Outcomes vs. Action (Reward/Punishment)

Crowder Psy 100 Week 6 feedback

Reinforcements and Punishments

Often times students get confused on the concepts of reinforcements and punishment, as well as the term positive and negative as it relates to punishment.  Hopefully, I can help clarify it for you.

A REINFORCER is anything that INCREASES a desired behavior.  A PUNISHMENT is anything that DECREASES a desired behavior.

POSITIVE means you are adding something to a situation.  NEGATIVE means you are taking something away.  (Don't think of these in terms of good or bad, think of them in mathematical terms as in adding to, or subtracting from.)

When identifying operant conditioning, go through the following steps:
1. Is this trying to increase (reinforce) or decrease (punish) a behavior?
2. Is this adding something (positive) to the situation or taking something away (negative)?

Examples:
Let's say I wanted to increase my exercising frequency for the week.  Here are a few ways I might reinforce that:
Positive reinforcer (adding something that increases my frequency of working out) - buying new running shoes or workout gear.
Negative reinforcer (taking something unpleasant away that increases my frequency of working out) - if I work out 4 times a week, then I don't have to do a specific chore I dislike doing.

If I am trying to reduce my laziness, then I would use punishment in hopes of decreasing that behavior (being lazy).
Positive punishment (adding something that will decrease my laziness) - if I don't work out then I will have to add money to a friends Paypal account.
Negative punishment (taking something away that will decrease my laziness) - if I don't work out, then I don't get to watch my favorite tv show for the week.

Now, let's pretend I want to decrease the amount of junk food I consume.  Here are some ways I might do that using operant conditioning:
Positive punishment:  Every time I eat fast food, I have to do an extra mile of exercise.
Negative punishment: If I eat fast food, I have to give up my make up the next day.

These punishments and rewards happen to be related to task at hand, but keep in mind that reinforcers/punishments don't always have to be directly related.  Anything that increases a behavior is a reward... This is why they say sometimes when we give attention to poor behavior, we are actually rewarding the behavior we are trying to stop (in this case, the reinforcer is our attention).

Be mindful not to confuse rewards and punishment with outcomes.  The outcome of eating less fast food might be weight loss, but the punishment to get to the outcome is a deliberate act (such as giving up my make up the next day).

My Dog is Cuter than Pavlov's Dog - Behavior Modification

Over Christmas, my family got a puppy.  Our 5 year old named him Darth.  He's a golden-doodle (although if you ask my husband he is likely to tell you it's a golden - he has a complex about having a 'doodle').  Darth was about 9 weeks old when we got him.  For any of you that have potty trained kids or puppies, you know it is a fantastic review in classical and operant conditioning.

It only took Darth about 10 days to master the potty bell and sitting, and it may have happened sooner, but we did some traveling during that time.

Darth - 12 weeks old

Darth quickly learned to sit and I used shaping and operant conditioning to make that happen.  Initially, I shaped the behavior: rewarding small success to reach a big goal.  I would do this by saying "sit" and gently pushing his back down so he was in sitting position.  Once he got the hang of that, I would say "sit" and wait for him to sit on his own.  This wasn't always immediate, but that was okay, because that's what the learning process is all about.  Once he would eventually sit down, he would receive a treat/praise.  We practiced this for all of 10 minutes before he was consistently sitting on command.  Each time, being rewarded with a small treat and praise (a 1:1 fixed ratio schedule of reinforcement).  Now, since he has mastered this behavior, I reward him on a variable ratio schedule of reinforcement, sometimes giving him a treat for performing the behavior, sometimes not.  Even though he easily can master this behavior, it is important to occasionally reinforce the behavior so that extinction does not occur.

Darth - 12 weeks old

I was a bit intimidated by the potty training process, but felt it necessary to dive right in.  Darth was 9 weeks old when we got him and I wasn't sure he was even old enough to be potty trained.  But, I decided to give it a try, as I wanted to reduce the amount of accidents in the house.  This wasn't as much about me not wanting to clean up the accidents (although that was a big motivating factor), but it was about not wanting him to learn that accidents were acceptable.  It is difficult to break bad habits.  Darth picked up potty training surprisingly quickly ~ and that is probably due to being a really smart breed and I was very diligent about being consistent.  This is an excellent example of how nature (his breed) and nurture (the consistent environment I provided) work together in psychology.  Consistency is KEY when modifying behavior.  

