Research Study On Infant Caregiving

Negative reinforcement is removing an unpleasant consequence when a behavior is exhibited in order to encourage said behavior. This was shown when

Within the concept of operant conditioning, there are various simple schedules of reinforcement that are a part of our daily routine. Operant conditioning is a category of learning that invokes consequences, either negative or positive, as a way to increase or decrease behaviors (Powel, Honey & Symbaluk, 2013, p. 264) Schedules of reinforcement, such as fixed ratio, variable interval, fixed interval and variable ratio, are used as ways to strengthened or weaken those wanted or unwanted behaviors (Powel, Honey & Symbaluk, 2013, pp. 271-279). When applying these fundamental concepts to real world scenarios, it is crucial to first acknowledge which behavior is to be strengthened or weakened and then proceed with the conditioning.

In order to discover whether child is in secure stage, Ainsworth and her colleagues (Ainsworth, Blehar, Waters, & Wall, 1978) investigated a ‘strange situation’ experiment, observing infant’s behaviours and emotional expressions by

2. Negative reinforcements – this also makes children repeat behaviour but in different ways e.g.: If a child does well in an exam therefore they don’t have to do their chores.

Keeping in mind that identifying the variables that maintain problem behavior (reinforcement) is more affective for treatment selection (Mevers, Fisher, Kelley, and Fredrick, 2014), one common treatment for problem behavior is Noncontingent reinforcement. (Carr, Severston, & Lepper, 2009). NCR is used in combination with extinction for problem behavior and involves dense schedules of reinforcement that are decreased gradually (as cited in; Phillips, Iannaccone, Rooker, and Hagopian, 2017). The problem behavior may be replaced by an alternative behavior already existing in the individual repertoire, during NCR (Virues-Ortega, Iwata, Fahmie, and Harper, 2013). The American Psychological Association’s Division 12 criteria for empirically supported treatments established NCR and extinctions as an effective treatment for problem behavior (Chambless & Hollon, 1998). When the schedules of NCR are dense there is a reduction of the Motivating operation (MO) for problem behavior (as cited in; Phillips, Iannaccone, Rooker, and Hagopian, 2017). NCR is more effective when the same reinforcement maintaining the behavior (functional reinforcement) is used in the contingency instead of an alternative reinforcement (as cited in Phillips,iannaccone, Rooker, & Hagopian, 2017). Thus, the same reinforcement responsible for maintaining problem behavior should be used in an NCR contingency (Vollmer et al. 1993). In a study by Phillips, Iannaccone, Rooker, & Hagopian (2017), Non-contingent

Skinner’s reinforcement experiments conducted on rats showed the principles of operant conditioning. While working with rats, Skinner would place them in a Skinner box with a lever attached to a feeding tube. After multiple trials, rats learned the connection between the lever and food, and started to spend more time in the box procuring food than performing any other action. He used positive reinforcement, and negative reinforcement to produce or inhibit specific target behaviors. Therefore, if a specific behavior is reinforced then the probability of that behavior occurring again is increased. Based on Skinner’s view, this theory can be applied to learning because learning is nothing more than a change in behavior. Operant conditioning encourages positive reinforcement, which can be applied in the classroom environment to get the good behavior you want and need from students. One of the ways of reinforcing a student’s behavior is through praise. Also teachers can build operant conditioning techniques into their lesson plans to teach children possible skills as well as good behaviors. For example: to give a smiley face, or motivational stamps to encourage children to perform correctly and encourage them to repeat such action again.

BABIES USE CRYING AS A FORM OF COMUNICATION USING IT TO IDENTIFIY WHEN they are hungry tired or distressed at around 5-6 weeks babies may start to make cooing noises

Background (key works): Reinforcement theory is rooted in theory of operant conditioning based primarily on the work of the American behavior scientist B.F. Skinner (Borkowski, 2011). In contrast to Ivan Pavlov’ respondent conditioning controlled by

Finally, at the end of my observations hours I reached to the conclusion that babies or infants use different ways to communicate with adults doing sounds, gestures, and expressions, and crying its one of the most common way that babies use to tell us what they want or what they

getting the attention of the “caregiver.” As stated before by Bowlby, nevertheless he believes there should not be any form of “protest separation” by “the infant” (p. 250).

Currently, it is not clear if these responses are directly related to extinction or if they are members of the same response class as the target behavior (Vollmer & Athens, 2011). Emotional behavior could also be a sign of discomfort. It is vital that the care provider be able to sustain the treatment procedure with integrity (Vollmer & Athens, 2011). It also needs to be considered that the extinction procedure may be delivering an aversive stimulus. Errorless discrimination training should be used to reduce errors by the learner which will make it more likely that they will encounter reinforcement rather that unreinforced learning trials (Vollmer & Athens,

Additionally, many practical applications of the theory were developed from animal training to human education and in many cases such applications have been shown to be efficient in producing behavioral change (Hill, 2001).

At a certain age infants begin to resist the unfamiliar and are very vocal in expressing their feelings (Brazelton, 1992).

In an article by Saunders and Williams (1998), they define stimulus control as any difference shown in responding during the presence of different stimuli. The article also expresses how all of the behavior that we perform in our daily lives involve stimulus control. It is said that the analysis of current stimulus control as well as the analysis of the development and stimulus control relations are essential to understand all human behavior that is normal or abnormal. Stimulus control is shown to be a big part of experimental psychology including the concepts of: memory, learning and sensory processes. Like stimulus control, all of these concepts involve the differences in responding in the absence and presence of a stimuli . Also, it is shown that stimulus-control procedures are used to create behavioral baselines when studying the effects of

“‘Conditioning’ simply means learning, and the term ‘operant’ refers to something that acts upon something else. Operant conditioning, then, is a form of testing in which an animal learns that a response, such as pressing a lever, results in a consequence, such as a food pellet being delivered to the animal (Pritchett & Mulder, 2004).” In operant conditioning, there are two categories: reinforcement and punishment. Both can be utilized using either positive or negative strategies. In reinforcement tactics, the behavior is attempted to be increased. A positive example of this would be praising a child if they say something that resembles mama or dada for their first words. A negative example would be the parents not responding or even chiding the child for mumbling or not being very coherent. Each action is strengthened by the parents reinforcement of praise when saying the correct words or their disregard when the child does not sound coherent. In the positive example, praise is being offered so the child is receiving something, therefore making the reinforcement positive. When the parents ignore the wrong words that the child speaks, we describe