Which principle is this demonstrating?

Potential Applications & Problems with Operant Conditioning

Latent Leaning• Edward Toleman• Three rat experiment.• Latent means hidden.– Nobody reinforces this!

• Sometimes learning is not immediately evident.

• Rats needed a reason to display what they have learned.

Motivation

Intrinsic Motivation: The desire to perform a behavior for its own sake.

Extrinsic Motivation: The desire to perform a behavior due to promised rewards or threats of punishments.

Only preschoolers showing interest in drawing during free playtime were selected for the research. The children were tested individually and assigned randomly to one of three conditions.

In the expected reward condition, children were shown a good player badge and told that if they did a good job of drawing, they could earn a badge and have their names put on the school honor-roll board. All children in this condition received the expected rewards.

Intrinsic v. Extrinsic Motivation

In the unexpected reward condition, children were asked to draw without any mention of the awards. Unexpectedly, at the end of the drawing period, all of these children were given the awards.

Finally, in the control condition, children were asked simply to draw without promise or presentation of the awards. After this task, children were observed back in the classroom during free playtime, and the amount of time they spent drawing was recorded.

Result: Over time, children from the expected-reward

condition draw less than children from either the control or the unexpected-reward condition!

Overjustification Effect

The impact of promising a reward for doing what one already likes to do. People come to see the reward, rather than

intrinsic interest, as the motivation for performing the task

Result: Anticipated rewards lead people to think that an

activity does not deserve doing in its own right. Why else would someone offer rewards? People therefore come to see the activity as a means to an end, and their actions come under the control of the extrinsic reward. When rewards are withdrawn, people judge the activity as no longer worth doing.

Learning and grades? Professional athletes? EX: people paid to lose weight lost pounds faster, but

when payments stopped, they regained weight, while those without payments continued to lose

1. Immediate Reinforcer: A reinforcer that occurs instantly after a behavior. A rat gets a food pellet for a bar press.

2. Delayed Reinforcer: A reinforcer that is delayed in time for a certain behavior. A paycheck that comes at the end of a week.

Immediate & Delayed Reinforcers

We may be inclined to engage in small immediate reinforcers (watching TV) rather than large delayed reinforcers

(getting an A in a course) which require consistent study.

Future Consequences Scale Power of Immediate Reinforcement

Even with a delay of 30 seconds in the reinforcer, no learning can occur

Problems with society because of this? Smoking Children sucking their thumbs Drugs Sex Electronic Devices Overeating Procrastination: pleasure is the immediate reward

(punishment is delayed)

Learning to delay gratification/long term goal setting

Physical Punishment Good or bad?

At least 13 countries have banned ALL physical punishment by parents

SIBIS Using operant conditioning to stop self-

injurious behavior

Sensitivity to Punishment/Rewards Are some of us more sensitive than others to

punishment or rewards? Learned helplessness

Learned Helplessness: Martin Seligman

Learned Helplessness

Learned helplessness is a mental state that arises in an organism that believes punishment is inescapable.

The organism stops trying even when success can be obtained.

Failure to try to avoid an unpleasant stimulus because in the past it was unavoidable

Possible model for depression in humans

Superstitious Behavior

*Tendency to repeat behaviors that are followed closely by a reinforcer, even if they are not related*For example, a particular pair of socks might become “lucky” if something good happened when you wore them

Superstition How many of the following behaviors do you perform?

- Never opening an umbrella indoors- Not walking under a ladder- Crossing the street whenever you see a black cat- Carrying a lucky charm or necklace- Going out of your way not to step on cracks in a sidewalk- Knocking on wood- Crossing your fingers- Avoiding the number 13

Weight loss in kids…stationary bikes to power the TVs

Programmed Learning: MathXL Token Economy/twin oaks 1967 http://www.twinoaks.org/about-income-sharing.

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Ritenour’s Discipline System

What is the current reality? What do you see, hear, feel?

Better or worse than last year?

What Operant Conditioning techniques are currently in place to influence behavior? Be specific! Then analyze, are these working?

What would you like the future reality to be? What would you see, hear, feel?

How do we get there? Could Operant Conditioning get us there? If so, how? Be

specific

Do Now: During WWII, the Russians were putting up stiff resistance under Stalin’s

command of “stand or die”, but the German tanks were forging ahead. As the tank commander glanced over the countryside, he suddenly saw

two dogs running across the battlefield. He noticed satchels attached to their backs and assumed they were messenger dogs, perhaps carrying ammunition or medical supplies to Russians fighting behind the lines. The Germans themselves used dogs for guard duty and hunting prisoners, but there was something unusual about these dogs

Dogs are invariably frightened by loud, clanking noises, and the loud diesel engines and the clatter of the steel caterpillar treads should have frightened these dogs away. Instead, the dogs were coming directly at the tanks! Something was wrong, but before the commander could warn the other tanks, the lead dog picked out the nearest German tank and, out of view of the tank crew, ran directly between the treads of the tank. Immediately, a tremendous explosion tore apart the tank, sending a rain of dirt and steel into the air.

Why would a dog charge heedlessly into the path of a frightening tank? What had the Russians done?