, etc. They don't understand our languages, so we use a different "language" easier for dogs, food. Through trial and error, the dog will eventually establish a relationship between the food and the word "sit." He also mentions the Premack Principle in the second stage of training which is teaching the dog to WANT to do what we want them to do. We follow a low frequency behavior (something the dog doesn't want to do) with a high frequency behavior (something the dog does want to do). Doing this makes the high frequency behavior become a reinforcer to the low frequency behavior. For example, throwing a tennis ball (high frequency behavior) after the dog sits (low frequency behavior). In essence, the dog feels like he is training you. "If all I do is sit, my owner will throw the tennis ball!" This makes it easy for the need for punishment to not come up. He mentions that raising your voice is like a punishment, so if you don't have to raise you voice, it shouldn't be done. Punishment shouldn't be scary or painful. The dog will less likely want to approach you if your voice is scary. A big thing that came across that really stuck, was when you think about punishing your dog or child, ask yourself, "Is it good, or is it a bad behavior?" If it was good, reinforce the behavior, if it is bad don't punish the behavior, but take time and see if the behavior changes due to a reinforcement.

Terms: reinforce, punish, behavior, Premack Principle, high frequency behavior, low frequency behavior

I am choosing to write about Mr.Mustache money. I thought this was really important and of real relevance to my life right now. At this age in college I hear a lot about how i should start a savings account for myself so when i get out of college I'm not completely broke. I also heard this going into college as well. I was told that i should start working the summer before school starts and that i should start a small savings account. I chose not to do that and i was broke my freshman year and had to get a job immediately. You can relate this article to behavior modification in the way that you can use reinforcements to help with saving money and putting money in your savings account. So for example you get a pay check of $300 a week. And of that $300 you put $150 in your savings account. So the reinforcer that you can put on yourself is that with the extra 150 that you got you can go get a pair of shoes or go shopping with it. Every week you can reinforce yourself. With this behavioral change plan i feel like i will be able to accomplish my goal every week to put money in my savings account. I could also use this for when i get older and have to create an account for when i retirement. Only problem that i have with my plan right now is that i don't have a specific dollar amount of savings that i want to achieve.
https://www.listenmoneymatters.com/early-retirement-mr-money-mustache/
terms: reinforcer, target behavior, behavior, behavior modifcation

Education:
In this video, Mitra makes a very valid point that our education is well rounded in general, but extremely outdated. He mentions how in the future, many of the jobs wont require someone to be able to solve complex mathematical equations or have a need to write neatly because we have calculators and keyboards. Dr. Maclin poses the question “How can we take the information from this video (and possibly what we have learned in class) and make changes within our existing educational system to prepare for the future?

Unfortunately there are many possible flaws in trying to “better” the education for a future that we can’t see yet. We know how much technology is taking over, but people need to know basic information like how to multiply and how the body is formed. I think the basic grades (kindergarten to approx. 8th grade) includes a lot of crucial information. I feel like our high school system could be changed quite a bit though. In my day to day activities I notice that there is a lot of things I don’t know how to do because it was never taught to me. I don’t know how to file my taxes, how loans and credit cards work, or how to simply change the oil in my vehicle. Those are important things to know yet was never brought up once. Yet, I know exactly how to solve something like “The blue train is heading west going 40 miles per hour and the green train is going east at 75 miles per hour…” question that will never be presented to me.

Aside from people not being taught how to live in a real world, everything is basically only preparing us for college. Being 17 years old, I had to basically make the decision on what I wanted to do for the next 50 years of my life. I had a pretty “well rounded” idea of each subject…I knew I sucked at chemistry and math, so no science degree. I liked to talk to people, knew nothing about computers, and did pretty well in my psychology 101 class so I took off with that. Luckily I had a good idea about what I was good at because if I didn’t have those math and chemistry courses I wouldn’t have known, yet if we started focusing on one subject earlier in life (having to decide what we wanted to study at age 12) and not waste time on other subjects, imagine how much more knowledge that individual would have by the time they reached graduation at 21.

