In the video, Jim is classically conditioning Dwight to react to the sound of his computer shutting down. This sound is the neutral stimulus. Jim uses an altoid as an unconditioned stimulus that evokes the unconditioned response of Dwight reaching for the altoid. After weeks of pairing the unconditioned and the neutral stimuli with the unconditioned response, as well as reinforcing the action by giving Dwight an altoid, Jim finally evokes a conditioned response (Dwight reaching for an altoid) simply from shutting his computer down (now a conditioned stimulus).
If I were teaching young students multiplication tables, I could give them a quiz once a week. They would have to fill out their multiplication tables, and those that got perfect scores would get a small prize when the quizzes were handed back. After a while with this, the students would associate getting a perfect on the quiz (a neutral stimulus) with the satisfaction of getting a prize (unconditional response). Eventually, knowing there multiplication tables would be a conditioned stimulus that would warrant the satisfaction of the prize, now a conditioned response.
The idea of having a multiplication quiz once a week is a great idea and giving out small prizes is even better because the students will really want to work hard to learn. It is crazy how something as small as handing out a piece of candy can go so far in the classroom. Keeping a little bit of competition between your students is never a bad thing especially when it is benefiting a student.
ReplyDeleteThere's an important distinction here that I want to make sure that you notice.... You're pairing and good grade on the quiz to a treat. The GRADE is being rewarded, not the understanding, necessarily. Imagine a student cheating to get the reward. This is also why it is absolutely vital that you design tests which target EXACTLY the kind of student performance that you have as your goal. Sometimes tests are designed which confuse students who actually know the information quite well (ahem, standardized testing).
ReplyDeleteAlso, the grade typically becomes a reward or punishment for students. You may or may not want to emphasize this in your own classroom.