I used both classical and operant conditioning for potty training.  The first few days, I would take Darth out about every hour.  I would put him on his leash, ring the potty bell myself (modeling), and then take him to the same spot in the yard and tell him "go potty".  I wanted him to make associations: the bell, the leash, the spot in the yard all leading up to the desired behavior of going potty outside.  

On day 2, I took Darth's paw and helped him ring the bell before we went outside.  He quickly picked this up.  Again, taking him to the same spot in the yard and telling him to "go potty".  Once he went potty, he would get praise and and immediate treat (a positive reinforcement).  In these early stages, it was important that the reinforcer was given immediately after the desired behavior.  

On day 3, I would put Darth's leash on and tell him to ring the bell.  I would wait for him to ring the bell on his own, with either his paw or his nose.  Sometimes he was quick to ring the bell, and sometimes it would take him a few moments where he was standing there waiting for me to open the door.  If it was taking too long, I would help him by nudging his face to make the bell ring.  We never went outside until there was some sort of interaction with the bell.  This early on, I wasn't even concerned if he were going potty once outside (although that was a great bonus and something to be rewarded).  I was more interested in him learning that the bell meant he wanted to go outside.  At this point, Darth was on a 1:1 fixed ratio schedule of reinforcement.  I eventually started laying off the treats, as just going outside was enough of a reward.  He rang that bell a lot!  Even though I knew he didn't have to potty, I continued to take him out every time he rang the bell, so as to reinforce the behavior. 

As Darth learned that the potty bell meant time to go outside, he rang that bell quite often (I think at this point, he was training me!).  After about a week of 1:1 rewards, I moved to only rewarding Darth when he rang the bell, went outside and went potty.  Now, if he rings the bell and goes outside to play, he doesn't get a treat.  He only gets treated when he goes potty.  

Darth is still a puppy, and has only had about 5 accidents in the house (not bad at all!).  My training method was to catch him doing good and rewarding that (similar how when you potty train a child, you sit them on the potty until they accidentally go and then you celebrate big time).  We were able to quickly, and successfully potty train without any punishment being used. 

I remember my Grandpa would rub his dogs nose in any accidents that occurred.  This was a form of punishment (more specifically a positive punishment: the addition of an unpleasant stimulus in hopes of reducing a behavior).  Punishment does have it's place and can be effective, however research shows that reinforcement is a much more effective form of behavior modification.  Here's why...

• Punishment doesn't teach what behaviors are appropriate.  It only teaches what behaviors are inappropriate.  
• Punishment that occurs after the fact often is ineffective as too much time has lapsed for the subject to associate the punishment with the undesirable behavior.  So, for the puppy that has an accident on the floor, and then an hour late the accident is discovered and has their nose rubbed in it, far too much time has gone on for the puppy to know what it is getting in trouble for.  This same argument applies to the "wait until your Dad gets home" speech parents sometimes give (which has an entire bag of reasons why that isn't a very good behavior modification method that I don't have time to write about here).  
• Punishment is often done out of anger or frustration, so it is easy to get carried away.
• Punishment can be scary ~ and we aren't able to learn effectively when we are scared for our safety.  

If you are able to read thought this post and understand the terminology, great job!  If not, make sure to go back to the text and review the behavior modification concepts.  

It's Expensive to Be Poor

If you find the Socioeconomic Status information interesting, I'd encourage you to look up some information on Ruby Payne.  She looks at poverty and helps offer an explanation of why poverty often continues across generations.  It's not just about money.  It's also about an attitude and a culture.

Below are some hidden rules that Payne points out:

As you can see, the outlook on money and the world is very different across SES.  When I read this graphic, I think of a lot of families I worked with during college.  I worked for the Division of Youth Services and most of the families I worked with were lower SES.  I couldn't understand why these families would have big screen tv's and their nails done, but didn't always have money to pay their electric bill.  Many times they would eat fast food, which is relatively expensive, and by the end of the pay cycle, there wasn't money left for even grocery staples.  These behaviors were right in line with the hidden rules Payne writes about.  

