Reinforcement
Reinforcement is the process of encouraging behavior based upon a positive or negative reward. Through reinforcement, behavior can be altered through a series of rewards, as seen in B.F. Skinner, and Pavlov's experiments. B.F. Skinner used conditioning to test the response of a rat. In this test, a rat is placed in a box. Through positive or negative reinforcement, the rat touches the lever, and either get a food pellet or an electrical shock. The response alters the rat's likelihood to touch the lever. In Pavlov's experiment, he conditioned things such as time, a sound, and food. The dogs he used in his experiment were given food every time they either heard a bell ring, or at a certain time of the day. Pavlov then began to ring
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Humans are not exactly like animals, and have simple behavior. Humans have a very complex thought process, and each individual has unique behavior. This behavior makes it very difficult to make quantitative tests, or even self-report tests. A test that may be done with humans could be seen in everyday life, such as children with homework. A study may keep track of the number of children who accomplish their homework with varied results such as internet access, or a punishment type of result such as extra studying. If a child is allowed to access the internet, if they finish their homework may influence a child to be more likely to finish their homework, opposed to a child who is forced to study an extended amount after the homework is finished. A positive component of this study would be the positive results of the children who receive benefit from doing their homework. The results would show the children would work harder and get their work done faster in order to receive internet access or a desire of the …show more content…
Random mating is the random mating of individuals within a species or between two species. Random mating allows gene flow to occur, which increases genetic difference. Without random mating, species genetics tend to stay similar. Similar DNA allows for an increase in virus infection, as well as devastation within the species. In tests on animals, in which they were not forced, but persuaded to mate with a certain mate, through electric shocks when leaving the other, showed that there was a high increase in genetic similarity. This stops hybrids from being produced, which hybrids are the offspring of two species. Hybrids allow for genetic differentiation and the forming of new traits. This is very controversial in places such as zoos and places of animal preservation. Reinforcement on humans shows that they are also easily manipulated, much like animals. When humans are introduced to new subjects, they are not sure of what to think about it; without influence or previous experience. In operant conditioning, others can strengthen the results shown in response to a variable. Humans react very differently in different environments. Many people contend to reinforcement saying that it is very dangerous, as it influences certain features to be expressed. When someone begins reinforcement with children, they can influence them in any way they desire, this is because the child
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.
He took an environmental approach to the study. His method was the use of the operant conditioning box also known as Skinner box helped understand different behaviors that occurred during different environments. He stimulated a system of rewards and punishments and reinforcements. When the pigeon or rat received a reward, the animal performed the behavior more often and when it received a punishment, it performed the behavior less. He first tested positive reinforcement which he made rats press a lever for food. It encouraged the rat to perform more of the behavior. He also used negative reinforcement which added an uncomfortable stimulus. He placed an electric current in the box. The rats learn to avoid it. They even learned to stop when he turned on the light indicating the circuit will soon turn on. This behavior was known as Avoidance or Escape Learning. Both positive and negative reinforcements encourage good behavior. He also used punishment. Unlike the reinforcements, punishments were used to discourage unwanted behaviors rather than promote good behavior. It was performed by adding an unfavorable stimuli or removing the rewarding stimuli. When the rat was punished, its unwanted behavior decreased. When Skinner, removed the punishment, the bad behavior returned. He placed a hungry rat. The rat would pull the lever for food, but no food would come out. The rat later stopped pulling it learning it had no purpose. He studied that the more the rat pulled the lever, the higher the probability that the rat will quit pulling it; he developed an equation known as response and extinction rate. Response rate, the domain, is that rate of how hard a person performed an action and extinction rate, the range, is the rate that the person performed the action less and less. As the response rate increase, so this extinction rate. He used a token economy, a type of positive reinforcement, which a person was given a “token” which can be
“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.
