Operant Conditioning Essays (Examples)

Operant Conditioning/ehavior Modification

The idea of operant conditioning for humans was first developed by urrhus Frederick Skinner, who looked at work using operant conditioning with animals. He concluded that using operant conditioning, or behavior modification, with humans was possible, and that all if all external factors were controlled, internal mental processes would not be a significant factor. He believed that all human behavior was shaped by the principles of operant conditioning: stimulus and response (Hutchinson, 2003).

Another way of talking about stimulus and response are to consider antecedent and consequent events -- what happens, and how the child responds to that event or events (Simpson, 1998). However, Skinner's pure approach of ignoring thought processes does not work with human beings.

For classroom, the assumption when using behavior modification is that the child is using maladaptive responses to cope with the events around him or her. Further, the assumption is that…

Then, on seeing that the rearing has become a little bit familiar to him, sniffy is therefore, reinforced when he rears at a point with the bar.

After several attempts of the previous steps, sniffy was encouraged to rear up nearer to the bar as possible. During the regular training observation, incase sniffy rears so close to the bar this increases the likelihood that sniffy will press on the bar. Immediately, sniffy presses the bar, a magazine sound will be heard and he will identify the sound with the food pellets which he will rush to eat.

At this stage, the Bar-Sound relationship begins to develop. This association can be further confirmed in Operant Association Window by observing the red bar shown in it.

This experiment is repeated severally until he learns that if the bar. During the observation, he started by pressing the bar once or twice also after…

Conditioning

Classical and operant conditioning are types of behavioral learning. Subsets of behavioral psychology, classical and operant conditioning show how a subject (animal or human) can exhibit relatively permanent changes in behavior due to certain types of experiences. According to Cryver (2000), learning is a "fundamental process" in all animals.

Classical conditioning is also known as "learning by association." Association in this sense refers to the association of a behavior with a stimulus: otherwise known as the stimulus-response effect. Pavlovian learning is the core of classical conditioning, or learning by association. The stimulus can be, for example, a dog treat. The response is salivation. The dog treat is an unconditioned stimulus. In other words, the dog needs no conditioning to start salivating at the smell of meat. Its biology, genetics, and physiology makes it so that the smell of meat automatically and innately evokes the unconditioned response (reflex) of salivation.…

Hypothetical Experimental Scenario and Real-Life Application in School:

A typical operant conditioning experiment featuring positive reinforcement would include one in which an animal is rewarded on a ratio schedule of pressing a lever. In that scenario, the subject receives a food reward for pressing a lever a specific number of times. Four presses of the lever rewarded by a single food pellet would be a ratio reward schedule of 4:1. The relative effectiveness of this type of positive reinforcement would be much greater where the subject is hungry than where the subject is relatively satiated already (Gerrig & Zimbardo, 2008). One useful application of operant conditioning would be to reward students for good conduct with additional recess time (positive reinforcement), or to eliminate homework assignments for students who participate in class (negative reinforcement).

.Conclusion:

Generally, both positive and negative reinforcement are equally effective because the relative effectiveness of each is…

This technique is called shaping, as the teacher starts with information students already know and then new information is broken into small pieces.

In teaching vocabulary, the teacher is more likely to suggest or work with the textbook, and the setting of a democratic environment based on common agreement is not such an important fact as in the humanistic approach.

The lesson starts with a revision and review of the information taught in the previous class. The new lesson is introduced and after the new words are highlighted and identified the correct spelling is reinforced and the main focus is on the dictionary use. The students who answer correctly are given positive reinforcements such as verbal praise, good grades and other rewards (prizes, red points, pluses etc.). The teacher is mainly interested in fostering "the correct answer," he is concerned with observable behaviors he is able to test. Therefore, for…

My reasoning is based not only upon the behavior itself, but also upon the relationship between the organism and the trainer. An organism that most receives negative reinforcement associates such reinforcement not only with the undesirable behavior, but also with the trainer. The relationship between the trainer and organism is damaged, and trust is undermined. Trust is important to effective training.

A better way to discourage undesirable behavior is perhaps to initially provide positive reinforcement, which is removed when the behavior is repeated, resulting in the organism eventually giving up. This maintains the trust between the organism and the trainer. The organism then also associates the pleasant stimulus with the trainer, which encourages a desire to maintain the trust relationship.

D. SHAPING EHAVIOR

An example of using operant conditioning to shape behavior could be applied to the teaching context. Desirable behavior for children in a classroom is to sit quietly…

Operant Conditioning is based on the idea that an individual's response to external stimuli can be modified, or changed, depending upon the consequences of that individual's response. Formulated by famed psychologist B.F. Skinner, operant conditioning deals mainly with voluntary behavior, or operant behavior. While classical conditioning deals mainly with involuntary, or reflex, behaviors, Skinner's theory maintains a system of consequences for reactions which are called punishment and reinforcement. Punishment is a consequence that makes a person not want to perform the specific response. While reinforcement is a consequence that causes a person's response to happen more often. For instance, rewarding someone for a particular response to stimuli can make that person repeat that response more often. There is also a third consequence, extinction, in which there is no consequence what so ever for a particular behavior. ("Operant Conditioning B.F. Skinner")

On one hand is punishment, which can also be divided…

(3) They could use negative punishment by punishing the boy for fighting. If the boy fights, he could be required to do additional chores at home that he would ordinarily not have to do. To be effective, the boy would have to strongly prefer not to do those chores and he would have to be explicitly aware that the additional chores are consequences of fighting in school.

