An Instructional Guide using Operant Conditioning - Case Study Example

Skinner: Developing an Instructional Guide using Operant Conditioning to Teach room Skills. Kimberley Mayne Old Dominion IntroductionSkinner’s Approach B.F Skinner (1968) presented a theory of learning that is known as operant conditioning. It is based on the fact that behavior is a function of its consequence. Behavior is strengthened or weakened, shaped or modified according to the response it gets. Following are some key terms used by skinner and what they mean: Reinforcement is something that is added to or subtracted from the environment as a result of response shown by the subject. If something added to the environment increases or decreases the likelihood of a behavior, it is said to be a positive reinforcement, e.g., a candy. If something aversive is removed from the environment to reinforce a behavior, it is said to be negative reinforcement. For example, removal of hot air source from an uncomfortably warm room. Punishment is defined as some unpleasant change in the environment followed by undesired behavior of a subject. For example, making a child write two extra pages for not doing homework. Skinner did not advocate the use of punishment. He claimed that it was not a very effective method. Discriminative Stimulus is the stimulus in presence of which a response occurs. If a child is given positive reinforcement after one stimulus and not given positive reinforcement after another, the child will have to learn to differentiate between the two stimuli. This is how he recognizes differential stimulus. Example: If a man in a suit always gives a beggar a coin, men in suits will become the discriminative stimulus and the beggar will always run to them. If a man in casual dress never gives anything to a beggar the beggar will not bother to run after men dressed casually because the dress has become a discriminative stimulus that is not followed by reinforcement. Shaping: As cited in Uiuc (2001), according to Wolfgang (2001), shaping behavior is an aspect of analysis of behavior which slowly leads the subject to produce target behavior. In shaping the behavior is gradually toned to obtain target behavior stepwise in a planned an organized way. Example: a child who doesn’t do home work at all can first be reinforced on just writing his name on the sheet, then on solving any one sum of his choice, then five and gradually the whole assignment. Shaping can be achieved by different schedules of reinforcement. The stimuli must be altered gradually as the child covers the milestones in achieving target behavior. Current Study Learning Situation: Classroom Age: 5-6 years. Target Behavior For this instructional guide the target is to achieve appropriate basic class room skills. Basic class room skills Children are expected to learn basic class room skills through this instructional guide which include; asking permission to enter and leave the room, raising hand to ask a question, feeling responsible for the room’s appearance, sitting silently while being instructed and settling to work quickly. Reinforcement Positive Reinforcement at this age level is usually simple. Children at this age are affected by praise a lot. It is the best source of extrinsic motivation for a child of this age group since it enhances the child’s self esteem. Praise can be verbal, in form of a star or a ‘good’ comment, or it may even be in form of an announcement of the performed behavior followed by applause in the class. An intrinsic motivation may be an extra chance to make jigsaw puzzles for a child who enjoys making them and draws a sense of satisfaction on completing jigsaw puzzles. Negative Reinforcement in this case can be one day without any ‘appropriate-behavior’ lectures from the teacher. If the child shows good class room skills, the teacher will not lecture the child that day about what is appropriate in class and what is not. The child will be reinforced by removal of the lectures and will repeat the behavior to get rid of the lecture again and again. Procedure The teacher will orally communicate these skills to the class first. Then a track of responses will be kept. It need not be a written record, but the teacher must make sure that no child’s response is going unnoticed. This is best suited for classes with less total strength. Whenever a child shows a desired behavior he or she must be positively and negatively reinforced. Occasionally ignoring the undesired behavior is also advisable since it automatically reduces the chances of the behavior being repeated. Following are the details to be used while applying this plan: 1) Type of reinforcement Positive reinforcement and Negative reinforcement will be used in this guide. Praising the child (extrinsic) and giving extra 10 minutes on the jigsaw puzzle that the child enjoys (intrinsic) will be used as positive reinforcement and being spared one day from the daily boring ‘appropriate-behavior’ lecture will serve as negative reinforcement. Praise has been chosen because it is very effective in behavior modification for this age group (Woods, 2010). The intrinsic motivational positive reinforcement has been chosen considering the interest of the child and the choice of negative reinforcement has been made on basis of the belief that mostly children don’t like long and boring lectures on what behavior is appropriate and what is not. They don’t want to be told what to do. Substitution Principle must be used to maintain the behavior. It means that the teacher should replace the reinforcement when she feels that the previous reinforcement is no longer meaningful. 2) Shaping Focus of target behavior must be programmed according to following stepwise sequence of skill difficulty level (as suggested by Skinner): Sequence of behaviors according to difficulty level: Listening quietly when being spoken to (sitting quietly -> avoiding unnecessary talk in class room -> Not interrupt when two people are talking -> Pay attention and sit quietly while being spoken to). 