Another side note is how all classes are on a grading scale. I think it’s interesting to remember that typically, students should be “average”. When graphing information there is suppose to be a bell curve and so on, yet A’s and B’s are pushed on us so harshly. When we receive a C we don’t normally get rewarded or reinforced. We are normally pushed to “do better”. When we receive an A or B we are often told “good, that is what you should be doing.” Those that are average are being punished and essentially feeling like they aren’t good enough when that’s exactly where they should be. How can we change the system to accurately show us what we are capable of? How to we encourage students to push themselves without feeling like they’re always failing?

The problem with changing the education system is that some will have unfair advantages. We need to know things like how to write neatly and how to do simple formulas because by the time everyone graduates high school, everyone will have (hopefully) enough knowledge to take them to whatever path they choose. I would say the most important things would be to 1) add more classes to general education that is more than tests and reading from a textbook. Take kids outside and show them how to change a tire. Teach the steps they need to take if someone is having a seizure. 2) I think once they reach college they should prioritize just the classes that will help with their major. For example, being a psych major I am still required to take two history classes. Why? When, in my next 50 years, while I am with someone contemplating suicide and I am suppose to talk them through it, going to bring up how King whoever killed a bunch of his wives because they couldn’t have boys. Leave that to the history scholars.
I think in a very round about way, this can be compared to our Behavior Modification class because we are leaning the reasons why people do certain behaviors, how to change them, how you can apply those lessons to raising children and keeping yourself away from bad habits. It is hard to take a chemistry class and relate it to everyday life unless you are a chemist.

The topic I chose for the makeup assignment for class tomorrow is Premack Principle. This is described when a more probable behavior can be used to reinforce a less probable behavior. The premack principle is used in motivation psychology. In the video I watched about this I also find out that this is also called the grandmas law. If you think about it that is very cleaver, because grandmas to this to their grandchildren all that time, you just didn’t realize what it was called. The Premack principle helps teaching the client to do things that they don’t want to do. This acts as a reward for the client because they have to do that behavior and then they will be able to get some that is enjoyable or also known as the reinforcement. An example of this would be your mom telling you that you can have your favorite ice-cream tonight, but first, in order to get that you have to eat every vegetable on your plate. See how the more probable behavior (the ice-cream) is used as reinforcement for the less probable behavior (eating vegetables). In this video that I watched, it showed how he could train his dog to do anything he wanted with practice of the premacks principle. For example, when he threw out a dog treat, the dog would go after it and then the owner will call its name to come back then it will be able to go and get the treat. See how it has to do a lower probable behavior before it can do a more probable behavior or the reinforcement. This is also called an intrinsic rewarded by using this principle. You are doing something to get something for yourself, which is a lot easier than an external reward where you do it for something from the outside or you yourself is not the one reinforcing yourself. This is because others control it and determine if you get that reinforcement. An example of this would be when you get an assignment done you get a reward of a grade, but depending on how well you do the assignment you teacher controls how much of a reinforcement you get back from doing this assignment.
How I will put the Premack principle in my behavioral change project will be a little more difficult to figure out. This first thing that comes to mind would be in order for me to watch my annual day of my Netflix serious, I have to call my sister and see if she’s available to talk for a bit or not. If I do this then I am able to watch my show. This is not only a reinforcement, but it will also help me not to watch my show so much that it is taking over my life. This is because I will only be calling my sister a couple times during the week instead of everyday, like I usually do with watch my Netflix show.
http://study.com/academy/lesson/reward-systems-employee-behavior-intrinsic-extrinsic-rewards.html
http://study.com/academy/lesson/reward-systems-employee-behavior-intrinsic-extrinsic-rewards.html

I chose to go to the Mr. Money Mustache (MM) website, and found an interesting article called "Are You Cleaning Out Your Own Wallet?". Mr. MM talks about how people are spending way too much money per year on a level of cleanliness that is almost excessive. He argues that people are buying products like Febreeze or Sanitizing Wipes, which are just not needed. The behavior of being a clean-freak makes sense for someone that has something that requires a sterile environment. Growing up, my brother had severe asthma and was allergic to just about everything you could think of. We couldn't even have dust in our house. But for a majority of us, it is probably okay to not sanitize the door knobs every time someone leaves the room.