(4) They could also use negative punishment by punishing the boy for fighting by depriving him of something that he values, such as trips to the mall or movies or bowling. If the boy fights, he could lose the privilege of going to the mall on the weekends or of other things that he values. To be effective, the boy would have to strongly prefer to be allowed to do those things and he would have to be explicitly aware that the deprivation…

"Bad dog!" The dog receives no treat. However, given the puppy's short memory, this should only be done when the dog is caught in the act. The owner, ideally, should be alert enough so when the dog is seen squatting indoors, even before the dog can relieve itself, the owner has time to shout, "No!" Then he or she will rush outside with the puppy, wait for the dog to 'go' and praise the dog and reward the dog with a treat.

The dog learns to associate relieving itself outside with lavish praise and food, and relieving itself inside the house with punishment and no tasty treats. Eventually, when it has to relieve itself, the dog will beg to be allowed outside, in the hopes of receiving the desired reward. The dog should also be praised and rewarded for 'asking' to go outside. Even when the dog does not receive…

To reduce disruptive behavior in class, Mr. yrne has two main options. He could use positive punishments that go beyond mere scolding -- things like adding extra homework for those who misbehave, increasing in-class work, making kids feel ashamed by singling them out or putting them out of the classroom, and even going as far as to do actual physical punishment (if the school allows mild striking). The kids will want to avoid these and will do so by not being disruptive. Mr. yrne can also use negative punishments that withdraw pleasure -- things like taking away free time, separating the disruptive classmates from each other (move them to different desks) so that their capacity to interact is gone, giving detentions which remove fun time, and confiscating cell phones and video games or other items that bring the student joy. If they know they will lose something they want, they…

The rate of such behavior was considered to be significant as a measure of responsive strength (Skinner 1938, 1966, 1986; Killeen & Hall 2001). True or not, the emphasis on response rate has resulted in a scarcity of investigational work by operant conditioners on non-recurrent behavior such as movement in space.

Operant conditioning differs from other type of learning study in one important aspect. The focus has been more or less entirely on what is called 'reversible behavior', that is, behavior in which the steady-state model under a given schedule is stable, meaning that in a series of conditions, XAXXC..., where each condition is preserved for enough days that the pattern of behavior is locally stable, behavior under schedule X shows a pattern after one or two duplications of X that is forever the same. For instance, the first time an animal is exposed to a fixed-interval schedule, after quite…

B.F. Skinner is often associated with behavioral psychology, it is Edward Thorndike who set the stage for field. Thorndike's Law of Effect (1901) that successful behaviors tend to be repeated and unsuccessful ones do not set the stage for modern theorists along with the work of Pavlov (1927). Thus we now know that reinforcement always increases the probability that a behavior will occur or be repeated (Skinner, 1953). Positive reinforcement involves providing a stimulus to increase behavior, most often through of the use of a reward like food or praise, whereas negative reinforcement typically involves the removal of an aversive stimulus, such as a noise or pain, to increase the probability that a behavior will occur or be repeated (Skinner, 1953). Negative reinforcement is often confused with punishment but the two techniques perform completely different functions. Whereas reinforcement, positive or negative, always increases the chance that the behavior preceding it…

In contrast, negative behavior such as pulling things off of shelves, running away, or taunting a sibling, may result in the small child being forced to hold his mother's hand, and the privilege of being permitted to wander around is thus withdrawn. This creates a type of operant conditioning known as negative reinforcement: the child does not like being constrained. The parent tells the child: 'if you behave, I will let you walk by yourself." To escape the child agrees, and the negative stimulus of the parent's hand is withdrawn.

Because of the nature of the situation, most parents use the conditioning interval known as fixed, in that their conditioning stimulus is applied immediately upon the child's response. However, many also apply a kind of variable ratio, whereby if the child is very good and exhibits a number of positive behaviors, the child will be rewarded by a special treat…

Learning

Classical and operant conditioning are both types of learning. In particular, classical conditioning and operant conditioning are both types of learning by association. Classical and operant conditioning are called learning by association because both types of learning involve the subject associating a stimulus with a response, or a behavior with a consequence. Ivan Pavlov, a ussian scientist, first studied classical conditioning in earnest. Pavlov showed that it was possible to make a dog associate a bell with meal times. To help the dog learn to associate the bell with mealtime, the dog had to be learn that the bell meant that food was coming. Pavlov started with an unconditioned stimulus (UCS) and an unconditioned response (UC). In the experiment with the dog, the unconditioned stimulus was meat powder, and the unconditioned response was salivation. The stimulus and response are unconditioned because it does not require conditioning, or training, to…

Autism and Operant Conditioning

Before taking this class, I was dismissive of operant conditioning as a tool for learning and education in human beings. Instead, I thought of operant conditioning as something that people did with pets, teaching them to associate a particular behavior with a treat or a punishment, and I felt as if this type of learning was below the capabilities of most human beings. My own perceptions about this caused me to react in an ugly manner when a friend of mine described the behavioral therapy that she was going to be using on her child, who has autism, in order to help improve functioning. hile I said nothing to my friend, I was enraged that she would be treating her child like a pet, literally offering him food rewards in exchange for desired behavior. I simply did not see how such an approach could help her…

Classical conditioning (CC) and operant conditioning (OC) are two crucial aspects of behavioral psychology (Cherry, n.d.; Pavlov, 1927; Skinner, 1953). While both types of conditioning result in learning, the process through which learning occurs is different. To understand each of the process it is crucial to learn about how one is different from the other (Cherry, n.d.; Pavlov, 1927; Skinner, 1953).

