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Importance of operant conditioning in learning
Importance of operant conditioning in learning
Importance of operant conditioning in learning
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B.F. Skinner "A failure is not always a mistake, it may simply be the best one can do under the circumstances. The real mistake is to stop trying." (B.F. Skinner) Skinner believed in operant conditions which is the changing of behavior by use of reinforcement, which is given after the desired response(Wikibooks, 2015). He thought that positive and negative reinforcements lead to strengthen recurring behaviors and that non-reinforced behaviors, or punishments would have a weakening effect on behavior. The 4 types of reinforcers Skinner used were: social, graphic, activity, and tangible reinforcers. Three characteristics of operant conditioning that are important to behavioral management are: the reinforcer, the reinforcement schedule, and the timing of the reinforcement. The pros for operant conditioning are that it corrects misbehaviors and it can be applied to multiple settings and be evaluated/measured. Cons to operant conditions can be that the improved behaviors can disappear after time. It also can diminish freedom and free will of thought. Fritz …show more content…
Kounin's concepts for managing group instruction not only help identify key aspects of effective teaching, but can also be used to diagnose instructional problems and identify possible solutions.(Evertson.C. & Emmer. E.,2013) Kounin works with 5 main points: with-it-ness, overlapping, momentum, smoothness, and group focus. He focused on what is known as centers. Where children are able to do something for an allotted time, then must switch when the time is up. Kounin thinks the centers should have the five strategies by: indicating the directions for each center, displaying a visual to state where students should be after the time is up, and away for teachers to actively listen to concerns that are holding the students back. Kounin also believes that teachers must not remain idle at any
Behavior modification is based on the principles of operant conditioning, which were developed by American behaviorist B.F. Skinner. In his research, he put a rat in a cage later known as the Skinner Box, in which the rat could receive a food pellet by pressing on a bar. The food reward acted as a reinforcement by strengthening the rat's bar-pressing behavior. Skinner studied how the rat's behavior changed in response to differing patterns of reinforcement. By studying the way the rats operated on their environment, Skinner formulated the concept of operant conditioning, through which behavior could be shaped by reinforcement or lack of it. Skinner considered his discovery applicable to a wide range of both human and animal behaviors(“Behavior,” 2001).
Operant conditioning is changing behavior through the use of reinforcement after the desired action is given; a behavior that is rewarded positively is more likely to continue and a behavior that is rewarded negatively would likely stop occurring (Santrock,2014). In addition to reinforcement, Skinner also talks about punishment. Reinforcement increases the probability an action or behavior will be repeated, while punishment is intended to decrease a behavior (McLeod, 2015). When Laurie was younger, she thought she was being sent to school every day to socialize with her friends and that learning was a secondary, unintentional happenstance. In third grade, compared to the other students in her class, she was falling short in reading and math.
“Operant conditioning is a method of learning that occurs through rewards and punishments for behavior. Through operant conditioning, an association is made between a behavior and a consequence for that behavior” (Cherry). Positive reinforcement which is praising a person for doing something good verses negative reinforcement which is an unpleasant remark a punishment. B.F. Skinner did an experiment on a rat, the rat was taught to push two buttons, one to receive food and the other was a light electric shock. The rat tried both buttons and realized which button was good and which one was bad. This experiment goes to show that upon the rewards and punishment system one can learn their rights from their wrongs through a series of lessons. Kincaid and Hemingway both use operant conditioning to show human behavior under stimulus control.
“Our greatest weakness lies in giving up. The most certain way to succeed is always to try just one more time.” - Thomas Alva Edison
F. Skinner, and Albert Bandura, focuses on changing the behavior of clients. This type of therapy “aims to decrease the frequency of maladaptive behaviors, and increase the frequency of adaptive or helpful behaviors” (Corsini & Wedding, 2014, p 194). Behavior therapy does this by using trait theories of personality and assuming that “each individual has unique, enduring patterns of behavior that can be observed across a wide range of situations and that these patterns can be understood in terms of specific personality characteristics – traits – that vary in intensity from low to high” (Corsini & Weddin, 2014, p 199). Behavior therapy also uses concepts such as classical conditioning and operant conditioning. Classical conditioning “is a form of learning in which one stimulus, a conditioned stimulus, comes to signal the occurrence of a second stimulus, an unconditioned stimulus…[an unconditioned stimulus] is typically a stimulus that naturally causes a characteristic response, known as an unconditioned response” and operant conditioning “is a form of learning in which the frequency, form, or strength of a behavior is influenced by its consequences” (Corsini & Wedding, 2014, p 200-201). Concepts like these, including reinforcement and punishment, can be wide spread and used in various types of situations which is why this therapy is a good one to use with other
In Psychology there are many different learning styles. One of the more famous learning styles is operant conditioning. In operant conditioning there are two major concepts; reinforcement and punishment. By using these two concepts, behaviors can be encouraged or reduce a certain behavior. Next would be the different schedules of reinforcement that effect how often a behavior is likely to continue. Lastly the article goes on to state how behaviors can be shaped using these and other various methods.