To help make sense of why being obsessively clean can be bad, we can look at the ABC's of behavior. There was a part in this article where he talked about people who embrace germs instead of running from them, are less likely to get sick because their immune system is strengthened through exposure. So, the antecedent in this would be being a germaphobe. The behavior would be obsessively cleaning, and the consequence would be getting sick more often from a weakened immune system. I want to think that getting sick more often would work as a negative reinforcer, because people wouldn't want to get sick. But I think that getting sick may reinforce the obsessive cleaning instead.

Another way that we can look at this is through rule governed behavior. Why are people obsessive about making sure their houses are spotless at all times? It could be argued that people are clean freaks because there is some sort of societal rule that if your house isn't spotless, then you're a slob. Growing up, I hated putting my laundry away. My room wasn't dirty; it was just cluttered by the clothes everywhere. My mom would get so embarrassed, and demanded that it was cleaned up before people could come over. Plus, with all of the cleaning commercials you see on TV all the time, it would make sense that people are going to buy more products to make their house as clean as possible.

Terms: rule governed behavior, negative reinforcer, reinforce, antecedent, behavior, consequence. ABC's of behavior

http://www.mrmoneymustache.com/2013/12/30/are-you-cleaning-out-your-own-wallet/

I found an article on the finance and behavior link that painted out the poor consequences of indulging in luxury. The writer uses examples of luxury in society, and explains how these luxuries such as technology, nice cars, fast food, and all comforts that we allow ourselves are in a way crippling us.
Like drugs, our seeking out of luxury as a society has made us weaker. We find it extremely difficult not to indulge in all our wants and needs. That includes spending excessive amounts of money on things that we don't even need. We live in houses that are too big for us, and drive cars that far exceed our needs. How is buying all these luxuries any different from an alcoholic reaching for a bottle, or a drug addict getting their fix.
We can look back on history, and observe how royalty became so dependent and accustomed their luxurious lives, and care from servants. Some kings and queens would even execute their servants if they did provide accurate services.
This relates to behavior modification, because a dependency on luxury is a problem. How do we correct our expensive habits?
We have an antecedent of living luxuriously. The behavior that we must correct is providing ourselves with the luxuries that we don't. We have many adverse consequences that are caused by the luxurious behavior. In a way luxury is a drug. We have become dependent on making our lives as easy as possible. However, providing ourselves with so many unnecessary comforts, and expenses we are making ourselves poorer and weaker. When remain in comfort and don't engage in necessary life related activities we loose out on important skills. For example if we stay inside and eat food all day. We will get flabby, and our muscles will begin to atrophy and weaken. We spend our money on getting these comforts that we don't need and then we don't have enough money to maintain our lifestyles.
We must reinforce ourselves to use moderation, or to not engage in these luxurious activities at all.
"Luxury is best appreciated as a strong and interesting contrast to, rather than the fabric of, your daily life."

Terms: Consequences, indulgence, maintain, adverse, antecedent, behavior, dependency, addiction.

http://www.mrmoneymustache.com/2013/08/29/luxury-is-just-another-weakness/

My video I chose was over dog training, a video from one of the Ted talk videos. In the video it was talked about the types of abuse that dogs get. When they are young we allow them to jump up on our legs. We do this because that this point they’re cute and cuddly. Once they grow and get older we get mad that they do this, so in turn people do things as a form of abuse. In the video the guy talks about a variety of things we can do instead to reward them.
His idea is to learn ESL. English as a second language. In this, we use the word sit and then also on top of that we give them a treat to help them understand what we are wanting from them. The second stage of his training is getting dogs to want to do what we want to do. This is where the Premack Principal is incorporated. It is during this time that dogs believe we are just letting them do whatever they want. In stage three, things that you must not do must be incorporated. Here you punish, but not in a painful way. Instead you find a way to reinforce positively. An example of this is teaching them to do something that we want, in a civil manor. Overall, I found this video to be very interesting. It further enlightens information about modifying behaviors. I find it specifically interesting that an organism other than a human is able to have a modified behavior with the help of a few special skills.

Terms used: premark principal,positive reinforcement, punishment, behavior, and reinforced.