Classical Conditioning (CC) (Cherry, n.d.; Pavlov, 1927)

It was first defined and described by a ussian physiologist, Ivan Pavlov

Entails placing a neutral signal before a reflex occurs

Concentrates on automatic involuntary behaviors

Operant Conditioning (OC) (Cherry, n.d.; Skinner, 1953)

It was first defined and described by an American psychologist, B.F. Skinner

Involves a punishment or a reinforcement after a behavior

Concentrates on weakening or strengthening voluntary behaviors

How Classical Conditioning Works

Ivan Pavlov, in his most famous experiment, noticed that dogs started salivating in reaction to a bell…

Narcotics and explosive detection work combine both classical and operant conditioning. The classical element of their conditioning is the conditioning implemented to substitute a reward in the form of a particular play toy used only for its specific purpose as a positive consequence of desired behavior. In that case, the operant component of the conditioning is that the desired behavior of searching for contraband, first, triggers the reward afterwards.

In training a canine officer to detect contraband, operant conditioning is also used in another way; namely, in addition to training the canine to seek and find explosives or narcotics, the trainer also rewards the subject for initiating a specific desired passive or active response. Generally, active responses such as barking and biting to hold are used for patrol work. Passive responses are more appropriate in contraband detection, where the passive responses like sitting are much safer than active responses such…

The manager of a manufacturing organization could offer the rewards when the amount of items produced increases by a constant number. Say for instance a worker produces 5 parts a day; if he produces 6 during one day, he will not receive a rewards, but if he produces 6 parts every day, throughout a whole month, he would receive a reward. This way, the objective of increasing the productivity would be reached and the staff would not feel exploited as their efforts are being rewarded.

A b) Variable-ratio schedules - "a reinforcer is delivered after an average number of responses, but varies through session" (University of Toronto); this basically means that the reward is offered at various unpredictable times, through the analysis of the performances of the subject

The manager could offer incentives every now and then, but they would not be offered at specified times. This would ensure that…

positive and negative reinforcement helped shape who I am today. It will show how certain consequences for my actions affect the way I respond to certain things now. We are all products of our environment and experiences, and my life is no different. As a child, I was a victim of bullying, and I believe this experience, blended with many others, has colored who I am today.

Noted psychologist B.F. Skinner studied operant conditioning throughout his career, and noted that a person's experiences are either positive or negative reinforcers, and they create positive and negative reactions in the brain and in our own actions and reactions to events. These reinforcers can be anything from a good grade, to a spanking for bad behavior, to teasing and bullying. In my case, teasing and bullying helped create a low self-image and insecurity in myself and what I do in life.

When I…

Social Cognitive Theory

The author of this brief report has been asked to offer definitions of two key theories and terms from the general subject of psychology. Those two terms are social cognitive theory (SCT) and the other is classical condition. There will also be reference to operant conditioning. The words about this subject will emanate from the work of Guy Lefrancois and this treatise called Theories of Human Learning. The broad field of human psychology is very complex and has evolved a great deal over the years, decades and generations since its inception. However, there are several realms of psychology that have emerged as prominent and important and social cognitive theory and its associated terms and facets is certainly one of those things. While social cognitive theory is far from settled, there are many parts that are generally agreed upon.

Analysis

The definition of social cognitive theory (SCT) is…

Classically, the dog's fear was a conditioned reflex to the sound -- in operant terms, the dog's climbing behavior was a conditioned by the "reward" of avoiding the shock.

Some critics of theories regarding conditioning suggest that it is distasteful to talk about conditioning humans, because this removes the idea that we have free will. It is possible to condition humans, of course. The purpose of spanking children, for example, is to try to condition them not to behave in certain way because it will result in pain. However, it is a misnomer to suggest that conditioning removes free will. It would be more accurate to suggest that conditioning is the outcome of free will combined with intelligence. Free will enables the animal or human to choose responses that are most rewarding, and conditioning teaches them what responses are likely to be most rewarding. It is always theoretically possible for…

Instrumental Conditioning

One of the key principals in psychology is instrumental conditioning. This is when punishment or reinforcement is utilized to encourage the subject to engage in particular types of behavior. The basic idea behind this approach is to increase the chances that a specific kind of action will take place in the future. Once this happens, is when there can be a transformation in how the subject is reacting to the stimuli that they will see, hear or feel. (Cherry, 2011) This is significant, because it is showing how this is utilized as a basic strategy to subtly change the way someone is responding to various events. To fully understand this technique we will examine how this kind of conditioning is used by someone who is learning to ride a bike. This will be accomplished by: comparing positive / negative reinforcement that relate to the situation, examining the role…

Classic Conditioning

I have noticed consistently that people react differently when tickled. I decided to find out which of my friends was the most ticklish and see if I could create a conditioned reaction to the threat of being tickled. After considering and rejecting a few candidates for experimentation, I came across a friend who is extremely ticklish. His entire torso is sensitive to the movement of tickling fingers and he bends in interesting positions in order to attempt to avoid the potential tickling. So, for several days when I approached him, I would tickle him. I would keep tickling him until he made that familiar bending action. He became wary of whenever I approached and guarded himself against me. I took to approaching from behind. Now, he has learned to associate my presence with tickling and either bends himself before I come near or he backs away to avoid…

(Kimble; Hilgad; Maquis, 1961)

