ABC's
Our class book is called "The ABC's of Behavior Modification" by Otto MacLin and Dwight Peterson. This is provided for free, and has not yet been copy edited (so it is a little rough around the edges).
Section 1: Behavioral Principles
Section 1.1 - The ABCs of Behavior Modification
Section 1.2 - Contingencies: Reinforcement & Punishment
Section 1.3 - The Language of Behavior
Section 1.4 - Some Behavioral Terms
Section 1.5 - More About Behaviors
Section 2: Behavior Modification
Section 2.1 - What is Behavior Modification?
Section 2.2 - Reinforcement
Section 2.3 - Punishment
Section 2.4 - Additional Concepts
Section 2.5 - Schedules of Reinforcement
Section 3: A Look Back: Pavlov to Skinner
Section 3.1 - Thorndike
Section 3.2 - Pavlov
Section 3.3 - Classical Conditioning
Section 3.4 - Watson
Section 3.5 - Skinner
Section 4: Self Directed Behavior
Section 4.1 - Need for Self-Directed Behavior
Section 4.2 - Self-Directed Behavior Steps
Section 4.3 - Importance of Goals
Section 5: Behaviors and Antecedent
Section 5.1 - Measuring Behavior
Section 5.2 - Rule Governed Behavior
Section 5.3 - Functional Analysis of Behavior
Section 5.4 - Changing the Antecedents
Section 5.5 - Selecting a Reinforcer
More sections will be added as needed.
section 2.3 - the example for positive punishment below is actually negative punishment
I did spot something that I may not have understood. In the
section of positive punishment there is an example of the brother
deleting all the itunes songs, and the aversive consequence would be
cutting the power.
Since discrimitive stimulus is a cue on what behavior to elicit I decided to use a video of a skunk.
skunk video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FwSqdL7fiE8
1) One thing I really liked about this section was that even though new concepts were introduced, we still read about them in previous chapters, they just were elaborated more. I also liked how they gave us examples of the concepts because they could be confused with other terms like with extinction and punishment.
2) One thing I liked least about this section was writing paragraphs incorporating the words like extinguish, reinforce, and behavior because it was harder than it seems. It took a while to understand the differences between the words and using them in the right context so that they made sense in a way that I could remember their meaning.
3) Three things I will remember are that extinction is stopping the reinforcement of behaviors that have been reinforced because it can decrease a behavior without it being a punishment, extinction burst is when there’s an increase in the amount of behavior because the individual tries harder to obtain reinforcement, and variability is when similar behaviors to the target behavior will be done in an attempt to get reinforcement because it relates to extinction and it’s important to keep these separate.
After reading section 2.5, please respond to the following questions.
4) One thing I liked in this section was associating a slot machine example with ratio versus interval schedules of reinforcement because when reading their definitions it was hard to understand what they meant, but adding them with something in the real world made it more relatable and also makes it easier to remember in the future.
5) One thing I disliked about this section was learning the notations of the fixed and variable ratio and fixed and variable interval (FR10) (VI20) because it talked about how a variable can have a range and it got confusing adding the numbers and keeping track of the ratio and interval. It’s something I need to spend more time learning.
6) One thing I will remember is that a reinforcement can be so powerful that it only needs to follow the behavior once to be effective enough to maintain or increase the behavior because if I ever want to modify a behavior I can do so using a powerful reinforcer, that there are FR and VR schedules and ratio refers to numbers because there are so many things that fall under these categories that we do every day that can modify behaviors, and the 2x2 table of the different types of schedules because it is something I can fall back on if I need help remembering what goes with what schedule. It’s a good tool to use.
7) You should now have a week's worth of data collected on how much water you drank each day for a week. Please fill out the information below:
Day 1 =2 16.9 oz
Day 2 =2 16.9
Day 3 =3 16.9
Day 4 =1 16.9
Day 5 =2 16.9
Day 6 =1 16.9
Day 7 =2 16.9
Average = 1.86
Drinking more water is something that takes getting used to but if I got rid of something like pop and replaced it with more water. I could reward myself after 7 days with pop so it is a reason to keep doing it.
8) Terms: extinction, punishment, reinforce, behavior, reinforcement, extinction burst, variability, target behavior, ration and interval schedules of reinforcement, fixed and variable ratio, fixed and variable interval
section 1.3 and 1.4
1. I really enjoyed that there were a lot of in assignment fill in the blank activities, because it gave me a chance to get creative and put to use what I have learned.