Dog Training
Ian Dundar is explaining to the audience that the way we approach training our dogs tends to be wrong and this is how we end up with disobedient dogs (or children, or even spouses). How people deal with training or confrontation is by only thinking of what they want the other person or animal to do and not about what the other person/animal is thinking at the moment. And Dundar explains the issue is that we reinforce behaviors the dog emitted as a puppy (using the dog example for simplicity). When the puppy grow to a bigger size and emitted the same behaviors, they were then punished harshly. This action can result in confusion and anxiety and possibly neuroticism. Flash back to Pavlov’s dogs showing neuroticism as they either got very angry or would shut down and be confused/dazed because the circle and oval shapes looked far too similar. Training must start at the beginning and the rules need to remain the same throughout the whole relationship so that there is no confusion and unnecessary punishment.

Dundar says that we should use English as a second language because it’s crazy to think that English is a dog’s primary language. It’s difficult for them to know what we expect if we just continuously say the word sit and point at their rear. The “trick” is to use food every time we say sit and they sit down. It may take a couple times, but overtime the dog will know what the word sit means. Dogs have their own interests, just as we do, and these interests would be fabulous reinforcers for desired behaviors. By using the Premack Principle, we can couple the behavior we want them to do with something they want to do. This will make the dog more interested to do what we want them to do. An example is to tell them to sit, they sit down, and then you throw a tennis ball for them. This makes training a more pleasurable experience because both parties get what they want and there was no need for punishment.

As we have learned in this class and other psychology courses, punishment does not mean something mean or hurtful. A punishment is a stimulus that is either added or taken away from the situation to decrease the undesired behavior. If the punishment doesn’t need to be aversive, it hardly needs to be, then why make it that way?

The key is to stay calm and understand the other dog, or person for that matter, has their own sense of self and interests. I can’t think of a time where having a fight with another person and yelling at them ever resulted in a positive ending. Consideration and feedback helps build relationships between animals and people. Compliment the behavior that is desired because it is a very powerful but under used technique.

Ian Dundar’s point definitely focused on dog and how people can better train them and have better relationships with their dog. It’s his whole career. But the overall point he’s making is that training your child or even your spouse does not need to be aversive, in fact that makes things worse. Using a more behaviorist approach and applying reinforcements and punishments will make relationships stronger and will bond you and your dog, child, and spouse closer.

Terms:
- Reinforce, behaviors, emitted, punished, neuroticism, Pavlov, punishment, reinforcer, Premack Principle, pleasurable, aversive

Each of us has things that we like to do, and each of us has things that we do not like to do. If we like to do something, this is referred to as a preferred behavior. If we don't like to do something this is referred to as an unpreferred behavior. By using the preferred behavior to reinforce someone to emit an unpreferred behavior is known as the premack principle.

I had already decided to put the premack principle into my behavior project (in a way) without even realizing it. I had decided that my reinforcement for not drinking pop would be a certain amount of time allotted to myself to play a video game that I enjoy playing. This is using my preferred behavior of playing the video game to reinforce my unpreferred behavior of refraining from drinking pop, specifically Pepsi.

I chose to watch Ian Dunbar's video about dog training. He says that we can and need to improve our relationships with our dogs. He starts of with talking about how people normally train their dogs. He says the first thing is that the owners train by making rules, however they keep the rules a secret from the dog so that only they know them. And lastly the dog punished when they break a rule. He gave an excellent example of how when a dog is a puppy we think it's cute when they jump up to greet us but once they're bigger if they do it they get punished. I see this with my dog, when he was younger we let him jump up when we got home and now he does it to almost every one that walks in the door. This is the way he says that people usually go about training. He says that there is a much better way to train dogs. His first idea is to teach them ESL, which is English as a second language. Dogs don't understand English, but we as owners expect them to understand our commands right away. First we need to condition the dog what the English word means in order for them to understand. The best way to condition them is to pair the command with things they're interested in like treats, play time or being pet. We need to realize what the dog is interested in and likes so that we can train them easier and better. The other idea he has is that we should teach the dogs to want to do what we want them to do. If the animal doesn't want the do what we're asking of them, chances are they won't do it. Here he says we can use the Premack Principle, which is following a low frequency behavior, a behavior they don't want to do, with a high frequency one, something that to enjoy. This way when they emit the desired behavior they think that they're getting what they want, even though they're following our direction. His last idea was my favorite, enforce without force. I agree with him, it's possible to train animals without raising our voices or punishing them. We shouldn't have to do that. Punishment is not the way to teach and or maintain a behavior, the best is to use reinforcement.