(c) Explain the ole of ewad and punishment in you selected leaning situation of 'How to ide a Bike'

A lot of avesive events ae thee inclusive of withholding einfocement i.e. extinction, emoving a positive einfoces i.e. esponse cost and pesenting an avesive event contingent on a behavio i.e. punishment. The same vaiables that influence the effectiveness of einfocement also influence the effectiveness of punishment, inclusive of the immediacy with which a negative event follows a behavio, the intensity of the event, and the schedule of punishment. It is impotant to compehend that punishment constitute an inescapable aspect of life which individuals tend to lean though both punishing consequences and positive consequences. Fo instance in the selected leaning situation of how to ide a bike, if the leane is not watching whee he is going, he will sustain a fall which is a punishment fo him.…

Person: Single mom, who lost custody over her children, has sex with multiple male partners, asks for money afterwards, and denies that she is prostitute because she doesn't charge money up front. The mother is hypercritical and unloving and her father has been an absent figure in her life. Her stepfather abused her.

Cognitive self-regulation

Cognitive self-regulation theory, fashioned by Bandura, believes that human behavior is motivated and regulated by the influence that one has over the self. This self-influence works through three key mechanisms: monitoring one's behavior, causes of one's behavior, and the effects of that behavior; judging one's behavior in contrast to personal standards; and regulating the feelings / moods (affect) of one's conduct / behavior. Higher goals lead to enhanced behavior and this results in a certain mindset. Self-regulation is continuous and never-ending. And is also effectuated by self-reinforcement that result in self-efficacy. It is intentional and…

Latent learning; this is the type of learning that takes place oblivious of the reinforcements that are applied though these reinforcements can be useful later on in the process of learning. It is the education that is instantly expressed in a response that is obvious. Here, an organism may be learning but the information learnt is not instantly expressed (obert Jensen, 2006). For instance, a child may watch the elders set the table and they may not instantly set the table but will store that knowledge and information till the day and time that they will need it.

Insight learning; this is the understanding that one has even without much effort or many trials and errors. This type of learning allows the person to be able to form associations between events and objects that can help them solve new challenges that may come their way (Encyclopedia Britannica, 2011 ). This…

Consumer Behavior for Marketing

Understanding Consumer Behavior

Understanding consumers' perceptions is critical to marketing and advertising. Consumers are increasingly selective with regard to the advertising that they pay attention to and mass marketing is fast losing its effectiveness and appeal. There is any number of strategies that marketers can employ to increase positive consumer perception of their brands. Several suggestions follow: (1) Engage in socially responsible investing in causes that can reasonably associated with the company or the brand: Examples of this strategy can be seen in programs that Starbucks has established to give back to domestic communities and to engage in foreign communities in need. Sale of Ethos water provides a portion of the revenue to be used for infrastructure changes to communities that do not have reliable sources of clean water. The ed program -- a collaborative effort which extended to other firms -- used a portion of…

The first stage of language acquisition is talking one word at a time. The child uses that single word to make requests and direct activities. The individual at this stage can be considered an "emergent communicator." Their use of language for the purpose of communication is in its beginning period. Thus, the articulations consists mainly of a single word, this word may capture an entire sentence.

In stage, two the individual builds on the foundation of stage one as their vocabulary increases to beyond 75 words. At this stage, they are able to fuse words together and make simple phrases. They may continue at this stage to rely on single words but two word phrases begin to be used more frequently and with greater assuredness. During this stage some individuals may improve their vocabulary to upwards of two hundred words or more.

For stage three, the individual begins using morphemes.…

Provide an example of something you learned through positive reinforcement; provide an example of something you learned through negative reinforcement.

Through positive reinforcement, I learned how to throw a ball. My father taught me in the backyard, and the farther I threw it, the more he told me I had done a 'good job.' I learned through negative reinforcement not to breathe through my nose while swimming -- every time I breathed incorrectly, I would always choke on the water, which made me extremely aware of how I was breathing.

Provide an example (and the steps involved) of something you can teach a child or a pet through shaping.

You can housebreak a puppy through shaping. First, you keep the puppy in a crate because it does not want to soil its den, and only let it out of the crate when you can observe the puppy. When the puppy…

psychological concepts. In some questions, specific scenarios were also given and we had to analyse them with reference to psychological concepts. Over all, this assignment broadened our knowledge of psychology and improved our thinking skills.

To answer this question, first we have to understand the meaning of gender. While sex refers to the biological differences between males and females, gender refers to the sociological differences between males and females. Gender however can be influenced by biological differences but it basically is a social phenomena. Gender differences can vary in different cultures and societies. For e.g. most of the females work in the U.S. But many women in Asian countries do not go to work. So if women and men were classified on basis of going to work, then women in U.S. would be very different from women in the Asian countries.

Let us now talk about gender roles. Gender roles…

2. The following is a learning scenario using operant conditioning. A girl is mad at her boyfriend because he doesn't do the dishes enough. The boyfriend is the learner, and the behavior that needs to be learned is doing the dishes. Using operant conditioning, the girlfriend can teach the boyfriend to participate more in household chores by either withholding sex from the boyfriend (punishment); yelling at him (negative reinforcement); or being extra nice to him when he does do the dishes (positive reinforcement).

3. Mnemonic devices are one of the best ways to improve memory in certain situations. One way a person could apply mnemonic devices is to try to memorize people's names, something that can be hard to do at a party. So if a woman's name is Meg and has blonde hair, the person can remember her name by associating it with Meg Ryan. Or if a guy…

These values can be as operational for the parent/child association as it is for the owner/pet relationship.