2. There was nothing that I disliked. Everything was interesting
3. It seems difficult at first to use the vocabulary words when speaking but once you get used to it it becomes normal. Reinforcement and punishment sentences and the quote given “we say to you don’t give up, keep trying even if you are frustrated. Frustration just means that you are in the process of learning.” Because I found all of these examples interesting.
4. Again I really enjoyed using the fill in the blank sections they were fun.
5. There wasn’t anything I didn’t like I just got sick of reading.
6. When I think of emit and elect sentences I will think of French fires now. Repetition is necessary for learning the vocabulary words. Learning the language of behavior is cumulative.
7. I now understand why you keep talking about how important it is for us to use the language when we are speaking so we can comprehend it and better understand what the vocabulary words mean. I didn’t realize how many vocabulary words there were to learn. I’m kind of nervous for that.
8. I didn’t use any terms of vocabulary in my post, I didn’t know I was suppose to. Opps!
1 a&b) What was one thing that you really liked that was in the section? Why?
I really enjoyed how there was multiple demonstrations of manipulating sentences to put them in behavior language.
2) What was one thing that you disliked (or liked least) that was in the section? Why?
I did not dislike anything. Everything was beneficial.
3 a,b&c) What are three things you will remember from what you read in the section? Why?
1) You can put any behavior in behavioral terms.
2) Establishing operation is something that makes a reinforcer even more reinforcing.
3) Extinction burst is when the person's behavior begins to vary.
After reading section 1.4, please respond to the following questions.
4 a&b) What was one thing that you really liked that was in the section? Why?
I liked how detailed the definitions and explanations9 s of the terms. It benefited to my understanding of the terms.
5) What was one thing that you disliked (or liked least) that was in the section? Why?
I did not like the writing boxes, however I liked the boxes where I reworded the definitions because it contributed to my understanding.
6 a,b&c) What are three things you will remember from what you read in the section? Why?
1) Satiation occurs when the behavior can no longer be modified with reinforcement.
2) Target behavior is the behavior one desires to alter.
3) Emitting behaviors is voluntary, whereas eliciting behavior occurs by the presentation of a stimulus.
7) Now that you have read sections 1.3 & 1.4, how has what you thought about behavior modification changed (or not)?
What I thought about behavior modification has changed a little. I never realized all the different terminology for a way to do a behavior. In other words, I was not aware of the language of behavior.
8) Once you are done with your post make list of the terms and terminology you used in your post.
manipulating, behavior, behavioral, establishing operation, reinforcer, reinforcing, extinction burst, satiation, reinforcement, target behavior, emit, elicit, language of behavior
1) I liked the section on targeting behaviors, because it used a real life example of a teacher in the classroom and how he will target undesired behavior and effectively modify the poor behavior by digging out the root of where the behavior is coming from and providing an accurate change to the student’s environment that will correct the behavior.
2) I found that using waving as an example to explain behavioral cases un-interesting. A wave typically serves only a few purposes. However, the situations in which we use a wave can vary to a very high degree. Every situation can be just a little bit different. Just like our behavior. The context as to why we behave the way we do is ever changing and different situations call for different measures to correct undesired behaviors, and that is why it is difficult to hold distinct criteria for classifying undesirable behavior.
3) This section really had a lot to do with our lecture last Friday in class. For example extinction was mentioned a few times, including when it talked about how having two people who are observing behavior and implementing modification at different times can limit the extinction process because one person may provide reinforcement for a certain behavior, but the other person might let it go unnoticed and therefore prevent extinction from occurring
4) The section on targeting behaviors really was similar to what I can remember of what I experienced in elementary school. I would stand up in my seat when I was concentrating on something, and teachers didn’t like that I was standing because it was a distraction to the teacher and the class. Only one teacher found a solution for the problem. He simply put a high desk in the back for me and let me stand next to that. It was effective because none of the class could see me standing.
5) I found the section, What is behavior Modification?, interesting, because it easy understandable clear cut examples of behavior and specific criteria for why it is un-desirable, and provides distinctions between the purposes of modifying behavior. Such as, “Does the behavior bother just the individual who is displaying it?”, “Does the behavior bother others?”, and “Does the behavior lead to trouble?”
6) I found the part about where they were describing B.F. Skinner’s opinions on reinforcement to be slightly uninteresting, because I’ve listened to many discussions over Skinner’s work in other classes
7) The information over reinforcement and punishment has been pretty standard throughout the classes I’ve taken at uni. However, this literature does an excellent job of giving us an understandable outlook on the differences between Reinforcement and punishment.