In lower SES situations, entertainment is highly valued (hence the electronics, eating out, and trips to the nail salon).  The belief is if you have it, you might as well spend it because it could disappear at any moment.  The focus was on the present, not on saving money for when the electric bill would come due.  Likely, someone was always in line to take their money (landlord, mechanic, bills, etc.).  

People are also highly valued in lower SES situations.  One article I read used the following example:  Lower SES families may find themselves being more okay paying $30 for a Halloween costume (translation: entertainment and pleasing a child) than $30 for a necessary textbook (less likely to value education or see how education can change their situation). 

I'm reminded of a student interaction I witnessed several years ago.  A school club was selling little trinkets to raise money for something.  A student I worked with had very little money and always seemed to be struggling to make ends meet.  When she came across this student club selling trinkets, she dug deep into her pocket, gathered her coins together and purchased an item.  I had mixed feelings: I was in awe of her generosity ~ she had very little herself, yet was willing to spend what she had to support a school club (putting people first).  I also recognized that she struggled to get daily needs met and was choosing to buy a key chain.  Again, I suspect someone was always in line to take her money (electric bill, school tuition, rent being due, etc.) so she followed the belief that if you have it, spend it.  

I am also reminded of the cost of being poor.  Ever wonder why despite social assistance programs, some families just aren't able to find their way out of poverty?  The truth is, it can be very expensive to be poor.  Here are a few examples:

• Housing may be older, therefore less efficient which leads to more expensive heating and electricity bills.  
• Not able to save for a down payment on a house, so forced to pay rent and not having the advantage of building home equity.
• Vehicles may be older and require expensive repairs or reduced gas mileage.
• Reliable transportation may be an issue, resulting in expensive cab rides or loss of a job due to not having consistent ways to get to work.  
• Low paying jobs that require lots of hours trump pursuing higher education, therefore not being able to advance in a career.
• Can't afford a washer/dryer, so time and money spent at a laundromat.
• Access to fresh, healthy food is limited, so more fast food is consumed, which may lead to more health problems (obesity, lack of nutrition).
• Lack of preventative health care, so a routine cavity turns into an expensive root canal because it couldn't be addressed sooner.
• Overdraft in a checking account or can't pay off a credit card balance, so they get charged a bank fee or interest on credit card.  
• Lower credit score often means a higher interest rate on loans.  
• Can't afford a trip across town to do a big grocery trip, so they shop at local convenient stores where prices are much higher.  
• No savings or emergency fund established/Poor credit score.  Only option is a payday loan (where interest is around 450%).  

Interesting stuff here.  And, important stuff to keep in mind when dealing with future students/clients who fall in a lower SES. 

To Curve or Not to Curve

Every semester, specifically around test time, students ask if I grade on a curve.  When I say no, I can almost hear the groans through the computer.  Do I go in an make adjustments to test scores?  Sometimes.  But, this is very different than grading on a curve.

I've started asking students if they wished I graded on a curve, to see if they truly grasp what a curve is.  Most who truly understand the concept of a curve say they absolutely do not want me to grade on a curve.  

Above is what a bell curve looks like.  If I were to grade on a true curve, I would adhere to this graph... That would mean out of a class of 30, about 5 of you would make A's, 5 of you would make F's, and the majority of you would make C's.  Who's down for making a C in the class, even though you still managed to 'earn' 85% of the total points for the class?  If we were to follow the curve, those of you earning 70% of points for the class would likely fall into the F category.  Clear as mud, right?  

Basically, in normal shaped curve, for every A, there is an F assigned.  For every B, there is a D.  I highly doubt students would favor this grading method.  I know I wouldn't have liked it when I was in school.  

What students often refer to as a curve is actually a linear shift - where everyone receives the same number of points to help raise scores to a certain level.  

Lot's of natural occurrences fall on a curve.  Height (we have some abnormally short people and some abnormally tall people), IQ, weight... However, this doesn't exactly work out in most students favor as far as grades are concerned.