Strategy for communication

The objective of any family is for all members to live in agreement with each other. It is the first basis of a Childs education and moral standards (Gouze & Wendel, 2007). With that said, a strategy called floor planning is what will be utilized for Jeff and Roger.

Floor Planning

This method should also be done throughout the instigating stages of counseling for Jeff and Roger. Jeff and Roger will be requested to draw a floor plan of their house. They will then be asked to remember the odors, sounds, colors, and people that are in their home. While they are drawing particular questions are asked regarding the environment such as;

What room does the family gather in?

What conversations take place in the various rooms?

Are any rooms…

person would learn from the material? Will the article help someone become more self-aware? This research would enable one to understand how a research article is put together and to draw insightful conclusions from it.

Identify the article, the author(s) and the date of publication, both in the body of the paper and in an attached eference list, and the focus of the research

Annesi, James J., et al. "Effects of the coach approach intervention on adherence to exercise in obese women: assessing mediation of social cognitive theory factors." esearch Quarterly for Exercise and Sport 82.1 (2011): 99+. Academic OneFile. Web. 11 Apr. 2011.

Describe the hypothesis of the study

The hypothesis for this study is that as obese individuals exercised, they were monitored to see if there was an improvement for "physical self-concept, exercise self-efficacy, total mood disturbance and body area satisfaction" (Annesi, 2011). One wanted to see if…

It also means that people don't have free will necessarily because behaviorism believes that feelings and thoughts don't cause people to behave in certain ways. Classical conditioning can be best understood by the example of Pavlov's dogs. Pavlov's dogs were discovered salivating by the mere sound of the people with food coming rather. In other words, they were reacting to a neutral stimulus. Operant conditioning, on the other hand, is more about reward and punishment (Donaldson 2008). Operant conditioning works because sometimes the subject is rewarded and sometimes not and this has found to be very successful (the most successful, in fact) in conditioning. For example, if one sometimes gives dogs food off their plate and sometimes not, the dog will be conditioned to wait always for the food because sometimes he gets it.

The term 'mental illness' is a culturally bound term. What is considered a mental illness in…

Thus instrumental condition would rely on the notion that a person generates a response rather than an environmental stimulus. I have found that both people and stimulus may elicit certain behaviors both in and outside of the classroom.

Instrumental conditioning is modeled after animal experiments which showed that the individual's environment can reinforce response controls, thus the best responses occur when reinforcement of a particular behavior is given. This I have learned to be the case in the classroom most assuredly, where students are more likely to exhibit positive behaviors more frequently when they are reinforced immediately for demonstrating positive behaviors. Generally the patterns that emerge from such conditioning are self-directed, meaning that I have found that most students engage in behaviors and continue to engage in behaviors which they find result in a positive response regardless of the environment they are placed in.

With regard to controlling adverse behavior,…

Improving Human esource Management at Great Northern America

Because all organizations are comprised of people, there will always be human resource issues involved and the manner in which these issues are resolved can spell the difference between organizational success and failure. This was the situation facing Joe Salatino, president of Great Northern America as he sought to formulate timely and responsive solutions to his company's human resource problems in order to save his company and achieve a competitive advantage in the future. To gain some fresh insights concerning how the president of this company could approach these problems, this paper provides a review of the relevant literature to explain why employees need to understand the importance of how people form perceptions and make attributions, an evaluation of the applicability of social learning theory to the circumstances, followed by an examination of ways that the president could use social learning theory…

Canine Behavior: Genetics vs. Environment

The debate over nature vs. nurture as it applies to learning dates back over a hundred years. Certainly, during much of the 20th century, the distinction between learned and inherited behavior appeared much clearer than it does today. The concept that any type of behavior was either learned or merely developed without learning seemed a rationale and straightforward belief. esearch based on these expectations caused some scientists to conclude that rat-killing behavior among cats, for example, is a learned behavior rather than an instinctive one, that human fears are all acquired, or that intelligence is completely the result of experience. Learning theorists were arguing at this point that most behavior is learned and that biological factors are of little or no importance. The behaviorist position that human behavior could be explained entirely in terms of reflexes, stimulus-response associations, and the effects of reinforcers upon them…

An article in the Journal of Sex Research brings attention to operant conditioning by juxtaposing - comparing and contrasting - it with the social learning theory that Julian P. Rotter developed. Social learning in fact embraces aspects of operant conditioning (which is also known as "radical behaviorism"), and Rotter assumed that "behavior is goal directed and emphasized expectations of reward and perceived values of rewards." Those rewards are the basis for a person to model his or her behavior after the behavior of others. "Rewards for desired behavior are presumed to reinforce that behavior," (Hogben, et al., 1998) Rotter asserted, and that part of his model matches up pretty closely with operant conditioning.

