Maze for animal training

Hai readers! hope you all doing good and have a good day. On 20th of april 2013, our group members had gathered and we created our own maze for our little cute hamsters. We make the maze using box and we decorate it by our self. We were very happy spending our time during that time. Here we attach some pictures so that all of you can see it. Enjoy!! ^_^

  

Condition Necessary for Effective Modelling

Assalamualaikum, Hai everyone!! It has been long time we have not update our blog. This is because, this two weeks was very busy weeks and we have a lot things to do. Alright! now, let me tell you what have we learned past two week before.. on 15th April 2013 we have learned the condition necessary for effective modelling to occur. This Experiment was suggested by Albert Bandura. There are four conditions that are necessary before someone can successfully model the behavior of someone else.

• Attention: To imiate a behaviour accurately, this means that the person must pay attention first to the model and especially the significant aspect of the modeled behavior.
• Modeled events = 
• affective 
•  complexity
• prevalence
• functional value
• Obesrver characteristic=
• sensory capacities
• arousal level
•  perceptual set
• past reinforcement

• Rentation: After paying attention, the learner must also pay remember the behavior that she or he has been observed before. The simple way to remember is by doing repeating or rehearsal. 
• symbolic coding
•  cognitive organization
• symbolic rehearsal
• motor rehearsal

• Motor reproduction: This part is about the actual replication of the behaviour that a model has demonstrate. But, if the person can't reproduce an observed behaviour that what has been saw before..perhaps because of several condition such as physical immaturity, insufficient strength, or disabilities.
• physical capabilities
•  self observation of reproduction
• accuracy of feedback

• Motivation: This last condition is like, the learners must want to demonstrate what has been saw or learned  
• eternal
• vicarious
• self-reinforcement

Forms of Punishment.

Assalamualaikum. J

How are you readers? May all of us are in a great health and always in His blessing. First of all, I would to apologize for the delay update.  So, here I would like to share with you readers on our last week topics discussed in class. The topic discussed during April 9 was the Instrumental Conditioning. Under this topic, we will deliberate over the effective and ineffective forms of punishment.

Effective Forms of Punishment.

Verbal Reprimands is most effective punishment when it is immediate, brief and unemotional. For example, some students

Restitution and Overcorrection involve in effective form of punishment whereby learners are required to take action by correcting the consequence or effect of their misdeeds. In restitution, a misbehaving person must restore or return the environment to the same situation that it was in before the misbehavior occurred. For example, a child who makes a mess must tidy it up as what the condition was previously.

In restitution overcorrection, the punished individual must make things better than they were before the inappropriate behavior. For instance, a student who creates dirt in the canteen might be asked to clean the entire canteen as well.

The positive-practice overcorrection involves having an individual to repeat an action, but this time around to do it correctly and perhaps in an exaggerated way. For example, a student who runs dangerously to compete with their friends on who is the first to reach the canteen might be summoned to back up and then walk but perhaps at a normal pace or very slowly.





Time-Out involves placing a misbehaving individual in a dull, boring situation. The person required to be in a time-out has no opportunity for social interaction and is restricted to involve in any other activities for certain period of time. The inappropriate behavior must be stop before the person is release from the time-out situation.

In-House Suspension is similar to a time-out situation, but it lasts for one or more days rather than a few minutes. The students are placed in quite, boring room and must do on their classroom assignments and study. It is an effective effort to teach them appropriate behaviors and tutoring their studies when the teacher act as a supportive resources rather than as a punisher.

Response Cost comprises of withdrawal of a previously earned reinforce such as a person received a fine as a result of break the speed limit.

Ineffective Forms of Punishment.

There are several forms of punishment that are not recommended which are physical and psychological punishment, extra classwork, out of school suspension and missing recess.

Some people may think that physical punishment works as a means to punish misconduct. However, the use of this kind of punishment may lead to such undesirable behaviors such as resentment of the teacher, lying and hatred. Physical punishment also provides a model of aggression, thus transferring the message that aggression is acceptable behavior. It is not a good way of punishing and it exhibit bad example.

