The schedule of reinforcement has many variables, as well as many ways behavior is reinforced. In order to completely create reinforcement schedule the person must understand the behavior that they wish to change. In my case, the behavior that I wish to change is eating habits. In this paper, I will explore the different schedules of reinforcement and how each would work towards changing my behavior, as well as cause weight loss. My eating habits are very easy to explain, I eat when I am hungry which is not very often. This causes my body to store whatever nutrients I do take in, as well as any fat. This way of eating, in addition to medications I have and am taking make it extremely hard to lose any weight.
The first reinforcement schedule to explore is continuous interval reinforcement. The way this is done is by strengthening the behavior by rewards each time it occurs (Feldman, 2011). As Skinner hypothesized the rapid depletion of rewards, in Skinner’s case food pellets, can and should be taken for granted (Morgan, 2010). In my case, a continuous reinforcement of eating healthily would not be ideal because the reinforcement desired is weight loss. With continuously losing weight comes many health problems, especially if the drop is brisk. Another problem with continuously strengthening that behavior is the rewards themselves begin to mean little.
The next reinforcement schedule the Skinner developed is the partial reinforcement schedule, meaning behavior is strengthened with a reward only part of the time (Feldman, 2011). The partial schedule of reinforcement is further divided into four different categories, the fixed ratio, variable ratio, fixed interval, and variable interval. The fixed ratio schedule is where after...
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...fore I have taken the steps outlined in this essay and made a change in my behavior by joining Weight Watchers.
The final plus to weight loss is being able to fit into a wedding dress. At the current time, I am unable to fit into the dress I want, as they do not make a size big enough to fit all of me. By following the fixed ratio and variable interval schedules of reinforcement I will be able to lose the weight in order to stay healthy and fit into my dress.
Works Cited
Feldman, R. (2011). Operant Conditioning. In Essentials of Understanding Psychology (9th, pp. 179-182). New York, New York: McGraw Hill Companies, Inc.
Freedman, D. H. (2011). How to fix the obesity crisis. (Cover story). Scientific American, 304(2), 40-47.
Morgan, D. L. (2010). SCHEDULES OF REINFORCEMENT AT 50: A RETROSPECTIVE APPRECIATION. Psychological Record, 60(1), 151-172.
“…So many people want to know about diets because so many people are going to try them, but they don’t work … some weight will be lost temporarily.” Harvey Diamond, author, was speaking. “But let me ask you something – do you want to be healthy temporarily? No. But you want to lose weight temporarily. They’re – They have failures built right into them.”
Reinforcement contingencies change the way in which the animal responds,” (Slater 10-11).
According to Skinner’s theories, “Reinforcement does not strengthen the response instance that produces the reinforcer.” Rather, reinforcement can increase the likelihood that a comparable response may occur within the future. For one bottom-line, “behavior is not caused by something that has not yet happened.” Similar to operant conditioning, “the emission of a response reflects past conditioning, so the response occurs because similar responses were reinforced earlier, not because it will be reinforced later.” Skinner agreed that the “initial high response rate seen in extinction sessions exemplified this important aspect of operant conditioning” (Iversen, 1992, pp. 1325-1327). Theoretically, Skinner identified two aspects of reinforcement, one is the “pleasing effect of reinforcing stimuli, the other is their strengthening action.” Furthermore, Skinner emphasized that “feeling pleased by an event does not necessarily make a person want to repeat the respons...
Most of the things we daily perform are due to habits. Experts in psychology have suggested several theories to explain the process in which humans and animals shape such habits. Among those theories are classical conditioning, operant conditioning, and observational learning. As humans it is almost inevitable to fall into bad habits, either consciously or unconsciously. Fortunately science has demonstrated that we can change or modifying unwanted behaviors through conditioning, (Whitbourne, 2012). Operational conditioning underlines how a behavior is strengthened or weakened by the use of rewards or punishments; shaping, modeling, and extinction are some of the techniques utilized to achieve these behavioral alterations, (Cherry, n.d.). Key points to consider for effective behavior modification are: clear identification of behavior to change, the use self-control, and punishments or reinforcements, (Cherry, n.d.; Selig, 2012). This paper shows how operant conditioning has been effective modifying behaviors either by rewards, extinction, or shaping.