OPERANT THEORY IS the MOST PRACTICAL, APPLICABLE in EXPLAINING DEVIANT BEHAVIOR: In this scholarly article, the authors are alluding to behaviors related to sexual dynamics, in this case spousal abuse. For example, the reward that a deviant…

In terms of correctional program implementation, operant conditioning principles provide the basis for motivating cooperation and other desirable behaviors (including reduction of undesirable behaviors) in a quid pro quo arrangement. Typical examples of operational implementation of operant conditioning would include so-called "token economies" and other bilateral agreements, arrangements, or understandings that certain desired behaviors provide specific rewards (Van Voorhis 2007). Operant conditioning principles are particularly useful in parenting, such as between teenagers rewarded with late weekend curfews for good grades; it is also a proven method of increasing inmate compliance within correctional institutions where good behavior is rewarded with increased privileges and undesirable behaviors are punished through privilege reduction (Spiegler & Guevremont 1993). Generally, the most important fundamental element of successful implementation of operant conditioning principles in behavior modification is the gradual phasing out of the reward-based motivation for compliance (Van Voorhis 2007). The goal of any such operational conditioning-based…

When children are given the option between a reward they would like and the internal desire to learn something, most children would rather have the reward. That is also true of many adults, whether they are in an educational setting or a business setting. Still, that does not mean that intrinsic interest cannot come along with extrinsic reward, or that operant theory is completely wrong. Many educators mix operant theory with cognitive theory in an effort to provide those with different learning styles more of an opportunity to learn and develop. This helps to reach the largest number of students per educator, improving the overall educational goal.

ognitive Theory of Learning

Introduction

The cognitive theory of learning has been part of education since the late 1920's, when a Gestalt psychologist focused on the issue of Gestalt teaching and learning, and what that could offer to students who were not learning…

A behavior resulting from injury or disease behavior resulting from experience behavior resulting from disease or drugs biologically determined behavior

Evidence that learning has occurred is seen in published research studies changes in thinking changes in behavior emotional stability

Change in performance is preceded by bad reviews scientific research the behavior of others change in disposition

If-then statements may also be referred to as principles generalization hypothesis laws

Statements which summarize relationships are restricted to the physical sciences known as hypothesis known as generalization never used in the social sciences

Rules which govern the gathering of information are known as rigid and dogmatic scientific method being flexible

APA rules for research studies

Informed consent is given by the researcher judicial review the American Psychological Association the research subject

Laws are to beliefs as truth is to untruth accuracy is to inaccuracy convictions are to facts are to convictions

Trace conditioning…

Another theorist with a different view is Chomsky (1988). Chomsky sees the acquisition of language as a process of input-output, what he calls a Cartesian view of language acquisition and language structure. He states: "We have an organism of which we know nothing. We know, or we can discover, what kind of data is available to it, and the first question we must try to answer is: what kind of mental structure does the organism develop when that evidence is presented to it?" (Chomsky, 1988, p. 102). Once we find an answer to this question, we can ask what sorts of processes have intervened leading form the data available to the knowledge that resulted. Chomsky explains:

The input-output situation is this: a child who initially does not have knowledge of a language constructs for himself knowledge of a language on the basis of a certain amount of data; the input…

Lisa was a sophomore and while in the Alternative school, as was the case in the regular high school, she had been a student who had been in trouble frequently for talking back to and swearing at teachers, skipping class, not doing homework, hanging out after school and violating many of the community rules that were established by the group including smoking on school grounds, lying, being late for classes, and doing drugs. She hung out with what teachers called "the wrong crowd" after school: kids from a nearby community that were not as well off, and were part of a street gang. Lisa was white, but many of her friends were black, and the kids in this gang were vocally resistant to the inequalities that they saw in wealthy Scarsdale that were not in their poor community. Some of her afterschool friends were dropping out, and others were fighting…

Memory

In the spaces provided beneath the flowchart, list the term that corresponds with the definition in each box.

ABC/123 Version X

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Sensory memory

Meaningful organization

Short-term memory

Encoding

Storage

Grouping

ehearsal

Association

Hopper, C. How memory works. PowerPoint. etrieved from:

http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:BZ81rE0CqEcJ:college.cengage.com/collegesurvival/hopper/practicing_college/4e/prepare/ppt/hopper_ch04_how_memory_works.ppt+&cd=10&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us

Computing IQ Essay

Consider the following scenario:

Kara is 10 years old. She has been given an intelligence test. Her mental age is 13.

According to Sternberg, what is Kara's IQ? Conduct research and interpret her score.

Kara's IQ is 130. One formulation of an intelligence quotient is that of mental age and a child with a superior mental age to her actual years thus has a higher IQ. "Sternberg's discussions on intelligence are very different from a lot of others because he appears to think that other than a static score, intelligence is somewhat malleable and should…

Starting from 19th century psychology, school of thought of behaviorist shared commonalities and as well ran concurrently with the 20th century psychology of psychoanalytic and Gestalt movements, however it was different from Gestalt psychologists' mental philosophy in significant ways. Psychologists who had major influences in it were Edward Lee Thorndike, John B. atson, they opposed method of introspective and advocated to use of experimental methods: Ivan Pavlov, investigated classical conditioning, but he was not to the idea of behaviorists or behaviorism: B.F. Skinner, he did his research on operant conditioning.

During second half of the 20th century, it was widely eclipsed that behaviorism was due to cognitive revolution. Even though behaviorism as well as cognitive schools of psychological thought tends to disagree in terms of theory, they have gone a head to compliment one another within applications of practical therapeutic, for example, cognitive-behavioral therapy has shown utility in treating some…

security behavior, a concept that touches on the behavior of consumers in regard to information technology systems is an important one to the global IT industry. Johnston and Warkentin (2010) for instance studied the influence of elements of fear appeal on the level of compliance of various end-users with the specific recommendations aimed at enacting specific individual IT security actions towards threat investigation. The authors performed an in-depth examination that yielded into the development as well as testing of a conceptual framework that represents an infusion of the concept of technology adoption and the theories of fear appeal. In this paper we investigate the concept of information security behaviors with a specific focus on consumer behavior and its related theories.