8) It’s easy to see my own behavior and the way I reinforce myself the way I do. I can see that I do things because they are rewarding and I am reinforced in this behavior because I am noticing the positives of the reinforcement that I am providing for myself. For example I eat healthy, and work out. Therefore, I see the results of these good behaviors and I like it.
9) It provided some self-confirmation, and given me some knew ideas about how I can provide reinforcement and punishment to myself and others in real life to improve myself and my relationships with others.
10)Reinforcement, Punishment, Extinction, Undesirable, Desirable, Modify, Behavior
What did you find interesting in the section? Why? From reading this section I thought the most interesting was how small words like good and good job can affect someones personality and how that is a certain type of reinforcement. Also another interesting thing was learning about a desirable stimulus.
2) What did you find least interesting? Why?
to be honest I really didn’t find anything not interesting in this chapter, but if i had to pick something would be conditioned vs.unconditioned, and when they talked about the history and what not, but I also found things interesting during that paragraph was when he was talking about his experiment with the dog, and the saliva, and the response to the bell.
3) How does the section relate to what you already knew/learned previously?
In my previous psychology we talked about this experiment, so i had a really good understanding on this, but at the same time. This has also related to my science class very well as well, I also know personally I can relate to this because when people use positive reinforcement with me I get happy especially if there small things like saying good job and what not. Even the small things make a difference. Another thing that I can relate this to is one time in my math class in high school always said that if the whole class showed up on test day we would get one bonus point. Which is a really good reinforcement and made the whole class come to test day.
) 4) Based on what you read from this section, what are two things that relate to your life? How so?
Not to repeat what I have previously stated but one thing that would relate to my life would definitely be a positive reinforcement and definitely would be going to college because I know all of this handwork and time will pay off in the long room so that is my motivation and it reinforces itself which is very nice. Another thing that would relate to my life would be when i was training my dog I used reinforcement as well, and always rewarded my dog when it did something good.
5) What did you find interesting in the section? Why? Something that I found really interesting in this section would be the whole concept of “Punishment”, was that reinforcement can be involved with punishment and people do things out of reinforcement to sometimes get punished, which would make sense.
6) What did you find least interesting? Why?
The thing that I found least interesting would have been the immediacy Punishment, out of everything that would've been the least interesting even though once again I still found interesting parts in this reading for instance like the example with the roommate and beer stealing was funny and interesting even though I probably would have not done that.
7) How does the section relate to what you already knew/learned previously? I have known about punishment for a while once again from my previous psychology class and also my sociology class. This can relate in all sorts of cases in a community or individually.
8) Based on what you read from this section, what are two things that relate to your life? How so? Something that would relate to my life would be the culture difference in punishments i could relate to this because my parents grew up in Nepal so there punishment techniques are difference than the ones here. I never got time outs or anything. I got Nepalese punishments.
Another relation to my life would be The Immediacy punishment because thats what my parents always did, and thats what I do usually as well.
9) How has reading these sections influenced what you originally thought about behavior modification? How so? It really has emphasized on punishment and reinforcement and how they are two HUGE factors in behavior modification, and it also has given me a really good understanding in that as well.
Terminology: Desirable, negative, positive, negative, punishment, reinforcer, reinforcement
1) The most interesting thing I read about in this section would be about how you achieve big goals. You take it one bite at a time. It’s interesting to find out that you don’t have to look at the whole picture first but you should always just look at the little picture or known as dividing the big picture into subfields, and keep going without looking at that final goal, which is very over whelming.
2) The least interesting thing to me that I found in this section would be about the maintenance for setting your guidelines to your goal. This is how much work it can be during or even for the rest of your life like staying off of cigarettes. To me this just didn’t spark my interest but I’m sure it did for other people.
3) Something that I read from this section that I have already know from past sections or in class is setting a realistic goal. We talked about this a while ago in class that we can’t start a goal if it’s not possible or realistic. For example you can try to modify a behavior to be able to walk on the moon every Monday and Thursday.
4) Two thinks that I can relate to my life would be talking about you support base and if it’s disruptive for the goal setting guidelines. First it is most important to have a support base around you that will encourage and help you achieve your goals. Without this, it will be even more difficult to achieve. Then with making sure that the behavior is not disrupting your life, it makes you really think about some of your other goals that never get done. This is because you don’t want to change your life in order to complete this goal. We want it to be able to let you live your life now while you get to that goal, without causing problems in your everyday life.