Water is extremely important and essential to our health. In this experiment, an A-B-A-B design will be used to determine the effects of positive reinforcement on daily water consumption. It is expected that this treatment will increase daily water intake when combined with a positive reinforcer. Positive reinforcement occurs when a behavior is followed immediately by a stimulus that increases the future frequency of the behavior in similar conditions. The data for this experiment was recorded daily for a span of 4 weeks, following the rules for a reversal A-B-A-B design. The materials used in this experiment included an Apple iPhone to record the gold stars received for each day, 8 ounce Dixie plastic cups and 16 ounce Poland Spring water bottles. The participant was a male college student 18 years of age. The second week of procedure began the treatment. An average daily goal was set to 80 ounces per day. The third week of the procedure repeated the baseline treatment from week one. The data was recorded for that week the same with no reinforcement. The fourth and final week repeated week 2 of the positive reinforcement treatment. Gold stars were given accordingly if the participant achieved his daily goal of 80 ounces per day.
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.
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).
The behavior that I have chosen to modify is my exercising behavior. As a college student, exercise is something that I don’t get enough time to do. I chose to modify this behavior because I want to exercise more to improve my health and be fitter. Exercise is an important part of life, it is a stress reliever and stimulates brain cell development. Psychologist’s throughout the years have suggested that most of the things we do every day are due to habits. Various theories have been proposed to justify the process in which animals and humans change behaviors or habits. Among the theories are operant and classical conditioning. As human beings it is unavoidable to fall into habits either unconsciously or consciously, but science has revealed
When challenging behaviors occur, teachers focus on completing the task at hand. If the difficult behaviors continue, teachers may rearrange the schedule with a preferred activity as the reward for task completion. For important tasks that will create challenges, teachers often give a visual schedule reminder during a preferred task. Praise and positive reinforcement for following the schedule, completing tasks and successfully transitioning to other activities is very helpful. Some teachers find it is helpful to use a timer to help children stay focused and transition to new
...e completely healthy attempting to avoid my punishment and then there were days where I ultimately caved and failed at eating well. On those days, I followed the rules I set in place and worked out as I said I would that evening. Part of the time my boyfriend would inevitably cause me to falter by cooking a nice fattening meal, but I don’t blame him at all considering it was up to me to make the decision to refrain from eating it. I probably didn’t do as well as I could have around lunch time or dinner but I’m glad at the fact that I did keep away from sweets and snacks throughout the entire week. I was really intrigued with getting good results for this project so I tried my hardest to actually follow the program set. Even if I don’t keep with this change after the project it’s very comforting to know I CAN eat healthy when I want and I CAN workout if I need too.
A sad fact in American society is that thousands of people search for the elusive dream of being thin. On any given day, one finds neighbors, friends, and relatives on some kind of diet. Dieters assume various disguises, but the noteworthy ones are the "bandwagoneer," the "promiser" and the "lethal loser."
Ferseter (2002). Schedules of Reinforcement with Skinner, Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior, 77, 303-311. Summary
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.
Also, we can use the schedules reinforcement into the teaching. It is an agreement or set of rules that a teacher will follow when delivering reinforcers. Behaviorists found that different schedules of reinforcement had different influences on the speed of learning and on extinction. These schedules include Continuous Reinforcement and Intermittent Reinforcement. However, it is more effective to use the Intermittent Reinforcement
While replacing food rich in fat and carbohydrates with protein, John must also increase his physical activities. In other words, he must shift from a sedentary lifestyle to an active one. However, this does not require him to make the drastic change. In fact, one study emphasizes that an abrupt shift to an active lifestyle may come as a shock for those trying to lose weight, which can discourage them from sustaining an active lifestyle in the long run because they might find the change tiring or one that requires too much effort (Simpson, Shaw and McNamara 46). Thus, the change must be gradual. The body as well as the mind must be allowed to adjust. For example, John may start by including longer walking time in his daily routine. From a mere twenty minutes of walking per day, he may increase it to twenty-five or thirty minutes, depending on his preference and endurance. He may also try to take short walks during breaks from office work. The whole point of increasing John’s physical activities is for him to burn more calories than in previous days. This is because regular calorie intake coupled with a sedentary lifestyle can increase body fat and, therefore, weight (Simpson, Shaw and McNamara