Today I am thinking about the wonderful behavioral community that provides support and maintains behavior on the part of behaviorists.
Here are just a few places:
The Association for Behavior Analysis International (ABAI) has a number of resources. An exciting new development is that their flagship journal, The Behavior Analyst, is now available on Pubmed! For a geek like me who likes to look up articles from anywhere there is a connected computer, this is great news. (Still, I love walking over to the library too!)
There is a page where you can find more information about local organizations from around the world. It has been wonderful during the past few years to see the discipline extend to other countries, and to see ABAI hold international conferences in a number of different cities around the world.
Closer to home, we find the Cambridge Center for Behavioral Studies. This is an excellent resource for students, researchers, and anyone with an interest in the area. Will there be a guest from the CCBS at our class soon? Stay tuned for exciting developments!
What sort of resources can you find? If you find one, send it along and I'll add it to the list.
May your day have more positive consequences for overall good than other types of consequences.
Wednesday, September 23, 2009
Tuesday, September 22, 2009
Shaping Delineated
The discussion today was great. The students did a really good job on it, and had some really nice insights into how this works in everyday behavior.
So, the principles involved in shaping are reinforcement and extinction: Reinforce the first approximation (any response that in any way resembles the final, target response), and then place that response on extinction. The extinction burst should result in a closer approximation (this is due to an increase in variability on the part of the organism), which should lead to the next approximation being reinforced.
Here is a fairly good video of a pigeon who has been "taught to read". You can see the feeder mechanism working at the side of the operant chamber, the cumulative recorder, and of course Skinner explaining intermittent reinforcement.
If you have any good videos that you think would be relevant, please send them along!
So, the principles involved in shaping are reinforcement and extinction: Reinforce the first approximation (any response that in any way resembles the final, target response), and then place that response on extinction. The extinction burst should result in a closer approximation (this is due to an increase in variability on the part of the organism), which should lead to the next approximation being reinforced.
Here is a fairly good video of a pigeon who has been "taught to read". You can see the feeder mechanism working at the side of the operant chamber, the cumulative recorder, and of course Skinner explaining intermittent reinforcement.
If you have any good videos that you think would be relevant, please send them along!
The First Step
The first step in any new adventure is an important one. As Lao Tzu is quoted as stating:"The journey of a thousand miles must being with a single step".
Currently, my students in the learning seminar are reading "Science and Human Behavior" by B. F. Skinner. What I love about this is that they get to discover his writings anew, and I get to refresh my reading and understanding of his work.
This week we are reading about shaping. Shaping involves changing some aspect of a behavior: The frequency, duration, or perhaps form of the response. Just as an artist weaves color into fabric, or a potter creates something out of a lump of clay, so too does any shaping process start with a step. That first response is reinforced, and then closer and closer approximations are reinforced until the final stage. At that final stage, we see what appears to be a new form, but it really only rests on the shoulders of what came before.
All of that being said, what comes before is just as important as what comes next.
Currently, my students in the learning seminar are reading "Science and Human Behavior" by B. F. Skinner. What I love about this is that they get to discover his writings anew, and I get to refresh my reading and understanding of his work.
This week we are reading about shaping. Shaping involves changing some aspect of a behavior: The frequency, duration, or perhaps form of the response. Just as an artist weaves color into fabric, or a potter creates something out of a lump of clay, so too does any shaping process start with a step. That first response is reinforced, and then closer and closer approximations are reinforced until the final stage. At that final stage, we see what appears to be a new form, but it really only rests on the shoulders of what came before.
All of that being said, what comes before is just as important as what comes next.
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