3) Differential Reinforcement In addition to acquiring the skills, the students must also be taught the accuracy of situation to exhibit them. The teacher must reinforce only the situational appropriate skill and ignore the inappropriate ones. For example, if a child raises hand to ask something during briefing when he was actually required to sit silently and listen, the behavior must be ignored; or if a child settles down to work quickly during the lunch time, his performance must not be acknowledged. 4) Schedules of Reinforcement Variable reinforcement schedule is most feasible for this age group. In a variable reinforcement schedule, the desired behavior is reinforced after a different number of desired responses each time. It is effective in this case since it requires less effort to create links between behavior and response and yet yields relatively consistent and permanent responses. It is also easy to apply. The teacher can reinforce the behavior after a different number of desired responses each time so the behavior remains consistent. 5) Discriminative Stimuli The students must learn to differentiate between stimuli so that an appropriate and stimulus specific response is yielded. For example, the teacher can present the child with the stimulus of study period and reinforce only the responses appropriate for that, i.e sitting silently, raising hand etc and the stimulus of play time can be presented to reinforce responses like asking permission to leave and enter the room or feeling responsible for how the class looks like. The children will associate responses with the appropriate stimuli. They will use certain behaviors in study time and certain other behaviors in play time. And will not associate any reinforcement with the inappropriate ones. This discrimination is a must to teach the appropriateness of usage of the behavior. 6) Modification for Diverse Subjects The guide can be altered if the teacher feels that it is not appropriate for the subjects. For example the reinforcers must be motivating for the child so the teacher can chose those according to the children. If there is a group of special needs children, the teacher might adjust the reinforcements and stimuli accordingly. The child must be observed before devising a plan. The positive intrinsic reinforcement in this case for example was jigsaw puzzle making but it may vary from case to case. Article Review A related article by Huitt (1997), titled ‘An introduction to operant (instrumental) conditioning.’ was reviewed. The article states some useful principles about application of operant conditioning. The article explains Skinnerian approach as being R->S approach, i.e. an approach in which what happens after the response actually determines the future behavior. The successive approximation principle is said to be useful for learning new behavior. Agreeing with this and the principle of shaping, In the current guide, since the class room skills are new to the children, the difficulty level is accordingly increased stepwise. In this article, the schedules of reinforcement and what can be achieved through them are illustrated in an easy to understand, graphical form. The variable reinforcement principle is also discussed in the article. It helps in acquiring and maintaining new behavior. In this case, the behavior is meant to be kept, so variable schedule has been devised to yield a permanency in responses. This schedule has least chances of extinction of response. Discriminative principle has been stressed in the article which has also been employed in this guide so that the students not only learn the skills but also learn appropriate usage of the skills. The article states the usage of negative reinforcement, which has also been utilized in this guide. On the whole, the article is very helpful in concept clarification and in developing such guides. References Huitt, W., & Hummel, J. (1997). An introduction to operant (instrumental) conditioning. Educational Psychology Interactive. Valdosta, GA: Valdosta State University. Retrieved [July 7th 2010] from: http://www.edpsycinteractive.org/topics/behsys/operant.html Uiuc (2001). Goal of shaping Behavior. Retrieved [July 7th 2010] from: http://wik.ed.uiuc.edu/index.php/Shaping_behavior Woods, Y (2010). How to give age appropriate chores to a 5 year old. Retrieved [July 20th 2010] from: http://www.howtodothings.com/family-relationships/how-to-give-age-appropriate-chores-to your-5-year-old Operant Conditioning Essay Rubric - Mayne 1) Identification and specification of the behavior and outline of sequence of behaviors: (20 pts.) Well-defined and appropriate explanation of complex behavior. Sequence of behaviors does not follow that which Skinner suggested. 15/20 I have added a Skinnerian sequence. 2) Identification and choice of reinforces / Use and explanation of basic reinforcement procedures: (20 pts.) You provide some clear examples of reinforcers, while others are inaccurate. Explanation of basic reinforcement procedures is inaccurate. 15/20 I have changed that. 3) Use of procedures (differential reinforcers, discriminative stimuli, shaping, reinforcement. schedules) for developing complex behavior: (20 pts.) Your explanation of shaping is incomplete. Essential to operant conditioning is the use of reinforcement schedules during shaping. This is missing. 13/20 I have added about reinforcement schedules to shaping. 4) Explanation and use of discriminative stimuli: (2 explained examples) (20 pts.) It is not clear that you understand the notion of discriminative stimuli. 13/20 I have fixed this problem now with new examples which are correct according to the internet. 5) Outside article and critique (20 points) Explanation of article needs to be more detailed, and your critique is unclear. 13/20 I have revised it with a critical approach Kim, It is clear that you worked hard on this essay, but you seem to misunderstand much of Skinner’s theory. Please revisit the chapter, and study class notes so that you can perform better on the exam. Also, please use APA format with the remaining essays. You may revise this essay to achieve a better grade if you desire. 69/100 Jim Read More