Basic Notes On Behavior Modification

From Educational Psychology by Anita Woolfolk, 10th Edition, 2007, Pearson

Classical Conditioning

Classical conditioning focuses on the learning of involuntary emotional or physiological responses such as fear, increased muscle tension, salivation, or sweating, sometimes called respondents because they are automatic responses to stimuli.

• Unconditioned stimulus elicits unconditioned response. Introduction of neutral stimulus in situation renders conditioned response to now conditioned response. i.e. Pavlov: Dog salivates at sound of bell that has been associated with presentation of food.
• Extinction: Removal of unconditioned stimulus leads to the conditioned response being extinguished.

Operant conditioning

People actively "operate" on their environment to produce different kinds of consequences.

• Reinforcement: consequence that strengthens behavior it follows
  - Positive reinforcement: desired antecedent (behavior) is followed by addition of desired stimulus ie praise
  - Negative reinforcement: desired antecedent (behavior) is followed by subtraction of undesired stimulus ie cessation of nagging or time out
• Reinforcement schedules:
  - Continuous: reinforced for every incident of desired behavior. Suggested for beginning of newb-mod, but tapered to intermittent as the behavior is mastered.
  - Intermittent/ Interval: based on the amount of time passed
  - Intermittent/ Ratio: based on the consistency of the behavior
• Extinction: Extended delay or removal of reinforcement leads to the antecedent being extinguished, unless the behavior is associated with intrinsic motivation.

Premack Principle

A high frequency behavior (a preferred ativity) can be an effective reinforcer for a low-frequency behavior (a less preferred activity" "First do what I want you to do, then you may do what you want to do."

Bandura's Identification of 3 Forms of Reinforcement

• Direct reinforcement ie praise
• Vicarious reinforcement: the observer sees others reinforced for a particular behavior, then increases his own production of such behavior
• Self-reinforcement: individual controls own reinforcers, ie intrinsic motivation

Cognitive Behavior Modification

• Self instruction

1. An adult models while talking aloud (cognitive modeling)
2. The child performs the same task under the direction of the model's instruction (overt, external guidance)
3. The child performs the task while instruction himself aloud (overt, self guidance)
4. The child whispers the instructions to himself as he goes through the task (faded, overt self-guidance)
5. The child performs the task while guiding his performance via private speech (covert self instruction)

• Dialogue and interaction between teacher and student, modeling, guided discovery, motivational strategies, fedback, careful matching of the task with the student's developmental level, and other principles of good teaching. The student is even involved in the designing of the program.

Motivation

• Intrinsic: natural tendency to seek out and conquer challenges as we pursue personal interests and exercise capabilities; no need for incentive or punishments, the activity itself is rewarding
• Extrinsic: performing behavior for external reinforcement

Attribution Theory of successes and failures

• Locus of cause: internal/external, related to self esteem, agency, sense of responsibility
• Stability: likelihood of cause to stay the same or change, related to expectations of future
• Controllability: whether the person can control the cause, related to emotions ie pride, gratitude, anger, shame