The reinforcement theory was of interest for a consideration as a tool in my current work environment and possibly be utilized as intervention of controlling the behaviors of employees. Since, I have observed the negative behavior of employees displayed due to varies unjust reasons that demotivate them to perform at an optimal level. Therefore, I believe implementing positive reinforcement to rebuild trust and to motivate employees by acknowledging a job well done, reward programs, and providing challenging task would encourage them and give them something to strive for to be higher achievers. In addition, all things mention and utilizing the reinforcement theory can reinforce the desired behavior in the workplace. Furthermore, I think that
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.
Operant conditioning is a type of learning where a person is taught that specific actions are related to specific consequences. The main goal of using this type of conditioning is to encourage the individual to change his or her behavior in some way. Specifically, the individual can be encouraged to perform a desired behavior more often through use of positive reinforcement and negative reinforcement, and he or she can also be encouraged to perform an undesired behavior less often through use of positive punishment and negative punishment. Positive reinforcement is basically a type of operant conditioning in which an addition or reward is given to the individual when he or she has displayed the desired behavior, and as a result, the behavior
Shaping involves reinforcing a target behavior by using operant conditioning to reward a positive behavior and prevent a negative behavior. This method was created by B.F Skinner, in which he reinforced a target behavior in the experimenting of rats to see if they will be able to push a lever. He used the principle of rewarding by giving the rats a piece of food each time they got closer to the lever. Shaping, also called "successive approximation," allows the subject of the experiment to set goals for itself when it has reached that successful approximation. Rewarding has its benefits because it is a sensitive procedure towards an act that helps shape a behavior. Shaping can also be used on humans, in laying emphasis on a positive behavior.
Conditioning is a behavioural theory and process, where an individual’s response to a stimulus becomes more predictable and frequent within a particular environment, usually as a result of a reward (Port and Finnamore, 2007; Encyclopaedia Britannica, 2014). This reflects the Song et al. (2012) explanation stated previously, which explains that obedience can increase if an individual is keeping an action the same in order to gain a reward. The leading conditioning experiment is Pavlov’s dog, where the dog was classically conditioned. This is a learning type where a neutral stimulus, for example, a bell, beco...
Operant conditioning is a kind of conditioning, which examines how often a behavior will or occur depending on the effects of the behavior (King, 2016, pg. ). The words positive and negative are used to apply more significance to the words reinforcement or punishment. Positive is adding to the stimulus, while negative is removing from the stimulus (King, 2016). For instance, with positive reinforcement, there is the addition of a factor to increase the number of times that the behavior occurs (King, 2016). An example of positive reinforcement is when a child is given an allowance for completing their household chores. The positive reinforcement is the allowance which helps to increase the behavior of doing chores at home. In contrast with negative
The strength of classical conditioning is that it can help to explain all aspects of human behavior. Any of behavior can broke down into stimulus-response association, so that according to the classical conditioning, conditioned stimulus will lead conditioned response to occur, then the scientist can observe and determine the behavior (McLeod, 2014). In the case of Pavlovian conditioning, he found that when the conditioned stimulus (bell) was paired with an unconditioned stimulus (food) was presented to the dog, it would start to salivate. After a number of repeated this procedures, Pavlov tried to ring his bell by its own...
In this paper I will be discussing the information I have learned from the article “From Positive Reinforcement to Positive Behaviors”, by Ellen A. Sigler and Shirley Aamidor. The authors stress the importance of positive reinforcement. The belief is that teachers and adults should be rewarding appropriate behaviors and ignoring the inappropriate ones. The authors’ beliefs are expressed by answering the following questions: Why use positive reinforcement?, Are we judging children’s behaviors?, Why do children behave in a certain way?, Do we teach children what to feel?, Does positive reinforcement really work?, and How does positive reinforcement work?. The following work is a summary of "Positive Reinforcement to Positive Behaviors" with my thoughts and reflection of the work in the end.
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.
Skinner designed an experiment to test operant conditioning, known as a ‘Skinner box’ (Gross 2005). In the box, animals, such as rats, would be conditioned into certain behaviour. For example, by pressing a lever to receive food (Gross 2005).
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.