Consumer behavior

Extant literature has been dedicated to the concept of consumer behavior. The human information behavior has for a long time been studied under different environments and circumstances. Consumer…

People are aware of the impact that major stressful events can have on a person's life. In general, society is solicitous of people undergoing major stressors like major illness, divorce, or a death in the family. However, it is interesting to note that, for the individual, small stressors can actually be more significant than major stressors. For example, a friend of mine was fired from her job the day before 9-11. The day of 9-11, when everyone else was so stressed out about the idea of a terrorist attack, she was far more worried about the source of her next paycheck. While she realized, intellectually, that the national impact of 9-11 was certainly greater than the national impact of her being fired, in her life she experienced the loss of her job as a more stressful event. In fact, the most stressful part of 9-11 was that, with its resultant…

The behavior conditioning arises from the punishment not being liked, and therefore the behavior is avoided.

The last form of reinforcement, extinction, occurs when a reaction to a certain behavior is denied and removed, and resultantly the unwanted behavior is decreased, if not terminated. An example of extinction reinforcement includes a child who hides behind furniture in an attempt to gain attention - which is a response that has previously been positively reinforced. hen the child's attention-seeking actions are subsequently ignored, the behavior decreases, if not stops.

Research indicates positive reinforcement is the most powerful of the reinforcement paradigms (Heffner). Other methods of operant conditioning, such as punishment, can potentially summon additional negative responses such as anger and resentment. In situations of positive reinforcement, both parties involved focus on the positive aspects of the experience, which adds to the fulfillment of the desired behavior.

Examples of reinforcement principles from my…

Learning and Cognition

Definition of Learning

Merriam-Webster defines learning as "knowledge or skill acquired by instruction or study; modification of a behavioral tendency by experience (as exposure to conditioning)" (Merriam-Webster, 2011). Other experts defines learning as a process, one that leads to behavioral change or potential behavior change that is relatively permanent. That is, as people learn, his or her learning alters the way one perceives the environment, the way he or she interprets incoming stimuli, and therefore, the way one interacts or behaves (Introduction to Learning Theory, 2004). According to Cherry (2011), learning is a permanent change in behavior that is the result of experience. The common characteristic that all these definitions share is their identification of a behavioral component as part of the process of learning. In other words, for learning to occur, a change in behavior takes place.

The ole of Behavior

For the early part of…

.F. Skinner, a behavioral learning theorist, states that behaviors are learned and learning is represented by a permanent change in behavior. The components of this theory are reinforcers -- good or bad. Most people think of reinforcers as rewards for good behavior. There are actually two types of reinforcers -- positive and negative. Positive reinforcers are when a stimulus is given, and negative reinforcers are when a stimulus is taken away. However, negative reinforcers are different than punishments. Punishing is when either taking away a positive reinforcer or adding a negative reinforcer.

He also says that changes in behavior are the result of an individual's response to events, or stimuli, in the environment. When a particular Stimulus-Response pattern is reinforced, the individual is conditioned to respond. This pattern is known as Operant Conditioning, and the distinct characteristic of this is relative to previous forms of behaviorism, when the organism can…

Similarly, a married man, though he has a wife, can feel a sense of lack sexually. This sense of lack can lead him to rape a female subordinate at work.

Describe the core behavioral characteristics of the criminal psychopath. Name and describe any five instruments used to measure psychopathy. What is the difference between criminal psychopathy and mental disorder?

a. The core characteristics of the criminal psychopath are a lack of empathy, egocentricity, lack of shame or remorse, and tendency for lying and manipulation

b. The Hare Psychopathy Checklist is a psycho-diagnostic tool used in tandem with the broader PCL-R inventory to measure a person's psychopathic profile.

The Psychopathic Personality Inventory is a self-report survey used to comprehensively index personality traits without explicitly referring to anti-social or criminal behaviors themselves.

The Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory measures various components of person's personality with a self-report inventory. Each component is measured by…

Behaviorism

Compare and contrast 2 different behavioral theories/models of your choice.

Behaviorism vs. Cognitive Behavior Therapy (CBT)

The father of behaviorism is widely acknowledged to be B.F. Skinner. Skinner attempted to develop an 'experimental' approach to human psychology, and based many of his foundational theories upon experiments with rats rather than humans. Skinner believed that operant conditioning was the best way to motivate individuals to adopt new behaviors, or to extinguish existing behavior patterns. "When a particular Stimulus-esponse (S-) pattern is reinforced (rewarded), the individual is conditioned to respond" (Operant conditioning, 2012, Instructional Design). The focus of Skinner was upon externalities, rather than upon internal motivations of behavior.

