Author: avs6843

Operant Conditioning

Operant Conditioning is the forming of association between behaviors and resulting events.  B.F. Skinner was the scientist best known for his work in the field of operant conditioning. His experiments involved rats and how the responded to both positive and negative reinforcement.  He would place the rats into a box that had a lever inside. When demonstrating positive reinforcement the rat would accidentally bump into the lever in the box and a pellet of food would fall into the box.  After this happened a few times the rat would immediately run to lever upon being placed into the box. When demonstrating negative reinforcement, the floor of the box was charged with a current of electricity, and again, by accidentally bumping the lever the current was switched off.  In turn, every time the rat was placed into the electrically charged box it would run to the lever and hit it to turn off the current. Another example of Operant Conditioning is the concept of a token economy. In a token economy, individuals are given a reinforcer (token) that can later be exchanged for a reward.  This system is often used in Psychiatric Hospitals and it helps promotes good behavior.

The best example of operant conditioning that pertains to my life is the training of my two Labrador Retrievers.  As puppies, the two of them were nearly uncontrollable and turned my house and yard into a mess. The implementing of Operant Conditioning was necessary in order to control their tireless antics.  In many ways, my family and I used this type of conditioning to control them. For example, when they successfully made it outdoors to use the bathroom they were rewarded with a treat upon coming back inside and this started to work within a week or two. However, they thought they were getting smart and would run outside and run back in right away expecting a treat for simply taking a step outside.  This behavior did not earn them a treat and they learned that quickly as well.


Skinner Rat image obtained from google images

Aerial Perspective

The eighth lecture was primarily focused on perception and how we interpret the things around us using visual cues. There are many aspects of perceptual organization, but I wanted to explain one in more detail.  Aerial perspective is defined as objects at distances that are blurred, less detailed, and lighter in color than when they are nearby.  The effect is due to the atmosphere which causes far away objects to appear “hazy” and unclear to the human eye.  Aerial perspective is a monocular cue that is used for depth perception.  Most people probably utilize aerial perspective every day when driving or walking around without even knowing it.


Aerial perspective is most easily noticed by observing natural landforms like mountains.  During the winter months, I go on many ski trips to various places such as Stowe, Vermont, with either friends or family and the landscape there is one of the best for observing aerial perspective.  As seen in the pictures above, there are many hills, trees, and objects littered throughout the landscape that have distinct shapes and colors. The colors (brown, green) and the shapes of the ground and the trees are easily visible in the foreground of the picture.  Aerial perspective is more visible in these pictures the farther out you look. The mountain ranges that are much farther out in the pictures are covered by the “haze” of the atmosphere and make colors and shapes far less distinguishable. The once browns and greens of the closer objects are non-recognizable and appear as a uniform bluish mountain range in the distance.

 

Aerial perspective provides us with monocular cues that significantly help with depth perception.  Without these cues, many things such as hitting the slopes and other activities would be hard to gauge and interpret.

Definition of Aerial Perspective found at: https://www.alleydog.com/glossary/definition.php?term=Aerial+Perspective

 

Color Blindness/Deficiency

Color Blindness, or color deficiency, is prevalent in around 10% of males in today’s society.  It occurs when cells in the retina of the eye fail to respond correctly to different light wavelengths.  The eye consists of photoreceptors called rods and cones. Rods in themselves can not help in perception of color; cones are the backbone of color perception. Color blindness occurs when there are deficiencies in the cones or if they do not work at all (Color Blindness Explained).

 

 

 

 

 

 

Color blindness is not a life-threatening disorder and is manageable if the right steps are taken.

Here’s my story:

For as long as I have known him, my cousin has lived with red-green color deficiency. The first symptoms started to show when we were younger at family parties; we would get into arguments about certain colors of toys and characters in cartoons. After this occurred and was resolved by our parents, on multiple occasions,  his mom decided to take him to the doctor around 3rd grade. He was diagnosed with red-green color deficiency and has been managing ever since.  

In the beginning, it was very confusing for him and was hard to work with especially at school.  His most prominent obstacle was determining the colors on a traffic light whenever he started driving; he had to learn the location of the light rather than base it on the slight hue that the light had in order to know when to stop or go.  Color deficiency is not curable, as there are lenses and contacts that could possibly enhance some of his colors, but he has not tried them.  

The eye is a very complex structure with many components that all have significant importance.  The deficiency in cones of the retina account for color deficiency and are not able to be fixed, but the deficiency itself can be managed with time.

 

“Color Blindness Explained.” All About Vision, www.allaboutvision.com/conditions/colordeficiency.htm.

All images obtained from Google images