Terms: Premack principle, emit, punishment, reinforce,condition

I decided to watch the dog training video for this assignment. In the video Dunbar starts of by expressing his opinion on how he things dog training is being done wrong and how alarming it can be. he does this by describing how dogs as puppy’s are reinforced when engaging in target behaviors such as jumping one you or sitting on you. such behaviors are reinforced but then as the dog gets older they are no longer reinforced and we punish the dog for emitting this behavior. He then goes on the discuss how to train a dog. You must first establish a language with the dog. Make him understand what sit means, and then you need to make him want to sit. The next thing he talked about I found to be very interesting, he discussed making the dog thing that he is training you, that by doing one thing the dog could get you to do something that he wanted. For example if I sit I can get my owner to rub my belly or throw the ball. I think this Is a very unique and interesting way to view animal training. At the end of the video he starts to relate this idea of dog training into how to raise children or modify behaviors of spouses or children, which I thought, was interesting also.

Dog training, punish, reinforce, target behavior, modify, engaging, emitting
https://embed-ssl.ted.com/talks/ian_dunbar_on_dog_friendly_dog_training

BNC
I decided to surf the web further on The Premack Principle for this particular assignment.

1. Next search for another website about the premack principle and read more about it. Copy and paste that link at the bottom of your post.

http://www.intropsych.com/ch05_conditioning/premack_principle.html

2. Briefly discuss the Premack Principle and how you might be able to incorporate it into your behavioral change project.

The Premack Principle is when the preferred behaviors can be used to reinforce less preferred behaviors. In order to figure out what reinforcer will work you observe and take note on what you do voluntarily. Another way of saying it is how it's defined online, "is a principle of reinforcement which states that an opportunity to engage in more probable behaviors (or activities) will reinforce less probable behaviors (or activities.)"
I am going to apply this to my behavior change project by placing the less preferred behavior before I can do my preferred one. For my behavior change project I am going to stop eating at work all together. I work at a restaurant and it's a bad habit to eat everything in sight that is offered to you. In order for me to stop this and get reinforced at the end of my shift I will eat when I get home. My less preferred behavior in this example is waiting to eat at home. During this process I will save money and not gain more weight by placing that preferred behavior, eating at work. I will bring a snack from home! That way when I am done with my shift I will eventually eat a full meal at home. This will actually work. I feel as though the Premack Principle is a wise tool that is effective and will be beneficial to my behavior change project.

I chose to watch the dog training video. I thought there were a couple of very interesting points that the man in the lecture discusses. The first one is why it is included in the Premack Principle page of course. He talks about how effective it is to reinforce a dog using this principle instead of just food. You substitute behaviors that the dog enjoys doing, things that indeed might under other circumstances be unwanted behaviors, you make them reinforcers for the target behavior, and this ends up being much more effective. Another concept he talks about is the idea of english as a second language for dogs. It makes a whole lot of sense, there is absolutely no reason that a dog would inherently understand our commands without them being taught. So he talks about first teaching them the behavior, and getting them to do it with a food reward, then getting them to do the behavior from the command, and eventually phase out the food as a reinforcer. He even is able to teach enough language to animals that he can just say complete sentences, and the dog will understand each part, and be able to perform more complicated tasks, such as bringing notes to his son. The other part I thought that was striking, and related to what Dr. Maclin speaks about a lot as well is the idea that punishments don't have to necessarily be nasty, or scary, or painful. He gives examples of using a calm reprimand with a very aggressive dog was effective in reducing an unwanted behavior, whereas raising a voice or showing aggression would have resulted in being bitten. The other important thing discussed in this video in my opinion is something else Dr. Maclin has spoken of in class, and thats the fact that we train puppies to do a very different set of behaviors from that which we expect once they are fully grown. We reinforce in the early stages of their lives that jumping up is totally awesome, and a great way to get attention and reinforcers, but then we suddenly switch that on them a little further down the road. It's no wonder training animals can be such a challenge.

reinforcer, target behavior, premack principle, behavior.