For example, when dealing with someone who was a compulsive over-eater, rather than focusing on the psychological reasons the person felt compelled to overeat, Skinner instead would focus upon creating an environment that would reward healthy choices (such as buying a new…

This, in effect, links learning to memory. Memory is likened to the idea of cognitive maps, or at least the way cognitive maps operate in the mind of the individual. Memory is described as processing information through encoding (getting information and memory), storage (retaining information over time), and retrieval (taking information out of storage) (219). These processes that the individual goes through to create and retain memory is highly related to the theories of learning enumerated earlier: classical conditioning posits that stimuli (a memory of an event) is needed to elicit a particular behavior from the individual; operant conditioning described learning as the consequences in behavior of the person, linked also to the memory of an event and its consequences; and lastly, cognitive maps, which aptly describes how an individual learns through memories mapped out and retain in his/her mind.

orks Cited

Santrock,…

associationism remains not only one of the earliest theories of leaning but it also comes across as being one of the most enduring. Basically, associationism holds that association of ideas can be used to explain mental processes. In this text, I will mainly concern myself with associationism as a learning theory. In so doing, I will highlight the main principles associated with the theory while making a mention of three theorists whose contribution towards the development of this theory as we know it today cannot be overstated. Further, this discussion will invoke associationism in explaining mental processes associated learning. I will also attempt to explain how associationism utilizes prior experience in explaining how learning in individuals takes place. Also, I will seek to explain how permanent change in behavior comes about by depicting the application of the theory. Lastly, a number of settings in which learning takes place will be…

Moral Disengagement

Within the society today there are different people with their own different behaviors. Some might turn out to be meaningful people but others end up being a bother to the society. This paper will look out moral disengagement in the society.it will explain using behavioral theories why a person is more likely to drop out of the society to become a terrorist as opposed to dropping out to become a hermit or monk.it will also focus on Albert Bandura's model of moral disengagement and explain some techniques that might be used to justify the use of violence by individuals.

Behavioral theories

Observing the society today more people are getting involved in terrorist behavior as opposed to becoming monks or hermits. The likely hood of an individual becoming a terrorist is high compared to the same individual becoming a monk or hermit. This can be explained using behavioral theories.…

assist an adolescent to increase positive affiliations and, therefore, turn away from delinquent behavior. Compare and contrast these two strategies and explain why you selected each, with particular emphasis on how each would help an adolescent become a productive citizen.

One strategy to elicit positive behaviors from adolescents is that of operant conditioning, or rewarding good behavior and punishing bad behavior (Bartol & Bartol 201: 89). arents often deploy this strategy because it seems both obvious and instinctive -- 'grounding' a misbehaving student, for example, while rewarding good grades with money, a trip, or a promised car. However, a more difficult yet ultimately rewarding strategy may be to strive to cultivate positive attachments for the adolescent, and foster good relationships between the parent and child through engaging in mutually supportive activities (such as having dinner together on a regular basis). Attachment theory suggests that delinquency is not caused so much…

Question 1

All the early pioneers of behaviorism including Watson were important to the development of psychology as a social science (Moore, 2011). In fact, Watson deserves the most credit for being the first person to propose behaviorism as a science, using the tools of the scientific method to measure human behavior. However, human behavior is remarkably complex and Watson’s early research failed to capture the nuances of human cognitive-behavioral responses. Pavlov built upon Watson’s foundation, and is probably the most famous of all the pioneering behaviorists. Pavlov’s famous dog experiments have become part of the common vernacular (Clark, 2004). Like Pavlov, B.F. Skinner focused on operant conditioning. However, Skinner took the entire concept of conditioning a step further by showing how stimuli could be manipulated to manipulate responses. Pavlov had yet to break free from the purely mechanistic methods of measuring human behavior. Skinner used behavioral research to show…

Diversity and Psychology

There were two major developments that influenced the field of psychology and the professions' views regarding multicultural competence, emphasized in 2003. The American Psychological Associations' 2002 Ethical Principles and Code of Conduct and the Guidelines on Multicultural Education, Training, Research, Practice and Organizational Change for Psychologists published in 2003 both stressed the importance of moving from a mono-cultural school of thought to a multicultural perspective and that these 'new rules' acknowledge an appreciation of differences as well as an "understanding of the inherent ambiguity and complexity in psychological practice (Pack-rown & Williams, 2003; Manesse, Saito, & Rodolfa, 2004). Knapp and VandeCreek (2003) said of these new guidelines that they articulate a need for greater sensitivity regarding linguistic and cultural minorities. The development of the new Code of Ethics and the APA's positioning were purported to be in response to a long awaited recognition of the need for…

psychological work of John B. atson, B.F. Skinner, and Edward C. Tolman, along with the impacts that these three had on society. This paper will also compare and contrast these three iconic psychologists.

Edward C. Tolman is said by author Bernard J. Baars to have been the "…only major figure" in the emerging field of behaviorism "…who advocated the possibility of mental representation" (Baars, 1986, p. 61). Baars writes that more than any other behaviorist Tolman "anticipated…the cognitive point-of-view… [and] thought it necessary to postulate events other than stimuli and responses" (61). Tolman has made significant contributions to psychology, including: a) the use of cognitive maps in rats; b) the "latent learning" he pioneered though the use of rats; c) the concept of "intervening variables"; and d) the discovery that rats don't just learn their movements "…for rewards" but rather they also learn when no rewards are given, backing up…

This was different from the Pavlovian theory since the rat's response was not a respondent behavior but an operant behavior.

Skinner does not reject that the subjects learn the behavior. In Skinner's box, rats learn that pressing the bar gets them food. However, this is different from Pavlov's classical conditioning where the dog salivates for food by associating the stimuli (the bell, the sight of food, or the sound of the attendant) with the actual eating. Skinner's operant conditioning occurs because rats are rewarded for pressing the bar. In Skinner's experiment, there is no stimulus associated with the bar in the box. The rat's behavior is spontaneous. By spontaneously pressing the bar and getting the food, however, the rat learns the consequences of it. In this experiment, the consequence is the delivery of food which serves as reinforcement. In Pavlov's theory, the external environment exerts little influence on the reflexive…