5) The most interesting thing I found in this section was finding out that gum is a great way to stop craving. It even says that gum is actually better than the patch to stop smoking. This makes me think about all those times I really crave something and wonder if I just had gum, would it help me not want it any more. I will try to test this out sometime this week.
6) Something that wasn’t very interesting to me in this section is about the topography of a behavior. All topography lead to a larger behavior. I don’t know if I was just tired when I was reading this but it was really boring to me.
7) Something I know from this section is about being very specific at defining the target behavior in order to achieve that behavior.
8) Two thinks I can relate to are documenting and behavioral classes. In order for me to really do well with modifying my behaviors I need to remember what I did, which I usually have trouble with, so documenting will help me a lot. Also I need to know that the behavioral classes all have the same functions, so I need to watch out what I am trying to accomplish with my behavior.
9) This hasn’t change the way I have thought about this class much from last week’s assignment, because we are mostly going over rules and ideas not the whole concept of the class.
10a) Last week I said my Beauvoir that I wanted to change would be reading my textbooks from class more often but I have changed it. My new behavior that I want to modify would be calling my sister that lives in Korea more often. I chose this because there is a 14 hour difference and it’s really hard to call her because of this.
10b) My reinforcer will be every time I call my sister that lives in Korea, I will be able to get a caramel and green apple candy. If I get two calls at least over half an hour a week then my reinforce will being able to have my new rock star drink. This is a great reinforcer because it is consistent and If I don't get all of then I will still get reinforced for at least doing one each time I give a call. It is also a good reinforcer because it’s something I have easily and I would try to call her in order to get that reinforcement. The type of reinforcement this is, is called continuous reinforcement and continuous ratio reinforcement at the same time. I chose this schedule because it will help me most with not forgetting to try to call my sister and then also so that the reinforcement is reinforcing at a good time and not taking too long to get that reinforcement.
Terms: Subfields, goals, setting guidelines, maintenance, realistic, support base, disruptive, topography of a behavior, documenting, behavioral classes,
1) What did you find interesting in the section? Why?
I found the section on Removing the “NOs” pretty interesting. I think we have all had the experience with a toddler of some sort repeatedly telling us “no,” even when it might not even make sense! This section explained that this is observational learning. It also discussed what behaviors parents or guardians often emit and why it elicits this response in children.
2) What did you find least interesting? Why?
I found the section on toy time outs a little less interesting than other sections within the reading this week. However, it was interesting to see this common practice related to behaviorist concepts. Since taking the toy away and putting them in time outs are both examples of punishments, this automatically goes against what most behaviorist would prefer (reinforcement).
3) How does the section relate to what you already knew/learned previously?
We have discussed many behavioral concepts that can relate to parenting. We have also discussed antecedents throughout the class, and we also discussed how antecedents have a great effect on the behavior and the following consequences.
4) Based on what you read from this section, what are two things that relate to your life? How so?
This relates to my life right now as I am working on this behavioral change project. The antecedents are something I am struggling with on this project, as I believe my reinforcements is not working that well. I am looking to change the antecedents in order to further influence my reinforcer and prevent me from drinking pop and successfully changing my target behavior. Another way this could influence my life is through my daily behaviors, if I am wanted to stop drinking coffee in the morning for example, I could stop buying pop and throw out my coffee machine.
5a) Behavioral Project (Intervention). Last Monday (week #12) you were asked to continue collecting data on a target behavior. You should now have 2 week's worth of base line data. Report Week #2 below:
Week #2 (behavioral intervention)
Day 1 = 1
Day 2 = 0
Day 3 = 0
Day 4 = 0
Day 5 = 0
Day 6 = 1
Day 7 = 1
Average = 0.428
5b) How is your behavior project going so far? (note: Don't just say "good." We are looking for some depth and detail.) What changes might you make if you were to do it again? What are some antecedents you could change to help your progress?
I have been keeping track of my target behavior of whether I drink pop for the day or not on a wipe board in a public space. This helps me to stay motivated, as my roommates can see if I cheat for the day, and it also serves as a reminder as it is in the kitchen! I had a 4 day streak with no pop for this past week, so overall it was a good week! I need to work on finding a different motivator, something that is not a food reinforcement or a punishment would maybe help. I’m really looking to extinguish this behavior, therefore I need to find something a bit more extreme as my reinforcer. If I were to complete this process again, I would choose a better reinforcer and also add in a punishment, to make this more extreme.
6) Once you are done with your post make list of the terms and terminology you used in your post.
target behavior, reinforcement, punishment, extinguish, emit, elicit, toy time outs, antecedents, behaviors, consequences