tus76 – Intro Psych Blog (F19)

Reinforcements and Punishments

In class we learned about the types of operant conditioning. We learned that reinforcements are any event that strengthens behavior. Positive reinforcement is when you increase a behavior by presenting a positive stimuli, and negative reinforcement is when you increase a behavior by removing a negative stimuli. Punishments, on the other hand, are any event that decreases behavior. Positive punishment is when you decrease a behavior by presenting an aversive stimulus, and negative punishment is when you decrease a behavior by removing a desirable stimulus.

When determining the type of operant conditioning, we were taught to first look at whether the behavior is going up or down in order to determine if it is a reinforcement or a punishment. The next thing to look at is if something is being added or taken away in order to determine if it is positive or negative.

https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwikispaces.psu.edu%2Fdisplay%2FPSYCH484%2F3.%2BReinforcement%2BTheory&psig=AOvVaw3ONZE5mpldezDi5LWsr6a-&ust=1573775036612000&source=images&cd=vfe&ved=0CAIQjRxqFwoTCJibgYKv6OUCFQAAAAAdAAAAABAD

An example of this that I have experienced was in sixth grade. We had five notecards with our names on them, and if we got in trouble, we would get a notecard taken away. If we got all five notecards taken away by the end of the week, we wouldn’t get to participate in the activity that week, which was just like an extra recess. To determine what type of operant conditioning this was we can first look at whether the teacher intended for the behavior to increase or decrease. In this case, the behavior was being bad or getting in trouble, and the teacher intended for this behavior to go down, making it a punishment. The next thing to look at is if something is being taken away or added. In this case, the activity at the end of the week was being taken away, making it negative.

I think everyone has experienced the use of operant conditioning to change some kind of behavior, especially younger kids, and this is one of my experiences with it.

Proactive Interference

In class we learned about retrieval problems with our memory. Among these problems was interference. There are two types of interference: retroactive interference and proactive interference. Retroactive interference occurs when information learned later interferes with information learned earlier. An example of retroactive interference would be learning a topic in class one week, and then learning a new topic the next week. After learning the new topic, it is hard to recall the previous topic.

Proactive interference occurs when information learned earlier interferes with information learned later. An example of proactive interference would be getting a new phone number and being unable to remember the new phone number because you can only remember your old phone number.

A diagram shows two types of interference. A box with the text “learn combination to high school locker, 17–04–32” is followed by an arrow pointing right toward a box labeled “memory of old locker combination interferes with recall of new gym locker combination, ??–??–??”; the arrow connecting the two boxes contains the text “proactive interference (old information hinders recall of new information.” Beneath that is a second part of the diagram. A box with the text “knowledge of new email address interferes with recall of old email address, nvayala@???” is followed by an arrow pointing left toward the “early event” box and away from another box labeled “learn sibling’s new college email address, npatel@siblingcollege.edu”; the arrow connecting the two boxes contains the text “retroactive interference (new information hinders recall of old information.” — https://cnx.org/resources/7d6665c6c8ce3383997e75c3cc2ad5460088f1cf

People experience interference a lot and in many ways. Recently, I have been experiencing proactive interference. In high school I took Spanish class and even went on a trip to Costa Rica. The summer before my freshman year of college I continued to learn Spanish by using Duolingo. When I moved into my dorm freshman year and met one of my roommates, she told me she was from Brazil. Originally, I thought she spoke Spanish because Brazil is in South America. And then she told me that in Brazil they speak Portuguese so that was her first language. This year I decided to learn Portuguese so if I ever decide to visit her in Brazil, I would know some of what they were saying. When I started learning it I thought it would be a lot like Spanish, but it’s actually very different. When I began using Duolingo to learn Portuguese I found myself remembering more Spanish words than Portuguese words. Since I was remembering the words I had learned in Spanish before in place of the words I had learned in Portuguese later, this was due to proactive interference. Continuing to learn Portuguese makes it easier to remember certain words, but I still find myself recalling Spanish words sometimes.

Selective Attention

A topic that stood out to me during class was selective attention. Selective attention allows us to process information that is important to us, and to allow us to focus on a limited part of our environment. This is why magicians use flashes of light and people can drive into trains. It also explains why in class, people that were counting the number of passes in the video did not notice the gorilla walking through the scene, the person wearing the black shirt leaving, or the curtain changing colors. Since everyone’s attention was on the people passing the ball, they did not notice the other part of the environment that was changing.

https://www.livescience.com/6727-invisible-gorilla-test-shows-notice.html

I think everyone experiences selective attention every day. I know that I experience it a lot, when I’m simply just walking to class. I have been told many times that people will start talking to me and I ignore them. Now that I have learned about selective attention, I know that I am not ignoring them, I am simply just not paying attention to them when they start talking because I am focusing on something else. Usually I am just focused on what I’m looking at when I’m walking or what song I’m listening to.

https://gousfbulls.com/index.aspx?path=softball

When I was in high school I played softball, and I experienced a lot of selective attention during that time. It was hard to focus on all of the aspects of the game at once. As I was running the bases, I would be paying attention to where I was running and where the ball was. Since I was already focusing on multiple things, it was hard to focus on my coach directing me on what to do. Because of this it was usually up to me to make the decisions while running the bases based on what I was already paying attention to. Also, after the games my parents and friends would ask me if I could hear them cheering for me. My answer was always no because due to selective attention I would block out the insignificant things going on around me.

From what I have learned about selective attention in class, I have realized that it has impacted my life in many ways, from simply walking on the street to playing a sport. I never knew there was a real term and explanation for this experience until taking this class.