Psychological punishment includes any consequence that seriously threatens a student’s self-esteem or emotional well-being which is not recommended at all. Some of the example is verbal abuse, insult and criticism. This kind of psychological punishment may affect their expectation for future performance and their motivation to learn and achieve.

Extra classwork is considered as ineffective form of punishment because in a way, the teacher unconsciously conveys the message that school work is unpleasant.

Out of school suspension is not an effective way to change student’s behavior. Most misbehaving students are students that have difficulty with their academic work. Suspending such students will only result in a more serious problem. The students may find that removal from school is negatively reinforcing rather than punishing. They might feel better to be out of school rather than to be in school.

Missing recess is not an effective punishment for students as they can more effectively concentrate on study when they have a break from academics activities. Missing recess is not an appropriate form of punishment.

So, all the above are some of the things that I manage to share with all of you. I would like to apologize if there is any inconsistency, lacking or incorrect information here. Thank you for reading and please feel free to correct me.

p/s: Picture taken from Google images, credit to the owner.

Baseline Measure | Dakwah Project

On 4th April 2013(no class).

However, we need to sit together to do our baseline measure.
On the class time 2.00pm-3.30pm at library we had discussed and agreed on our baseline measure:

Target person / group
Our friends which are passive on healthy activities / exercise.

Target behavior
Healthy activities / exercise(to make fun and enjoyable)

Baseline measure

Timeline:
1st week(8/4/13-14/4/13)
Each of us will find one person that rarely doing healthy activities / exercise. For example, a person likely waste their time during the free time with playing computer game, sleeping, loitering etc.
Once find him or her, we need to invite him or her to join us in doing healthy activities or exercise during they have nothing to do. We will try to keep supporting them in term of advice and reward. Moreover, we will also prove to them that healthy activities is fun besides, it have many advantages on our lifestyle. Along this week, we will do a basic healthy activities / exercise like warm up, cold down, and jogging while enjoy the beauty of the nature. Each of us will do these activities personally with their friend.

2nd week (15/4/13-21/4/13)
In order to gain consistency, we including our gathering activities among our group member's subject once a day after the time they do their own basic healthy activities / exercise like the first week.We make a variation on healthy activities for example playing different types of sport or game (depend on the ability of subject). For example, indoor games, outdoor games, module games(running man games), aerobics, gym, traditional games(galah panjang, teng teng, tuju kasut, zero point) etc. As they have to face new game, we will also teach them a new game if they never play it before. At the end of each session we will end up with sharing moment and reflection to make our friends and us realize on the wisdom of healthy lifestyle

3rd week (22/4/13-28/4/13)
On the last week we will let our friends(subject) to manage any healthy activities that they would like to do and each day will have different activities. At the last day we will provide a gift for the best healthy activities they have done.

Plan in future
This project will be remain and will be promote to all IIUM community to join us in the future. May Allay ease our effort on this project.

Schedules of Reinforcement

Assalamua'laikum, kaifahal?

On the 2nd of April 2013, we have learn about schedules of reinforcement on operant conditioning by Skinner.There have two types reinforcement schedules:

Continuous reinforcement - the desired behavior is reinforced every single time it occurs. Generally, this schedule is best used during the initial stages of learning in order to create a strong association between the behavior and the response. Once the response if firmly attached, reinforcement is usually switched to a partial reinforcement schedule.

Partial reinforcement - In partial reinforcement, the response is reinforced only part of the time. Learned behaviors are acquired more slowly with partial reinforcement, but the response is more resistant to extinction. There are four schedules of partial reinforcement:

1.       Fixed-ratio schedules are those where a response is reinforced only after a specified number of responses. This schedule produces a high, steady rate of responding with only a brief pause after the delivery of the reinforcer. For example, production Line Work: Workers at a widget factory are paid for every 15 widgets they make. This results in a high production rate and workers tend to take few breaks. It can, however, lead to burnout and lower-quality work

 

2.       Variable-ratio schedules occur when a response is reinforced after an unpredictable number of responses. This schedule creates a high steady rate of responding. Gambling and lottery games are good examples of a reward based on a variable ratio schedule. Another example give by Madam is pop quiz. That's right madam, we keep prepared before come to your class.

