How Does Behavior Modification Work?

People are a bit like Skinner's rats. For example, it's possible to train people to play games on computers just like Skinner could teach rats to push a lever to get food,

When you show someone how to move the mouse, click on an icon, and scroll down the page that has opened, you have modified their behavior. If the icon they click on takes them to a page with a joke the humor is the reinforcement for the sequence of mouse clicks, scrolls, and reading the joke.

If you show them how to use the mouse to play a game the fun of playing the game is the reinforcement of the game playing behavior. Psychologists know that the frequency and the intensity of the reward "strengthen the response."

Game makers know that they can design the games in ways that are increasingly difficult. By playing the game well, you can earn points and gain entry to another more advanced level of the game. The points are the reinforcement for your game playing behavior. Entrance to the more advanced level is your reward (or reinforcement) for mastering a particular set of skills.

The makers of Mario Brothers knew what they were doing. Here's a link to another game that makes the point very well. I suggest you right click on it and open it in another browser. (Is that shaping your behavior?)

Courtesy of Sheryl McCoy at http://samccoy-n2teaching.blogspot.com/2008_08_01_archive.html

People who talk about Behavior Modification are usually thinking about the theory B.F. Skinner researched and developed. If you've taken an Introduction to Psychology course, you're likely to have read or heard about how Skinner used rats and pigeons in his experiments. He showed us that he could teach a rat in a cage to press a bar and he could teach pigeon in a similar cage to use it's beak to peck at a target.

Skinner rewarded the rat and the pigeon for doing behaviors that brought them closer to the desired behavior. In other words, he shaped their behavior just like kids shape each other behavior when they play the game "hot and cold." Skinner shaped behavior.

In order to shape behavior, Skinner had to increase some behaviors and decrease other behaviors. He reinforced behaviors he wanted to increase and he extinguished behaviors he wanted to eliminate.

Skinner explained how to do this by demonstrating how positive reinforcement and negative reinforcement could be used together so that the desirable behaviors would flow in a sequence, something called "chaining."

B.F. Skinner used positive reinforcement, negative reinforcement, and punishment to increase wanted behaviors and decrease unwanted behaviors. He showed us that we train animals and people how to string desired behaviors together to get complex results, like dancing, driving a car, or playing computer games.

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Positive reinforcement is giving someone something as a reward for behaving in a desirable way. If you want your dog to sit, you show the dog how to sit and reward it when it sits. This seems simple enough. But there are a few tricks to you need to do so the rewards work. (I'll tell you more about that later.)

Positive reinforcement is also giving your child a reward in order to increase how often she puts her toys away. There's a few tricks to that too. I suggest you learn what negative reinforcement is before you learn the those.

If you want to use behavior modification to increase the amount of money you earn, you may need to know about both positive and negative reinforcement. In other words, you'll want to know what to do to impress your boss and what not to do so that your boss keeps thinking about your positively.

Sometimes, the best reinforcements are those that are naturally rewarding, like food is to a dog. If you can figure out what's naturally rewarding to your boss, you're well on your way to knowing how to shape your boss' behavior. For your boss, food might not be the best reward. But, getting your work done on time might!

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Negative reinforcement is removing something as a reward for a behavior you want to encourage. You read that right. Some types of behavior are repeated when something is removed.

Here's a tip. When you think about reinforcement, the goal is to increase a behavior. Positive Reinforcement increases a behavior by giving something for the behavior as shown in the illustration.

Negative Reinforcement increases behavior by removing something as a reward for the behavior. Once again, refer to the illustration for the example.

If you want a dog to sit next to you, pet the dog when it does. If you want a dog to be calm, be quiet. In the first example, petting a dog is positive reinforcement. In the second example, reducing the noise is negative reinforcement.

Time out works for children (and adults) because it is a negative reinforcement for becoming calm. Time out removes distractions.

Photo courtesy www.abacon.com

Technically speaking punishment and negative reinforcement are not the same thing. Here's why.

Punishment decreases behavior. Reinforcement increases behavior.

Sending a child away from the table without desert may work as a form of punishment for playing with her food during meal time. It is a form of negative punishment because it removes something (desert) from the environment as a way of decreasing the behavior.

Having the child stay at the table without desert while others have their desert is a form of punishment too. It i a form of positive punishment because it adds something (watching others eat desert) as a way of decreasing the behavior.

Punishment is not spanking or name calling. Punishment is removing or adding something to reduce behavior. Punishment may be sternly telling a child that the child will be put in time out if a behavior she doesn't come to the table on time, or playing with her food during the meal.

Just remember, the child first needs to know what a time out is. You'll need to teach that to the child first before simply telling the child she needs to take a time out will work.

Notice the girl watching the dog in time out. Do you think she knows what time out is?

Photo courtesy of www.p.ondero.us.