According to numerous references in the field of Psychology, a cognitive psychologist is an individual that studies topics such as thinking, problem-solving, learning, attention, memory, forgetting, and language acquisition, among several others. Cognitive psychology is the branch of psychology that studies mental processes, and its core focus is on how people acquire, process, and store information. While great research has been done within the field of psychology, there are individuals such as B.F. Skinner who criticize its strides, purposes, and research methods.
There are different ways that a teacher can deal with a student’s undesirable behavior. Some of these strategies are: positive reinforcement, negative reinforcement, punishment or extinction. The type of r...
What is Skinner’s Operant Conditioning? Skinner was the first to discuss operant conditioning. McLead (2007) explained that an operant condition means that using reinforcements given after a desired response could change behavior. There were three types of responses that can follow the behavior. Neutral operants, reinforces, and punishers were the three types of responses. According to McLead (2007), Skinner invented a box with levers and lights to test his theory. He placed a hungry rat inside where the rat learned to press the levels for different responses. One level would give it a piece of food and the rat would not receive food when the light was off. This box demonstrated the shaping of behaviors through operant conditioning.
Conditioning working is that form of learning in which the consequences of behaviour influence the possibility thereof. The techniques used for the modification of the behaviour of deviant pupils operate based on ignoring unwanted behavior and strengthening desirable behavior (desirably). Cohen and Manion researchers propose next steps for modifying behaviors, more specifically to improve behaviors, from undesirable to desirable, of students, namely: • You must specify both the unwanted behavior, which should be reduced to a minimum or eliminated (this time is necessary for careful study of the nature of this behavior, the frequency and the conditions in which it is manifested), and the desired behavior (desirable) that will take place. It is necessary to identify which sustain the undesirable reinforcements behavior, that they can be avoided, as well as the identification of reinforcements that contribute to increase the frequency of desired behavior. We must avoid systematically the first type of curing, simultaneously with the application of those reinforcements for the desired behavior.
According to the video entitled Behaviorism: A general overview of behaviorist learning theory, this approach to learning rejects the emphasis on the conscious and unconscious mind and focuses on the observable behavior of the subject. The principle of the behaviorism theory is that there is a direct association between a stimulus and the response an individual makes, the change in an individual’s behavior indicates that learning has occurred, and that individuals are not born with disposition to act in particular ways (Ormrod, 2012). In classrooms where the behavioral technique is used, there are often behavior modification and token reward systems in place (Campana, 2011).
Skinner’s theory can be applied inside the classroom as well. A teacher can get her students to behave by positively reinforcing acceptable behavior and punishing or negatively reinforcing poor behavior. A teacher can also get her student to work hard in her class by doing the same thing.
There are three important concepts that are in this theory. They are antecedent, observable behavior, and consequences. When we are observing a child the first thing we want to do is understand what “triggers” their behavior. This concept is called antecedent, which is anything that comes before the behavior (Rizza 2014). There are two types of antecedents, direct and indirect. Direct is what happens immediately beforehand and indirect is not immediately before. The last concept is consequences, which is anything that happens after and is caused by the behavior performed (Rizza 2014). Once again, there are two different kinds of consequences, reinforcement and punishment. Reinforcement is what increases or strengthens a behavior so it will happen in the future. For example, one day Ms. W was so excited that a little boy named M was able to zipper his own jacket. She proceeded to give him a sticker and a high five. All of the other students saw how excited that Ms. W got and then they all wanted to zip their own jackets. The other concept is punishment; punishment is a way to decrease a child’s bad behavior. A punishment is anything from standing in the back of the line, going to the principles office, or taking a time out in the corner. Punishments are a way for a student to know what they did was wrong and not to do it again. An example of a punishment in my classroom
B.F. Skinner is a major contributor to the Behavioral Theory of personality, a theory that states that our learning is shaped by positive and negative reinforcement, punishment, modeling, and observation. An individual acts in a certain way, a.k.a. gives a response, and then something happens after the response. In order for an action to be repeated in the future, what happens after the response either encourages the response by offering a reward that brings pleasure or allows an escape from a negative situation. The former is known as positive reinforcement, the latter known as negative reinforcement (Sincero, 2012). A teenager who received money for getting an “A” is being positively reinforced, while an individual who skips a class presentation is being negatively reinforced by escaping from the intense fear and anxiety that would have occurred during the presentation.
My goal as an educator is to continually learn, reflect and change my practices in order to ensure all students learn at high levels. As I stated earlier, my initial educational philosophy was behavioral. I was somewhat surprised to find that I still scored the highest in this category on my self-assessment. However, after further reflection and reading B.F. Skinner, I believe that behavioral aspects still have an important role in education today. As an educator I have a moral responsibility to help students learn how to function as members of a classroom community. Skinner believes that the environment of a classroom and school should be as “conducive as possible to students’ learning”. Positive Behavior Interventions & Supports is a model I truly believe in and have used with success with children. Through PBIS, expected behaviors...