In this scenario, Jim is using classical conditioning. The unconditioned stimulus is Jim offering an altoid, the unconditioned response is Dwight's arm reaching out. The neutral stimulus is the computer sound. In other words, every time that Jim plays that sound on his computer, he offers Dwight an altoid: Dwight then reaches his hand out and takes it. He becomes classically conditioned. Then, the conditioned stimulus becomes the computer sound - when it sounds, Dwight reaches his hand out for a mint, even without Jim offering.
Teaching music through paired association would definitely work well. Music kind of works that way itself: for example, if a choir is slouching and I tell them to sit up straight, the sound will instantly become better: then, the choir would pair sitting up straight with a better sound, and would sit up straight more often. I could definitely use this to my advantage as an educator. Here's an example: If I've been working on a song for a pretty long time with my choir, and I can tell they're getting a little bit antsy, I can tell them if they sing it as beautifully as they possibly can, and I don't hear very many errors, we'll move on to the next piece (or end rehearsal for the day). That way, they'll begin to pair singing well with getting to look at more music, or being done! This will encourage them to sing as best as they possibly can. I know for me in choir, this scenario has worked numerous times, and it's a great way to get students to want to sing well.
I like your examples here. Remember that behaviorism only explains behaviors.... so the students may 'want' to sing well, or have more 'motivation', but a behaviorist won't use those words. They'll say that the behavior of 'beautiful singing' (and you would have to define this) increased when paired with moving on.
ReplyDeleteOne thing here is that it doesn't give the students any information about what 'singing beautifully' means or how to do it (which is a detriment of behaviorism). You might want to be very clear about your reinforcements to get the desired behavior. So, if you're trying to get all sections of the choir to sing out, once that sound is very obvious, you can immediately give that reinforcement (and perhaps say that you heard the full sound and that's why you're moving on to be very clear).