 

3.       Fixed-interval schedules are those where the first response is rewarded only after a specified amount of time has elapsed. This schedule causes high amounts of responding near the end of the interval, but much slower responding immediately after the delivery of the reinforcer. Example like in a Lab Setting: Imagine that you are training a rat to press a lever, but you only reinforce the first response after a ten-minute interval. The rat does not press the bar much during the first 5 minutes after reinforcement, but begins to press the lever more and more often the closer you get to the ten minute mark. In real world, a weekly paycheck is a good example of a fixed-interval schedule. The employee receives reinforcement every seven days, which may result in a higher response rate as payday approaches.

 

4.       Variable-interval schedules occur when a response is rewarded after an unpredictable amount of time has passed. This schedule produces a slow, steady rate of response. madam give us an example like waiting on the bus or train that we does not know when exactly the bus will arrive. So we keep waiting even there were about one or two hour waiting at the bus stop.

 Choosing a Schedule

Deciding when to reinforce a behavior can depend upon a number of factors. In cases where you are specifically trying to teach a new behavior, a continuous schedule is often a good choice. Once the behavior has been learned, switching to a partial schedule is often preferable. Realistically, reinforcing a behavior every single time it occurs can be difficult and requires a great deal of attention and resources. Partial schedules not only tend to lead to behaviors that are more resistant to extinction, they also reduce the risk that the subject will become satiated. If the reinforcer being used is no longer desired or rewarding, the subject may stop performing the desired behavior.

At the end we got a pop quiz. Time for variable ratio schedule!

 

A Week Before Break

Assalamualaikum W.B.T to all our beloved readers and also to our beloved instructor, Dr. Lihanna Borhan. First of all, I would like to apologize for the delay of updating this blog due to some circumstances. This post is related to what we have learned in the learning class before mid-semester break. Hopefully, this post will produce interesting input for the reader.

On the 19^th March 2013, we have learned a new topic which was Instrumental Conditioning. Firstly, from what we understood, instrumental conditioning is another term for operant conditioning, which is a learning process first described by B. F. Skinner. In instrumental conditioning, reinforcement or punishment are used to either increase or decrease the probability that a behavior will occur again in the future.

By a way of example, if a student is rewarded with praise every time she raises her hand in class, she becomes more likely to raise her hand again in the future. If she is also scolded when she speaks out of turn, she becomes less likely to interrupt the class. In these examples, the teacher is using reinforcement to strengthen the hand-raising behavior and punishment to weaken the talking out of turn behavior.

The various forms that reinforcement takes place which are the primary versus secondary reinforce. The primary reinforcer satisfies a built-in, physiological need and need or desire while secondary reinforcer known as conditioned reinforce. It is a previously neutral stimulus that has become reinforcing to a learner through repeated association with another reinforcer. 

Furthermore, the reinforcement is divided into two categories, which are the positive and negative reinforcement. Positive reinforcement is anything that follows a behavior that makes it more likely that the behavior will occur again in the future. One of the easiest ways to remember this is to think of something being added to the situation whereas; negative reinforcement involves strengthening a behavior through the removal of an aversive stimulus. People often confuse negative reinforcement with punishment, but the two are not the same. Remember, reinforcement is used to increase the likelihood that a behavior will reoccur, while punishment is used to decrease a behavior.

So, that’s it what we have learned during that time. In the next class, which was 21^st March 2013, there was not so much to share on the reflection because at that day we already submitted our first draft of Hafazan Project and we also got the surprised from Dr. Lihanna, which was the Pop Quiz. Therefore, I hope Dr. Lihanna will be lenient in marking our paper.

Well, I think that’s it from me. I hope you are enjoyed reading this post and help you learned something new. May Allah bless us always J…